Cemetery Stories
The Story of the Missing Arm
A Panola County, Texas Cemetery in East Texas. Articles about interesting findings in old Cemeteries.
"I had found a double stone for a man and his wife, and it was evidently an old stone," he said. "one had died in 1864 and the other in 1867. The man's name was J. J. Woolsey. At the base of his grave was a new granite slab that said 'J. J. W.'s arm,' " he said. "I thought to myself 'I've got to know the story behind this one.'
"After asking around, I learned that the old gentleman had lost an arm in a cotton gin accident," he said. "He lived, but they buried his arm in a lead box on the family farm. Years later, a grandson decided to retire on the old home place," he said. "He was putting in a septic system when he dug up this lead box. He knew the story behind the box, and he decided to bury the arm with his grandfather. Why he marked the arm with a separate stone, I don't know. People, by our standards, do strange things," he said."
Sincerely, Wilford W. Whitaker
Excerpt from "Moving On" by Elmo Murray Woolsey
Red Darwin lived about a mile down the road from town and had a boy about my age. Often he came up home and as often I went to his house and I wish to relate a particular visit to see him.
It was a beautiful moon-light night and we had played till unusually late, when I started home. I forgot to say there was a graveyard right along the road, which I knew about, but wasn't afraid of "hants" anyway, I thought. As I got about the middle way I heard a peculiar cough and looked over there and saw something in the moonlight moving unnaturally down between the tombstones.
I wasn't exactly scared but just a little creepy. I said "hello" but no answer, and the thing kept up the funny motion, up and down, up and down, then to one side, then the other. That didn't improve my feeling to a noticeable extent. I reached down, without taking my eyes off the spot, picked up a rock and threw it at the object; heard it hit a tombstone with a loud "whack," still the motion continued, up and down, up and down in perfect time, undisturbed by the rock.
Then the shadow moved a little and I saw the object was white. That was bad news. I took one look up the road to see if it was clear, in case I had to make a run for it, but on second thought I decided that was not safe, as the thing might snatch me from the rear. That thought made cold chills run up my spine, then back down again. When I looked back at the thing I had an idea it had moved closer to me, yet I hadn't seen it move nor heard a sound. After all, there might be ghosts or something, but they couldn't scare me. I might even catch me one, or find out firsthand there was no such thing. In either case that would be something, but I admitted to myself things were getting a bit embarrassing.
I couldn't stay there all night and I didn't dare run, but something had to be done. I decided to go up there and see what the thing was and if it tried to pull me down in an empty grave I would give him a scrap that he would remember a long time. I would show him ghosts didn't scare me. I picked up the biggest rock I could find, without looking down, and holding my breath so I wouldn't scare the ghost away, I moved cautiously forward.
My plan was nearly upset because the shadows shifted a little and I got to the spot sooner than I intended to, but I managed to throw my rock in the right direction and as hard as I could, but never heard it hit. There was only one explanation for that. The blamed ghost had caught the rock. - I had heard they did things like that, so it was a ghost for sure.
Right then the critter rose up out of the ground between two tombstones, slowly, as a rising fog, stretched and yawned as if waking from a long sleep - as big as a house. My hair decided to stand up but my knees wanted to sit down. I was at the point of passing out when I discovered what the thing was, and couldn't help laughing right out but I admit it didn't have the right ring to it. Well you never would guess what it was. Not a ghost at all, but only a black cow with a white face, chewing her cud. I like cows, in their place. but any cow that would lie down in a graveyard at night ought to be hanged at day-break. What is your honest opinion?
One For You & One For Me
On the outskirts of town, there was a big old pecan tree by the cemetery fence.
One day two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts. "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me," said one boy. Some were accidentally dropped and rolled down toward the fence.
Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down investigate. Sure enough, he heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me." He just knew what it was. "Oh my," he
shuddered,"it's Satan and the Lord dividing the souls at the cemetery. He jumped back on his bike and rode off.
Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along. "Come here quick," said the boy, "you won't believe what I heard. Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls."
The man said, "Beat it, kid, can't you see it's hard for me to walk."
When the boy insisted, though, the man hobbled to the cemetery.
Standing by the fence they heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me. "
The old man whispered, "Boy, you've been tellin' the truth. Let's see if we can see the devil himself. "
Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of Satan.
At last they heard, "One for you, one for me. And one last one for you. That's all. Now let's go get those nuts by the fence, and we'll be done."
They say the old guy made it back to town 5 minutes before the boy.
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