Ghosts, Haunting, and Legends
Home Encounters The Gravestone in My Yard

Photo by Frank Grace
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Witness: Megan Schmidt
Location: Athol, Massachusetts
Date of Encounter: June 1, 2015

It all started when my fiancé and I bought a new house. It’s actually a few houses down from my mother’s home where we’ve also had chilling experiences. Our houses are directly across the street from a very old cemetery.

Upon moving in, we had odd things happen. It started off where my dogs would stare into my dark hallway, always around 3 AM and growl and raise their fur. It always gave me a sinking feeling. I was taking a shower not long after the dog incident and something touched my shoulder. I ran out of the shower, soap in my hair and eyes screaming. My fiancé said the look of terror on my face made him think someone was in our house and caused him to panic.

A few weeks later, I heard a low whisper while in the shower, and I ran out in terror again. The icing on the cake is about to take place.

I was out on my back porch, cleaning and organizing things when on my back door I heard a loud slam on the glass, so loud, I expected it to shatter. I ran inside, couldn’t even speak I was so horrified and again, my fiancé thought an intruder was inside. There was nobody around. We live on a dead end street and good neighborhood. I wasn’t expecting a human to be the cause.

Fast forward to a few weeks later and we decided to put a fence in the backyard to keep my dogs contained. Upon building said fence, my fiancé unearthed a gravestone in our BACKYARD! It was dated from 1851 and appears to be from a young girl. I have a photo on my phone.

After finding the gravestone, things escalated. I would be on my treadmill in the bedroom, and something would touch my shoulder. I started seeing shadow figures and hearing creepy, low voices. My animals usually picked up on a presence too. I had the majority of the experiences, but I think it’s due to the fact I’m the woman of the house and she’s looking for a mother figure. I own a duplex and rent out the other half, my past two tenants and current ones all had their own ghost stories and said it was haunted.

I mentioned my mother’s house is a few houses away, built along this same cemetery near my house, well she called me one day after getting home from work at 11:30 at night. She was almost in tears saying she entered her kitchen (1st room you’re in when you enter her house) and said she heard the creepiest voice that sent chills down her spine. She’s lived on her own for 20 years and wouldn’t even enter her own house. She was horrified, my fiancé and I came right over and went through her entire house, but nobody was there. When I was a child and we had just moved in to that house, she called the police before because it would sound like someone had a baseball bat and was beating on the outside of the house, but of course, nobody was ever there.

I still live in my house with the gravestone we unearthed, the gravestone is still leaning against my house. I was unsure what to do with it. I didn’t want to desecrate it, so it’s leaned against my house in my fenced-in dog pen. We also dug all around looking for a body, but I suppose didn’t dig that deep, and we didn’t rip the whole yard up. For all I know, there could be a body in my yard. It was from 1851, it’s quite possible the family buried their child in their yard. It’s also possible the graveyard expanded to where my house is. Athol use to be a “hot spot” back in the 1800’s, that “pesky” graveyard was taking up prime land, and folks wanted to build here. Just another thought of mine for why I have a gravestone in my yard, and all these creepy experiences.

2 replies to this post
  1. How about getting some religious leaders of your community to do a remembrance ceremony for that little girl and any other spirit that is not at rest and put her headstone back where you found it with some flowers around it. She was there long before you were. Respect it goes a long way.

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