Vigo County Historical Society

Legend of Stiffy Green lives on

Stiffy Green, the dog whose legend has made him a Vigo County celebrity, has never enjoyed his status more than this past Friday and Saturday when he presided over "Halloween Historia," a holiday program at the Historical Museum.

The story of Stiffy Green, part fact and part fiction, has been one of Vigo County’s most popular legends and is especially fun to tell at Halloween time.

The story goes that Stiffy was a pet of the John Heinl family.

After his master’s death in 1920, the dog sat outside the family mausoleum at Highland Lawn Cemetery until he died from grief.

The surviving relatives decided to have him stuffed and placed inside the tomb next to the master he had loved so much.

There he sat, guarding the tomb and glaring out with cold, green eyes.

The legend persists that Stiffy and his master sometimes took strolls together and that barking and whining could be heard throughout the cemetery on some late October evenings.

As the years passed, countless people traveled to the grave to see Stiffy.

"Going to see Stiffy Green" became a part of dating for Terre Haute’s youth.

What better way to frighten a girl into your arms than to go to Highland Lawn, shine a flashlight into the tomb and see Stiffy’s glass eyes shining.

Unfortunately, as time went on, vandalism occurred at the cemetery.

A bullet passed through the glass door and one of the dog’s eyes was shattered.

It was then that the two great-grandchildren of John Heinl made the decision to remove the dog from the mausoleum and give it to the Historical Society.

In 1988, the Terre Haute Lioness Club took on the project of having a replica of the mausoleum constructed to create the proper atmosphere to perpetuate the legend.

In the fall of 1989, the exhibit of Stiffy Green opened at the Historical Museum.

It’s not too late to make "going to see Stiffy Green" a part of your Halloween activities.

He misses the nocturnal visits from Terre Haute’s young people, but as he grown older, life inside the museum is pleasant. His glowing, green eyes can still send a shiver down your spine.