HGB Ep. 560 - Haunted Cemeteries 30

Moment in Oddity - The Giant's Causeway 

The Giant's Causeway is located in Northern Ireland and is believed to be 60 million years old. This is a unique formation of hexagonal basalt stones that became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. This is referred to as a causeway because the tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead down to the sea and go under it. All of the stones seem to have been cut in the shapes they have whether they have four or more sides. But scientists claim that these stones were formed from a volcanic fissure eruption. The use of "giant" in the name indicates that legends are connected to this site. One story claims that there was an Irish giant named Finn McCool and a Scottish giant named Benandonner. The two were mighty rivals and Finn built the causeway so that he could have a meeting with Benandonner. After the meeting, Benandonner ripped up the causeway and ran back to Scotland. For his part, Finn McCool left behind his giant boot, which is fossilized at the Giant's Causeway in "bay of the giant." Causeway guides told a different story in the 1700s and this story was also written out as a poem in 1830. Finn had fallen in love with a Scottish maiden, but he couldn't reach her, so he decided to build the causeway. He was making good progress, but it was stopped by his grandmother who didn't want him going after the maiden because she feared losing him to Scotland. She used magic to create a storm that destroyed the causeway. Finn built it again and she destroyed it again. This went on and on and on this final night, the storm lashed out as Finn built. He was exhausted by the time he got to the other side and fell into the maiden's arms and died. His grandmother was horrified that her magic lead to his death and she turned to stone and continues to stand at the causeway today. The legends are fun, but a giant more than likely didn't build the causeway. Regardless, the formation certainly is odd!

This Month in History - St. Paul's Cathedral Bombed

In the month of October, on the 10th, in 1940, St. Paul's Cathedral was bombed. King Aethelberht (a thel barret) I dedicated the first Christian cathedral to be built here in 604 A.D. He dedicated that cathedral to St. Paul. It burned to the ground later and was rebuilt and then destroyed by the Vikings in 962. A third cathedral was also burned down in 1087. The fourth cathedral stood for many years, but burned up in the Great Fire of London in 1666. English architect Sir Christopher Wren built the fifth and final cathedral in the baroque design and crowned it with a beautiful dome. Wren considered it his masterpiece and he was buried inside it. During the Battle of Britain in World War II, the German Luftwaffe bombed Britain heavily. A nighttime raid was launched on October 10th and a Nazi bomb went through the dome and left the high altar in ruin. The image of St. Paul's in the midst of smoke and fire inspired the British people. The cathedral survived the Blitz and the bells rang out in 1944 to celebrate the liberation of Paris and again in 1945 at the end of the war in Europe with services attended by 35,000 people.

Haunted Cemeteries 30

A bench, hewn from natural wood, that is located in one of our featured cemeteries reads, "Here I sit broken-hearted, thinking about, our dearly departed." And that is why we have cemeteries. To remember our dearly departed family and friends. For those of us that wander these cities of the dead, we make new friends along the way as we stop and read a headstone here and there. A life remembered for a brief moment. We give that to the dead when we stop and care. And in some cemeteries, our efforts do not go in vain as we are watched and surveyed from beyond the veil. On this haunted cemeteries episode, we feature haunted cemeteries in Arizona; Alabama; Ontario, Canada; Prague, Czech Republic; South Dakota and two St. Mary Churchyard's in London, Britain.

Evergreen Mortuary and Cemetery

Evergreen Cemetery was founded in 1907 on 110 acres outside the city of Tucson to replace the original city cemetery known as Court Street Cemetery. That cemetery was open from 1875 to 1907. When it closed, the bodies were moved to Evergreen. The process took 20 years. Remains from another cemetery named Presidio were also relocated here. This means that many of the early pioneers of Tucson are buried in Evergreen. The cemetery is surrounded by mountains and features a lush landscape with many trees has attracted  wide variety of birds through the years, so it has been listed as a Bird Sanctuary by the Audubon Society of Tucson. Evergreen Mortuary was opened in 1974 to make the cemetery a one-stop shop. The NorthStar Memorial Group acquired the property in 2014.

Some of the notable people buried here are Jacob Mansfeld who started the first public library in the territory and Thomas Jeffords who was a U.S. Army scout and blood brother to Apache leader Cochise and helped negotiate a treaty with the Apache. The Drachman family were pioneers who came to Tucson from California. Philip Drachman traveled as steerage to New York in 1852 and through several years, made his way to the Territory of Arizona. There he opened a dry goods store with his friend Joseph Goldwater and got involved in real estate. By 1881, he owned a saloon and a few years later he had a cigar shop and he got involved in politics. Drachmann died in Tucson in 1889. He was buried in the Masonic Plot at Evergreen Cemetery. His son Mose got involved in Tucson real estate and politics, following in his father's footsteps. He too is buried at Evergreen.

The Evergreen Cemetery page on Facebook shares this about Maria Wakefield Fish who was buried at the cemetery in 1909, "Governor Safford invited Maria to come to Arizona and inaugurate the public schools in Tucson. There were no railroads; the desert stretched out desolate and hostile Indians ranged the country. Maria braved the dangers and came and took the post and opened the public schools of Tucson and practically of the territory. She was the pioneer that opened up the splendid vista of education to boys and girls of today. Wakefield Middle School was named for her. She was also the first American woman married in Tucson - the date was 1874."

Many people believe this cemetery is one of the most haunted places in Tucson. There is the disembodied sound of children laughing and playing that is heard. A woman was walking through the cemetery one day and felt a sudden and forceful yank of her hair. There was no one near her. There can be an eerie silence about the place at times. More quiet than any cemetery should be. No birds sing, no bugs flit and no wind courses through the trees.

Hodges Cemetery

Hodges Cemetery is a family cemetery in Alabama that dates back to 1887 and is on land owned originally by W. L. Hodges near the border with Brookside. There are around 135 graves here and despite being a small graveyard, it is apparently very active with spirits. That could be because the cemetery regularly gets disturbed by recreational ATV riders and other trespassers. People driving by the cemetery claim that something bangs against their car. Ghostly hands and faces appear on the windows of their cars. Shadow figures dart among the tombstones and strange noises are heard. And there have even been claims of sightings of a wolf with glowing red eyes.

Drummond Hill 

The land of the Haudenosaunee was once where Drummond Hill Cemetery now sits. This land sits in the Niagara Falls area in Ontario, Canada. A settler named Christopher Buchner bought 400 acres of land in 1799 from his father-in-law James Forsyth. On the top of a hill there, he designed a burial ground. The earliest burial dates to 1797. During the War of 1812, the Battle of Lundy Lane was fought. Lieutenant Governor Gordon Drummond took command of the British forces and his goal was to drive the Americans from the west bank of the Niagara. Brigadier General Winfield Scott led the Americans and they emerged from a forest right into the path of Drummond. At first, Scott's men took a big beating, but then one regiment moved to flank the left side of the British, which surprised two battalions. Another American regiment arrived and one brigade under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James Miller released a devastating attack on the British and earned the title of "The Hero Of Lundy's Lane." Several attacks later and many deaths later, the battle ended in a draw. The hill was named for Drummond. 

One of the notable people buried here is Burr Lockhart Plato who was a slave in West Virginia. He escaped and used the Underground Railroad to get to Canada in 1856. He settled in Niagara Falls and grew in prominence there until he was elected as a councilor in 1886, one of the first black politicians in Canada. Laura Secord is also buried here. During the War of 1812, she walked over twenty miles from American-occupied territory to get a message to the British warning them of an impending American attack. This was despite her father being a Patriot. Her husband was a Loyalist. The information helped the British and the Mohawk repel the attack. Her effort was largely forgotten until 1860 when she was formally thanked and awarded 100 pounds by the Prince of Wales, Edward. Schools have been named for her, a museum was set up for her, there are monuments and memorial coins and stamps and even chocolates were made in her honor. Her legend has reached almost mythic levels.

The main ghosts seen in this cemetery are of course, soldiers. People have seen the spirits of five soldiers in Royal Scots uniforms. They limp across the cemetery. A residual haunting plays out featuring three British soldiers walking towards Lundy House, which was used as a hospital during the war. The sounds of battle are often heard. People claim to feel as though they are being watched. Ghost Walks had taken a group out on their Niagara Ghost Bus Tour and as they exited the cemetery, a woman turned to look back because she felt a cold breeze on her neck and she yelled, "Turn around! Look!" The whole group saw black figures hovering behind graves and then they just disappeared.

Bohnice Cemetery

The Bohnice Cemetery is located in the city of Prague and was founded in 1909. This was the burial ground for the Bohnice Psychiatric Hospital. There are about 4,000 bodies in the cemetery. The grounds of the hospital are very large and described as being more like a village. The grounds feature a park that is used as a music venue and host for festivals and exhibitions. The main building, which is a baroque country house, still houses patients. The St. Wenceslas Church had been a church, then a barracks and military warehouse. It's open for special occasions now. There are also villas, a theater, cafe and farm. And then there is the abandoned cemetery. Through the years, grave robbers came and took many of the headstones that had metal so that they could sell the metal. So most burials are unmarked. And the cemetery is so overgrown, no one would know it was a cemetery if not for the fence and gate. A small chapel is in ruins with just the outer brick walls still standing. A large cross still sits against a wall. The last burial took place in 1951 and the cemetery was abandoned in 1963. 

Before the closure, about 40 patients were buried every year. Some patients with syphilis were treated with blood that was contaminated with malaria. It was thought this would give patients fevers that would kill the bacteria. Sometimes it worked, but most ended up dead. Especially when the treatment was used for schizophrenia or mania. There are also victims from a typhus epidemic and prisoners from World War I. There is only one gravestone here that can be read and it reads, "Maria Tuma Reiter" with her death marked as April 1912. She had been 29 years old. She passed from pneumonia, but is believed to not have been a patient, but rather a worker who lived in the cottages nearby with her husband and two children. The most notable burial here would be Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Archduke of Austria Franz Ferdinand. And the possible murderer of a sex worker named Otilia Vranska might be here. Sergeant Pavlíček never confessed to the murder publically, but he had friends who claimed that he confided to them that he had murdered the woman. Otilia was found, cut in half, with her body in two different suitcases set with two different destinations. The murder was never solved. Pavlicek was admitted to Bohnice psychiatric hospital and he committed suicide there.

It is said that the cemetery is full of negative energy. Satanic rituals were conducted in years past and remnants have been left behind like circles of salt. Seances were held for years, as recently as 2008 and this was recorded on security cameras. People claim to hear strange sounds coming from within the cemetery. Unexplained lights are also seen. A legend claims that Maria's gravestone has stayed so nice because her spirit protects it. Thieves claimed that when they tried to take her headstone, they were grabbed on the shoulder by a woman who said, "Hey, this is sacred!" She might be haunting the cemetery because there is one story that claims she was admitted to the hospital for wrong reasons and was raped and impregnated and that the doctor who committed this act, killed her during an abortion attempt. There is another story that thieves were carrying a large tombstone out of the cemetery when they were scared by something they saw and dropped it. That headstone now sits near the front gate. 

Keystone Cemetery

Keystone Cemetery is perfectly situated so that Mount Rushmore can be seen from the grounds. The grounds are picturesque and there is a cute little white chapel. This cemetery is also known as Mountainview Cemetery and was founded by Patrick F. Hayes in 1900. The first burial was his daughter Catherine who had died at just 18-months-old. Notable burials her include David N. Swanzey who was friends with Charles Rushmore and Gutzon Borglum and helped with giving Mount Rushmore its name. His wife was Carrie Ingalls - yes, a member of the "Little House on the Prairie" family. His son, Harold David “Davey” “Red” Swanzey, is also buried here and had been a worker at Mount Rushmore. As a side note, Mount Rushmore was built from 1927 to 1941 and 400 workers using ropes and scaffolding moved nearly 450,000 tons of rock and not one person perished. 

Also buried at the cemetery is Harry Hardin who was known as "Wild Horse." He had a donkey named "Sugar Babe" and the two became characters advertising Landstrom's Black Hills gold jewelry. Hardin played the part of a bearded prospector. He would tell people he survived the Custer Massacre, but he was born twenty years after the Battle of the Little Big Horn. A recent burial in 2005 was for Orville Francis Salway who was also known as Paha Ska. The name means "White Hills" and was given to him by Ben Black Elk. Paha Ska was an elder of the Oglala Sioux tribe and he traveled the world as an ambassador for his tribe and the city of Keystone. He won numerous awards for his artwork, which is on display at the Crazy Horse Memorial.

The grave of Robert "Bobby" Buntrock is here. He was born in Denver in 1952 and his parents moved the family to California when he three-years-old. They got him signed to an agent and when he was seven, he landed his first role on an episode of "Wagon Train." When he was nine he landed his biggest role as Harold "Sport" Baxter on the sitcom Hazel starring Shirley Booth. He retired from acting in 1967 when he was fifteen. The family moved to Keystone and Bobby died there in 1974 at the age of 21 when his car veered off a bridge under construction and landed in Battle Creek where he drowned. He was young, making this tragic, but even worse is that his mother met a similar fate just a year before this. And yes, on the exact same bridge.

There are stories of spirits in the graveyard. Disembodied and haunting laughter is attributed to Wild Horse Hardin. Ghostly apparitions have been spotted standing in the cemetery. Caitlin wrote on B102.7's website, "Friends and I went to this cemetery years ago. I took many pictures with my digital camera and found nothing on the pictures, but I took a video on my cell phone. Unfortunately, I no longer have the video but after reviewing the video there something big and white shot across the screen of my phone. Also, on our way out, all of our phones stopped working – said there was service, but when we tried to call out, our phone just shut off."

St. Mary's Churchyard at Hendon

A church of some sort has stood on the St. Mary's Churchyard site in Hendon, North London since Anglo-Saxon times. The original church is thought to have been named for Mary Magdalene by a heretical cult linked to the Knights Templar. This churchyard contains family sepulchers numbered with Roman numerals and an addition was added between World War I and II for newer burials. It is said that an ancient and horrifying history is part of the churchyard and may have influenced Bram Stoker’s writing of Dracula. The Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper reported in 1892 a story that dated back to 1828. A young medical student approached the vicar of St. Mary's Church in 1828 and him that he desperately needed to get access to his family's vault. The vicar at first refused, but then agreed saying that he would only open it if the young man promised not to open any coffins. He should've stuck around to supervise becasue the young man brought an axe with him and proceeded to chop off the head of his mother's corpse. When authorities asked the man why he did this, he claimed that he was dying from a hereditary disease that had also killed her. When the story was shared in the newspaper in 1892, it was opposite a review of the Lyceum Theatre’s production of King Lear. At that time, Bram Stoker was the manager of the Lyceum Theatre and probably saw the article. Could this have inspired some of his ideas for Dracula? Van Helsing cut off the head of Lucy after she turned vampire at a churchyard called Kingstead. It's description sounded a lot like St Mary’s Hendon reading, "a lordly death house in a lonely churchyard, away from teeming London, where the air is fresh, and the sun rises over Hampstead Hill, and where wildflowers grow of their own accord." When Dracula was published, St Mary’s Churchyard was in the countryside. Today, it has homes all around it.

That's interesting, but on top of possibly being connected to Dracula, this churchyard is haunted! The disembodied sounds of shuffling have been heard as though a group of phantom monks are walking through the churchyard and in the church. This is heard most often during religious festivals. The sounds of a ghostly choir are heard around the church. Some of it sounds like Benedictine monks chanting and they would have been here before King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. The manager of Arsenal Football Club before World War II was herbert Chapman and he was buried here. His ghost haunts his burial and is said to also show up at the Old Highbury Stadium.

St. Mary's Churchyard in Wanstead

Just as with our other St Mary’s Churchyard, this has had a church and graveyard for at least 800 years dating back to around 1208. The current church was built in 1787 and designed by architect Thomas Hardwick. This church was made in the Georgian style. The oldest headstone dates to 1685 and is for a man named James Waly. Notable burials here are the sculptor Joseph Wilton, Royal Navy Vice-Admiral Robert Plampin and Thomas Turpin, allegedly uncle to dastardly Dick Turpin who was Essex's most famous thug. Winifred East was the wife of an auctioneer whose decapitated body was found on the southern railway between Kidbrooke and Eltham in Wanstead. She was only 28 and her murder was never solved. The Derry Journal of Monday 18 March 1929 gave these details, "A young man who is known to have entered the carriage in which Mrs. East traveled, and left at a later station, is being sought the police. When the driver of the electric train had just passed Kidbrooke station he saw in the distance dark object lying between the two sets of rails. As he came closer, he saw that it was the decapitated body of a woman. He reported the matter to the stationmaster at Well Hall, the next stopping place. After establishing the woman’s identity, the police searched the train in which she was known to have left Barnehurst, and the discovery of number of her personal belongings under a seat were able to determine the actual compartment in which she traveled." She was buried in St. Mary's Churchyard.

There are claims that at least four spirits have made this churchyard their home. There is a grey lady here that seems to be looking for her husband. Sightings of her have been reported for nearly 100 years. Dick Turpin must have liked his uncle because it is said that he likes to show up in the churchyard every so often. Dick also shows up at St George’s Field in York, close to where he was executed in 1739 and lots of pubs claim his ghost too. The third spirit seen here is a skeleton who is wheeling along a handcart with a coffin on it, so he seems to be working as a ghostly grave digger. And there is a lady in white here too whom seems to be upset that grave robbers took her body.

We love cemeteries, especially if they have a haunted reputation. All of these cemeteries are unique and interesting. Are they haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 534 - Haunted Cemeteries 29

Moment in Oddity - The Tower of London Hand

Sometimes a disembodied hand is just a disembodied hand that may be looking for its body. Or maybe it's Thing from the Addams Family. Or perhaps it could be the representation of something that is lore with a touch of the historical, as it is at The Tower of London. The Tower of London is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites and is a historic castle located on the River Thames in London, England. Originally constructed as a defensive fortress, the Tower is now an iconic landmark beckoning tourists from all over the world. The first building that visitors encounter here is Byward Tower. Prior to passing through its archway and hidden in plain view, is a foggy brick of glass built right into one of the drum towers. Resting just behind the glass is a macabre sight, a human hand. Although it is artificial, it is enough to give some tourists the heebie jeebies! Lore has it that due to the Byward Tower having been the main entry to the castle, visitors were required to place their hand within the hole and speak a password to gain entry. If the word uttered was incorrect then the potential intruder would have their hand chopped off then and there! Although the Yeoman Warders who currently guard the castle are not sure of the hands' origin or purpose, the sight of a disembodied hand encased in the wall of a medieval castle certainly is odd.

This Month in History - ANZAC Day

In the month of April, on the 25th, in 1915, 70,000 soldiers from the Allies landed at Gallipoli marking the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during World War I. Great Britain had declared war on Germany after it invaded Belgium in 1914, bringing their Commonwealth realms into the war. The objective of this military action was to drive through Istanbul and take out Turkey. This would allow Russia to get its supply lines through to help them fight Germany. The Allies weren't successful and a stalemate resulted that lasted eight months before the Allies withdrew. There were heavy casualties on both sides. 20,000 of those 70,000 troops were from the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, also known as ANZAC. April 25th formally became ANZAC Day in 1916 to commemorate victims of war and recognize the role of armed forces for the countries. This was officially declared by Acting Australian Prime Minister George Pearce and carries on a tradition of courage, endurance and mateship.

Haunted Cemeteries 29 

It wasn't until the nineteenth century that it occurred to people that cemeteries could make great parks. A movement carried over from France and swept the nation and garden cemeteries were founded in every state. These became gathering places for family picnics and settings for long, peaceful walks enveloped in the shade of countless varieties of trees. Several of these cemeteries are not as peaceful as they could be, with spirits roaming about after dusk. In this episode, we share the history and hauntings of cemeteries in Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Mississippi, Indiana and Colorado.

Cave Hill Cemetery

Cave Hill Cemetery is located in Louisville, Kentucky. This is the largest cemetery in Louisville and many claim that it is the most beautiful cemetery in Kentucky. This is a 296 acre burial ground located at 701 Baxter Avenue that is not only an arboretum, but it's the final resting place of Muhammad Ali and Colonel Sanders. Cave Hill was chartered in 1848 on a rural property known as Cave Hill Farm. Garden cemeteries were the rage in the late Victorian era and Louisville wanted their own, so they hired Edmund Francis Lee to lay out the design. There were lakes and ponds and hills and winding paths. Beargrass Creek runs through the middle and is fed from a cave for which the cemetery is named. There are 500 varieties of trees on the property, some of which have won awards. William Johnston had owned the land and his farmhouse that still stood on the property was turned into what was called a pesthouse, a place for people with contagious diseases to be locked away from the public. That was demolished in 1872 and replaced by Beechhurst Sanitarium that was open until 1936 when it too was demolished.

The Italian Renaissance Revival entrance and main gate was added in 1880. Another entrance was added on Baxter Avenue and this featured Corinthian styling with a clock tower that held a 2,000 pound bell. Apparently, this got hit by lightning alot as it was the tallest structure around for years. There are over 120,000 internments. Over 250 Confederate soldiers are buried, one of whom was Brigadier General Alpheus Baker. The founder of Louisville, George Rogers Clark was buried here after being exhumed in 1869 from another cemetery. A friend of his, Judge John Rowan, said at his funeral, "The mighty oak of the forest has fallen, and now the scrub oaks sprout all around." Meriwether Lewis Clark, the grandson of the famous explorer, has his plot here. Well known burials here include the sisters who created the Happy Birthday song, Patty and Mildred Hill. The founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Colonel Harlan Sanders, died in 1980. He developed his secret recipe for breading chicken and cooking it in a pressure fryer in 1940 when he was 50-years-old. He was buried in his trademark white suit and black western string tie. His second wife joined him at Cave Hill in 1996. One of the greatest American boxers of all time, Muhammed Ali, was buried at Cave hill when he passed in 2016.

There are many unique memorial graced with sculptures. Saundra Twist, a mom of three kids, had once been a fashion model and so an elegant statue graces her plot with a stone tablet sharing the story of her career. The grave of three-year-old Samantha Ann McDonald has a birdbath and a sculpture titled "Jesus Is My Swingset." Her likeness sits on a wooden plank suspended by ropes and a rendition of Jesus stands behind her gripping the ropes. Little Samantha passed when she accidentally rode her trike into the family swimming pool and drowned. The lyrics to "Jesus Loves Me" are carved into stones on either side of the sculpture. Harry Leon Collins was known as the Frito-Lay Magician because he had been a salesman for the company and then became a full-time Frito-Lay corporation magician. His plot fetaures him in a tuxedo with his cape tossed over a box, more than likely filled with props. This sculpture creeps people out a bit because of the hollow eyes. It's not haunted, but other areas of the cemetery have strange things happening. Dusk seems to bring the haunts out at Cave Hill. People claim that green orbs have been seen floating in the cemetery at night. A female apparition is seen. No one knows who she is, but she tends to the graves of children. Disembodied whispers are heard, especially near the graves of Civil War soldiers.

Maple Park Cemetery

Maple Park Cemetery is located at 300 W. Grand Street in Springfield, Missouri. The burial ground was founded in 1876 after residents complained that the city cemetery, called Hazelwood, was too far outside of town to make it convenient to visit loved ones' final resting places. That cemetery was four miles from downtown Springfield at the time. Six businessmen heard the complaints and they formed an association that founded a not-for-profit cemetery. The cemetery was filled with maple tree plantings and that is where the name originates. The land where the cemetery sits was owned by the Campbell family and they had a fruit farm there, along with a house. The property was originally 200 acres and L.A. Campbell sold 30 acres to an agricultural association. This was used as a fairgrounds for awhile  and then it was sold to the cemetery association. The most distinctive item in the graveyard is the historic gazebo. No one is sure what it dates to, but it is thought it was a part of the fairgrounds. This features an onion dome cupola and designs near the roof featuring horseshoe-shapes, a four-leaf clover and cross designs. Visitors to the cemetery have claimed to see shadow figures, particularly near a mausoleum. Sometimes these figures have more detail to them, but when approached, they disappear. A little girl ghost has been seen playing amongst the tombstones. This is an intelligent haunting as she is aware of people and her surroundings. The gazebo occasionally features music...and it's not because a band is playing there.

Red Oak Presbyterian Cemetery

Red Oak Presbyterian Church is a historic church in the old river town of Ripley, Ohio. The church isn't fancy - just a little knock-about-place. Doesn't really look like a church. Interestingly, it has two separate doors on the front and no one knows why. Theories include, a door for women and one for men or possibly one for whites and for one blacks, being that this is an old church. One thing that gives away that this is a church is the cemetery behind it. The congregation was founded in 1798 and the building was constructed in 1817. The cemetery not only includes members from the church, but pioneers from the area. The most well known person buried here is Rosa Washington Riles who passed away in 1969. You may not recognize that name, but you probably recognize the name "Aunt Jemima." She was a member of the church until she left town in her mid-thirties to work as a cook for an executive from the Quaker Oats Company. The original Aunt Jemima had been Nancy Green and when she passed in 1923, the company needed other women to take on the role. So Riles became Aunt Jemima in the 1950s. A pancake breakfast in honor of Riles is hosted every year by the church to raise funds to maintain the old cemetery. The church also paid for Riles headstone.

The cemetery here is supposedly crazy haunted. Two log houses served as church buildings in the early years, but both burned down, the last one because it was hit by lightning. That lightning hit a tree in the cemetery too. That killed the tree, at least for a little while. A few years later, it started to regrow. And then, it was hit by lightning a second time. Just before the church had it cut down, it showed signs of life again. The church started calling this the Resurrection Tree. A person wrote of the cemetery, "It is one of the most eerie cemeteries I have ever visited. My son was three at the time and had no idea where we were. He just liked the headstones. But then there was this one day. He kept talking to someone and he started dancing on a headstone buried in the ground. I told him to stop and that we did not step on them. He said, "But she did it." I asked, "Who did what?" He answered, "The mom." WTF? I asked him to tell me what he was talking about. Who was he talking to? He said her name was Anna. Um, okay. I'll play along. "Who is Anna and what is she telling you?" He said, "She said her mom did it and she's sad." "Her mom did what?" He said, "She killed her. She killed all of them." What? He didn't even know what a cemetery was at that time. I started looking at the gravestone he was dancing on and it was a woman. There was also a 5 foot tall monument with a lot of names and dates on it. One name was Anna. There were 5 or 6 other names and dates. They were all the children of that woman. All of them died before they were five. (Born in the 1800s) Now, he couldn't read yet, nor did he know we were in a place where dead people were buried. Call it a coincidence, but I think that little girl told him that her mom killed her and all of her siblings. Creepy shit. I never took him back there with me again."

Chapel of the Cross, Madison Mississippi (Suggested by: Chelsea Flowers)

Chapel of the Cross Cemetery is located at 674 Mannsdale Road in Madison, Mississippi. This is attached to the church for which it is named. The Johnstone family came from North Carolina to Mississippi in the 1820s and bought land. John T. Johnstone bought 524 acres where the Chapel sits today. There was a log cabin already on the property and he enlarged it for his family and named it Annandale. That had been the name of his ancestral home in Scotland. The family had moved into the cabin in 1841 and just seven years later, John was dead at the age of forty-seven. His wife Margaret buried him in the flower garden of the log cabin home. John had wanted to build a church here and Margaret went forward with that plan. She hired architect Frank Wills and he designed a Gothic Revival church with a lofty bell tower, tall narrow windows, and arched entrances. The church was built from bricks made by slave labor from river bottom clay. The interior featured hand-hewn wood and pews and chancel furnishings were imported through a furniture dealer in New Orleans. The baptismal font was cut from three pieces of imported Italian stone and the pipe organ was shipped from Philadelphia. The original bell was melted down by Confederate forces to make bullets during the Civil War. The church has undergone extensive renovations and is home to an Episcopalian congregation. Located behind the church is the cemetery.

Rodney Mooney heads up the Wandering the Pines of Mississippi account on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube and Chelsea shared this post in the Crew, "The following is a true story most have never heard & likely won’t find anywhere else, at least, not in its entirety. Thank you Leslie Miller, guide for Mont Helena in Rolling Fork, MS, for introducing me it. This story strengthened my resolve to record our MS stories & share them for hopes of preserving our state’s great history before it’s lost.  I have a lot of ideas for how I’m going to preserve these stories that I’ll share with you in the future, but in the meanwhile, brace yourselves for a small sample of one of the most beautiful stories I’ve ever heard… It’s Christmas, 1855. 16 yr old, Helen Johnstone, is celebrating with family at her sister’s house when there is a knock at the door. She answers it to find the very handsome Henry Vick, from the same family that settled Vicksburg, so think of him as a MS prince. Though, we must then also see Helen as our MS princess as well; her family was very well off & established much of MS as well; her bloodlines went back to some major Scottish clan roots… As Helen answered the door, Henry explains that he was traveling from Nita Yuma when his wagon became stuck in the mud and a wheel spike had broken. While he was looking for help, he found more than he bargained for at that doorstep; it was love at 1st sight. Helen begged her parents for Henryto be allowed to stay until they fixed the wagon.  A few days later & before he could leave, Henry asked Helen’s widowed mother for permission to marry her daughter. Helen’s mother agreed but only until she had time enough to build them a house, later to be named Annandale, once near present Madison, MS (to later be known as the most beautiful gem in the South before it burned). She also did this to protect her daughter, to give them a longer engagement, being Helen was only 16. Two years pass, the house is almost complete, so Henry & his friends accompany him to New Orleans, so he can buy a suit for the wedding.  It was to be the wedding of MS royals after all & was to be a wedding for the ages! There are 2 stories as to what happens next: it is said that Henry had a run in with someone over land; however, the following is the story that I feel is more accurate after further research.  One of Vick’s accomplices, in some accounts referred to as a Mr. Stith, on the trip to NO became angered when he fell off his horse after trying to get on it; he blamed it on Henry’s man servant not saddling it correctly. Stith said if Henry didn’t beat the manservant himself, he’d do it himself. Henry protected his man servant, siding with him over his friend, angering the man further. After a heated conversation & needing to be separated, things seemed to have cooled down, or so Henry thought. They made it to NO, bought the suit, & were celebrating at a bar, when Stith, still angry, approached Henry. Stith demanded a duel with pistols. Henry then denied the request as Helen had explicitly requested that Henry never do such a thing before he left.  She couldn’t bare to lose the love of her life nor the thought of him taking the life of another. However, at this refusal, Stith declared to all in the bar that by not agreeing to a duel, his entire family name, Vick, would be tarnished & he would “no longer be known as a gentleman of honor.”  Would the city of Vicksburg have to change its name?  For shame!  Apparently, this threat was enough. Honor was held in much higher regard back then. Henry agreed to the duel, but dueling was illegal. They found a field, hidden away all the way out in Mobile, Alabama, where they thought was private to have the duel. Being the gentleman, after walking their 10 paces, Henry turned but fired a shot straight up into the air. After all, he promised Helen not to kill a man.  Unfortunately, Stith did not miss, hitting Henry right between the eyes, killing him on the spot.  As police were made aware of the duel & closing in, Henry’s friends gathered the body, hid it in a box with coffee grounds to mask the smell, & sent it on a train with the caterers delivering food to the wedding, none all the wiser that the groom was dead in a box with them. Henry’s friends were unable to get word to Helen about her fiancé’s death due to the illegality of the dueling & being pursued by police, so unawares, Helen & her mother were still decorating the newly built church, the Chapel of the Cross in Madison, for the wedding. Waiting for her fiancé to arrive, the joyous mood turned to despair, as her husband’s body arrived instead.  Instead of a wedding, they had a burial on their wedding day.  She wore her wedding gown, & all with lanterns to light the way, buried Henry Vick in his new suit in the Johnstone family plot. It is said that Helen would not leave & stayed nearby, sitting on the cold iron bench, rain or shine, beside his grave, wailing, crying, & talking to him for months until her mother took her away to visit family in Scotland. Years passed, Helen returned to MS, & married a reverend & soon had children.  They all lived happily at Mont Helena in Rolling Fork, MS, built atop an old ceremonial mound. She is said to have had a happy family life for the remainder of her years… However,… perhaps Helen & Henry’s love story did not end as many suspect.  I was made privy to a new wrinkle to the story… Her husband, the reverend, had passed, & Helen was on her deathbed at the top of Mont Helena.  I was told that her mother was at her bedside, when Helen looked up & smiled. With her last breaths, Helen said, “Mama.. do you see him?  It’s Henry… I see him coming in his carriage to take me home.”  There are also other stories of sightings of Helen’s ghost still haunting Henry’s graveside, sitting on the same iron bench.  Whether or not you believe they are reunited in the afterlife… No matter if her last words & present haunts are true,… the love story between the bride of Annandale & Henry Vick was real. And,… I like to think that by remembering & retelling this tale, they ARE united again, their story preserved, & their love, immortal. - Quick note: when visiting Henry’s grave at the Chapel of the cross, I was in respectful silence & admiration, when out of nowhere, a ray of sunlight broke through the leaves in the trees, passed over Helen’s bench, & illuminated the cross atop Henry’s tombstone.  It was brilliant."

Justus Cemetery

Justus Cemetery is located at 805 S. Howard Street in Oxford, Indiana. There are around 1200 burials here. Burials have taken place since 1808, but the cemetery wasn't officially established until 1840. The first burial after that was for James McConnell on March 11, 1840. One of the burials here is connected to a tragic story. Two 13-year-old boys named Marvin Mounce and Carol Albertson were buried here after they drowned trying to save the young sister of Marvin, Coleen. It seems Coleen was wading in the shallow water when she stepped off into a deep hole. The boys were fishing and came running when they heard Marvin and Coleen's mother screaming. Neither boy could swim, but Marvin jumped in, while Carol grabbed a pole for Marvin to grab onto. Carol slipped into the hole trying to rescue Marvin. Both boys went under and never surfaced, but Coleen bobbed to the surface and was pulled out by some people who had come running to the scene and she was revived and saved. Marvin and Carol were recovered a little later and their funeral was held at Carol's house. Carol was buried at Justus and Marvin was buried at Boswell Cemetery in Boswell, Indiana. 

The ghost story here has nothing to do with the boys. This story begins with the water tower in Oxford. The night was cold and blustery and the train was making its way along the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad. It made its normal stop at the water tower to take on water. Crew members were trying to stay warm as they did their work when they suddenly heard a deep, echoing moan rising from the tower. But it wasn't just the crew that heard the noise. The passengers did as well. As the noise continued, a glowing white figure appeared and drifted towards the train. The crew members stood frozen to their spots and none of the passengers dared to breathe. And then a passenger screamed, followed by another passenger screaming. This woke the crew out of their stupor and they quickly packed in their stuff, but before they could leave, they watched as the spirit made its way to Justus Cemetery and disappeared into a grave. A few nights later, the train experienced another strange thing. It had stopped for water at the tower again. The crew finished up without any issues, but as the train tried to pull away, the wheels just spun around and the train went nowhere. The train seemed to be held back by something. The panicked crew felt the train break free and it lurched forward. They decided to not stop at the Oxford water tower ever again.

Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs

Evergreen Cemetery is located at 1005 S. Hancock Avenue in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was established in 1871 and covers 220 acres. This was two miles from the town and founded initially under the name Mountain Home Cemetery by Colorado Springs founder General William Jackson Palmer. The name was changed to Evergreen in 1877. This has been city owned and operated since 1875 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. A small chapel in the cemetery was built in 1910 and the basement vault could hold up to 30 bodies during the winter when the ground was frozen. A special mechanism would lift the caskets up. Burials continue still and there are over 100,000 currently. Notable burials include pioneers of Colorado Springs including Palmer, mine owners, astronaut Dale Gardner and Roy Rogers comical sidekick Pat Brady. Stephanie Westerfeld was an American figure skater who was flying to the World Championships in Prague in 1961 aboard Sabena Flight 548 when it crashed. Her sister Sharon was also on the plane and both were killed. Stephanie was 17 and Sharon was 25.

The chapel seems to be the scene of most of the haunting activity. Strange, unexplained noises have been reported and dark figures have been seen inside near the casket lifting device. A woman was visiting when she reported feeling a cold blast go through her as she was going down the stairs of the chapel. She felt extremely uncomfortable. Another woman experienced the same thing and said the cold blast felt negative. In April of 2011, Biography Channel's "My Ghost Story" ran an episode with a segment called "Tale of a Crypt" that featured Evergreen Cemetery. Will DeBoer worked as the cemetery manager for 19 years and he hosted walking tours where he would take people inside the chapel. Michael Coletta was another tour guide. They both appeared on the show. Michael said he had a group out in the cemetery at night when they saw a figure fly through the cemetery. The figure was described as moving cat-like and was five feet in length. Michael has used an K-2 Meter in the crypt and gotten readings. The crypts each have 100-year old wooden doors that are very heavy and the insides have slate shelves. Michael was videotaping down there when his skin started crawling and he turned around and caught on tape one of the doors opening on its own. Wind couldn't move the door. Michael circled the door to show that there were no wires or anything. He backed away from the crypt and door and the door started to close very slowly. Michael called a local radio station and showed them the video and invited them to help him try to debunk it. They tried pushing on the doors to make them swing open and they needed a lot of force to do that.

Synchronicity: Diane was watching the My Ghost Story episode and it went into the second segment about a haunted house in Fort Scott, Kansas. Crazy place where a man hacked up his wife in the basement and another man shot himself with a shotgun on the porch. The couple that lived there and shared their experiences saw an apparition, heard disembodied voices talking to their young daughters at night when they slept and had investigators catch activity in the basement including a shadow figure on video that gave me chills. It ended with the wife and their three children moving out and leaving the husband to deal with stuff. Diane wanted to know more, so she Googled the husband's name and as of 2020, the couple was still together as their names appeared together in the obituary for his father. She then saw another link via Facebook for a man with same name as husband and he lives at Fort Riley, Kansas. Our previous episode featured Fort Riley.

Grace Robertson wrote on Quora five years ago, "We were driving back we would pass this old little Catholic cemetery. It was very neat looking, meaning that people would come out and take care of the graves. This was in Poteet, it is dry and dusty. Red sand, just dusty. When we would drive by this cemetery there would be little lights on the graves, on top of the headstones just everywhere. All different color lights. These lights were not lighting bugs. There were pink, red, yellow, green. blue little lights. There was no marsh or water, the sunlight was not dancing off the headstones and grounds. Some of these headstones where old wooden crosses and dull white ones. This one was closer to us. If we were to take the long way to the cemetery it would be a half of mile. There was a lot of strange going on there. We would have to drive pass that cemetery to get to our home. We would see shadows there walking about. There would be fog that would surround the cemetery, it would look like a gate of fog. Every thing else would be clear, very clear but that fog would surround the small cemetery. Again you would see corpse lights, will of the wisp just hovering there. If they were lighting bugs they wouldn’t just stay at one spot. Sometimes when you would drive home late at night there would be a shadow darting across the road. There were plenty of accidents because of the shadows. 

 That graveyard was over run with weeds, there was trash and couples would go there to have their alone time. This little cemetery was being so disrespected that we decided to “adopt” a piece of the graveyard, maybe inspired someone to take care of it. There was a lot of graves that were very old. My daughter and I pick a grave, and we started pulling weeds and trying to clear a spot to put a vase of flowers that we got at our local HEB. We were talking, bonding and just was having a pleasant time. All of a sudden we heard footsteps, we didn’t pay it any mind. We weren't doing anything wrong, when all of a sudden we noticed that we couldn’t hear anything. No cars whizzing by, no birds, or insects, nothing. It was as if we were in a dome, the air pressure got heavy but we could still hear those footsteps. I felt something between my daughter and me. It was cold. My daughter was about to say something but I shush her. I handed her my car keys, and she knew what she was supposed to do. When she got in, I turned to where I felt the cold spot and said that I understand that you wanted to see what we were doing. We meant no disrespect. We are leaving now and you are to stay here and not follow us nor bother us. I then slowly and deliberately began walking to my car. I took a bottle of cold water and put some on the back of my neck and then toss some water behind my shoulders my daughter did the same."

Cemeteries are so beautiful and peaceful. Many of these provide a wonderful place to enjoy a picnic with family, even the deceased members. Some of these cemeteries have some weird things occurring. Are these cemeteries haunted? That is for you to decide!