TLDR
An 1850 schoolhouse turned church turned veterans hall turned restaurant in Wisconsin Dells, haunted by a young girl near the restrooms, a Union soldier in full uniform near the back of the building, and the faint presence of a former Methodist clergyman who never quite handed off the keys.
The Full Story
A young girl appears near the restroom area at the Brat House Bar and Grille in Wisconsin Dells. Staff and patrons have seen her peering out from behind the bar and lingering near the bathroom, and people in that part of the building describe an uncomfortable sense of being watched. Nobody knows who she is. No records connect a child's death to the building, but her appearances have been frequent enough that she's become part of the place's identity.
The building started as a one-room Baptist boys school in 1850. It became a Methodist church in 1865, then a Grand Army of the Republic meeting hall for Union veterans, then an antique mall, and finally a restaurant in 2007. That's a lot of former occupants for one structure, and at least three of them don't seem to know they've moved on.
The second ghost makes more sense historically. A Union soldier in full military uniform shows up near the back of the building, walking purposefully or standing at attention, as if reporting for a meeting. The building served as a GAR hall for decades after the Civil War. The Grand Army of the Republic was the veterans' organization for Union Army soldiers, essentially the Civil War version of the VFW, and they expanded the building significantly during their tenure, adding rooms, installing stained glass windows, and constructing a bell tower. The original entrance was replaced with a GAR stained glass window. A soldier who spent years gathering in this space might not register that the meetings have ended.
A third presence, fainter than the other two, has been detected by people with sensitivity to such things: one of the former Methodist clergymen who served the building during its church years, lingering as though the spiritual caretaker never quite handed off the keys.
Confederate spy Belle Boyd, one of the Civil War's most famous female operatives, died of a heart attack on June 11, 1900 while lecturing to a GAR audience in what was then Kilbourn City, now Wisconsin Dells. She's buried at nearby Spring Grove Cemetery. GAR members served as her pallbearers. In 1972, the United Daughters of the Confederacy had her grave reopened, and before the gravestone cap was replaced, they sprinkled Virginia soil over her casket so she could rest in the earth of both North and South.
The Wisconsin Dells Haunted History Trolley Tour makes the Brat House a featured stop. Visitors get off the trolley and use ghost meters to scan for low-frequency readings. But the girl near the restroom is the one people talk about afterward, the one nobody can explain, the one who keeps showing up in a building where nobody can find a record of a child ever dying.
Researched from 8 verified sources. How we research.
