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My Haunted Hometown - Fairview Cemetery

It's no accident that the church and the graveyard stand side by side. The city of the dead sleeps encircled by the city of the living.
                                      Diane Frolov, Northern Exposure, Lost and Found, 1992


 

Historic Fairview Cemetery, New Albany, IN, started as five acres of land on the edge of the city. First known as the Northern Burying Ground, it is the final resting place for the majority of the town's earliest families.


Now covering 85 acres, the cemetery holds the entire Culbertson family, whose house we visited earlier in the week, fourteen victims of the Lucy Walker Steamship Explosion of 1844, and several Revolutionary War soldiers.

One of these soldiers, Richard Lord Jones, born 1767, joined the army as a fifer at the age of ten and served three years during which he was captured by the British. Legend says after dark you can still hear him playing his music throughout the cemetery grounds.


It is my plan to visit Fairview on All Hallow's Eve to see if we can pick up anything digitally if the kids don't chicken out on me before then ('cause I'm not going out there alone).

Has anything not easily explainable ever happened to you in a cemetery?

9 comments:

Old Kitty said...

What a brilliant way to spend all hollow's eve!! Brilliant!! Oh wow - I'd go too but never alone! Crikey! Take care
x

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Um...this sounds really creepy and scary. But what a way to spend Halloween, right? I think I'd prefer something other than a graveyard but to each his own. :)

Michael Di Gesu said...

WOW, Lisa,

You've got guts. I think it's a great idea. From your post the cemetery didn't seem to have violent ghosts.

I'd go with you. I sounds amazing....

Take care and have fun.

Helen said...

I think cemeteries are fascinating places (although I tend to prefer visiting them during daylight) - so many stories.

Nothing out and out scary has ever happened to me, although when visiting Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, we did have a bit of a strange experience. It was a really sunny day, when all of a sudden the sky darkened and the leaves blew off the ground. A few seconds later, the sky brightened and everything became calm again. Probably just a freak gust of wind, but it felt a bit spooky at the time, particularly as it was so warm.

Interesting way of spending Halloween though - not sure I'd be brave enough!

Anonymous said...

Well, I can honestly say I haven't been to a graveyard, except during the day at a service. Or looking for the oldest tombstone only because I'm a history buff. So, no. Nothing weird has happened to me at a graveyard. Boring, i know.

Anonymous said...

I went on a ghost hunt weekend once and we found absolutely nothing! I think when you go looking you don't find it but when you're least expecting it... Boo!

erica and christy said...

I'm under the belief that burial grounds are actually not haunted. What ghost just wants to hang around a bunch of dead people when there are living people all over just begging to be haunted??!!
erica

KM Nalle said...

Nope. No graveyard happenings for me. I've never actually been in one though (real or fake). I'm a huge fraidy-cat.

Jodi Henry said...

Oh, this sounds delightfully fun! Hope your kids don't chicken out on you.

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