Hello and welcome!
I hope ya'll had a fantastic Samhain. We ended up throwing a little party and set a scarecrow on fire- you know because human sacrifices are frowned upon over here in the United States.
This week I decided to share with you a little ghost adventure that I went on with a couple of friends of mine (Dj decided to sit this one out). It's a fairly short story but we definitely got spooked.
Without further ado, I bring you the Lost Cemetery (one of the hundreds) in St. Charles, Missouri. St. Charles is apparently haunted as fuck, if you recall the Molly Crenshaw story, that took place not far from this location (https://theravenblog.wixsite.com/theravenblog/post/grow-your-blog-community ). We originally tried to find her grave but we ended up in a huge cornfield and we weren't feeling that brave.
Let's start off with a bit of history.
This is not the first resting place for many of the bodies at this cemetery. Most of the graves were relocated to the 'Lost Cemetery' from Borromeo Church. The church was originally a log cabin-like structure built in 1791. In 2006 it was torn down and an exact replica, made out of stone, now stands in its place.
The church was dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo who was an archbishop of Milan in the 1500s. In a wiki post that I read on him, they described him as "dedicated, humorless, and uncompromising"- sounds like a great guy to hang out with.
The cemetery was active from 1750-1863. Shortly afterward the bodies were moved, 320 graves to be exact, about 10 minutes away. Unfortunately, the 300-500 other bodies were left behind and St. Charles was built on top of them. Many of those bodies were from the lower class who could afford to have their loved ones moved. Honestly, they buried them once, why should they have to do it again? If the church wants them moved then they can pay for it. It only makes sense.
That basically wraps up the history- old ass church with a cemetery, they move a few bodies, and said it was good enough. Now on to the creepy stuff.
The main legend of this location is the lady in white. This spirit is usually seen in autumn, weeping in the cemetery or the 500 blocks of south St. Charles (she's got quite the territory compared to the spirits who wander the same room/ house for all eternity).
No one knows her name or her story except for a few clues left in a letter written by Hiram Berry. On September 11, 1822, Berry told his friend about a 23-year-old, married woman who recently lost her baby.
"She looked beautiful with her had turned to one side and a smile on her face."
Some think Berry was her husband but there's no way of knowing. Regardless, the unknown woman was said to have fallen ill and died, She was buried in her wedding gown which was a white dress with green lacing. Those who have encountered her spirit see her wandering in her wedding dress which just adds another creep factor. I don't know- weddings are supposed to be happy and I don't think her's was.
Some say her body was buried in the Lost cemetery that I visited, others think it was the lost cemetery that is now known as Kister park. Again, there is no way of knowing but it sounds like we need to check out Kister park next time.
Now for my investigation
After work on September 18, I set out with a couple of friends of mine, Kia and Rachel, to find some ghosts because what else are you going to do during COVID?
It was an interesting trip, to say the least. Around 10 pm we put on a creepy podcast, I believe it was the No Sleep one, and headed out.
It took us a bit to find this cemetery because we kept ending up in the neighborhood behind it. It was pretty strange; a bunch of new houses with a straight-up cemetery in their backyards. Fear not, we eventually found a way in that wasn't seeking through people's yards.
The cemetery is pretty small but knowing they forgot to move a few hundred bodies explains it.
There is a road through the cemetery and we took that to get out barrings. Though it's located in a populated area inside the cemetery is still really dark in places. Afterward, we found a street to park down and walked back to investigate.
We nearly aborded to the mission when we saw a figure crouching down by some headstones- It was terrifying and apparently we are not brave. I decided to walk towards it, regardless of Rachel telling me now too. We honestly thought it was a person, like a flesh and blood person which is someone scarier.
Turns out the crouching figure was an angel statue that was kneeling before some of the graves- it definitely looked like a person.
We found coins on one headstone but that isn't that strange. I'm pretty sure people just do that, probably for the ferryman or they owned the deceased money. The coins were from a few different countries which were pretty interesting.
We also broke out a ghost hunting app- Ghost Radar Classic, if you're interested. I saw a few paranormal investigators on Youtube use it was it's free so I figured why not.
We received quite a few names which make sense given the location. A few that I recorded were Johnathan, William, and Don. When those names popped up we weren't near any headstones with those names. I guess it is possible that we missed them. When I asked if they were buried there I only received more names. That was until Kia got a gathering interesting reply when in the center of the cemetery and that was "eating".
I swear, that response still sends chills down my spine. I really hope the ghosts were just calling someone in the subdivision out for having a midnight snack.
Me, being the expert investigator that I am (KIDDING), asked ' What the fuck do you mean?' and that was when Rachel saw eyes peeking out from the graves. I shit you not it looked like two glowing yellow eyes staring back at us.
Naturally, we went closer- we would definitely die if this was a horror movie. Oh, the app said a spirit is eating and there are glowing eyes? Let's get closer...
The "eyes" ended up being lettering reflecting off one of the larger headstones, James Farmer's to be exact. Regardless, of if it was eyes or not, it was terrifying. Now that I think about it, why didn't the lettering reflect before we got the response "eating". Huh, makes you wonder if there was something else going on, We didn't have any flashlights on at this point and we had taken a few strolls through the headstones. Spooky.
That about wraps up our little investigation. We spent more time trying to find a place to investigate than we actually investigated. I think we were only at this location for an hour or two. I would like to go back now that I know more of the history; maybe then I could connect with some spirits.
If you want to check out this place please be mindful of the backyards that you're in. When we went we tried to stay on the far side of the cemetery so we wouldn't disturb people. Also, the cemetery is still used today so be careful of fresh graves.
Anyway, don't forget to check out the podcast. We haven't been able to post any new stories but I promise we will soon.
Until next time
-Tye
Always Cite Those Sources:
Ghost Radar Classic App
“Lost Graveyard.” MissouriHauntedHouses.com, www.missourihauntedhouses.com/real-haunt/lost-graveyard.html.
Neighbors, Joy. Haunted Towns of the Midwest - St Charles, Missouri, 1 Jan. 1970, agraveinterest.blogspot.com/2013/10/haunted-towns-of-midwest-st-charles.html?m=1.
“These 8 Haunted Cemeteries In Missouri Are Not For the Faint of Heart.” Google, Google, www.google.com/amp/s/www.onlyinyourstate.com/missouri/8-haunted-cemeteries-in-mo/amp/.
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