Meet Uncle Jake—Storyteller of Glen Ellyn’s Spooky Side

Glen Ellyn may be a normal, nice place to make your home—a Village of Volunteers, as it were—but Village history has its quirkier and darker moments and factoids, and there’s nobody better to relate them than the Village’s own spooky storyteller, Uncle Jake, the Daily Herald reports.

According to the paper, Uncle Jake (real name Dan Anderson, a 53-year Village resident), who will be presenting at the Tavern Day Celebration from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 29, knows about Village trivia from scatological Halloween pranks of year past to the early 20th-century arsonist Carl “Old Man” Gentner, who murdered his partner with a hammer and buried him in a well in his backyard. 

"I tell the kids when they're walking the Prairie Path they are walking over where the body used to be," Anderson told the paper. "That gets their attention." 

Anderson’s knowledge of strange Glen Ellyn has also been codified in a book with the epic title Stories from Glen Ellyn's Past: 24 Tales of Murder, Mayhem, Infidelity, Pranks and Other Intriguing Tidbits of Glen Ellyn History from the Archives of the Glen Ellyn Historical Society, Volume 1, which can be found at the Glen Ellyn library. 

Read the full story at the Daily Herald website.