by Tom Ogden
Ebenezer United Church of Christ Cemetery
Levasy
The Ebenezer United Church of Christ Cemetery, which had its first burial in 1899, predates its current association with its namesake house of worship. The graveyard sits on the summit of Bone Hill, a mound some distance from the sanctuary, and it’s believed the knoll got its name long before the arrival of homesteaders. Native Americans either stampeded buffalo off the top of the rise, causing the animals to fall to their death, or trapped them at the foot of the hill. Either way, after the slaughter, the Indians would clean the animals and then set out their bones to bleach in the sun. Arrowheads, scraping implements, and buffalo bones have all been found on the hillside.
A story is told that a farmer (whose name is long forgotten) settled on Bone Hill before the Civil War and ordered his slaves to build a low stone fence surrounding the property. In 1862, as fighting neared, the farmer sold his land for gold and buried it somewhere along the wall. He told his neighbors that he would return in seven years, but he and his family were never seen again. In 1869, however, a weird light appeared over Bone Hill at the perimeter wall. It slowly intensified and then, just as mysteriously, disappeared. When the strange light showed up along the wall seven years later, a legend was born that the phenomenon was the farmer’s ghost coming back to recover his buried treasure. The glowing orb has supposedly appeared for a brief period every seven years since. Some of the farmer’s acreage is now part of Bone Hill Cemetery, as the graveyard is more commonly called. (The burial ground is also known as Levasy Cemetery.) Sections of the old stone wall can be seen a mile and a half south of Levasy on the west side of H Highway. Naysayers suggest that the glow is a will-o’-the-wisp, the result of gas seeping through cracks in the slate and limestone. If the old wives’ tale is true, the ghost light should appear next in 2023, so maybe time will tell.
Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery
St. Louis
Today’s 296-acre national cemetery was originally the graveyard attached to the Jefferson Barracks military post, which opened in 1826. Its first burial in 1827 was most probably Elizabeth Ann Lash, a daughter of one of the officers stationed at the fort. By the end of the Civil War, the “Old Post Cemetery” had more than 12,000 Union soldiers and 1,100 Confederate men interred there. The site was formally established as a national cemetery in 1866. Over the next four decades, graves from other military cemeteries were relocated to Jefferson Barracks, which remains an active burial ground.
Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery has several ghosts. The one that’s seen most often is the spectre of a little girl who is spotted walking along a bluff. Urban legend says the youngster is Elizabeth Lash because the spirit appears near her grave, but she died as an infant. More likely the spectral girl is the revenant of one of the children whose remains were discovered in unmarked graves in 1900. Two other phantoms in the cemetery are a black Union soldier and a white Confederate soldier who are buried very close to each other. Their spectres rise from their graves at dusk (or occasionally at first dawn) and shake hands before evaporating into the aether.
MONTANA
Benton Avenue Cemetery
Helena
Burials on the site date to 1861, but Benton Avenue Cemetery wasn’t formally established until 1870. It has about 3,200 marked graves, but there are many more interments whose identities remain unknown. Gussie Bach was buried in the graveyard in 1889 after dying in childbirth. The baby was her third to die at birth. Now Gussie’s unhappy soul wanders the burial ground. Spectres of all the occupants of the Albert Connor family mausoleum, built in 1908, walk the graveyard at night. Other ghosts at Benton Avenue Cemetery are Ira Maupin, a doctor who was thrown from a horse in 1873; Mrs. Dumpy and the two children she was caring for, all of diphtheria, in 1885; William Child, who committed suicide in 1893; and T. J. Holihan, who died in a mining accident in 1898. There are also the ubiquitous glowing orbs and cold spots common to haunted cemeteries.
Custer National Cemetery
Crow Agency
Custer National Cemetery, also known as Custer Battlefield Cemetery and Little Bighorn National Cemetery, is located on the Crow Indian Reservation and lies within the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. The site is administered by the National Park Service. The burial ground was established in 1886 to protect the graves of cavalrymen killed on June 25, 1876, in the Battle of the Little Bighorn (commonly called Custer’s Last Stand). The cemetery now has about 4,900 interments, and except for a hundred or so reserved plots, it stopped accepting new burials in 1978. Visitors to the grounds have seen and heard phantom Native Americans on horseback, and some people have caught glimpses of the battle being fought by ghost Indians and American cavalry. Folks also sometimes feel sudden, steep drops in temperature, which are almost always followed by the sound of disembodied whispers.
NEBRASKA
Aurora Cemetery
Aurora
Aurora Cemetery was established in the 1870s and has about 7,500 interments. There is a female spirit that drifts among its graves, and legend says she was hanged as a witch. No one is certain of her identity, nor exactly where she’s buried. Some insist the ghost must be Susan Gavan, simply because her gravesite is located well away from any others and is surrounded by a fence made up of four black corner posts and connecting chains. Her history is well documented, though, and it says nothing about her being a witch. She died on November 26, 1882, after a brief illness and is buried next to her seven-month-old daughter, May. Yet the rumor persists. Unless the phantom is captured, we’ll never know who she is or why she’s returned.
Ball Cemetery
Springfield
Ball Cemetery, with 160 interments, started as a family burial ground in 1869. Hauntings in the graveyard include hazy mists and headstones tipping and righting themselves. There’s also a female spirit, and for some reason she’s believed to be Mary Mumford. Although she’s never seen, the phantom is playful and likes to tug at people’s hair and clothing, usually following the prank with a laugh.
Another Ball Cemetery resident is William “Rattlesnake Pete” Liddiard, a former US marshal known for his handlebar mustache and fast draw. He left Springfield to join Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, but his body was brought back to Ball Cemetery after he died on the West Coast. Many people think the tall male spectre walking the graveyard after dark is Rattlesnake Pete. The bad-tempered phantom has been known to attack nighttime visitors. The blows are hard enough that people find bruises on their arms and legs the next morning.
Spring Ranch Cemetery
Glenvil
The community of Spring Ranch (originally spelled Spring Ranche) was founded in 1860. The town’s population peaked at around 125, but following Indian attacks, numerous floods, the Dust Bowl years, and the railroad link being closed, it became a ghost town. The nearest village is Glenvil. Spring Ranch had established a cemetery long before all of that, however, and burials there date to the 1870s. The graveyard is haunted by the ghosts of Elizabeth Taylor and her brother, Tom Jones. Elizabeth came to the area in 1872 with her husband, James Taylor, and the brother followed. Elizabeth slowly took over the dealings of the Taylor farm along with its finances, and a few years later, James mysteriously died. Neighbors, who were always in one fight or another with the Taylors, suspected Elizabeth of poisoning her husband. There were also boundary disputes, and Taylor cattle constantly wandered off to graze in other farmers’ fields. The breaking point came when one of the neighbor’s barns burned to the ground, and arson was suspected. On the early morning of March 15, 1885, fifteen to fifty vigilantes dragged Elizabeth and Tom into a field, beat them, and then lynched them from a bridge over the Little Blue River. Their bodies were brought back to Spring Ranch Cemetery for burial. Their phantoms now wander the graveyard as well as the bridge from which they were hanged.
Taylor Cemetery
Homer
Taylor Cemetery was founded in the 1860s and has only five hundred graves
. There are no ghosts in the burial ground, but there’s an old wives’ tale about it that’s just too creepy not to tell. Known as the Legend of Lottie, the story concerns Lottie Edwards, who died from heart disease at the age of seventy-seven in 1955. Almost immediately after her interment, rumors sprang up that she had been murdered or struck by a car. Some even claimed she was a witch. Regardless, it was said that she was buried wearing lots of expensive jewelry. Supposedly, three teenage boys dug her up, hoping to steal it. To their horror, Lottie (who wasn’t wearing any jewels) suddenly came back to life, cursed them, and then fell back into her eternal sleep. Within a year, two of the boys were dead; the other was reported missing.
NEVADA
Hillside Cemetery
Reno
The historic Reno Cemetery overlooking the city was established in the 1860s, making it the oldest official burial ground in town. The site was rededicated as Hillside Cemetery in 1875. Ghosts have been seen there as long as anyone can remember, but the ones that materialize most often are a Woman in Black and two young girls. Electronic voice phenomena, or EVPs, have been collected in the cemetery as well.
Silver Terrace Cemetery
Virginia City
Also known as Virginia City Cemetery, Silver Terrace Cemetery comprises eleven to fifteen individual graveyards (depending upon the source) that were grouped together as one in 1867. Located on a terraced hillside north of town, the separate burial grounds belonged to various fraternal, civic, and religious organizations. Interments in some sections were further divided by profession, social status, or race. Many of the individual graves and family plots are fenced or bordered, and most of the people buried in the graveyard came from elsewhere in the country—folks who had traveled west as pioneers or to seek their fortune in the Virginia City mines, especially after the discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1859.
All sorts of paranormal activity have been reported in Silver Terrace Cemetery, the most frequent being a shining tombstone. The phenomenon is only seen from a distance. By the time anyone reaches the graveyard to check it out, the marker is no longer glowing. (Skeptics say that the manifestation is merely a reflection of headlights from passing cars.) Headstones are known to move from one place to another, and one is so heavy it usually takes three men to put it back where it belongs. The cemetery gates open and close on their own, and there are at least four ghosts. One is a little girl. Another is an unidentified man in a coat and tie who shows up after there’s been a storm. There’s also the phantom of a young, thin woman who always wears a brown dress with a bustle and a dark velvet collar. The ghost rises from a grave many think belongs to Julia Bulette, a popular and much-loved Virginia City prostitute who was strangled and bludgeoned to death in 1867. The problem is, there’s a photo of Bulette in existence, and the spirit at the grave doesn’t look anything like her. Also, the apparition of a youngster is sometimes seen playing at the spectre’s feet, and Julia had no children. There’s another twist that makes it unlikely the ghost is Bulette: She was buried with much public fanfare across town in Flowery Hill Cemetery, also known as Boot Hill, Pioneer Cemetery, and Flowery Cemetery—not in Silver Terrace Cemetery.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Gilson Road Cemetery
Nashua
Although the paranormal phenomena at Gilson Road Cemetery aren’t too varied, they show up frequently, making it one of New Hampshire’s most actively haunted burial grounds. A green glow appears over the grave of Joseph Gilson, and there are inexplicable cold spots and radiant orbs similar to those reported at many other cemeteries.
Old Center Cemetery
Deerfield
The apparition seen most often in Old Center Cemetery is a woman with long hair. She’s always dressed in a full gown that seems to be billowing in the wind, even when there’s no breeze. The spectre usually waves with her right hand as if beckoning folks to join her, but sometimes she holds both arms over her head and waves them in a stereotypically ghostlike manner. She manifests at night near the back of the graveyard to the far left if one were to enter the property, but the nameless spirit only appears to people who are outside the gates. If anyone enters the cemetery, she disappears.
Another phantom at the burial ground is thought to be a young man named Ben Hargrove. According to legend, one of Ben’s neighbors went over to Hargrove’s house to check out unusual orange lights coming from the windows. Inside he saw the Devil standing next to Ben, and Hargrove was signing over his soul to the demon. The next day, Hargrove took off for Boston on a gambling spree, but he returned to town a week later, penniless and terrified. He broke into a town hall meeting and begged neighbor after neighbor to give him refuge in one of their homes. Knowing by then about Hargrove’s deal with Satan, they all refused. Suddenly Hargrove spied Old Splitfoot standing at the back of the crowd. Hargrove ran out of the building to the nearby church, but as his foot touched the holy ground, he vanished. In an alternate ending to the old wives’ tale, instead of disappearing, Hargrove turned to ashes. In yet another variation of the story, Hargrove made it back to his own house after being turned away by his neighbors, and his body was discovered there the next day. Oddly, though, his corpse looked as if he had been dead for almost a week. In all these accounts, Hargrove was buried outside the Old Center Cemetery walls in an unmarked grave. Regardless of what really happened, Hargrove’s ghost now appears just outside the cemetery, usually very close to the road. Sometimes the phantom will try to flag down motorists; more often the apparition will recoil when spotted and dissolve into nothingness.
Pine Hill Road Cemetery
Hollis
Established in 1769 with a land grant from Benjamin Parker Jr., Pine Hill Road Cemetery is known locally as Blood Cemetery—but not for the reason people might suspect. The burial ground holds the remains of Abel Blood, who was interred there in 1867, and he lies beside his wife, Betsy. An old wives’ tale says the Bloods were murdered and that Abel’s ghost has returned to look for his wife. Rumor also has it that Blood’s tombstone was haunted. Visitors swore that during the day, the image of a finger engraved on the headstone pointed upward, toward Heaven, but during the night, the finger turned down toward the ground. Unfortunately, the truth of the legend can no longer be checked. Vandals smashed the grave marker years ago and carried it away.
Folklore says that Pine Hill Road Cemetery contains another family that was murdered in the 1800s. Only the youngest son survived the slaughter; he, too, eventually died and was buried with his kin. The killer was never found. Another version of the tale says the boy was the victim and that his family murdered him. Either way, within months of being in the ground, the son’s ghost returned to the graveyard. The spectre appears on the road beside the cemetery, trying to get drivers to stop to help him. If they do, the spirit vanishes.
Vale Cemetery
Wilton
A Blue Lady reportedly walks Vale Cemetery in Wilton. Her real name is thought to be Mary Ritter or Mary Ritter Spaulding, and it’s believed she was interred in the late 1800s. She doesn’t manifest as a full-form figure. Rather, blue lights emanate from her grave, and the area around it always feels chilly, even on sunny days. In addition to the Blue Lady, some people have reported seeing a bearded apparition and the spectre of a little girl.
NEW JERSEY
Ringwood Manor Cemetery
Ringwood
In 1771 the American Iron Company in Ringwood, New Jersey, brought Scottish inventor and ironmaster Robert Erskine to America to oversee its operations. Remarkably, he was able to keep the foundry running throughout the Revolutionary War. He organized a militia to protect the ironworks in 1775 and was commissioned its captain by the state legislature. Impressed with Erskine’s skills as a mapmaker, George Washington appointed him geographer and surveyor general of the Continental Army in 1777. Erskine died on October 2, 1880, most likely of pneumonia. He was interred in a low brick mausoleum located in the small cemetery on his estate, Ringwood Manor. He was only forty-five years old.
Apparently Erskine had a lot more living to do, because he hasn’t stayed in his tomb. People believe his spirit escaped from the mausoleum when one of the bricks fell out of a wall and was never put back. His ghost appears on moonless nights, and it’s seen standing on top of his crypt holding a lantern. The phantom has been known to follow nighttime visitors until they leave the property. Sometimes the spectre manifests as a blue light, glowing on top of the vault. The orb, too, has escorted people out of the cemetery and has even traveled alongside their cars until they reached the main road.
It should be noted that the Ringwood Manor that people now visit replaced Erskine’s mansion in 1807, and it’s been remodeled several times since. Erskine was never in the house that stands today, but his apparition is said to haunt it nevertheless. According to famed twentieth-century ghost hunter Hans Holzer, who investigated Ringwood Manor with medium Ethel Johnson Meyers, at least three other phantoms are also present. They’re never seen, and they tend to keep to the area that would have been Mrs. Erskine’s bedroom in the original mansion. Two of the spectres were servants. One was named Jeremiah. The other, Jackson White, was part African American, part Native American, and he’s recognized by the unusual sound of his footsteps. The third ghost is Mrs. Erskine herself.
NEW MEXICO
Dawson Cemetery
Dawson
Today a ghost town, Dawson was a major coal mining center in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1869 John Barkley Dawson founded a homestead about seventeen miles northeast of Cimarron. The farmer was surprised when he found lumps of coal lying on the surface of much of the land, and he started to burn it for fuel instead of wood. In early 1901, a mining company bought most of Dawson’s ranch, and by August there were fifty men extracting coal from the ground. In 1903 there was a fire and explosion in Mine No. 1. Amazingly five hundred men escaped; only three were killed. The Phelps Dodge Corporation bought the mines in 1905 and expanded the operation, building a model company town to house and supply the workers and their families. At its peak, Dawson had about nine thousand residents. From time to time a miner would die in an accident and be buried in the small community cemetery, but nothing prepared the town for the catastrophic explosion that rocked Stag Canyon Mine No. 2 (and Dawson itself, two miles away) on October 22, 1913—just two days after the New Mexico inspector of mines declared the site “free from traces of gas, and in splendid general condition.” Only 23 of the 286 men working the mine made it out alive; two men were also killed in the rescue. The size of the cemetery had to be increased to accommodate the burials, and there were funerals and interments in Dawson Cemetery for weeks. (It was found that dynamite had been used improperly and that workers had not been evacuated from the rest of the mine before the charge was set off.) Tragedy struck again on February 8, 1923, in Stag Canyon Mine No. 1 when a train in the mine jumped its track; the resulting cave-in caused coal dust to ignite. Only 2 of the 123 men in the mine survived. Once again, the cemetery was enlarged.