The OES visited Saint Jacob Cemetery on April 12, 2015 and again on April 25, 2015. Also known as Saint Jacobs Cemetery, the cemetery was established around 1834 by the St. Jacob’s German Reformed Church although some tombstones precede this date. There was a church building at the site until it was removed sometime later. The last burial we found in records happened in 1964. An iron fence totally enclosed the cemetery, including a newer portion of fence along Palmer Road. Most of the tombstones were in good shape. A handful were written in German, but most were English. Township trustees are responsible for the care and upkeep of the grounds.
St. Jacob Cemetery is host to its very own legend, known as “Kinder Der Nacht,” or “Children of the night.” The legend states that back in the 1800s, travelers passing by St. Jacob Cemetery at night would often hear the singing and laughter of children coming from the cemetery. Some even claimed to have seen shadowy figures. During our visit on April 12, we recorded several possible responses on the SB-11 spirit box. We decided to drive past the cemetery at night a few days later on April 25. One of our members was using a full spectrum GoPro camera and captured a strange mist at three different times. We did not see anything unusual with our naked eye. Coincidentally, the SB-11 we were using began to malfunction when we arrived to the cemetery and quickly died. We’re not sure if this was pure coincidence or if the mists had something to do with it. The video is included below the photos.
Location Information: Inactive Cemetery
Saint Jacob Cemetery is located on the north side of Palmer Road, about a quarter mile east of Watkins Road; Licking County.
Photographs
The roadside sign for St. Jacob Cemetery.
A wide-view stitched panoramic photo of St. Jacob Cemetery.
The view of the cemetery as we walked through the iron gate.
Some of the tombstones near the rear of the cemetery. Notice the iron fence surrounds the entire property.
The tombstone of veteran Grover C. Rolley, who died on December 19, 1925.
The granite tombstone for Jacob and Elisabeth Slabaugh. Jacob died in 1898 at about 79-years-old and Sarah died in 1884 around 61-years-old.
We could not make out the name on this repaired tombstone. It appears to us that the person died on December 10, 1865 at 69 years, 9 months and 19 days.
The tombstone of infant George A. Wagner. He died before reaching two months old.
The tombstone of Samuel Hagy (1788-1866) and his wife Mary (1787-1861). Their tombstone was set at an odd angle compared to the others in the cemetery.
The tombstone for Cusebius Strahm with the sun setting behind the trees. Born in 1789, Cusebius died on April 11, 1853.
The tombstones of Mary and Jacob Scheidegger.
Elizabeth Magly's tombstone. Born March 7, 1768, Elizabeth died on September 7, 1846.
Four tombstones at the front of the cemetery. The back left stone belonged to John (1784-1868) and Anna (1791-1869) Andregg. The back right stone belonged to Mary Ann Andregg (1824-1852). The front left belonged to John Magley (1794-1874). And the broken tombstone at the front right was Jacob Schearer's (1794-1879).
An overview look at the some of the graves of St. Jacob Cemetery.
These tombstones belonged to members of the Born family, including 7-year-old Wesley at the near-end.
Video
St. Jacob Cemetery: Mists
This full spectrum video shows a strange mist in three separate locations. We were unable to determine what caused the mist as we did not witness it with the naked eye. Times the mists appear are 0:12, 0:19 and 0:24.
