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 Bachelor's
Grove Cemetery
A simple metal sign marks the forgotten plot
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There is no one location in the Chicago
area that has more reported sightings and more heart stopping stories
than Bachelor's Grove Cemetery.
This small, frequently desecrated and nearly forgotten cemetery lies at
the edge of a large forest preserve near the Chicago suburb of
Midlothian.
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The cemetery was established in the
1830’s. It was used as a final resting-place for many German immigrants
who worked on the construction of the Illinois Michigan Canal. The work
was dirty and the hours were very, very long which is why many of the
workers were not married, giving rise to the cemetery's name.
Access to the decaying plot, is
provided by a long and narrow gravel roadway. The cemetery has been abandoned since 1965
and is said to now be a ritual site for occult and satanic groups. Over the years many of
the tombstones have been vandalized or stolen, only to mysteriously return. While it is
not certain how the grave markers manage to get back to the graveyard, this unusual
phenomenon lends a chilling intensity to the legend that the gravestones in Bachelor's
Grove move on their own.
 One of the most consistent stories
is of a white farmhouse that sits just off of the gravel road. Many have reported seeing
the house, with a soft light burning in the window. When observers attempt to approach the
house it slowly vanishes into thin air. Park rangers have reported seeing a phantom farmer
with horse and plow slowly moving into the mist and then vanishing. One of the more well
known, and frequent sightings is of the "Madonna of Bachelor's Grove" said to be
a woman buried next to her infant son in the 1870's. This vaporous lady, shrouded in white
mist, is often seen moving through the dark shadows of the trees cradling an infant in her
arms.
Inexplicable noises, such as horses,
crackling sounds, and human voices are reported frequently as are mysterious lights, very
strange mist and dramatic shifts in temperature. Just beyond the graveyard is a small
turgid pond. In prohibition years, the pond was allegedly a favorite dumping ground for
the bodies and cars of unfortunate individuals who ran afoul of infamous Chicago
gangsters. Reports of (spectral) bodies floating in the pond and phantom headlights
beneath the surface of the dark water are numerous. In fact in one story, a couple was
driving down the lane in late evening, hearing the sound of a loud speeding car getting
closer and closer, they stopped their car. To their horror, they found themselves in a
head-on collision with the speeding car, with horrific sounds of bending metal and
breaking glass. After a few minutes of recovering from their shock however, and to their
amazement, they realized that they were alone on the road, there was no other car. They
were both fine and their car was unscathed as well.
by:
Dr. Von Zuko 1998©
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Woodland Cemetery: Dayton Ohio:
 Possibly one of Dayton Ohio's better-kept
secrets is an historic and picturesque cemetery that overlooks the city.
Nestled in tree shrouded rolling hills, Woodland Cemetery is serenely
beautiful, with elaborate and richly ornate monuments and massive iron
gated vaults. Many of these impressive tombs mark the final
resting-place of several of Dayton's more well known citizens, such as
Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and the Wright Brothers.
Woodland is also
the final resting-place of several individuals who do not rest so
soundly. There are many well known, well publicized and long told
tales surrounding Woodland Cemetery
and it's spectral inhabitants, so here is something a bit more recent
and a little less talked about.
Woodland Cemetery is bounded on its
southwest side by the prestigious University of Dayton. In the fall of 1992, three
young men were returning from one of the many off-campus parties that
give U.D. a less then welcome "party-school" reputation. Since the boys
had consumed their fair share of cheap beer, they wanted to avoid taking
the long walk along public streets back to their dorm. They knew, that
if they cut through the deserted cemetery they could crawl through the
fence right behind the dorm, and sneak quietly into the building. While
each was privately apprehensive about walking through the large,
darkened cemetery there was no way they'd admit it to each other. They
slipped into Woodland through a gap in the ornate iron fence and started
up-hill.
As they labored up and over the first set of
hills in the older gothic section of the cemetery, the boys began to
notice the eerie silence of the graveyard and a distinct chill in the
air. While the moon was full, the old and stately trees broke the
moonlight into sharp shafts of pale light that cut through the chilled
mist, giving the massive monuments a surrealistic if not ominous
appearance. To keep their courage up, each taunted the other as they
stumbled trough the cemetery. Not fully realizing how large Woodland is,
and that their dorm was over a half mile away, the boys began to get
disoriented, and stopped to talk.
As they argued over direction, one boy
spotted something or someone moving through the mist few yards ahead.
"Hey" he blurted, "there's a babe over there." The others didn't believe
him at first but, then convinced themselves that a couple of girls had
the same idea they did. After all, the girl's dorm backed up to the
cemetery too. Even though they all didn't see her, the boys decided to
head in the direction of the sighting. Approaching a massive stone
vault, the boys were aware of soft crying then the uncontrollable
sobbing of a young woman. The boys looked at each other, they called
out, "Hey, are you alright? Are you hurt? Where are you?" The crying
stopped. "Don't be afraid," one boy said. "If you're hurt we can get
help." The boy's calls were met with silence. They waited, after a few
minutes of silence they started to move on, thinking who ever it was,
was just messing with them. They walked a few yards.
The crying started again. They turned to
look behind them. Sitting on a large stone step leading up to the
massive bronze and stained glass gate of the vault, was a young woman.
She sat slumped forward with her head in her hands, long blond hair
streaming down her back and shoulders. She sat in a shaft of pale
moonlight and wept uncontrollably.
The boys were startled, but realized she
must be in serious trouble. "Can we help?" one boy called out as he
stepped forward. The young woman looked up. She had a startled look on
her face, her tear streaked cheeks glistened in the moonlight. She stood
quickly, and nervously looked at the boys. One of the boys held out
his hand toward her and said, "are you lost, com on we'll help you get
out of here." Without turning, the young woman quickly drifted backward
and passed completely through the heavy bronze gate, into the darkness
of the massive stone vault. Stunned, the boys starred at the large
tarnished lock on the bronze gate. They nearly crippled each other as
they wheeled around to run. Never looking back the boys found their way
through the hills and gravestones to the main entrance to the cemetery.
Attempting to get out, they made so much racket at the gate that the
university police and a grounds keeper were called to let them out. The
campus police officer decided to cut them a break and wrote it off as
some college boy nonsense. The grounds keeper simply said, well you're
not the first to meet her.
by:
Dr. Von Zuko 1998© (Visit The Woodland
Cemetery Photo Gallery)
Camp Chase
Burial Ground and the Lady in
Gray
 In a quiet west-side neighborhood of Columbus Ohio, lies a
small neatly kept cemetery. surrounded by a low, gray stone wall with a plain, spiked iron
fence erupting from its top. This quiet cemetery hardly gets a second glance from passers
by, or from the school children that play in the adjacent schoolyard, but this ground has
quite an interesting and tragic story to tell. It is the final, resting place of 2,260
Confederate soldiers.
During the bloody
years of the American Civil War, Camp Chase served as a primary training camp for the
Union Army. As the war wore on, Camp Chase was used as a prison camp to hold captured
Confederate troops. The camp officially became a prison on July 5, 1861, when the first
group of prisoners arrived from western Virginia. Camp Chase was known as one of the worst
prison camps of the era, with terrible conditions and severe over crowding, the camp held
up to 9,425 prisoners. More than 2,300 men died here of malnutrition and disease, 2,260 of
them were buried in the
camp cemetery,
in long rows of graves marked by simple stone tablets. With so much heartache and
loneliness in its past, it is no wonder that this cemetery has witnessed a long history of
strange occurrences.
One of the more persistent and
recurring apparitions, is that of the "Lady in Gray." The specter of a young
woman, dressed in a lady's gray traveling suit, a typical fashion for women in the late
1860's, is seen walking through the cemetery. Her head held low, she appears to be
weeping. By some accounts, she has been witnessed walking through trees, tombstones, and
even disappearing through the stone wall surrounding the cemetery. The "Lady in
Gray" is thought to be the spirit that frequently leaves flowers at the head of one
of the graves. These mysterious (fresh) flowers have been seen many times over the last
130 years, and always at the same grave stone. On several occasions, local residents have
reported hearing the sounds of a woman weeping forlornly, coming from inside the enclosed
plot, when patrolling police officers have investigated, no one is ever found.
by: Dr. Von Zuko 1998©
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Haunted Cemeteries Index:
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Dr. Von
Zuko's Recommended
Books and Films on the Paranormal:
 Graveyards of Chicago: The People,...
Ever wonder where Al Capone
is buried? How about Clarence Darrow? Muddy Waters? Harry Caray? Or maybe
Brady Bunch patriarch Robert Reed? And what really lies beneath home plate
at Wrigley Field? Graveyards of Chicago answers these and other
cryptic questions as it charts the lore and lure of Chicago's ubiquitous
burial grounds.
Find other great books on
this or any topic:
Dr. Von Zuko's Paranormal Book Store
White Cemetery
Barrington, IL
Just on the outskirts of
Barrington Illinois, one of America's most affluent communities,
lies a small, neatly manicured cemetery.
Nestled in a grove of
mature stately trees, and surrounded by a well maintained ornate wrought
iron fence, you enter the grounds through a narrow portico defined
by two sturdy brick columns. By day, the little
graveyard exudes a very pleasant and peaceful aura. By night,
however, the story is quite different.
Strange apparitions and sounds are so frequent
at White Cemetery and bordering roadway, that even the local police have reported strange and
vaporous images. On occasion, drivers on Cuba Road passing by the cemetery are startled to see
strange spherical glowing orbs floating over the headstones, and even drifting out into
the road, and following them for a short distance.
Unlike many tales of
alleged haunted
graveyards, White Cemetery is especially noteworthy, due to the fact that several
noted researchers of the paranormal have captured the various phenomenon on photographic film
and video tape quite frequently.
"Cuba
Road Phantom House" Here too, there are reports of a
rather large phantom house that appears briefly and then vanishes. The legend is that it is the apparition of a house that burned to the ground in the
1920's when it served as a sanitarium.
"Cuba Road Charlie"
In addition to the
strange apparitions in and near White Cemetery, there are also frequent
sightings a strange silent man who walks bare foot along Cuba Road.
Known as Cuba Road
Charlie, the man is sometimes seen near the cemetery but at other times,
further down the road. In several accounts, he is spotted at dusk,
walking near an intersection, but as the drivers move down Cuba Road,
they are startled only to see him again standing near the gates of the
cemetery, nearly a half mile from the intersection.
(Click on the thumbnail photo of White Cemetery at the top of this story, take a close look at the right
hand side of the photograph. Notice anything unusual?)
by: Dr. Von Zuko 1998©
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