Ep. 14 - Murder at the Glensheen Mansion

Glensheen Mansion is reportedly the most visited historic home in the state of Minnesota. The stately home originally sat on 22 acres of lakefront property in Duluth and was built by the Congdon Family. The brick facade and rising chimneys communicate a welcoming spirit, but the truth is that this mansion was the setting of a heinous double murder leaving the Congdon's daughter Elizabeth dead, as well as her nurse. The story is a narrative of insanity, greed and murder. And now that story continues with legends of hauntings on the property. Spirits are at unrest.

Chester A. Congdon was born on June 12, 1853, in Rochester, New York. He attended Syracuse University and achieved his Bachelor of Arts before studying law and being admitted to the bar. While at Syracuse, he met Clara Bannister. He could not find work in New York, so he left Clara for Wisconsin where he had accepted a teaching position. He was there for a year before moving to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1879 and he opened a successful law practice. He asked Clara to marry him and they were married back in Syracuse in 1881. The couple would have six children and raise Clara's nephew. It was also in 1881 when Congdon gained notoriety as a U.S. District Attorney.

A fellow attorney named William W. Billson contacted Congdon and asked him to move to Duluth to partner their law firms. The region was becoming popular because of Northland's Iron Range. It was a mineral rich area that both John D. Rockefeller and his rival Andrew Carnegie coveted. A man named Henry W. Oliver had started the Oliver Mining Company and he recruited Billson and Congdon's law firm to be his attorneys. At the time, Oliver was second to Carnegie in U.S. steel production. Congdon convinced him to partner with Carnegie and the U.S. Steel Corporation was born. This made several investors, including Chester Congdon, very wealthy. Congdon eventually diversified into several mining companies.

The Congdon Family decided to use some of their wealth to build themselves a grand home on the shore of Lake Superior in Duluth in 1901. They contacted architect Clarence H. Johnston to design the home and it was completed in 1908. The total cost to build was $854,000. Landscape Architect Charles Wellford Leavitt, Jr. was employed to preserve as much of the natural beauty of the property as possible. He designed a large vegetable garden, a greenhouse, an orchard, a cow barn and a water reservoir. Congdon decided to call the mansion Glensheen as a tribute to the Congdon family's village of origin Surrey, England named Sheen. The glen portion came from the forested glen that surrounded the home. Clara remarked, “I will have quiet neighbours” because the only thing nearby was a cemetery to the west of Glensheen. The mansion had thirty-nine rooms and included fifteen bedrooms. Congdon later would add politics to his repertoire in 1909. His lasting legacy not only includes the mansion, but Congdon Boulevard, which is a road that runs along the north shore of Lake Superior and was paid for by funds donated by him to prevent development of the lakeshore. He died in 1916 and Clara remained at Glensheen until she died in 1950.

Elisabeth Congdon was one of Clara and Chester's daughters and the mansion went to her. She lived in the home until her death and although she was in her eighties, she did not succumb to old age. She was murdered. Elisabeth had never married, but she longed to have a child and eventually adopted a little girl whom she named Marjorie. The little girl was troubled from nearly the beginning. As she got older, the family started referring to her as the black sheep of the family. Every time she came around, she would ask to borrow money. And she would never repay anyone. She became abusive to her mother both verbally and physically. Eventually Marjorie would work her way through a string of men and stints in mental institutions.

Elisabeth Congdon was 83 and partially paralyzed when an intruder broke into her home on the night of June 27, 1977. Because of her health, she had round the clock nursing care. The day nurse had left around 10pm after tucking Elisabeth in for the evening. Her night nurse was a woman named Velma Pietila. Velma had already retired from her nursing duties, but she filled in this particular night. She had heard a noise and made her way to the central staircase. It was there that she met up with the intruder who was wielding a heavy candlestick holder. Velma was hit repeatedly and left for dead on the landing between the 2nd and 3rd floors. An autopsy would reveal that she was also beaten with her own shoe.

The intruder then went to Elisabeth's bedroom on the second floor and smothered her with a pillow in her bed. After the two women were found dead by Nurse Mildred Garvue the following morning, suspicion immediately went to Marjorie and her husband at the time, Roger Cadwell. The couple stood to inherit $8 million upon Elisabeth's death. Roger was convicted of two counts of murder, but Marjorie was acquitted. Roger was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. He appealed and was given a new trial. Prosecutors worried there would be an aquittal or hung jury, so they made a deal with Roger. He only served five years. He killed himself in 1988 by slitting his wrists with a steak knife. Before that time, Marjorie stopped visiting him in jail and married another guy for which was arrested for committing bigamy. She served two years and then started burning stuff throughout the eighties. She eventually served eleven years for arson. She is apparently still alive, but who knows what she is up to these days.

The Glensheen Mansion was eventually donated to the University of Minnesota. The university opened it as a historic museum in 1979. All of the furniture is original to the house. There is even Chester's top hat in the closet and letters Clara wrote in a desk drawer. The house is available for brunches and weddings. Tours are given of the house that include the story of the murder, which was only added recently out of respect for the family. Something the tour guides do not talk about on the tour are the spirits rumored to be inside the house. The murders are really still classified as unsolved, so perhaps that is why spirits are at unrest. People claim to see shadow figures in the house, particularly in the basement, and visitors feel cold spots, especially on the landing of the stairway where Velma was murdered. The figures of two women have been seen in a bedroom window when no one is supposed to be in the house. An otherworldly mist has been reported in the library. Lights flicker on and off on their own and objects move around of their own accord.

Mary Morro said in 2005, "My husband, 4 year old daughter, and I were at the Glensheen on 11/05/05 for a tour. My husband and I, of course, had heard about the murders, but nothing was mentioned to our 4 yr. old daughter by us or the tour guide. When we were in Elizabeth’s bedroom, our daughter suddenly said she was scared and started to cry. She couldn’t tell me why she was frightened but it definitely gave me goose bumps!"

Ricky Porter had volunteered at the mansion in 2006. He said, "I volunteered at the mansion for many summers now and all the staff will tell you that we have encountered strange experinces. The old mansions are hard to heat and cool and that is why you feel cool drafts and warm drafts in select areas of the home becuase not all rooms have vents or radiators. Most of the time what has happened is lights will switch on and off, and doors will close by themselves. I can honestly say the activity is quite fun when your with other staff and those things happen, but errie when your alone. Glensheen is very much haunted, but you get used to it and be nice to them and they will be nice to you."

Pictures taken outside of Glensheen Mansion have included what appears to be the figure of an elderly woman peering out of a window of the bedroom that had once belonged to Elizabeth. An employee claims that he once felt a tugging on his pant leg when he was up on a ladder. When he turned around, he saw that no one was near him. The grand staircase gets cold spots and makes people feel light-headed and queasy. A dark shadowy figure has been seen throughout the house and lights turn themselves on and off on their own. Jewelry on the dresser in Elisabeth's former room is said to move on its own across the dresser. And there is a woman in blue here that roams the second floor.

The mansion started hosting Flashlight Tours during the month of October, so it seems they are embracing the rumors of hauntings. Is the Glensheen Mansion haunted? That is for you to decide!