Tall Order

Published Mar 28, 2019, 9:00 AM

How things are built can inspire wonder and awe, as this trip through the halls of the Cabinet will surely reveal.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Some guys just feel like they have something to prove. How else would you explain someone like Jeffrey Hudson Born in England in sixteen nineteen. Jeffreys family worked under British Royalty as keepers of their livestock. The Duchess of Buckingham took particular interest in Jeffrey when he was very young, and invited him to become part of the family. They were so infatuated with him, in fact, that they thought it would be selfish to keep him to themselves. Months after Jeffrey joined the Duchess's household, he was presented to King Charles the First and his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria at a grand feast in their honor. As the dinner came to a close and dessert was being served, the young Jeffrey popped out of a pie before the Queen, clad in a suit of armor. The site was terribly amusing, and the Duke and Duchess gifted Jeffrey to the King and Queen. Jeffrey moved in with his new royal parents, so to speak, and got along quite well with the rest of the household. His cuteness, however, began to fade as he grew up, and so to maintain favor with the royal family, he started wearing elaborate costumes and telling jokes to entertain them. He became known as quite the wit among the nobles who visited the King and Queen. His talents once took him all the way to the French court, but upon his return to England, his ship was besieged by a band of pirates. He escaped unharmed and resumed his life among his royal family. Though they saw him as nothing more than a clown, they nevertheless educated him in all the various customs of the court, including horseback and shooting. He was also raised in the Roman Catholic Church. He was never a royal himself, but he was cared for as if he had been born one. In the sixteen forties, as tension between King Charles and Parliament rose over a coming Irish insurrection, Queen Henrietta fled to the Netherlands with several members of her house, including Jeffrey. He tried to use his unique skills to help drum up support and funds for the King's crusade, but proved unsuccessful with the Protestant Dutch government. With no other way out of the coming war, the queen returned to her husband, who had already begun to fight. The war grew more violent in the subsequent months, and the Queen knew that she had to get out if she hoped to survive. Just as she had done before, she gathered her courtiers and Jeffrey, and this time escaped to France, where he eventually grew tired of being her court jester. He stopped performing and started standing up for himself. It's unknown exactly what transpired between Jeffrey and the brother of English Baron William Croft when he was there in France, but it had been offensive enough for the young Mr Hudson to challenge the man to a duel. The craft brother, thinking the whole affair nothing but a joke, arrived with a kind of seventeenth century squirt gun an insult to Jeffrey. When the time came for them to draw their weapons, Jeffrey aimed his pistol and fired at the arrogant Mr. Croft. A bullet hit him square between the eyes and killed him. Unbeknownst to Jeffrey, dueling was considered illegal, and seeing as how he had murdered a man from a very powerful family, he was quickly sentenced to death. Thankfully, at the last minute, Queen Henrietta managed to step in and get his sentence commuted. Rather than hang for his crime, her surrogate son was exiled back to England. Jeffrey led a fairly charmed life, especially compared to others in the royal court. The Queen often looked after him as though he were her own child, and in a way he was. At least that's how she saw him. Jeffrey, however, didn't see it that way. To him, he was no more than a pet, a novelty, something to amuse the rich elites. You see, Sir Jeffrey Hudson was only eighteen inches tall. What happened to him in the months following his exile is largely unknown to us. However, it's been noted that he was captured by Barbary pilots and shipped in North Africa, where he was entered into slavery for twenty five years. During his time there, he was said to have grown to forty five inches tall, putting him at a final height of three feet nine inches. Eventually, Jeffrey returned to England, but not to the Queen's court. He soon found himself imprisoned once again, during a time when Catholics were under persecution by the English crown. He died in sixteen eighty two, penniless and buried in an unmarked grave. It seems that in both life and death, Sir Jeffrey Hudson came up short. George and Sylvia Stickney didn't have it easy living in eighteen thirties Illinois. They were considered a bit odd, though they could hardly be blamed. Their lives together had been defined by tragedy. While they'd had ten children together, only three had made it to adulthood, and the deaths of the other seven had affected them in ways others could just not comprehend. They desperately longed to see and talk to their children again, and that desperation drove them to explore more spiritual avenues of communication. Through their extensive research, they believed the dead could speak to and through the living using others as vessels for their messages. However, friends and neighbors didn't know what to make of the Stickney's new belief. They considered it devil worship. Others ran from anything having to do with ghosts or spirits. Rumors started to take on a life of their own, though, and the Stickneys knew they needed to go somewhere safe, a private place where they could conduct seances and talk with their loved ones without judgment. They sought out a plot of land about an hour north of Chicago. It was a remote area off the beaten path, far from the gossip of the suburbs, where they could start their lives anew. George had a plan for his new home. It would be two stories tall, with all the living quarters constructed on the first floor. The second floor would house a beautiful ball room where the Stickneys could conduct seances for themselves as well as for people from all over Illinois looking to reconnect with the dead. There was just one problem, how to build it. During their investigation into spiritualism, George and Sylvia learned that spirits often got trapped in corners, unable to pass through the house. Unhindered To mitigate that problem, George came up with a unique floor plan, no sharp angles. Every room in the house was designed without ninety degree angles, thus allowing ghosts to move about freely along their circular walls. This is clearly visible from the outside of the home, which has been fashioned out of brick with rounded edges. The Stickney has lived in near solitude, except for those occasions when they would assist the grief stricken. After George passed away, Sylvia continued to live in the house and conduct seances on her own. She became a bit of a celebrity in Illinois and even remained in contact with her late husband and their children. Eventually, Mrs Stickney passed away as well, and the home was sold to new owners. Despite the house's unique design and the former owner's eccentric work, no one ever complained about hauntings or strange happenings, not until a man named Roderick Smith moved in in the nineteen seventies. During his stay, he claimed he heard strange noises throughout the house. His dogs would be found barking at absolutely nothing, perhaps they what their master could not. Over time, the Stickney House earned a reputation as a hangout for devil worshippers who performed black magic rituals to conjure evil spirits. It didn't help that the local real estate ad for the house depicted a woman in a white wedding dress looking out the window. According to the photographer at the time, no one had been in the home when he took the picture. Today, however, the house is occupied by the Bull Valley Police Department, and they have no problem with the home's former owners nor the supernatural circumstances surrounding the building's history. Although people do still have questions about George Stickney, whose death remains a mystery to this day. Legend has it that his wife found him dead of heart failure, with a look of horror stretched across his face. The reason the architect who designed the house had accidentally overlooked a single ninety degree corner. When George's heart gave out, he apparently saw where he was standing and realized his soul would be trapped forever. I'm not suggesting the architect did it on purpose, but it certainly sounds like he painted George into a corner. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.

Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

From the creator of the hit podcast Lore comes a new, bite-sized storytelling experience. Each twice 
Social links
Follow podcast
Recent clips
Browse 701 clip(s)