Ghastly Ghost Tale In Edmond Will Give You The Chills

You may have heard ghost stories involving paranormal activities at Evans Hall on the University of Central Oklahoma campus or even at Central Middle School in Edmond. However, the ghost story being told by the Edmond Historic Preservation Trust at this year’s ghost tour
may just send chills down your spine.
 

Lisa Truesdell, chairman of the Edmond Historic Preservation Trust ghost tour this year, said this tale requires some groundwork before you can get to the hauntingly good part of the story.
 

According to Truesdell, as a result of the very first land run in 1889, where people rushed to claim free land in Oklahoma Territory, Edmond virtually became a town nearly overnight.
A large portion of land, which is now the present-day area from 2nd Street to 9th Street and between Boulevard to Bryant Avenue, was reserved at that time for school land. The land wasn’t to build a school on, but to raise money for a school instead.

Shortly after the land run, people started dying, whether from natural causes, from accidents or from acts of violence. There was a law in Oklahoma Territory that said it was illegal to bury a body on public land. If you had a farm you could bury your loved one there. However, there was not a cemetery for the town of Edmond at that time.

Because people could not bury their loved one or whoever the person may be on public land, townspeople began to bury people on the empty school land. Sometimes graves were marked with a simple marker, such as a cross. Other times, the graves remained unmarked. This illegal
burial continued for several years.

“People would just randomly find a spot under a tree, like let’s bury Grandma here,” Truesdell said.

The territorial governor of that time got news that this was occurring in Edmond and demanded that Edmond remedy the situation immediately.

In January of 1895, the town established an official cemetery on donated land at the corner of what is now Danforth Road and Broadway/Boulevard. The cemetery was called Fairlawn Cemetery, sometimes just Edmond Cemetery, and it was later renamed to what it is called today, Gracelawn Cemetery.

Now that the cemetery was established, the next task was to remove the bodies illegally buried on the school land.
Entrepreneurs, who wanted to make some money on the deal, began putting advertisements in the town’s newspaper known then as The Edmond Sun Democrat.
An advertisement that ran in the Oct. 4, 1895 edition of the newspaper read: “The city cemetery is now laid off into lots. Parties having friends buried on the school section that desire to have them interned in the city cemetery, by calling on Oscar Johnson, can have such work done at reasonable rates.”
Numerous bodies were removed from the land, however, they were hard to find or those who knew where the deceased was buried had moved away. Some families were also not fond of the idea and did not want their loved one’s bodies tampered with and they wanted them to remain on the land.

“They did the best they could,” Truesdell said. “Edmond had a big, morbid problem. The new cemetery was being called a bone yard rather than a peaceful last resting place for loved ones.”
 

Truesdell said the once peaceful school land had now turned into a mess from townspeople digging successfully and unsuccessfully in order to find remains.
“Imagine the shenanigans that school kids might pull on Halloween night in an area like that,” Truesdell said.

As time passed, though, the pressing issue of removing the deceased from the school land was put on the back burner for a time. That is, until Edmond began to expand, as did residential expansion. Thus, it became a problem once again. The school land was sold off, which was the original purpose to earn money for schools anyway, for residential additions to Edmond. As contractors began excavating, more graves were found, most of which remained unknown.
 

Nearby the present-day area of an old apartment building near UCO has been identified as having a number of unmarked graves that could still be there today.
 

“This was determined to have been a popular burial spot in those days,” Truesdell said. “So, as you are passing through on those residential streets south of 2nd Street, be aware that the area is sacred for many people whose ancestors still lie there.” Because homes were built on top of graves in town, Truesdell said you may wonder if restless spirits have remained in the area.
“I’ve never encountered a spirit myself, but there are several stories of others encountering them,” Truesdell said.
A home south of 2nd Street, which shall not be named for safety reasons for the current homeowners, was one of those homes where multiple people have experienced what they think is one of those restless spirits. Truesdell said a restless spirit that seemed to be that of a fun,
loving and mischievous little girl.
Truesdell said a little girl who lived at the home with her parents, would oftentimes point out to the yard and say, “Baby! Mama, I want to play with that baby!”
 

However, every time the parents would look outside where their daughter was pointing, there was no one to be seen.

“It made the mother a little uneasy,” Truesdell said. "She chalked it up to the imagination of a very creative toddler.”

That is, until other events at their home began to unfold …

To find out the rest of the ghastly ghost tale, stop by the 1889 Territorial Schoolhouse from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sat., Oct. 28. For the Edmond Historic Preservation Trust’s historical ghost tour.

**CHANGE IN VENUE: BIG NEWS!!! Edmond Historic Ghost Tours will move tomorrow evening from the Territorial schoolhouse to the Edmond Museum at 431 S Boulevard due to the inclement weather forecast. Not to worry…our ghosts have been notified of the new location. Same time 7:00-9:00 Saturday October 28. $10 admission 12 and under free with adult. Don’t miss Jenny Forster, Bonnie Terry, Richard Thatcher, Russell Dougherty, Elma Childers and William Maurice Sulcer and Carrie Nation as they tell the stories of early day Edmond and education in Edmond.

Other founding members include Bonnie Terry, a school marm in the early day of Edmond, William Maurice Sulcer, one of the teachers and principals of Edmond’s Separate School, Russell Dougherty, the first Edmond high school graduate who was killed in World War II, Carrie Nation, the self-proclaimed prohibitionist who visited in the early days of Edmond, and Elma Childers, an Edmond area homesteader. Richard Thatcher, the first president, and teacher at the Territorial Normal School, which later became UCO, will also be represented.