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How did Inez “Clarke” Briggs become popular?

This past year, I spent my time researching one of the most famous monuments at Graceland Cemetery and Arboretum. However, unlike the retail giants, architects, and sports stars buried there, Inez Briggs was not a celebrity. In fact, her ghost story seems to have started over 100 years after her death.

Beginnings

The earliest mention I was able to find about Inez was in a question submitted to the Chicago Sun-Times, saying:

A particular monument in Graceland Cemetery has piqued my curiousity – a statue of a little girl. The inscription simply carries her parent’s names (John C. and Mary C. Clarke), date of birth (1873) and death (1880). Was the family famous? MARIE,” (Chicago Sun-Times, 1987)

The author states plainly that Marie had stumbled upon a new mystery, and Graceland staff had no idea who Inez Clarke was. This level of open-endedness for such a compelling monument seemed to attract ghost tour guides, who could keep their routes fresh and attract attendees with new stories. 

It took another decade for Inez’s ghost story to start catching on. According to historian John Binder and co-author William Willard (2011), the story seems to have started with a man named Richard T. Crowe¹, mentioning her during radio interviews and bus tours in the 80s and 90s, and then in a book he penned in 2000. What seems to be the earliest news mention of her ghost story on paper comes from a 1996 Chicago Sun-Times article featuring David Wendell², and from there on out, Inez gained steady traction in news articles and Chicago ghost books (Kurson, 1996). Versions of Inez’s ghost story throughout these sources vary, with slight details added or altered in order to further build intrigue. However, information surrounding Inez’s real life would be tweaked just the same rather soon.

David Wendell for the Chicago Sun-Times, 1996
David Wendell for the Chicago Sun-Times, 1996
Excerpt from Chicago Haunts by Ursula Bielski, 1997.
Excerpt from Chicago Haunts by Ursula Bielski, 1997
Excerpt from Chicago's Streetguide to the Subernatural by Richard T. Crowe, 2000.
Excerpt from Chicago's Streetguide to the Subernatural by Richard T. Crowe, 2000

In 2007, Inez’s story went through a drastic change. Rather than being a poor girl killed by lightning, disappearing during storms out of fear, rumor had it that Inez Clarke had never existed at all. Local cemeterians Albert Walavich and “The Cemetery Lady” Helen Scair broke the news with support from Aki Lew, the executive director of Graceland at the time.

This confusion found its origin in Graceland’s interment records, where Inez’s name is listed as Amos Briggs. Of course her grave only says Inez, and there are no records of an Inez Clarke dying in 1880 in Chicago’s vital records (Konkol, 2007). Rather than Inez existing, the historians posited that Inez’s monument was simply an advertisement for its sculptor, Andrew Gagel. Now, we know this is not true. It took 2 years for thier idea to be debunked, with Binder reaching out to the Chicago Sun-Times to clear up the misconception (Konkol, 2009).

Overall, these are three main contributors to Inez Briggs’s story today. The ghost story and the expansion of the lore, the Amos Briggs mix-up, and the subsequent solving of the Amos Briggs mystery have all worked in tandem, bringing Inez Briggs into her current local legend status.

Tours

Eventually, Inez Briggs became a staple for tours at the cemetery. As mentioned earlier, Inez has been in Richard T. Crowe’s repertoire since the 80s. Eventually, it got onto Ursula Bielski’s radar in the 90s, and she has previously called herself a big fan of Crowe (Bielski, 2012). Inez is also featured in the Chicago Architecture Center tours, though they do not know when she was added (Chicago Architecture Center, personal communication, 18 Apr 2024). She is also commonly featured in tours led by Adam Selzer (Mysterious Chicago), Scott Larson (Visitations comic), and Grace Robbins (Coimetromania).

Inez Briggs was even added to Graceland’s own self-guided tour maps. According to Jake Coolidge’s website, the map of Graceland that the cemetery currently uses had initially been designed in 2014 (Coolidge, 2014). The Graceland website had a major update between July and August of 2015, which included the addition of this map as well (Graceland Cemetery, 2015a; Graceland Cemetery, 2015b). I reached out to Collier, who was in charge of choosing who would be included on this map, and asked why Inez was picked, becuase her celebrity came post-mortem rather than during her life. In his response, he said he had been familiar with Inez’s monument from frequenting the cemetery, and began to research her during the map’s creation. His decision to add her was due to many visitor’s natural curiosity when encountering her statue (J. Collier, personal communication, 7 March 2024).

The Internet

Methods

Inez’s notoriety was also conveniently growing in tandem with the rise of the internet. Her online presence has grown considerably since the early 2000s, with the tales surrounding her still being adapted into podcasts, social media posts, and blogs like my own. Though I have tried to keep track of Inez as much as possible over the web, it hasn’t always been the easiest. 

There are a lot of unknowns while conducting this type of research. For one, many blogs and forums from the earlier days of the internet no longer exist, for example, if the creator deleted their site or let the hosting costs expire. Social media users can also delete their own profiles and posts whenever they’d like (in most cases). It’s quite possible there are posts about Inez that we’ll never be able to see. Even social media platforms can die³- most notably, Vine was shut down in 2016. Soon after, the archive service for Vine quietly shut down, too (Bell, 2017). The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine helps with finding some old pages here & there, but definitely not everything.

The other main difficulty with finding posts mentioning Inez depends on how platforms choose to display search results. On Tumblr, for example, you can choose between seeing “top posts” and “latest” posts, but on Instagram, it only shows posts in order of popularity & engagement. The final difficulty is my own fault. To find the most thorough results possible, I created a Facebook and a TikTok account for the first time, and for these platforms, I was not sure how to find optimal search results, finding recent posts only, rather than all posts relating to her. This is something I’m still trying to figure out, and there might be follow-up posts if I get a better idea of how to go about this.

Results

Caveats aside, from what I’ve found so far, it seems the earliest mention of Inez Briggs online is from Troy Taylor’s old blog, Prairie Ghosts, in 1998. Earlier posts about her popped up on other blogs and on several Flickr pages and the occasional Tumblr post, but more recently she’s had a surge of posts made about her on Instagram, YouTube, and of course, TikTok.

Troy Taylor's take on the Inez Briggs legend.

This surge seems to have started in 2020, with the pandemic aiding in the rise of TikTok & other copycats like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. With short form videos in particular, there seems to be more crossposting, where one creator uploads the same post to multiple different social media platforms to reach a wider audience. For the sake of what I was researching, though, I found it more important to collect sources from platform to platform, rather than creator to creator, counting crossposted videos as separate and unique entries. The trend is loosely trackable on the spreadsheet I made, however, following the idea that the crossposts were intended for different audiences, I wanted to see the extent of Inez’s presence unique to each platform.

So, Inez Briggs is kind of a big deal. Her grand monument and the ghost story that was inspired by it are shared globally, which eventually lead historians to find biographical information about her and her family. To look at some of the biographical details of Inez Briggs’s life, please check out the timeline, and sit tight for next month’s blog post!

In the meantime, if you have questions or comments about my posts, please feel free to reach out; My socials are at the bottom of the page, and my email is blog@lambandangel.com

Footnotes

¹ Richard Crowe was “the Midwest’s original full-time, professional Ghosthunter.” I listened to a handful of his radio interviews, though I unfortunately have yet to find mention of Inez within his extensive media presence. http://richardcrowe.homestead.com/ 

² David Wendell is notable for working as a historian at Rose Hill cemetery. When Dignity Memorial bought Rose Hill, Wendell was promptly fired, as his work “had not resulted in a significant increase in sales.” https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/death-of-a-cemetary/ 

³ Other dead social media platforms include, but are not limited to: MySpace, Live Journal, AIM, Google+, and Club Penguin.

Sources

Bell, K. (2017, January 20). Don’t cry, all your favorite Vines will live on here. Mashable. https://mashable.com/article/vine-archive-website 

Bielski, U. (1997, October). Chicago haunts: Ghostly lore of the windy city. Lake Claremont Press. https://archive.org/details/chicagohauntsgho0000biel_i2f8/mode/2up 

Bielski, U. (2012, June 11). A supernatural life: Richard T. Crowe. Ghost Village. https://www.ghostvillage.com/resources/2012/features_06112012.shtml 

Binder, J. & Willard, W. (2011). The mysterious statue of Inez “Clarke.” Chicago Genealogist, 44(1), 3-9.

Crowe, R. T. (2000). Chicago street guide to the supernatural. Carolando Press.

Historical maps. (2015, June 19). Graceland Cemetery via The Wayback Machine, accessed 18 April 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20150619194717/http://www.gracelandcemetery.org/pages/maps.html 

Konkol, M. (2007, October 26). Ghost busted? – If you’re hankering for the truth behind a legendary Chicago haunting — I have got a story for you. Chicago Sun-Times, 12. https://infoweb-newsbank-com.chipublib.idm.oclc.org/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AMNEWS&req_dat=C23BE832E46446E3AEC1CCAEBDEAF5AE&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F11C86A1F84C8BF28 

Konkol, M. (2009, October 30). Ghost story back from the dead – GRACELAND | Phantom girl stories were debunked — but records may give tale new life. Chicago Sun-Times. https://infoweb-newsbank-com.chipublib.idm.oclc.org/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AMNEWS&req_dat=C23BE832E46446E3AEC1CCAEBDEAF5AE&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F12BAB086B4184DC0 

Kurson, B. (1996, October 25). Historian unearths tales from the crypt. Chicago Sun-Times, 3. https://infoweb-newsbank-com.chipublib.idm.oclc.org/apps/news/document-view?p=AMNEWS&docref=news/0EB422CB9B9B2048.

Maps. (2015, August 1) Graceland Cemetery via The Wayback Machine, accessed 18 April 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20150801010927/http://www.gracelandcemetery.org/map-of-historical-resting-places/ 

Maps made by hand. (2014). Jake Coolidge Cartography. https://jakecoolidgecartography.com/hand-made.html#graceland-cemetery 

Tattoo tripped up – Drug agency scotches LSD rumor. (1987, May 20). Chicago Sun-Times, 65. https://infoweb-newsbank-com.chipublib.idm.oclc.org/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AMNEWS&req_dat=C23BE832E46446E3AEC1CCAEBDEAF5AE&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F0EB36D6A2CC4E46E 

Taylor, T. (1998). Haunted Chicago: Graceland Cemetery. Prairie Ghosts via The Wayback Machine, accessed 18 April 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/19981205030842/http://www.prairieghosts.com/grace.html 

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