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Reflections: A ghostly tale for a misty Halloween season · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  ReFlections a Ghostly Tale for a Misty Halloween season. Written by Roger
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  Mateal for Shaw local News Network. This article is being read by
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  an automated voice brought to you by Everlit. It's been a few
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  late Octobers since I re-ran my favorite, not mentioned my only local
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  ghost story concerning the haunting of the old Vermont Cemetery out in
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  Wheatland Township and some of my relatives experiences there. A couple of
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  Halloweens after this first appeared, some friends and I drove out to
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  the Vermont Cemetery to see what we could see on a misty
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  autumn evening. Unfortunately we did not run into any unexplained or mysterious
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  folks walking along the road, but maybe if we go out this
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  year It is nearly time for All Hallows Eve again, when ghosties
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  and beasties and things that go bump in the night come to
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  your door for a trick or treat. But it seems that with
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  the annual scares caused when foreign objects are found, or reportedly found,
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  in treats, the number of traditional trick or treaters seems to diminish
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  each year. Trick or treating was fun when I was young, but
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  the one place we did not go near that night was the
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  Oswego Township Cemetery. We had heard the tales of John three fingered
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  Jack Hamilton, one of John Dillinger's gang, who was buried in the
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  cemetery, and we did not want to chance meeting up with the
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  old, and undoubtedly mean tempered gent. But real honest to goodness ghost
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  stories were pretty hard to come by. When I was growing up,
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  there weren't any old haunted houses around. Dilapidated, falling down, wrecks, yes,
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  but haunted? Nope. In fact, I never really heard any good local
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  ghost stories. Over the past week I talked with several people, both
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  young and old, to see if there were any good scary stories
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  about our area that I might have missed. Apparently local people are
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  a hard-headed lot and are not given to admitting the existence of
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  ghosts, spirits or poltergeists. Some years ago, however, after much prodding, I
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  did manage to get my grandmother to relate a couple of stories
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  her parents told her. One of the turned out to be a
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  pretty fair ghost story. See what you think. My great grandparents, John
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  Peter and Amelia Lance, were both of Pennsylvania Dutch heritage And so
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  were more superstitious than most area residents. Even today, hex signs are
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  prominently displayed on the majority of Pennsylvania barns, and you may even
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  see a few here in Illinois, like on my barn, for instance.
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  Given their heritage, my great grandparents had both been raised with the
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  idea that ghosts and spirits were very real things, and so we
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  come to the story. On a dark night back around the turn
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  of they twentieth century, as my great grandparents were returning to their
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  Will County farm from Oswego in their buggy, their horse began to
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  act strangely. Just after passing the Vermont Cemetery in Wheatland Township, they
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  noticed a strange light that appeared to hover just under their horse's
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  belly. The poor animal became terrified and bolted out of control. The
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  couple had a wild ride until the reached the Charley Leopard Farm,
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  where the light disappeared as mysteriously as it had come. They horse
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  immediately became calm and slowed to a sedate walk, just as if
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  nothing had happened. John
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  Peter and Amelia, however, were quite shaken by they experience. Some weeks
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  later, another incident occurred near the Vermont Cemetery that convinced both my
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  great grandparents that, without a doubt, the cemetery was haunted. When the
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  second incident happened, the Lance were against on their way home from
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  Oswego when their horse began to act skittish. They noticed that they
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  were nearing the cemetery. And at the same time saw from the
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  back a man walking along the dark road, headed towards the cemetery.
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  John Peter thought the man looked very familiar, and, as they gradually
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  caught up with him, was astonished when he was recognized as a
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  neighbor who had died and been buried in the cemetery some time
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  before. As the couple pulled up to then walking man, John Peter,
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  against his better judgment, asked him if he needed a ride, a
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  ride. The man made no response, and, acting as if he didn't
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  know the buggy was beside him, kept walking steadily towards the cemetery.
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  When the couple in The
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  buggy and the ghostly walking man reached the gates of the cemetery,
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  the man seemed to vanish into thin air. My great grandparents left
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  the immediate vicinity with a great deal of speed, both of them
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  badly scared. According to my grandmother, replays of this incident
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  happened several times, always with a different deceased neighbor. It always happened
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  in the same manner, with the man found walking towards the Cemetery.
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  And then disappearing when he reached the gate. That's what they said,
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  my grandmother testified, adding, But I don't believe it. Why, whoever heard
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  of such a thing? Today, cemeteries aren't so much sources for scary
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  stories as they are considered repositories of historical information and rare wildflowers.
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  The Vermont Cemetery was fenced off several years ago by the Audubon
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  Society, and is primarily used now to serve as a living museum
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  display of once abundant, now rare wild prairie plants. I haven't heard
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  of anyone seeing ghosts there lately, but then maybe no one has
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  looked hard enough. Perhaps, on misty fall nights, silent ghosts of pioneer
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  farmers still trudge along the country road on their way back to
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  the Vermont Cemetery. Looking for more local history, visit