User:Xashlynmeyersx/sandbox

nMenomonie, Wisconsin, was founded in 1859 by William Wilson. He became the first mayor and the first Wisconsin State Senator. There are many old buildings here in Menomonie that are filled with history. There is the Devil’s Punchbowl, which is a popular place for students to visit. Then there is the Wilson Place, the home to Captain William Wilson. There is the Mabel Tainter, which is a beautiful theater built by Captain Andrew and Bertha Tainter for their daughter Mabel Tainter. The Mabel Tainter was finished in 1889..

Tainter family
Captain Andrew and Bertha Tainter wanted to build the theater so that anyone in the community could come and enjoy the arts. there was a billiard room for the men to play pool and other billiard games. There was also a room for the women and girls to eat and have tea.

Mabel Tainter herself
Mabel died at the age of nineteen from a “cancer of the side,” or a ruptured appendix. However, there is another theory that she died from a botched abortion that her father made her get. Supposedly, Mabel fell in love with a logger from her father lumber company. They had two different social statuses, so they were not able to get married. She soon became pregnant, and her parents were open to the idea of the two getting married. However, soon after, the logger disappeared. To avoid shame, the she got an abortion, and died because of the procedure.

Drastic changes to the house
The Wilson Place was built in 1859, and was originally a colonial-style house. In 1875, William Wilson put a sandstone wall around the twenty-two acre property, some of which still stands today. People can go into the Wilson Place and take a tour of the house and learn about the house and about the people who lived there. William died in 1892, and his daughter, Angeline and son-in-law James Huff Stout, took over the house. James was an extensive leader in the lumber company. He was also the one who founded the University of Wisconsin-Stout in 1891. He spent his time as a state senator by building libraries and improving highways. Angeline and James got married and had three children together. The two decided to change the house into a Queen Anne style mansion, which took four years to remodel. This included seventeen marble fireplaces, a carved mahogany staircase, a ballroom, and wrap-around porches on all three floors. In the early 1920’s, William’s grandson, George Wilson LaPointe, Jr. and his wife Irene took over the home. George was also in the lumber company, like his father was. George and Irene made the house smaller by two-thirds and made it into a Mediterranean style villa, which is the building that is standing today.

Hauntings
It is said that the Wilson Place is haunted. People that have gone on tours to the house have seen a woman in white in the room where she died. The spirit could potentially be trapped in the mansion forever. Supposedly, as soon as you walk into the room, you get an instant chill to the bone. There is a ghost tour, which gives information about the ghosts that haunt the Mabel Tainter. There is a woman in grey, she is believed to be a devoted seamstress from back in the day. Mabel herself is said to still be roaming the building, along with her parents. There is also a little boy that has been seen, which is believed to be Andrew and Bertha’s young son. It is believed that they are still there because they loved the theater so much and enjoy all the good times they had there. Mabel never got to see the building while she was alive, so I think that that is one of the reasons why the whole family is still there, they are all finally together. In December of 2008, an investigation team came to investigate the Mabel Tainter. They had a team of eleven people, including tape recorder, EMF detectors, thermometers, digital cameras, and two sensitives. The two psychic sensitives were pulled into a back room at the Mabel Tainter by a “strong feeling,” They felt a male presence, and saw shadows out on the catwalk. The two sensitives then went into the women’s ballroom, and quickly left the room because of a “heavy feeling.” "The most interesting EVP for me was the simultaneous recordings in two separate rooms on the second floor of a scream or high pitched shriek," said Gangi. "The investigators were at least 50 feet away from each other and captured the same sound."