Mathias Ham was a 19th entrepreneur in the lumbering and agricultural industries, the goods were shuttled using his own fleet of vessels, this lead to a high social standing and lots of money. With some of his fortune he built in 1837 a small 5 bedroom home for his first wife and 5 children after his wife’s death in 1856 he reconstructed it into a 23 roomed Victorian mansion, which eventually shared with his second wife and 2 more children, the building sits on the borders of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin. He built it with a cupola so he could observe his fleet on the Mississippi River. Mathias died at home in 1889, the last family member to live there was Sarah, and the City of Dubuque brought the property from her in 1912. Sarah died in 1921. And since 1964 The Dubuque County Historical Society as opened it up as a museum.
 
One story which leads to haunting today is, because of Mathias’ practice of looking out over the Mississippi, he saw a crime being carried out and due to this a group of pirates were arrested, and they vowed to take revenge, at the time Mathias took no notice of this warning.

Many years later, Sarah Ham’s daughter, and the only surviving member of the family, kept hearing noises at night and when she called out no replies came, due to this she took to taking a gun to bed with her. On night whilst in bed she heard heavy footsteps coming towards the room, she fired two shots through the door, when she went to look she found a trail of blood through the house, her neighbour later found the dead body of a pirate at the waters edge.

Even to this day a strange light is said to be seen going through the house, it is thought to be the light of the lantern the pirate was carrying, as he keeps coming back to try and find Sarah to avenge his death.

Also windows open by themselves, strange voices are heard, objects move, cold spots are felt and there are always lots of problems with the electric.