The Haunted
Cemetery |
Updated August 12,
2004
This will be, sadly, my last post about this cemetery.
A recent article in the local paper (Local to the Wilkes-Barre area) was
published that caused some negative feelings. It was an article that blamed
"ghost chasers" for vandalism in this cemetery. What's worse is that the
article linked to this site, causing a bad taste to be left behind. I went
up to visit the cemetery- during the day- one last time...and to stop at
the St. Nicholas church to speak with the Pastor, who had been quoted in
the article. I was able to voice my concerns about being associated with
such crimes, and although he was a bit unfriendly at first, he later apologized
for getting angry with me. I believe I got my point accross....which was
that I had nothing to do with the vandalism, nor was any of the people I
deal with.
Although they haven't embraced the idea of putting up
signs, the St. Joseph's Cemetery (Also called Weatherly cemetery and the
Haunted cemetery) is owned by the St. Nicholas church located in Weatherly,
Pa. They do not want anyone in there at night, for any reason. They will
only allow daytime visits for religious and genealogical reasons.
It sucks, but I have to abide by their rules. We do
not tresspass, therfore, you'll probably not see any more updates to this
report.
Updated April 2003
I've been up to this cemetery two more times with PIRA
Team Leader Bob R. These have been more like "social visits" then actual
hard-core investigations. Both times, we've experienced strange feelings
of being watched, of being joined by "other" and seeing movement. On our
first visit, I was ablt to capture to EVPs, which can be heard on our EVP
section. These EVPs were captured at the edge of the cemetery, where I park
the car. It was also here that our motion sensors went off a few times. I
was also able to again experience the "loss of power" effect on my camera.
During the most recent visit, we had found that there
was major storm damage done in the center of the already neglected cemetery.
This time around, I was unable to obtain any EVPs, but we did get to see
some "shadow" figure. Strangely, this figure was seen across the street in
the woods, always at the tree line. Although I know a little history about
the church that once stood on this property, I know there is a lot I am not
aware of. I'd like to know if there was more going on here...
Updated on October 8, 2000
I was again able
to visit the cemetery, only it was during the daylight hours. I walked around
the cemetery for about 2 hours. The entire time I was there, I had to keep
looking over my shoulder.
I had the distinct impression that someone was
following me. Although none of the pictures I took revieled anything, I know
I was not alone. Towards the end of my visit, I had trouble with my cameras.
Both my 35mm and my digital refused to work. I thought it was perhaps the
battery, but both camera had fresh batteries put in them and they still failed
to work. After I left the cemetery, I stopped down the road and checked both
cameras. You guessed it, both were operating normally.
Updated on July 23, 2000
I was able to go back up to this cemetery over
the weekend and was able to gain some information about it. A woman who lives
near the cemetery was able to tell me that it used to be St. Nicolas' Catholic
Cemetery. There was a church on the grounds of the cemetery where now stands
a flag poll. The church burned down around 1967 or 1968. Apparently, a lot
of children died around the 1800's here due to a diphtheria plague near the
turn of the century.
The earliest dates I could find were around 1856.
Many of the "died" dates are just at the turn of the century. There is a
pitiful reminder of an iron fence that I assume encased the cemetery. A
few small sections still stand here and there. I found a pile of these iron
sections to the left of the field, in the woods.
There was no sign of a mass grave, but there is a rather
large family buried near the center. It appears they all died within a few
years of each other.
Original Story
Located just outside of Weatherly, Pennsylvania on North
Church Road is a small, forgotten cemetery. It is well off the main road
and tucked away in a heavy wooded area. No fence surrounds it, no sign with
a name stands at the entrance. In fact, there isn't any path. Trees line
three sides while the small road running along side the cemetery makes up
the front.
My in-laws told me that a friend of their's had mentioned
it, simply calling it the "haunted cemetery". Apparently, the story goes
that there is a mass grave in the center of the cemetery and that it was
filled with infants and children. When people have visited the cemetery at
night, they supposedly hear the voices of the children's mothers singing
a lullaby- Hush little baby, don't say a word…
I visited the cemetery over the weekend and let me tell
you, it looks like it should be haunted! The grass is overgrown, many of
the older headstones- dating back to the 1820s- have been knocked over and/or
broken. Some were even "buried" under grass and brush. To say the least,
the place is in bad shape. That kind of stuff bothers me, that they are so
easily forgotten.
I took a drive during the daylight hours with the
father-in-law to find the place and check out the area. After finding it
and making sure there were no "No Trespassing" signs or the like, we went
home. I came back that night around 9 PM with my wife, mom-in-law and
grandmother. They had expressed interest in going and since this wasn't a
formal investigation…hey, why not! Besides, my mother-in-law has the strangest
luck, you never know what might happen when she's around.
We parked our cars and started making our way through
the scattered and broken headstones. I snapped off a few pictures here and
there, while the others did the same. A few times I felt a cold chill sort
of go by me, like someone walking by. About twenty minutes into it I checked
my pictures on my digital camera. Wow! A few of them had some orbs. They
were good, solid ones too! Donna mentioned that she kept hearing someone
walking through the trees at the back of the cemetery. This went along with
what I had also been hearing. I thought perhaps that it was an animal, since
we were out in the country, but then as I listened hard I came to the conclusion
that they were heavy footfalls. Several times I shined my flashlight through
the trees to perhaps catch someone. But I never saw anyone.
Towards the end of the night we stopped to do a Q&A
session. I asked several questions, even sang a little bit of the lullaby,
but I was unsuccessful in catching any EVPs. I still have to review the rest
of the recordings( I had it on most of the night). As I was asking questions,
my wife had been taking pictures. As soon as I said I was done and thanked
the spirits for their time, my wife's camera stopped working. She had just
taken the last picture in the roll when it started acting weird. She got
the roll rewound and when it was done, so was the camera. We tried different
batteries in it- 8 freshly charged batteries, 2 at a time- to no avail. I
even took out the batteries from my camera- nothing.
We decided to wrap things up. I got my gear and we all
went back to the in-laws house. My wife was telling them about the camera
and when she went to show them…it was working fine! It had the same batteries
that were in it when it died at the cemetery, but now it was OK! Sounds to
me like the children may have been playing a prank on my wife.
Account documented by Kenny B. and Donna B.
July 9, 2000