Morgan "The Morgue" Manor

In 1895 George H. Wilbur, founder of Wilbur Lumber Co., which was founded in 1875, (The company operated several lumber yards in the Waukesha area and in several other locations in Wisconsin and Illinois, until going out of business in 1970.) built a new home, resting at the southeast corner of College & East Avenues, in Waukesha County.

Over the course of the next 100 years the house became part of the Carroll University campus, and has endured name changes, reflecting those families who have contributed to it’s renovation.

For some years the house served as a residence hall, which some students thought was haunted.

(First part of this story was printed in the 11-09-1895 issue of the Waukesha County Democrat Newspaper) {I could not find a copy of this article other than the little footnote I found online.}

(The second part of this story comes from the 10-31-1979 issue of the Waukesha Post Newspaper, written by Peggy Nace.)

The house is between the Mystic Drive & Tess Corners areas in Muskego.

Lydia E. Morgan, supposedly remains where she hung herself, in Morgan Manor (The home built by Wilbur.).

The former Boyeson School For Boys in Mukwonago, recently has been converted into residential house. One of the owners, tells of her husband backing into someone who wasn’t there. Of having her children tell her they saw “a man in the basement who disappeared.” Of having “foul smelling, red liquid” bleed from the fireplace, of hearing laughter when no one is about. And of having the lights go on and off without anyone touching the switch.

“When we first moved in, my 1 month old son, kept talking about Sandy. When I asked my neighbor about Sandy, it turned out that Sandy was her beloved Cocker spaniel, that had died in the very room my son kept seeing her in.”

“The only time I was afraid, was one night when I went up to my bedroom. I thought my husband had followed me up. I heard this maniac laugh, hysterical, sort of. I was about to ask my husband what was going on, when I heard the water go on in the kitchen. I knew my husband was downstairs. When I turned around, no one was behind me. That’s the only time I was scared.”

(Part three of this story comes from 10-23-1984 Milwaukee Journal, and was written by Robert M. Rlepenhoff ?)

Joe Kremkoski never really believed in ghosts. That is not until he spent a cold night, dark night, in Morgan Manor, which became known as “The Morgue”.

“I’m not going to say there are such things and I’m not going to say there aren’t.” said Kremkoski, a 1972 Carroll Graduate. “I just know what I saw.”

The incident took place 14 years ago, but he remembers it clearly. At that time Morgan Manor was being used as a residence hall for the college. Kremkoski, then a Sophomore, lived in a single room that had been built under a stairway on the first floor of Morgan Manor.

It was late at night, the door was closed. He was laying in bed, drowsy, and about to drift off to sleep. Suddenly he said “There was a figure at the foot of my bed. It appeared as though it had come through the wall.”

Kremkoski described the figure as a middle-aged man, dressed in a long over coat.

“It had a smirk on it’s face and it was reaching over to grab my foot. Not viciously or maliciously, but like it was playing a game.”

The man’s clothing seemed to be from a different era. But Kremkoski couldn’t place it. “It appeared more than transparent” he said. “Translucent, maybe.”

“It wasn’t just a smoky thing. It appeared to have substance.”

Startled, Kremkoski bolted out of bed. “I got up and turned the lights on and the figure was gone.”

In the days that followed, Kremkoski, talked with other “Morgue” residents and found that some of them also had experienced strange phenomena, including other apparent ghostly visions.

Stories about ghosts in Morgan Manor have been told on campus for years, according to Jim Van Ess, a 1964 Graduate who works as the school’s reference librarian.

“Students would see the ghosts of Mr. & Mrs. Wilbur, dressed in formal attire of the late 19th Century, coming down the stairway and walking through the walls that weren’t there when they lived in the house.” Van Ess said.

A newspaper account from that era described the three story brick & Lannon stone mansion, complete with servants quarters, as the “handsomest and most costly home in the village.”

The house got it’s name from Lydia Morgan of Oshkosh, who donated money to the college in 1927 to buy & remodel the building for use as a library.

Stories about Lydia’s ghost haunting the manor also have circulated on campus, but she never actually lived in the house, according to school officials and information from the Waukesha county Museum.

The mansion was used as a library from 1928 until 1942, when it became a residence hall for students.

In 1979, the school moved the administrative offices of it’s student services department into the building.

Carroll officials have not heard of any ghostly incidents since then.

But Susan Brever, a 1977 graduate, recalled that several stories were being circulated when she lived in “The Morgue” during 1976 – 1977.

They involved a hanging that had allegedly occurred years earlier in the attic, doors that opened by themselves, mysterious noises that would come and go, the apparition of a ghost with a noose around it’s neck, and a young male student who awoke one morning with a serious of bloody scratches covering his chest.

Kremkoski, too, said he had heard a lot of the old stories. But for him, the spine-tingling chill came back in 1970, a few weeks after he saw the vision in his bedroom.

He began looking into the history of the Manor, wrote to the Wilbur Lumber Co. and obtained a copy of a booklet published in 1950 commemorating the firm’s 75th anniversary.

When he reached a page in the booklet with a portrait of Ray J. Wilbur, George Wilbur’s son, and a former Vice President of the lumber company, Kremkoski’s stopped and stared. “The person I saw in my room that night bore a striking resemblance to Ray Wilbur” he said.