Otterbein Cemetery

The OES visited Otterbein Cemetery on July 4, 2003. This cemetery is located near Somerset, Ohio and is the location of the infamous Horseshoe Grave. The cemetery was probably founded sometime in the 1830s or 1840s and is still in use to this day. Many veterans from various wars are buried here. Most of the tombstones are made of marble or granite. The brick church next to the cemetery was probably built around the same time as the cemetery was founded. The Horseshoe Grave is what this cemetery is known for. As the story goes, a man named James Henry had two women that wanted to marry him, Mary Angle and Rachel Hodge. One night while he was out riding his horse trying to decide which to marry, he fell asleep. When he awoke, he found himself at Mary's house. Taking it as a sign, he and Mary were married soon after, Rachel serving as a bridesmaid. Mary became pregnant and on February 28, 1845, she died during childbirth; the baby stillborn. She was buried at Otterbein Cemetery. Three years later, James decided to marry Rachel Hodge, and did so on December 7, 1848. Rachel wore a black dress at the wedding and the two visited Mary's grave after the wedding. About a week later, the cemetery's caretaker discovered that a mysterious horseshoe had appeared on the back of Mary's tombstone. Reports of strange noises and balls of light in the cemetery at night also began to pour in. The next morning James went to the barn to do his chores. He stayed gone longer than usual, so Rachel went out to check on him. She found him dead in the horse's stall with the imprint of a horseshoe, identical to the one on Mary's tombstone, on his forehead. It is said that during the night, one could sometimes hear the pounding of horses hooves coming down the road, towards the cemetery. Reports of mysterious balls of light and eerie sounds still plague the cemetery. The horseshoe on the back of Mary's tombstone cannot be scrubbed off. Locals say that the current stone is a replacement for the original stone, and that the horseshoe appeared on the current stone only days after it was erected. The night we visited the cemetery, the only sound we heard were the neighbor's dogs barking continuously. We tried to obtain EVP from the cemetery, but got nothing. High EMF readings were detected near Mary Henry's tombstone, as well as a few others. An odd occurrence did happen while we were there, however. On the way back to our vehicle, we discovered that a plant had been pressed down to the ground, like someone stepped on it and broke it. Only minutes before, we had been in this exact location and the plant was perfectly fine. Maybe the horse's spirit came waltzing by and bent the plant to the ground. UPDATE: There are now several no trespassing signs posted at the cemetery and security cameras have been installed to watch over the grounds. While daytime visits should still be fine, night trips are discouraged.

Location Information: Active Cemetery

Otterbein is on County Road 62 between Rushville and Somerset, Perry County.

Photographs