Haunted Holy Grounds:

A History of Cemeteries, a Legend of Ghost

Jacob Tucker, feature editor

It is a dark and chilly night.  You walk the aisles of shiny stone and occasionally glance at the script written on them.  Death is all around, but the only evidence is the ominous markers coming out of the ground.

Over the centuries, cemeteries and graveyards have been places of mystery.  But people have always been drawn to this unknown.

The first cemeteries were made primarily for people of high social status.  Peasants and lower-class citizens were forced to either bury their dead on family land, in church plots, or they were tossed into a mass grave with others.

Church plots for peasants remained unmarked and unchecked.  Spaces that were already taken were being used over and over.  These places of “remembrance” became infested with a rotten stench and ridden with disease.  The cities with these cemeteries had to find a new method for disposing of the dead.  These were most common in Europe. 

Soon the church plots became full and space for new coffins for the bodies was limited.  The church began to stack the coffins of the dead on top of each other out in the churchyard.  There were so many coffins stacked on one another that the ground outside the church rose sometimes 20 feet above the church floor.

Another action that was taken was the building of earthen or stone walls around the church plot in which the bodies were buried.  These walls buckled and fell apart, dumping countless numbers of human body parts into the streets.  Leaders then took another measure to reduce the amount of dead in the cemetery.  They would only place a coffin in the ground for a short time, sometimes a few days or even as long as an hour.  But this only added to the problem of disposing of the bodies.

City and church leaders began to look toward a more rural setting to place their dead.  This is why graveyards and cemeteries are located on the outskirts of any town.  These new cities of the dead would be guaranteed to remain undisturbed and away from the public.

They also set many guidelines to follow when burying the dead in order to combat the spread of disease.  The one that is still utilized today is the burial of coffins six feet under the ground.

These new cemeteries quickly gave birth to many myths and legends.  It was said that in a gothic style cemetery in London, Highgate, many real vampires roamed the grounds.  This of course attracted hunters of the supernatural and countless others who wanted to brave the creepy unknown.

With the formation of these cemeteries came the issue of marking the graves.  Headstones began to pop up around the world as if some farmer planted them.  They have ranged from ornate stones to simple wooden crosses.

These headstones would have the name of the deceased, their birth and death dates, and a comment relating to their life.  Some of these comments were the dead’s way of leaving their lasting impression on the world.  Many were serious, such as “Gone but not forgotten”, while others were lighthearted, “I told you I was sick.”  The world has chosen to forever immortalize their dead with these last few words known as an epitaph.

Not much is known about why or how the concept of headstones was started.  Many believe that it is just a way of coping with the death of a loved one and a way to give respect to the departed.  Others think that it is a way of coping with our own realization of death. 

Since their founding, graveyards and their residents have been hot topics of myth and media. 

Grave robbers consistently raided these “cities of the dead” for the occasional priceless item that happened to be buried six feet under.  Many gained wealth from these raids, but some only gained heartache and a rotten stench that filled their nostrils.

There was an account from 15^th century Scotland where a woman “died” and was buried in a shallow grave by the gravedigger.  He later dug up the body and attempted to cut off the finger with the ring on it.  The woman, who was presumed dead, suddenly came to life.  This phenomena occurred frequently due to a doctor’s miscalculation.  The woman later to gave birth to two sons, who became major religious leaders in Scotland.  No one ever heard from the gravedigger ever again.

A certain grave in the cemetery of Anson, Texas has given some questions to science, and to the national media.  The grave is of a woman who committed suicide during a blizzard in the 1800s, before the town was settled.  She committed suicide because her son became lost in the blizzard and whose body was never recovered. 

Many eyewitness accounts say that when you go to the grave where she was buried and knock on the headstone, you will hear a mysterious knock back.  Countless numbers of people have tried it, though the answer of what they heard remains the same.

Along a dirt road near the cemetery are the world famous “Anson Lights.”  The story behind the lights is very same one that is told about the woman in the grave.  Visitors from around the nation come to the small town to witness for themselves the phenomenon that has been documented by the Lifetime TV show “Unsolved Mysteries.”

Visitors proceed to the edge of a dirt road near the cemetery, park their cars, and turn their engines off.  They flash their lights into the black void in front of them.  A few seconds after, a light appears on the horizon.  It weaves up and down the hills as if searching for something.  Legend has it, that it is the dead woman still searching for the body of her son. 

The light gets as close as 20 feet from the vehicle before it vanishes.  This event remains unsolved, and is considered to be one of the scariest places in Texas.  People who come from the site highly recommend that everyone who dare test their skepticism on this story of the paranormal.

Thousands of stories have emulated from graveyards.  Next time that you are walking on dark and chilly night within the confines of a graveyard, remember that the dead are all around you, and they are waiting.