"Spirits and Bites" will be at Hauberg Estate, 1300 24th Street, Rock Island, on October 26 from 6 p.m. to midnight.
Peg Rounds is friends with the ghosts of John Hauberg and Susanne Denkmann Hauberg.
The volunteer curator and program coordinator at the Hauberg Estate (1300 24th Street, Rock Island IL) Rounds says she has seen and heard the long-gone local luminaries, at the historic 1911 mansion and carriage house. Her son Joshua Rounds is estate assistant, one of just two employees at Hauberg, and they will help lead a special event – “Spirits and Bites” – on Saturday, October 26, from 6 p.m. to midnight.
With Peg's husband Kevin, the family founded and operates Whispering Souls Paranormal, which started in 2022. At Hauberg for the Halloween-themed festivities, they will lead paranormal investigations of the four-floor estate, with its 20 rooms and six fireplaces.
Susanne Denkmann (1872-1942), heiress of the Weyerhauser-Denkmann lumber business, and John Hauberg (1869-1955), a farm boy turned lawyer, joined their philanthropic and social interests when they wed in 1911. In 1956, after the death of their parents, Catherine and John Jr. donated this Prairie-Style masterpiece to the city of Rock Island.
Since 2016, the elegant estate and grounds have been operated and overseen by the nonprofit Friends of Hauberg Civic Center.
Whispering Souls started the “Spirits and Bites” events in 2022, and this month will be the third time for 2024.
Minda Powers-Douglas of QC Haunts and History Tours had hosted similar activities there. She stopped doing so, but Hauberg executive director Deb Kuntzi wanted to continue it.
In July, Peg had about 60 in attendance at the last “Spirits and Bites.” As with that event, the October 26 gathering will feature a taco bar and cash bar at the carriage house. Participants will be divided into three groups that visit different parts of the house.
Peg was previously a tour guide for QC Haunts and History.
“We formed Whispering Souls because we saw a need in the area, of people who were having experiences but didn’t have anyone to go to,” Peg said recently. “For us, it’s all about helping people. One hundred percent of all the events we do for the nonprofit go to the nonprofit.”
At “Spirits and Bites,” all ticket and bar sales will go to Hauberg improvement projects, such as restoring a rose garden next year. Whispering Souls has hosted events at Longview Park as well, including one that took place in late September.
On October 26, you can hear the haunted history of the estate from those that have experienced it and join in as they attempt to use investigative techniques to communicate with the spirits in the mansion.
Tarot readings will also be available for a separate cost and are provided by local medium Ryan Sumpter. Tickets are $40, and available through Humanitix.
Hauberg volunteer Holly Sparkman is a new team member for the paranormal group.
“We’re very strict on what goes out the door as evidence,” Peg said. “If we have any question, if it could have been something that was just natural, it won’t go out the door. All three of us have to agree: 'That was not explainable.'”
“I love research; I love looking at the past of everything,” Peg added. “Being here, I just love the history of the house and the family. John and Susanne are very loving people. We have a joke here at Hauberg that the house gets what it wants and it does.”
What Do They Measure?
The main tools that the paranormal group uses in their investigations are a K2 meter and audio and video recorders. As Joshua Rounds explained, the K2 measures changes in electromagnetic frequency.
“One of the theories for it are that spirits are energy, so it’s basically measuring the energy that’s around it,” he said, adding that his team compares the reading of a meter among regular people in a room before looking for spirits.
“We usually tell people, sometimes they can be set off by cell phones,” Joshua said.
“We also look at other evidence that goes on at the time,” Peg said. “Was there something that we caught that nobody else saw?”
Joshua said they use security video cameras or thermal imaging cameras (measuring temperature changes) to record. “The spirits are energy and energy creates heat,” he said, noting that sometimes they capture cold spots in a room denoting a spirit.
“We try and find logical explanations first of what it could be, and then if it’s not, we go, 'Maybe there is something here,'” Joshua said, adding that while some frequencies can't be heard by the human ear, a recorder can capture them.
In February, the paranormal team ran video cameras in the empty house, and Peg’s husband Kevin was playing poker in the basement with spirits. “All of a sudden, when we reviewed it, we heard, ‘Dinner!’ That was pretty cool.”
On the third floor, Peg was listening again and heard the same call. “I took the headphones off while recording, and asked Kevin if he heard that. He said, ‘Yes, I heard that in the hall.'” They caught it again on their recorder.
“Susanne and I have really got a relationship so that she responds,” Peg said. “I was carrying on a conversation with her and all of a sudden, ‘Dinner!’ I got so excited, I had to explain to people in the room (in July). We caught it on video camera and caught it on audio. This is the fourth time we heard it.”
She conjectured that call came from Haubergs’ cook Pearl. Peg thinks it might also come from John’s mother, when he was a child. “We’re not sure if it was John’s mom or Miss Pearl.”
“Family was very important. They would come and vacation here, holiday here,” Peg said of John’s family.
Peg is also a psychic medium. About a year ago, she was sitting in the Haubergs’ bedroom, and recalled Susanne saying, “You need to stand up; you deserve more respect than sitting on the floor.”
One time, Peg was in Susanne and John’s room on the second floor. “I felt Susanne come over and stand beside me. I felt her energy,” she said. “I feel, speak, hear, and see spirits. Even in February, I was standing in that spot by the fireplace upstairs and Susanne walked in the doorway and stood there. I’m like, ‘Hi, Susanne,’ and carried on this conversation. She said, ‘Hi Peg, how you doing? What are you doing today?'” Peg said she sees her, as well, when Susanne was in her 50s. (Susanne died of a stroke in the house at age 69.)
“Gifts” Since a Child
Peg (a Davenport native) and Joshua (a Hampton native) used to work at the Rock Island County Historical Society in Moline.
“I had gifts since I was a child,” she said of the supernatural. “I got to seeing other spirits and I started learning about the paranormal. In my family, you don’t do that stuff, so I hid it. It was my husband who talked me into dropping that wall I built up. I knew I had a gift. He said, ‘You’ve got to be you.’”
Peg said she encountered Connor Looney one night in summer 2022 in downtown Rock Island, while training. Son of the notorious Rock Island gangster John Looney, On October 26, 1922, as part of a gang war, 21-year-old Connor was killed in a shootout.
“I felt their energy rush past me, and I jumped away, and a friend of mine saw it coming, too, and felt it,” Peg said, noting that this look place at Rock Island's Stern Center, near where Connor was killed. “I’d see Connor standing there.”
She said he would even ask for her at times. “I tried for a while to back down and talk to Connor and say, ‘I’m still here.’”
About two weeks ago, Joshua was on Hauberg’s second floor, and saw a white mass come around the corner. “I asked her later, ‘Where does Susanne usually walk and stand by that fireplace?’”
He concluded it was likely Susanne. Peg said spirits present themselves as white, ghostly figures.
Peg said she sees John Hauberg “all the time.” He was once president of Rock Island County Historical Society, where she was curator.
“He’s over here, watching everything I do, talking with me,” she said. “I had a rough day one day, and he told me, ‘You did good.’”
On public tours, a couple people have seen spirits (not knowing who they were), Peg said. Joshua has heard similar things from people.
The bar at the carriage house is typically open Fridays from 1 to 8 p.m., often featuring live music once a month. There is also a gift shop, and on Fridays, there are regular house tours starting at 3 p.m., with admission $10.
Peg and Joshua also are planning to convert an empty room on the second floor to a museum displaying Hauberg family artifacts and photos, including postcards from their travels. One of their first projects is to restore the windows in the room.
Other Upcoming Events
Hauberg will also host Oktoberfest on October 12 (noon to 9 p.m.) with the German American Heritage Center, an event featuring a barrel-rolling contest, stein holding, log sawing, Hammerschlagen, kids' games, with bands all day, brats, beer, popcorn, spaetzle, pretzels, and pie for sale. Tickets are available in advance for $10 online, and may also be purchased at the door for $15. There will be free admission from noon to 4 p.m.
On October 17, there will be a paranormal walk outside on the grounds from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Admission is $10.
Hauberg is also hosting Jeff Adamson's “Twisted Tales of the Quad Cities” on October 24, the event beginning at 7 p.m. in the carriage house. The program is free for Friends of Hauberg Civic Center and Rock Island Preservation Society members, and $5 for non-members.
For more information, visit HaubergEstate.org.
