04/11/2004: Thanks to Andy Center and Brad Whitt for submitting this story from their trip to Elisabeth’s Grave in Ross County. It seems that many people experience something out-of-the-ordinary at the rural cemetery. They have witnessed everything from dark shadowy figures to cold spots and some have even spotted Elisabeth herself. Click Here to see the OES page about Elisabeth’s Grave.
FROM ANDY – OK, this is slightly long of a story…you see this was my first real ghost hunting trip. My friends have been a few more places than me and they had all been to Elisabeth’s grave before. They had about 15 people the first time and they didn’t see anything. My friends invited me along this time, there were five of us. We all saw black figures running in the woods, four of us saw Elisabeth in the tree, and one saw a black figure beside him that he regarded as our large friend Tyler, until he looked over and it faded away. When we left, we could still feel the presence of a paranormal being. We had a blast 🙂
FROM BRAD – On Friday, April 10, 2004, my four friends and me took a visit to Elisabeth’s grave. We have been doing this for a little bit now, and we enjoy it very much. But none of the other times compared to Friday night. When we got there it was pretty nice outside, it wasn’t really that cold. But as soon as we got to where Elisabeth was buried we all started to get cold chills and it got cold, but not that much. Then we decided to walk to the rear of the cemetery to the tree where she had hanged herself. It instantly got cold and we started to shiver and we could see our breaths. We decided to walk towards the front. We stood there for a while and I was trying to interact with them (the ghosts), asking them to give us signs of their presence. And they did. We were all pretty much standing in a little kind of circle.
There was a kid with us who was pretty tall and kind of big, so when my friend saw someone standing beside him, he didn’t think anything of it. Then he started freaking out. He said that there was a very dark figure beside him that stood about 7 feet tall. He said it was just a dark, distorted figure. Then it seemed like they were in my head, because I was asking them where they were and things like that. And I would hear something in my mind say, “look left,” or “look right,” and sure enough, when I did, there would be movement. I would point and it would be there. Then I asked, “Give us a sign if you want us to leave.” About five minutes after that, my friend Josh, who is 16, started freaking out. He couldn’t talk very well, but we knew he had saw something. Then finally, through all the hyperventilating, he said, “The tree!” We looked up, and I want you to take this VERY VERY seriously, we saw a figure. It was like a young lady standing on one of the branches of the tree, in a kind of white-looking dress. I can’t describe the feelings that were going through my mind. Was this a sign of our being there an approval or a disapproval? Then everything became alive. Things were moving, noises were coming. Then the darkened figure came back, and was maybe standing 20 feet away from us this time. My friend Josh Sollars again started freaking out. Then we saw some more darkened figures walking towards the tree and the figure in the tree disappeared. After that, we got out of there.
12/21/2004: The next story comes from Britters, who visited the cemetery for her eleventh birthday with some friends. She and her friends set up a tent, only to be scared away by shadowy figures, a lady dressed in white, and the sounds of giggling.
For my 11th birthday, a group of my older friends (consisting of three boys ages 14-16 and one other girl who was 15) took me to Elizabeth’s Grave. I, at this time, didn’t believe in ghosts and since it was a hot summer day in July, we decided to camp out right outside of the graveyard in the back. Well around 11, we all started to get crept-out and decided to stay in the tent. The flashlight in the center cast all our shadows up and none of them were moving, but if we looked around the tent at eye level, we could see dark shadows circling our tent. This completely FREAKED ME OUT, so two of the boys went to investigate. They didn’t come back, but yelled for us to join them in the graveyard. So we all walked back to where the boys were standing, by the tree Elizabeth hanged herself from. Three of the five of us (me, the other girl, and the 16-year-old boy) all saw a lady dressed in a white dress with brownish colored hair hanging there and ran back to get our belongings. As we were packing, the two boys who did not see Elizabeth claimed to hear giggling and we all saw small shadowy figures. That was the last stop on our ghost hunting trip (we had visited several “haunted” sites) and the grave was by far the scariest and one I will always remember.
08/15/2007: Our next submission comes from Ian, who along with a few friends and family members, investigated Elisabeth’s Grave and witnessed several paranormal events. Three people saw a lady in a white dress (including once through a night-vision scope), two people were touched, a car refused to start and there was an uneasy feeling between those attending throughout the night.
Me and my friends went to Elizabeth’s Grave to do a ghost hunt on August 13, 2007. I was psyched to do it. The Grave, or as it’s officially known, the Mount Union Pleasant Valley Cemetery, is one of the most notoriously haunted spots in all of Ohio, and by far the most haunted in Chillicothe. Our ghost hunt lasted from 8 until about 11. Here is a brief summary of our experiences. Three people spotted the “white lady” (Elizabeth maybe?), two with their naked eye, one through a night vision scope.* Two people were touched. Everybody was feeling uneasy or emotional at random points through the night. Everyone heard noises from the woods (and although most were probably animals, some definitely weren’t). A car died without reason, then restarted after I asked the ghost to help us out. *Elizabeth (or whoever the white lady is) is rumored to connect with women more than men. Oddly enough, the two that saw her with their naked eye were both girls. The guy that saw her did through night vision. But this is the full story.
We showed up at 8, while it was still light out. We snapped some pictures, did a little EVP work, some video, you know, standard ghost hunt stuff. Three of us went to the pile of tombstones in the back, three sat under the tree that was rumored to be the hanging tree, and two went a short way down the path into the woods. It was slow going, nothing was happening. I desperately wanted stuff to happen, but deep down I had really thought nothing would, despite the reputation of the place. Well slightly before dark, when the sun was just BARELY shining, my brother and the girl (the two that went down the path) came out, pretty quickly. The girl was very upset, and my brother looked like he was confused and scared at the same time. After a little bit, we gathered that the girl had been touched. She said she felt five fingers run down her back. She was very upset. We sent some people back in after she calmed down. Strangely enough, she was the one that wanted to go back the most. She went from upset and scared to determined to find out what happened in a very short amount of time. When we went back, the girl went ahead of the group, and told us not to follow her. We ded, and ticked her off, saying we scared it away. My friend Brian, who had the night vision, leaned over and whispered, “I’ll tell you what I just saw once we’re out of here.”
We got back to the cars (our unofficial meeting place) and discussed what happened. Brian separated me and Nick from the group (before the girl related her story) and told us he had seen a lady in white through his scope on the path. All three of us walked back to the group. Nick asked the girl what she had seen. She said, “some girl in a white dress.” Well, several more excursions down the path were made, all of which yielded something worth considering. My sister spotted the lady in white, but kept her mouth shut until we were off the path. Me and John went into the woods looking for “The Tub.” “The Tub,” as John called it was some type of stone well, but above ground. It also had drainage pipes going into it. Well, that’s how he described it. It was way off the path, and in the pitch darkness, was too hard to find (despite the flashlight). We found an old wagon, which John said was close. After that I got majorly nervous. My brother called me, asking me to get out of there (the girl from earlier had a bad feeling, I guess). That didn’t help. We got out just fine, aside from a brand new splinter in my index finger.
Later on, we saw headlights. Now, despite the fact that we weren’t doing anything illegal such as smoking, drinking, vandalizing, just being in a cemetery at night was illegal. So we packed up, fearing the cops, but it was just some kids. We turned back around. The kids also did, and left without staying. I don’t know why, maybe they just wanted a peek at the cemetery, and then left. Oh well. When we came back, we parked both our cars, and then realized we were blocking the road. The drivers of both cars went to pull over to the side. Nick succeeded. The girl didn’t. Her car refused to start, even though it was less than a minute since she had taken the key out from the ignition. She started freaking out. And I don’t mean the scared freak out, I mean the angry, cuss-out freak out. Now, a lesser known portion of the legend states that sometimes a car will refuse to start for no reason. This rule applies to many urban legends, so we had never considered it. Brian half-jokingly said to me, “Maybe we should ask the spirit to restart the car.” I walked away from the group, all bunched around the car, and muttered to the air, “We aren’t here to bother you or make you angry, we are just trying to find out who you are and stuff, so could you restart the car?” The next three minutes went by without change, until the girl tried the key again, and sure enough, the car started. I told everyone separately, so as not to make a fuss. And everyone was unexplainably happy after that.
Despite the prior panic and fear, everyone was now in a good mood. Another friend showed up later with his girlfriend, and decided to help out. We all went down the path. He had not been informed of any of the previous happenings. Which is why I was surprised when he said he had been touched on the shoulder. He said he felt a hand press down on his shoulder. The rest of the night went by, with only a couple more minor instances. We have yet to go over the audio and video of the evidence. However, Nick already has a picture in which the white lady is visible. No video evidence or EVPs, here is a picture though. One of our ghost hunters, Tawny (seen in the picture) was taking a picture of herself and two other hunters for fun before the investigation really took off, and zoomed the camera in too far. A person is seen behind her, wearing what looks like a white dress. However, the face is blurred out. A second picture was snapped moments later, free of any anomalies. I don’t have the clear picture, but here is the “ghost” photo. So in all: Elizabeth’s Grave is definitely no joke. It’ll make a believer out of any skeptic.