Moment in Oddity - Dancing on a Grave Memorial (Suggested by: Lorie McDavid)
Joseph Grimaldi Park is located near Regent's Canal by Angel, London. St. James'
Anglican Chapel had stood here starting in the 18th century, but was
eventually demolished in 1980. The grounds were turned into a park in
the 19th century. Since a chapel had been here, there was - of course - a
churchyard and some burials remain. One burial that remains is for the
namesake of the park: pantomime clown Joseph Grimaldi. He was buried
here in 1837. He was born in 1778 to Italian parents and spent his life
entertaining people, starting at the age of two. Grimaldi was one of the
most popular actors at the Drury Lane Theater and Sadler's Wells. In
1806, Grimaldi created the classic clown we know today with painted on
eyebrows, red lips and cheeks and oversized clothes. He was declared the
"King of Clowns" and perfected the pantomime clown. Grimaldi retired in
1823 due to declining health and quickly fell into debt and began
drinking heavily before he passed in 1837. It wouldn't be until 2010 that the clown would be
memorialized in a very unique way. Artist Henry Krokatsis was assigned
the task of creating a new memorial for Grimaldi and his employer,
Charles Dibdin, who ran the Sadler’s Wells Theatre. The memorial is two
coffin-shaped graves made from bronze tiles that chime musical notes
when people step on them. The installation was called "An Invitation To
Dance On The Grave." Creating a memorial with the specific intention of inviting people to dance upon a grave, certainly is odd!
This Month in History - First Person to Survive Going Over Niagara Falls
In the month of October, on the 24th, in 1901, the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel occurred. 63 year old Annie Edson Taylor was a school teacher who lost her husband in the Civil War. When Annie came upon hard times she decided to throw caution to the wind, (or rushing water). She began planning her Niagara Falls stunt in the hopes that it would earn her money and fame. The 24th of October was Annie's birthday and she deemed it the perfect date to take the perilous plunge. The feisty female told everyone she was 40 years old whereas genealogical records showed she was actually 63. Annie's design of her mode of transportation was excellent, with a leather harness mounted inside a custom made wooden pickle barrel with the sides lined with cushions to protect her from much of the impact. She was towed by a boat into the rapids which led to the falls. The rapids were reported to be what pummeled Annie the most. She arrived at the shore some 20 minutes after her journey began. Unfortunately after the initial photo ops and interviews the hype quickly wore off. Sadly, the stunt did not result in the monetary windfall that Annie Taylor was hoping for. Today, going over Niagara Falls is illegal, regardless of the technique.
Haunted Cemeteries 27
Sit here on the park bench for just a moment, and listen. Perhaps you hear a light breeze rattling the autumn leaves across one another. There is a bird or two singing. First a sparrow and then a cardinal, and finally a crow calling from the distance. Water dripping from a nearby mausoleum tap, taps on the ground. Where you happen to be in the world while sitting in this cemetery, determines the unique characteristics of the sounds you will hear. These first few sounds are common, but if you are in Alabama, the rustling of Spanish Moss and the chirping of frogs might be heard. In Portugal, the sounds of a busy city-scape just outside the graveyard gates might interrupt the peace. The hissing and screeching of a corpse train pulling through the London Necropolis may travel through the ether of a bygone era. Or perhaps the echoing refrain of "The British are coming" can be heard in a Boston burying ground as though the warning were locked in time. And the strum of a guitar accompanied by the sweet melodic singing of a fellow Spooktacular Crew member might be heard in a Tennessee cemetery. Join us for the history and haunts of four cemeteries from these locales!
Brookwood Cemetery/London Necropolis (Suggested by: Jimmy Tucker)
The population of dead in London during the Victorian era was increasing and the city found itself in dire need of a new burial ground. The London Necropolis Company was founded by an Act of Parliament in 1852 to help with the growing crisis. The company was tasked with creating a single, large cemetery for all of London's future burials. As part of this task, the company sought ways to bring in the deceased from farther out areas and they looked to the recently invented technology of the railroad to help. The London Necropolis Company, LNC, bought a large tract of land in Brookwood, Surrey and established the Brookwood Cemetery in 1854. They then formed the London Necropolis Railway to transport bodies and prepared for an anticipated 10,000 to 50,000 burials a year. The goal was big, but never came to fruition as smaller cemeteries closer to London started opening. The LNC found itself on the verge of bankruptcy shortly after opening, but eventually found ways to keep itself solvent.
By 1854, Brookwood was the largest cemetery
in the world. That is no longer the case, but it is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom. The cemetery had two main sections, each with its own railway station in the center. One section was marked "Nonconformist" and the other "Anglican." The trains had cars that were separated by class and this included the cars carrying coffins. Mourners would get round trip tickets, while the coffins would get one-way tickets. After the trains arrived at their station, horse-drawn carriages would transport the coffins and mourners. Funerals were offered in three classes. Third class funerals were for paupers with the stipulation that no mass graves could be used. So the poor were given their own plot, but no right to erect a permanent memorial was given. A family could upgrade later, but this rarely happened. A second class burial had more options for where a body could be buried and the right to erect a permanent memorial was given. A first class funeral had no restrictions and the family could choose any grave site, anywhere in the cemetery. Permanent memorials were allowed and expected. These burials would cost around 250 pounds in today's money.
The very first burials at Brookwood were for Mr. and Mrs. Hore's stillborn twins. None of the first two dozen burials had permanent markers. Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Goldfinch was the first person to have a memorial. The only Zoroastrian burial ground in Europe is here. A section was set aside for the Ancient Order of Foresters and the Corps of Commissionaires. Burials were relocated here from other cemeteries as well. Burials have continued from that time until today with approximately 235,000. Some of the notable burials are for Margaret, Duchess of Argyll,
John Singer Sargent and Edith Thompson who was executed in
Holloway prison in 1923 at the age of 29 after she was convicted of killing her husband.
Cremation became legal in Britain in 1884. The LNC sold the Cremation Society of Great Britain a plot of land in 1878 and they built Woking Crematorium, which was the first crematorium in Britain. The Brookwood Columbarium opened in 1910 and wasn't used much until the 1940s when cremation became more popular. Today, the cemetery features beautiful mausoleums, giant redwood trees, long and winding pathways and scattered headstones that leave many open areas as 80% of the graves here are unmarked. The cemetery is very diverse with people of all religions, stations in life, those who died in a cholera epidemic and war dead, who have several special memorials.
Parts of the tracks from the corpse trains still exist and perhaps those tracks still bring in a ghost train or two. People claim to hear strange sounds in the cemetery. A distant cry is sometimes heard - one of which we heard on a YouTube video about the cemetery. Several people have claimed to hear the sobbing of a woman or the crying of a baby when no women or children are around. Green and white shapes have been reported as well as mists that hang over specific graves. Sometimes the mist weaves throughout the trees. Ghostly figures have been reported throughout the cemetery. There are also reports of Pagan ceremonies being held.
The Cemetery of Pleasures
The Cemetery of Pleasures is known as Prazeres Cemetery in Portugal and is one of the largest cemeteries in Lisbon. The cemetery is named after the former parish of Prazeres, which is now Estrela. The burial ground was founded in 1833 after an outbreak of cholera and was originally named Cemitério Ocidental de Lisboa or Western Cemetery of Lisbon. It's not only beautiful and world famous, but very unique in that it is almost entirely made up of mausoleums. As a matter of fact, the largest mausoleum in all of Europe is here and belongs to the Dukes of Palmela. This mausoleum looks like a pyramid that is fronted by part of a Classical Greek building with four Ionic columns. The top of the pyramid is flat with the statue of a woman holding a cross whom some claim is the Angel of Death, while others say she is one of the Seven Virtues. It was designed by Giuseppe Cinatti who was a freemason and built between 1846 and 1849. The tomb also features a gate and between that and the tomb is an area of black and white stones forming 12 lozenges. There are claims that the mausoleum holds 200 bodies.
Many notable people are buried here including author Ramalho Ortigão, painters Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro and Roque Gameiro, pianist Alexandre Rey Colaço, composer João Domingos Bomtempo, Prime Ministers and many from the Portuguese nobility. An imposing sculpted tomb is dedicated to the city's firefighters. A sculpture of a tree trunk marks the grave of a young man lost too young. Many of the burials are accompanied by QR codes, so people can find more information on who is buried in a tomb. A museum was opened on the grounds in 2001. This is thought to be one of the more haunted places in Portugal. People claim to feel an eerie energy and shadowy figures have been spotted winding between the mausoleums.
King's Chapel Burying Ground
King's Chapel was an Anglican Church in Boston, Massachusetts that is now home to a Unitarian Universalist congregation and right next to it is a churchyard, which dates back to 1630. The church houses the oldest pulpit to still be in active use. The bell, which is also still in use, was recast by Paul Revere. The cemetery was Boston proper's first burying ground. The original owner of the land was Isaac Johnson and he was the first burial here. A really cool headstone here can be found at the front of the burying ground and was made for Joseph Tapping and features a skeleton and Father Time battling over the eventuality of death. There are only around 500 headstones and 78 tombs in this small cemetery. Most of the tombs are tabletop. Notable burials include Plymouth Pilgrim Mary Chilton. She was the first European woman to step ashore New England. She died in 1679. Chilton was present at the first Thanksgiving and married John Winslow with whom she had ten children. The Bushes are her descendants as is Howard Dean who had been a presidential candidate.
Many Puritan theologians are here like John Oxenbridge, John Cotton and John Davenport. Founder of the Tudor Ice Company, Frederic Tudor is buried here. He was known as Boston's Ice king. He sent ice as far as India and Hong Kong and lived to be 8o, dying in 1864. There is a grave for Ralph Waldo Emerson's dad, William, as well. The first bookseller and publisher in the British colonies was Hezekiah Usher and his final resting spot is here. This cemetery is the one Nathaniel Hawthorne writes about in "The Scarlet Letter." People compare the real grave of Elizabeth Pain to Hester Prynne's and claim that the engraved escutcheon or shield looks like it has the letter A in the middle of it and that this inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne. It's a really cool headstone with a death's head at the top.
Legend claims they did something here that was just asking to get spirits riled up. In 1810, it was decided that the burying ground would look better if the headstones were moved more towards the center and placed in straight rows. The ghosts got confused as to where their spots were located and they've been roaming the grounds ever since. Another issue is that the burying ground was here before the church. So those Puritan theologians were buried here before the church was built - the church in Britain that they fled. So maybe they aren't happy about that either. Captain Kidd was arrested tried and hanged in Boston and some people claim that his grave is in the back of King's Chapel and that his apparition has been seen near the grave. Electronic devices are said not to work well at night - Diane had no problem snapping pictures during the day on her phone - and video footage will reveal that nothing was recorded.
Pine Hill Cemetery in Auburn
Pine Hill was established in 1837 and is the oldest cemetery in Auburn, Alabama. The land set aside for burials was donated by Judge John J. Harper who was the town of Auburn's founder. This was a mixed cemetery for both white settlers and the people they enslaved. The oldest marker dates to 1838. There are around 1500 burials that include Confederate soldiers, Confederate Brigadier General James Henry Lane, Congressman James Ferguson Dowdell and past presidents of Auburn University. There are a couple of interesting stories behind graves. The most decorated veteran in the cemetery is a woman! This is Army Major Frances Dumas who was a registered nurse. She served during World War II and was captured at Corregidor in 1942 and held as a POW for three years. She managed to survive the Bataan Death March in which she walked 65 miles with no food or water. She served for 15 more years after being released and retired to Auburn. She received the Bronze Star, Oak Leaf Cluster and a Purple Heart.
Charles Stodgill Miles was only eight-years-old when he was buried here. He had an allergic reaction to a bee sting. His grave is crowned by an Italian marble statue that features a boy holding a lizard on a plate. John William Drake really loved his wife Volecia Volney Drake. Their elaborate gravestone features a large cloased urn that is draped on top of a marble pedestal inscribed with two lengthly love poems he wrote for her. Virginia Howe has her second burial here. She was only fifteen when she married the much older newspaper editor William Howe. She died the following year and he had her buried in the frontyard of their home. Shortly thereafter, he married Virginia's older sister and she insisted that Virginia be moved and so here she is at Pine Hill. One of the tallest monuments here belongs to Jethro Walker. Jethro threatened to whip his son from his third wife and the young lad was scared enough that it is thought that he grabbed a gun and put a bullet in Jethro's head while he was reading his Bible in the parlor of the house. The case has remained unsolved, but it was interesting that the son left quickly for Cuba after his father's death. Two of his wives are buried next to him in what they call English fashion. One is on top of the other.
Baptist minister William "Billy" Mitchell wanted to be buried in his bed when he died, so he was buried above ground in a brick crypt in his feather bed with his shoes placed beneath him. Pine Hill Cemetery was placed on the Alabama Historic Register in 1978. Today, it is owned and maintained by the City of Auburn and is open for visitation from sunup to sundown. People have reported seeing inexplicable hovering lights over graves and an unsettling feeling, particularly as though being watched.
Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis
A beautiful decorated arch announces that one is entering Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis, which is the final resting place of over 78,000 people and is the oldest active cemetery in Memphis. This is a rural Victorian cemetery with a creek that visitors use a bridge to cross to gain entry to the burial ground. On the right of the entrance is a Victorian chapel designed in the Late Gothic Revival style and a Victorian Carpenter Gothic cottage houses the cemetery's office. The grounds remind one of an English garden full of old trees, flower beds and walkways and has been honored as a Tennessee Department of Forestry Level 3 Arboretum. There are three formal gardens named the McCallum Garden, the Miller Garden, and the Butterfly Garden. Elmwood was founded on 40 acres in 1852 by 50 wealthy businessmen who each contributed $500. The acreage would be expanded by another 40 acres after the Civil War. The name was chosen by drawing it out of a hat. Samuel Phillips was the first sextant and the cottage was his home as he was on-call 24 hours a day. The first burial was for Mrs. R.B. Berry who was laid to rest on July 15, 1853.
A streetcar line was built out to the cemetery to make it easier for people to visit. In 1903, the cottage was renovated with a walk-in vault being added as well as a social parlor. There are three mass graves here. One is for those who died during a Yellow Fever epidemic, the other is for Confederate soldiers and another for enslaved people who probably died during an epidemic. Each has its own monument. Veterans from every war starting with the Revolutionary War and up through the Vietnam War are buried here. There are many notable burials as well. Napoleon Hill has his final resting place here and no this isn't the guy who wrote "Think and Grow Rich." Hill was a businessman who inherited great wealth from his father, but also made his own riches during the California Gold Rush. He moved back to Tennessee and settled in Memphis in 1857 where his contemporaries referred to him as the "Merchant Prince of Memphis." He built his grand mansion in 1881 in the French Renaissance style, which was unfortunately razed in 1930 to make way for an office building. Hill and his wife Mary often made the society pages in the newspaper for their lavish social events. He died in 1909 with the largest estate in Tennessee at that time.
Our listener Tara Taylor has some pictures on Instagram from the cemetery and there was this tombstone that reads, "I'm Ma Rainey #2, Mother of Beale Street. I'm 78 years old. Ain't never had enough of nothing and it's too damn late now!" Ma Rainey was Lillie Mae Glover who was born in September 1906 in Columbia, Tennessee and became an American country blues singer. When she was just 13-years-old, she ran away with a traveling medicine show because she wanted to sing the blues, but her preacher father forbade it because he thought of that as dirty music. Many people did at the time in Nashville and she didn't want to bring disgrace on her family who had relocated there. Imagine a time in Nashville when singing the blues was thought to be disgraceful?! Mae traveled with a variety of shows: the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, the Bronze Mannequins, the Vampin' Baby Show, the Georgia Minstrels, Harlem in Havana, and Nina Benson's Medicine Show. She eventually married and settled in Memphis where she performed so much, she earned the nickname of "Mother of Beale Street." She died in 1985 at the age of 76 and was given an elaborate send off with a horse-drawn carriage carrying her casket to the funeral with a Memphis blues band leading the way.
Henry A. Montgomery has a cool memorial featuring a statue of him giving a speech with a bale of cotton at his feet. Henry started and owned seven cotton compresses in Memphis. He gave many public speeches and it was during his final one that he died of a heart attack, right there on the podium. The man who created the Hadden's Horn, David Park Hadden, is buried here. The Hadden Horn was a bell-shaped device used to shake dice and insured that no one could cheat. Hadden also served as mayor of Memphis for a time.
There is an awful story behind the grave of Alice Mitchell. Alice was born in 1872 and she wasn't like the other girls around her. She liked to play sports like football and baseball and she was more interested in catching the eye of a girl, rather than a boy. And she found one such girl who shared her passion and that was Freda Ward. They met at the Higbee School for Young Ladies and not many of their classmates thought anything of their affection towards each other because girls carried on friendships like this all the time. Now, although Freda did care for Alice, her feelings weren't as strong and she started seeing a couple of men. Alice decided to make a bold move and she asked Freda to marry her and the couple planned to run away in 1892 to St. Louis to elope. Alice was going to disguise herself as a man, but the plan was crushed when Freda's older sister Josephine found love letters the girls had sent to each other and forbade Freda from seeing Alice. Alice fell into a deep depression. One day, she grabbed her father's straight razor and followed Freda who was with her sister and another friend down to the river where they were going to board a steamboat. Alice whipped out the razor and slashed Freda across the face. Freda's sister started hitting Alice with an umbrella and ended up with her collarbone sliced. Then Alice jumped on the disoriented Freda and cut her throat, killing the woman she had loved. Alice was tried and found to be insane and sent to Western State Hospital in Bolivar, Tennessee where she died in 1898. Some stories claim she died by drowning herself in the hospital's cistern. She was brought back to Elmwood and buried in the family plot.
Elmwood Cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 20, 2002. The cemetery is open every day from 8 am to 4:30 pm and burials still continue to be performed. There are many stories of paranormal manifestations at Elmwood. Murry Hargrove was caretaker in 1982 when he experienced something he couldn't explain. It was around dusk and he was locking things up when he noticed a group of four men standing on the tallest hill in Elmwood known as Lenow Circle. The men were cloaked in white and wearing tuxedos and top hats. The men didn't seem to notice him as he approached and they just simply glided away and disappeared. The four men were believed to be Napoleon Hill, Archibald Wright, Henry Montgomery and David Hadden who were all friends in life that used to gather at a street corner to talk politics and business with each other. These meetings were actually commemorated in a painting that now hangs in the Woodruff-Fontaine Mansion in the Victorian Village. People claim the four men continue to meet nearly every night at midnight in the cemetery at Lenow Circle, which is in the center of a square formed by their four graves.
The cottage is haunted by a spirit who likes to turn on and off the water. Some think this is Samuel Phillips, the first caretaker. A staff member was working late one evening when she heard a loud whistle right outside the door. She looked outside and saw no one. Disembodied footsteps are also heard in the cottage. And Alice Mitchell's spirit has been seen wandering the graveyard. Perhaps she is looking for Freda who is buried here as well. The disembodied sound of moaning is heard. Sometimes a mist envelopes Alice's headstone.
We love cemeteries, regardless of whether spirits still walk about inside of them or not. They are all full of stories. Some tragic, some peaceful, but all connected to the finality of death. Or is it final? Are these cemeteries haunted? That is for you to decide!
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