Haunted Cemeteries Page 15
An unknown woman wearing a black dress and a heavy veil attended his funeral. Sobbing, she laid flowers on his grave. Cameron was a bachelor, so rumors spread instantly that she had been a secret girlfriend from Black Hawk. Whatever her identity, she showed up the following year on November 1, and as soon as she had placed the flowers, she simply vanished. She continued to appear on the same day, year after year, and before long the legend started that she was a ghost. In 1899 a dozen men from town collected at Cameron’s grave to catch a glimpse of the spirit. She dutifully appeared just after sundown, and as she put down her bouquet of flowers, two of the men tried to grab her. She managed to elude their grasp and escaped over the hill. They pursued her, but when they reached the crest there was no one to be seen.
As with any long-standing ghost story, there are lots and lots of variations. One says that her visits were daily at first, from November 1, 1887, to June 8, 1888. After that, she didn’t show up again until November 1, 1890, after which the November visits became annual. Another version says she also materializes on April 5, going through the same ritual. The color of the flowers sometimes varies, as does the year of Cameron’s birth. (Only the date of his death is chiseled on the white marble obelisk over his grave.) In some cases the woman was from Bald Mountain, not Black Hawk. And instead of Cameron having a heart attack—the coroner’s official pronouncement—it was rumored that the enigmatic woman poisoned him out of jealousy and then killed herself because he had wanted to marry someone else. No matter which version of the old wives’ tale is true, the Lady in Black’s annual visit continues to this day.
Cheesman Park
Denver
When is a cemetery not a cemetery? When it’s been turned into a city park even though there are still people buried deep underground. In 1858 William Larimer ceded 320 acres to found the first large graveyard for the city of Denver. He called it Mount Prospect Hill Cemetery. His plan was to have the rich and social elite locate their graves at the crest of the hill; the general population would fill the slopes; and the indigent, criminals, and unknowns would be interred at the bottom. Unfortunately, the first burials were of outlaws and victims of accident, murder, and disease, so the graveyard acquired the less-than-inviting nickname of Boot Hill. As a result, Denver’s wealthy citizens chose to bury their families elsewhere, and the cemetery fell into disre-pair. To make the place more attractive, its next owner, John J. Wally, subdivided the graveyard into separate areas for Catholics, Protestants, and members of the Jewish faith. In 1873 Denver acquired the property and renamed it City Cemetery. The Catholic Church promptly bought their section of the graveyard from the city; Jewish synagogues relocated their dead.
But what about the Protestant burials and those in paupers’ graves? The city passed an ordinance requiring families or interested parties of the deceased to move their loved ones within ninety days. Some complied, but by the spring of 1893 there were still five thousand people buried there. The city, working with a dodgy undertaker named E. F. McGovern, decided to transfer the remains to Riverside Cemetery. Bodies were dug up in full view of the public. Little care was taken in how the corpses and skeletons were handled, and both workers and curiosity seekers were suspected of looting the graves.
Hauntings began almost immediately. One worker felt an invisible spirit sit on his shoulders. Residents of houses surrounding the cemetery reported ghosts knocking on their doors and windows. Spectres appeared in some of their homes or showed up as reflections in their mirrors. Plus, there was a constant sound of disembodied mumbling coming from the graveyard.
After much outcry, the city halted the gruesome work, and any open graves were covered over. In 1907 the site became Cheesman Park, named for Walter S. Cheesman, a distinguished business leader. In 1950 the Catholic Church closed its part of the former Mount Prospect Hill Cemetery and relocated the graves. Today that parcel of land is Denver’s Botanical Gardens, which abut the park. The original Jewish section is now Congress Park. The eighty-acre Cheesman Park is a welcome respite from the noise and bustle of the city. It’s usually serene, but it’s still haunted. Folks continue to hear that low murmuring of the dead. Visitors who know nothing of the park’s dark past sometimes feel an unexplainable sense of sorrow. A few people see misty figures or the full-form apparitions of those who remain buried beneath the park, eternally searching for their graves.
Silver Cliff Cemetery
Silver Cliff
Silver Cliff was founded in 1878, as its name suggests, after silver was discovered in a cliff about forty-five miles west of Pueblo. The town was incorporated a year later. The official 1880 census lists 5,040 residents, but at its peak Silver Cliff may have been home to as many as 16,000. The ore was quickly depleted, and the railroad connection ended in 1888. By 1900 there were only 576 people living there.
The Silver Cliff Cemetery, located a half-mile south of town, was established by valley homesteaders in the early 1880s, prior to the founding of the community. The graveyard is famous for its “ghosts lights,” mysterious balls of white or blue that have appeared in the cemetery several nights a week for more than a century. Miners first reported them in 1882! The tiny dancing lights sometimes twinkle in place; other times they flit horizontally, parallel to the ground. They might pop on and off for a few seconds and then just as suddenly disappear. They can’t be captured. If anyone tries to approach one, it always moves out of reach. They first gained major attention after an article appeared in the Wet Mountain Tribune in 1956. A New York Times article in 1967 led to an investigation by National Geographic Magazine two years later.
Naysayers have dismissed the orbs as reflections off the headstones, but they also appear in parts of the cemetery that light from town or passing cars doesn’t reach. They also show up when it’s cloudy. Scientists have suggested they’re what’s known as “swamp gas” or “will-o’-the-wisp,” but that phenomenon only occurs in marshy areas. For most of the year, Silver City is dry, even arid. Paranormalists believe the lights are the unsettled souls of miners who never struck it rich. Or the phantom flickering could be the flames of the oil lamps workers attached to their caps or carried into the mines. Until somebody catches one of the Silver Cliff Cemetery “ghosts,” we’ll never know for sure.
CONNECTICUT
Pine Grove Cemetery
Ansonia
There have been almost ten thousand interments in Pine Grove Cemetery since it opened in 1858. Its paranormal phenomena include the odor of roses, warm spots, and the sounds of children laughing, chains rattling, and disem-bodied whispers. There are also three or four dark, faceless spectral figures that manifest near the front gate. Sometimes they’re seen outside, approaching the burial ground; at other times they’re standing at the gate as sentinels.
Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery
Burlington
The Seventh Day Baptists (or Sabbatarians) were a religious sect that originated in Rhode Island and moved into what is now Burlington, Connecticut, in 1780. They officially established a cemetery next to their church in 1796, but they had been using the land for burials since their arrival. Due to disputes with other settlers in the area, all the members of the religious group had moved by 1820. The last burial in the graveyard was in 1881. The Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery is also known as the Green Lady Cemetery because it’s home to a female figure dressed in green that appears shrouded in a green mist. According to legend, the phantom is Elisabeth Palmiter, one of the Sabbatarians. The story goes that in April 1880 Elisabeth’s husband, Benjamin, went to town for supplies but was stranded by a snowstorm. Worried when he didn’t come back, Elisabeth went out to search for him, only to accidentally drown in a swamp. In most versions of the story, Benjamin found her frozen body the next day, wearing the green dress. In one variation, however, Benjamin killed his wife and threw her into the swamp. Elisabeth is thought to be buried somewhere in the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery, but all the markers are illegible due to erosion or vandalism. Usually when the Green Lad
y manifests, it’s without warning. She smiles sweetly then evaporates. Sometimes visitors to the burial ground also see eerie floating lights, which are believed to be revenants of the oil lantern Benjamin carried while searching for Elisabeth. Other ghostly phenomena in the graveyard include a humming sound, the sensation of being tapped on the shoulder, and voices telling the visitors to leave.
Stepney Cemetery
Monroe
Union Cemetery
Easton
Union Cemetery, with about 350 gravesites, dates to the 1600s. Stepney Cemetery, also known as Birdsey’s Plain Cemetery or Beardsley Plain Cemetery, had its first burial in 1787 and has about a thousand interments. The two graveyards must be discussed in tandem because one ghost haunts both of them: the so-called White Lady, with long, raven black hair. The phantom appears dressed all in white in what seems to be a wedding dress or perhaps a nightgown. At the Union Cemetery, she also likes to step off the property and manifest in the middle of nearby Stepney Road (Route 59). Motorists run into her thinking they have hit a living person, but of course when they stop to check, she’s nowhere to be found. There are at least three old wives’ tales about how the anonymous apparition died. One says she committed suicide in the 1940s after killing her husband. Another claims she was a murder victim and was thrown into a sinkhole behind the adjacent church. The third contends that she’s come back to search for her baby after dying in childbirth. In addition to the White Lady, Union Cemetery is haunted by fogs and light orbs. People also see a set of burning red eyes belonging to an unknown entity. Famed ghost hunters and demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren wrote a book about Union Cemetery called Graveyard. Many ghost enthusiasts consider Union Cemetery to be the most haunted burial ground in Connecticut, if not the entire United States. Ed Warren, who died in 2006, is buried in Stepney Cemetery. He doesn’t haunt it, but there are a few other unidentified phantoms there besides the White Lady. Odd glowing orbs have also been reported.
DELAWARE
Island Field
South Bowers
Island Field is an archaeological site in Kent County, Delaware. A prehistoric Native American village was located there about 1,200 years ago, probably occupied by ancestors of the Lenni-Lenape. The ruins were discovered during road construction in the 1920s, and they were excavated in the 1950s and 1960s. A small museum was later added to the site.
There had been stories of Native American ghosts wandering the area for more than two hundred years, so it came as no surprise to ghost enthusiasts when the burial ground was discovered. Sightings are even more common today, perhaps because about a hundred graves lay exposed at the excavation site. Apparently the open graves and the display of bones and other relics have upset the ancestral spirits.
The dig has not been without controversy. An Indian princess exorcised Island Field in 1972, and in 1986 members of the local Nanticoke tribe protested the removal of Native American remains from what they consider to be a sacred site.
Long Cemetery
Frankford
Col. Armwell Long served with George Washington during the Revolutionary War, and when he died in 1834 he was buried on property outside Frankford next to his wife, a son, and other relatives. His plot was later added to land from the prestigious Layton family to create a public cemetery, and Long was listed as its first official burial.
It’s believed that the graveyard once had a caretaker who, because of his odd, feline features, was constantly teased by local teenagers, who called him the Catman. He would spend much of his time chasing the kids off the property—an activity that hasn’t ceased just because he’s dead. He was interred in an aboveground crypt, and those who ventured inside claimed they saw clawlike scratches on the walls. Due to constant vandalism, descendants of the caretaker tore down the mausoleum in 1994 and buried his remains, along with those of three others who were interred inside the tomb, in the cemetery in earthen graves.
According to an urban legend, if you knock three times on the brick wall at the back of the graveyard, you will summon the Catman. Although his apparition never materializes, his spirit will prevent your vehicle from starting when you’re ready to leave, make it stall, or cause all sorts of other car trouble.
FLORIDA
Cobb Cemetery
Baker
Cobb Cemetery’s oldest extant headstone is dated 1869. Despite its having only sixty-two known graves, the burial ground has quite a few ghosts. The one seen most often has acquired the nickname “Old Man Cobb.” He looks to be in his eighties, and legend says that he’s returned from the Other Side to look for his wife. The best chance to catch him seems to be in February and, for some reason, at 1:24 a.m. Other spectres in Cobb Cemetery include several men who were lynched and ghosts dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes. There are also occasional bursts of white that resemble sheets flapping in the breeze.
Huguenot Cemetery
St. Augustine
The Huguenot Cemetery was established in 1821 just outside St. Augustine’s Old City Gates and continued in operation until 1884. During that half century there were 436 interments, and the ghosts of two of those people haunt the burial ground. The first began materializing after a caretaker discovered a headless corpse outside a vandalized tomb. The remains were placed back in the mausoleum, but the head was never found. Now, around twilight, the man’s apparition shows up, wandering the property to look for his head. The other spirit belongs to Judge John Stickney. He was buried on November 5, 1882, but was disinterred in 1903 for removal to Washington, DC. At some point during the procedure, the workers took a break and left the coffin sitting open on the ground. When they returned, they discovered that thieves had stolen the judge’s gold teeth! No wonder Stickney’s phantom now roams the grounds. The question is: Has he returned to look for his teeth, or has he come back to find the people who took them?
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Memorial Garden
Key West
The first known burial in this tiny cemetery of sixty-two graves was in 1834. Its most active spirit is said to be a man who, legend has it, single-handedly drove all the pirates out of Key West. A hostile spirit, he’s been known to attack visitors to the graveyard. Also, several children are buried in a corner of the cemetery, all victims of arson. Today you can hear their disembodied laughing as they play. According to local lore, they died along with their Sunday school teacher when the pastor set fire to the church. He had discovered that the teacher, who also happened to be his wife, was carrying on an affair with the deacon.
GEORGIA
Andersonville National Cemetery
Andersonville
The Andersonville National Historic Site preserves Camp Sumter (also known as the Andersonville Prison), which was a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the last year of the War Between the States. The jail was notorious for its inhumane conditions and lack of supplies. About thirteen thousand of its prisoners died in captivity, mostly from disease or malnutrition, and were buried in what is now Andersonville National Cemetery. Capt. Henry Wirz, the commander of the prison, was the only Confederate soldier tried and executed for war crimes. Wirz’s ghost now walks among the graves in his military overcoat as well as along Highway 49 outside the burial ground. Six Southerners who were jailed in the stockade also haunt the graveyard. While incarcerated, they formed a prison gang known as the Raiders and were hanged for their aggression against fellow inmates. The men’s spirits manifest on July 11, the anniversary of their execution.
Bonaventure Cemetery
Savannah
Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah’s oldest burial ground, is the graveyard made famous in the novel and film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Located on the Wilmington River, it’s known for its many live oak trees and hanging moss. The cemetery was once part of the estate of British Col. John Mulryne, who built its great manor, Bonaventure, in the 1750s. The Tattnall family owned the property when the plantation house burned in 1846. A subsequent owner of the land expanded the f
amily burial plot into what subsequently became Bonaventure Cemetery. It’s said that visitors to the graveyard hear the distinct sound of a phantom dinner party in full swing, thought to be a revenant of one of the gala gatherings held by the Tattnalls.
Christ Church Cemetery
Saint Simons Island
With almost 1,600 graves, this active burial ground is attached to the Christ Church Episcopal Church. According to folklore, two of the interments were a loving couple named Emma and Phillip, who were married in Christ Church and moved to Frederica on St. Simons Island. Emma had an obsessive fear of the dark, and she always kept a candle burning at night, even while sleeping. One day while making new candles, she spilled hot wax on her arm. The burn became infected, which led to blood poisoning, and she died within a week. Emma was buried in Christ Church Cemetery, and every night for the rest of his life, her dutiful husband placed a lit candle on her grave because of her fear of the dark. (On windy and rainy evenings, he covered the candle with a lantern so that it wouldn’t go out.) Eventually Phillip died and was buried next to his wife. Nevertheless, people passing by the cemetery after dark still saw the glow of a lit candle coming from Emma’s grave. At first it was assumed that some friends or neighbors were carrying on the tradition, but that turned out not to be the case. A brick wall now makes it impossible to see the gravesite from the street, but those who go onto the grounds at night often see the mysterious flickering flame.
Walker Family Cemetery
Augusta
In 1826 US senator and former Augusta mayor Freeman Walker sold his plantation, Bellevue, to the federal government, which wanted to relocate the Augusta Arsenal there. Part of the deal was that one acre would be reserved for the Walker family burial plot and that it would remain a graveyard forever. The arsenal property was later acquired by Augusta State University, but the cemetery remains to this day, surrounded by a chain-link fence. The spectre of an unknown Confederate soldier wearing a long gray coat with a yellow sash sometimes appears in the graveyard, and visitors often feel cold spots on the burial ground, even in summer.