Haunted Cemeteries Read online

  There’s also a ghost story about a Native American couple that was passing through the area with a very sick child. They stopped at a local farmhouse and asked for “a white man’s doctor.” The girl was rushed to a physician in Judsonia, but it was too late to save her life. The parents buried their daughter in an unmarked grave outside the cemetery’s northern perimeter. The remains weren’t discovered until years later during a highway construction project. A small fence was erected around the grave, and a marker was placed there reading, “The Unknown Baby Girl, in death she belongs to all of us.” Folks driving by the cemetery often see the Indian girl’s spectre standing by her grave.

  Keller’s Chapel Cemetery

  Jonesboro

  There are many ghost legends about Keller’s Chapel Cemetery, most of them dating to the 1980s when Satanic rituals were supposedly held in the area. There are about 1,200 graves in the burial ground, about 75 of which belong to members of the Keller family. Nine Keller infants are buried there, and their cries can be heard if people walk around the cemetery at night. (Their graves are close to one other, near the back of the church.) Ethereal lights and dark figures follow visitors after dark, and there also baffling noises—some coming from inside the chapel. Folks should also keep their cars running. If they shut off the engine, it’s very likely it won’t start when they’re ready to go.

  Mary’s Chapel Cemetery

  Rector

  According to locals, back in the 1800s, a pioneer family lived on the land that eventually became Mary’s Chapel Cemetery. One day the parents saw a group of Native Americans approaching their cabin, and they suspected trouble. The mother told their daughter, Mary, to hide in a cabinet and stay quiet until she came back to get her. The parents were killed, and the obedient girl, not knowing her parents’ fate, stayed hidden and eventually starved to death. Sometime later, an extended family member discovered the three victims and buried them on the homestead. These days, if you enter the graveyard after dark and call out, “Mary, come out and play,” the little girl’s ghost will appear. Also, if people turn off their car engines, the vehicles may not start when they’re ready to leave.

  Mount Holly Cemetery

  Little Rock

  Eight-acre Mount Holly Cemetery opened in the Quapaw Quarter of Little Rock in 1843. Among the five thousand people buried there are six Confederate generals, two governors, a Pulitzer Prize–winning poet, and the wife of Cherokee chief John Ross. It’s claimed that some of the memorial statues have a mind of their own: They sway or sometimes move from one place to another. They’ve even been found outside the cemetery. People have reported seeing the apparitions of Native Americans and Confederate soldiers there, and the sound of an otherworldly flute is heard, mostly in the early morning.

  Philadelphia Methodist Church and Cemetery

  Violet Hill

  Founded in 1858, the Philadelphia Methodist Church is one of the earliest places of worship still standing in Arkansas; it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places. About five hundred people are interred in its cemetery. Mysterious lights, including blue orbs, populate the graveyard. The ghost of a Confederate soldier floats over the graves. Another apparition belongs to a girl who died while her pioneer family was passing through. The parents placed an arrow made of rocks on top of her grave, pointing west so the girl’s spirit would know where to find them, but for some reason the youngster remains bound to the Old Philadelphia Cemetery, as the graveyard is also known. Her spectre is seen standing by her grave, sobbing as she faces westward.

  Possum Walk Cemetery

  Coal Hill

  The first burial in Possum Walk Cemetery (also seen as Opossum Walk Cemetery) took place in 1874. For more than a hundred years, visitors have heard disembodied whispers as well as the sound of footsteps walking behind them among the thirty-three graves. There are floating orbs, and occasionally guests will glimpse someone out of the corner of their eye, staring at them. When they turn, no one’s there. The ghost story most often associated with Possum Walk Cemetery concerns its gates, which many people allegedly find hot to the touch, even in the dead of winter.

  Prague Cemetery

  Darysaw

  Nighttime visitors have reported hearing voices and seeing odd lights and phantom faces in the trees. Perhaps unique to Prague Cemetery, a ghost train travels through the graveyard on invisible tracks. The apparition may be linked to an unauthenticated rumor that many years ago a young girl was killed nearby after being tied to a set of (now long-gone) railroad tracks.

  Shady Grove Cemetery

  Bald Knob

  Those visiting Shady Grove Cemetery, which has about three thousand interments, often feel an unexplainable blast of cold air near the entrance. Normally the burial grounds are very quiet, with not even the sound of a cricket chirping. (Purportedly, crickets and grasshoppers won’t come near the place.) On Halloween, however, people hear incorporeal voices throughout the cemetery, said to be the voices of the dead as they return to their graves. It’s also claimed that if you sit in your car and flash your headlights three times, ghostly children will press their handprints onto your vehicle. Another story, heard less often, concerns a group of young men who decided to wander through the graveyard at night, only to feel the temperature dropping the farther they went into the cemetery. They then heard the voice of a little girl saying, “You need to get out before he knows you’re here.” They rushed to their truck to find the windshield fogged with the message “Plz get out” handwritten in the condensation. Then the truck wouldn’t start: The battery cables had been disconnected. The panicked men quickly reattached the cables and took off. As they sped out of the cemetery, the apparition of a girl briefly appeared in the center of the road, and then just as suddenly vanished.

  CALIFORNIA

  Adelaida Cemetery

  Adelaida

  The small town of Adelaida, which peaked at a population of about seven hundred, was founded in 1878 about twenty miles west of Paso Robles. All that remains is the old schoolhouse and the cemetery. The burial ground’s ghost story concerns two youngsters who died in the 1887 diphtheria epidemic and were buried in Adelaida Cemetery. Their mother visited their graves every Friday, but she soon grew so depressed she committed suicide. She’s now buried next to her children. According to legend, the woman’s spirit, “The Pink Lady,” appears on Friday evenings between ten o’clock and midnight, wandering the cemetery.

  In many versions of the story, the female phantom isn’t identified at all, but some of the tales say the apparition is that of Mrs. Ray, who is buried in Row F at the top of the hill next to her children. Others claim the phantom is Charlotte Sitton, a minister’s wife, who killed herself at the age of nineteen after losing her child (or children) to diphtheria. A variation of the tale has Charlotte wearing a white nightgown instead of a pink dress. In that version she stands near her own grave or that of her child, sometimes carrying flowers or laying them on the grave. In other accounts the woman is a Mennonite.

  There are two other old wives’ tales connected with the graveyard. One says that somewhere on the burial ground is a tree that bleeds. Also, visitors are warned to hold on to their car keys. The cemetery’s spirits like to steal them, leaving folks stranded.

  Bodie Cemetery

  Bridgeport

  A ghost town today, Bodie had its heyday during the California gold rush. Phantoms in Bodie Cemetery include a woman in a long white dress who’s seen sitting by a grave, knitting, and a three-year-old girl, thought to be Evelyn Myers. The child was the daughter of a shopkeeper. She was accidentally killed when she leaned over a porch rail at her house and was struck by the pickax of a worker digging a drainage ditch. Distraught, her parents left Bodie soon after burying their daughter, but the little girl was so beloved that townsfolk later had a statue carved with an angel on it and placed the memorial over the youngster’s grave. The girl’s voice has been heard calling, “Daddy,” and visitors to the cemetery have seen their chi
ldren talking and playing with an “invisible friend”—who most likely was Evelyn.

  Cherokee Cemetery

  Oroville

  Two apparitions reside in this graveyard. One of them is a young boy who died in the early 1900s. People hear his laughter, and he likes to peek out from behind trees and tombstones. People say that if you place flowers on his grave, his ghost will show up to thank you. The other apparition may be related to a murder that took place in the 1800s. After a man killed one of the town’s most popular young ladies, his house (which was across the street from the cemetery) was burned to the ground, trapping the murderer inside. Now his phantom’s shouts, screams, and foot stomping are heard in the burial ground, often in the section closest to where the house once stood. Also, his unseen hands occasionally push visitors.

  Greenwood Pioneer Cemetery

  Greenwood

  John Greenwood, a trapper and guide who came to the area in 1844, founded the small village of Greenwood in what is now El Dorado County. Within five years he had established a trading post. During its gold rush years, the town had four hotels, fourteen stores, a theater, and, of course, a brewery and four saloons. Its small burial ground is signposted “Greenwood Pioneer Cemetery 1852.” The graveyard is haunted by the phantom of an unidentified tall man with huge hands. When spotted, he seems to be searching for something or somebody. Usually he keeps to himself, but the ghost has been known to chase people and attack those who vandalize the property.

  Holy Sepulcher Cemetery

  Orange

  Holy Sepulcher is a Catholic cemetery and the final resting place for many diocesan priests. The burial ground is the home of a spectral Woman in White. There are also myriad reports of a ghostly candle burning in the graveyard at night. Its flame changes both color and shape, and it never goes out, even in the wind.

  Le Beck Grave at Fort Tejon

  Lebec

  From 1854 to 1864 Fort Tejon was as an army outpost on the Tejon Pass, which was the main inland route between Los Angeles and the Central Valley. The site is now maintained as a historical park. Everyone agrees that the most haunted spot on the property is the Le Beck oak tree, which is located at the northwest corner of the parade grounds. An early French trapper, Peter Le Beck, is buried beneath the tree, and his apparition has been seen many times near his grave. The spectre of Chief Black Bear, a local Native American who was hanged from another oak a few hundred yards away, has materialized near the Le Beck oak as well.

  Pioneer Cemetery

  Coloma

  Coloma has gone down in history as the place where James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter’s Mill on January 24, 1848, touching off the California gold rush. Originally named Sutter’s Mill Cemetery, Pioneer Cemetery has had more than six hundred known burials since it was founded in 1848. All the original wooden cross markers deteriorated years ago, but the earliest extant headstone is marked “1849.” The graveyard’s ghost is a late-middle-age to elderly woman with gray hair, parted in the middle and pulled back in a bun. The unidentified phantom wears a deep red or burgundy dress and seems to stand guard over three graves belonging to the Schieffers. She appears to be much older than any of the family members buried there. The spectre is frequently seen from the road, waving to people to come join her.

  Rose Hill Cemetery

  Antioch

  Rose Hill Cemetery is in the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve near Mount Diablo, about eleven miles from Concord. Established around 1865, the graveyard takes up one acre and contains at least 235 graves. Much of its ghostly activity is audible, such as the sounds of laughter, crying, and a tolling bell, but the cemetery is also the abode of the White Witch of Antioch. In life, Sarah Norton was a midwife, and she was on her way to deliver a baby when her carriage flipped over and crushed her. Not a religious woman, she had asked her children not to hold a funeral for her. The people of Somersville liked her so much, however, that they tried to give her one. In fact, they tried twice. The first time, a wild storm suddenly came up, so the ceremony was postponed until the next day. After a second attempt was interrupted by another unexpected storm—so fierce that cattle stampeded the town—Somersville gave up and interred Sarah without fanfare at Rose Hill Cemetery. Her spirit is unsettled, though. The White Witch has been drifting among the headstones and over the neighboring hills for as long as anyone can remember.

  Sacramento Historic City Cemetery

  Sacramento

  Sacramento Historic City Cemetery, also known as the Old City Cemetery, is the oldest graveyard in the state capital. One of its many ghosts is William Brown, a railroad engineer, who died on September 26, 1880, when an errant switch on the tracks accidentally sent his train barreling toward a ferry wharf on San Francisco Bay. At the last moment, he was able to unhook the passenger cars, saving the occupants, but the engine plunged into the water, drowning him. When Brown’s body was recovered, his hands were still clutching the brake trying to stop the runaway train. His spectre is seen near his grave, his hands in his pockets.

  May Wooley died of encephalitis at the age of twelve in 1879. Her parents, both devout Spiritualists, were convinced that they later heard from their daughter’s spirit during a séance. The girl said she wasn’t dead but merely waiting for them in the Next World. May seems to be earth-bound, though, because people spot her apparition close to her grave. In 1979 a trunk of her toys was found hidden behind a wall during renovations to the house in which she had lived. The belongings were donated to the Sacramento History Museum, and now many believe the young lady haunts the house and museum as well as the cemetery.

  Other apparitions in Sacramento Historic City Cemetery include a couple dressed in black, a pit bull that follows you around the graveyard, and a second little girl who plays near the tombstone of a child.

  Finally, even though it’s not a ghost story, paranormal enthusiasts are fascinated by the case of John Wesley Reeves and his daughter, Ella, whose remains had to be exhumed after ninety years. When the iron coffins were opened, both bodies were perfectly preserved, as was their clothing, looking as if they had just been interred.

  Santa Cruz Memorial Cemetery

  Santa Cruz

  An infamous White Lady haunts the Santa Cruz Memorial Cemetery, also known as the IOOF Cemetery or the Odd Fellows Cemetery. The phantom regularly pops up on Ocean Street Extension as well. When encountered, she’s usually overheard muttering something about murder or is seen throwing axes. If you pull into the cemetery at night with your lights on, she’ll rush toward you. Legend says that she came to Santa Cruz from Massachusetts as a mail-order bride in the 1870s. Once married, her German husband turned out to be an abusive drunkard. He forced her to put on her wedding gown every night, and then he’d beat her. When he heard his wife was planning to run away, he killed her (some versions of the tale say by decapitation) and then burned the body. A variation of the tale says he burned down their house with the woman inside, drugged but still alive. Many believe the White Lady has an angry disposition because she’s looking for revenge. Besides her apparition, the graveyard has bizarre noises coming from the east end of the grounds. Ghostly faces have been seen on the headstones, and dark figures float over the graves.

  COLORADO

  Buckskin Cemetery

  Alma

  J. Dawson Hidgepath arrived in the gold rush town of Laurette, Colorado, in early 1865. Unfortunately, that July he fell, fatally, from the west slope of Mount Boss. He was buried in Buckskin Cemetery, but soon after, some of his bones were discovered lying on the bed of one of the local dance hall girls he had unsuccessfully pursued. With much puzzlement, townsfolk reinterred his remains. But the bones came back, this time to the home of another woman he had wooed. The phenomenon continued over the next several months, each time at a different woman’s house. Sometimes the bones would turn up in the kitchen or the parlor. Now and then, they were accompanied by flowers. Even piling stones on top of Hidgepath’s grave didn’t keep his bones in the ground.
r />   Once the mother lode was gone, Laurette became a ghost town. But in 1872 another mining town, Alma, was established, and Hidgepath’s bones started showing up there. According to one version of the legend, the hauntings finally stopped in 1880 after men in the area, tired of having their ladies disturbed, dug up Hidgepath’s skeleton, took the bones twenty miles away to Leadville, and dropped them down an outhouse. This time, they stayed there—although some say the bones somehow returned to their grave and are biding their time to make a reappearance.

  Central City Masonic Cemetery

  Central City

  On May 6, 1859, John H. Gregory discovered a vein of gold thirty-five miles west of Denver during the Pike’s Peak gold rush. Within two months there were ten thousand prospectors staking claims. William Byers of the Rocky Mountain News founded Central City when he and his partners pitched a tent in the middle of the mining district and declared it “The Richest Square Mile on Earth.” Several other small communities were established nearby, including Black Hawk. By the early 1900s the mines were pretty much worked over, and production ceased completely during World War II. Today the local economy is based largely on tourism and casino gambling.

  Central City’s cemetery was established in the early 1860s atop a hill that commands an expansive view of the area. Recently there have been tales of a phantom boy around the grave markers and weird orbs of light floating over the grounds. But the main ghost story of the Central City Masonic Cemetery surrounds the grave of John Edward Cameron, who died of “heart paralysis” at the age of twenty-three on November 1, 1887.