The Sistersville Stocking Lady

Photo by Find-a-Grave contributor, Kathy Cook

I absolutely LOVE stories of haunted cemeteries and cursed tombstones.  There's just something about these particular legends that I think appeal to the thrill-seeker and adrenaline junkie in all of us!  Recently, I learned of another such legend here in the Mountain State:  The Stocking Lady of Sistersville. Like many of West Virginia's tombstone legends, this particular grave marker should be respected and admired....from far, far away!

Although we'd probably not consider Sistersville a booming city today, at one time the area was filled with wealthy citizens who made their fortunes in the oil and gas boom of the 1800s.  Many of those once-prominent citizens now call Oakwood Cemetery home, including the family of Philo Stocking.

Philo Stocking migrated from New York to the Wheeling area, and finally settled down river in Sistersville around 1841.  Local history has Philo Stocking as being one of the first people to attempt to drill oil in the area, but unfortunately it didn't quite work out.  However, Philo was a smart man.  He was sure that there was oil under his property, so he retained the oil and mineral rights to his property for him and his heirs.  Meanwhile, Stocking and his wife, Nancy, opened up a flour mill in 1852, which is still standing today under the name of Riverside Mills.  His son eventually took over the business and the family experienced financial success in the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century.

Philo passed away in 1882 and his wife Nancy followed in 1901. Both were buried in the beautiful Oakwood Cemetery. A large granite monument with the elaborate figure of a woman cradling the grave was erected, overlooking the Stocking plots.  At one time, it must have been an impressive piece of funerary art.  Unfortunately, vandals have turned the once opulent statue into a desecrated mess of broken stone.

Close-up from Granny Sue's Blog

The Stocking Lady still stands guard over the graves of the Stocking family, but her arms have been broken off.  If you look closely at her face, you'll find it scratched and gouged, her eyes which were supposed to watch over the family in their eternal slumber now indistinguishable.  Because of the disrespect shown to her, local residents feel that the Stocking Lady is out for revenge!

The Stocking Lady is one of the tales collected and told by Appalachian story-teller, Granny Sue.  In a recent appearance at the WV Book Festival, she told the story of the Stocking Lady, and how at one local event, quite a few audience members came forward with personal knowledge of the statue's wrath!  It seems as if the gentleman responsible for breaking off the arms of the Stocking Lady soon after suffered a horrific accident in which he lost an arm.  The man accused of vandalizing the statue's face went blind.  In fact, it seems that if anyone just simply TOUCHES the statue, they will suffer bad luck, most likely in the form of health problems occurring in the part of their own body corresponding to what part of the statue's body they touched.

The cemetery is also alleged to be haunted by phantom moaning and white, wispy apparitions floating about.  Is this further evidence of the Stocking Lady or members of the Stocking family showing their displeasure for how their grave site was treated...or do the mysteries of Oakwood Cemetery extend even further?  If you find yourself in the Sistersville area, possibly staying at the historic and haunted Wells Inn, make sure you take a moment to stop at the cemetery and pay your respects to the Stocking family and the Stocking Lady.  Just...don't get too close!!

(This story can also be found in Rosemary E. Guiley's book, The Big Book of West Virginia Ghost Stories.  I've seen the cemetery in question be listed as both Greenwood AND Oakwood, but according to Find-a-Grave, the grave is officially listed in Oakwood.  If you have any clarification or corrections, please let me know!)

Happy Haunting, ya'll! 

Monday Meme: Victorian Graves

Ugh!!!!!!!  I am so sick of seeing this posted on different paranormal-themed Facebook pages/groups. I'm even more concerned when I see scores of people who actually BELIEVE that this metal cage is actually intended to trap a reanimated corpse. Our Victorian ancestors were not stupid. What they were afraid of was much more terrifying than zombies and vampires.  These metal cages were not intended to keep the ghouls from getting OUT....they were intended to keep the monsters from getting IN.

The photo above depicts a device known as a mortsafe. It was used in protection against grave robbers. Back in Victorian England, a couple of things were happening....

Before that time, medical students could only dissect and otherwise use cadavers 'donated' by criminals who had been sentenced to death. And, just about any offense could lead to hanging, lol. However, during the mid to late 1800s, social justice reform was leading to less offenses being punishable by death, and thus creating a huge shortage of corpses available to medical students. Medical science was making great strides throughout this time period, so a good supply of fresh corpses was EXTREMELY important. To help meet the demand, 'ressurectionists' would steal the bodies of the newly buried and then sell them to medical schools, generally with no questions asked.

As the practice became more and more of a threat, mortsafes and other devices were invented as a way to safeguard the bodies against theft.

The Strange Tomb of Fernand Arbelot

According to a brief biography written by Kit and Morgan Benson, not much is known about the musician, actor and architect, Fernand Arbelot. However, he has left quite a legacy in the form of a very unique tomb, located in Paris' Pere Lachaise Cemetery.

The tomb depicts a man lying on his back, holding up a disembodied HEAD and gazing into its cold, stone eyes. An epitaph reads, "They were amazed at the beautiful journey which led them to the end of life."

Sources say that the stone is the work of Belgian sculptor, Adolphe Wansart,  and completed in 1946, four years after Arbelot's death.  Arbelot was born in 1880 and a Parisian newspaper ran an obituary for him on November 19, 1942. Again, very little information was given, other than that he was serving as a director in the Westminster Bank.

Legend states that Arbelot's wish behind the tomb design was to gaze upon the beautiful face of his wife for all eternity. Some unsubstantiated claims indicate that he sped that desire along by killing her before taking his own life in a murder-suicide that would give Romeo and Juliet a run for their money. What IS known is that Arbelot passed away during the Nazi occupation of Paris, a very dark period of time in French history---and while not much is known about his life, his name will forever be known, thanks to a VERY unusual piece of funerary art.

Sources:
Find-a-Grave/Kit and Morgen Benson
Amis et Passionnes du Pere-Lachaise

Buyer Beware: The Tragic Death of Ellen Shannon

There's a rather unique tombstone at Girard Cemetery in Erie County, Pennsylvania. It doesn't feature an elaborate shape or carving, nor does its size immediately draw the eye of visitors.  In fact, from afar, it looks pretty unassuming---just a normal tombstone.  It's only when one gets close enough to read the epitaph that one realizes just how special this tombstone really is.

Ellen Shannon was born in Ireland around 1844. As a housewife living in Pennsylvania, she suffered an extremely tragic and quite ironic death at the age of 26. An oil lamp exploded, fatally burning the young woman. While burns sustained from lamp accidents was a pretty common thing during this time period, the family of Ellen Shannon decided to use her tombstone as a way to point out the ironies in this particular case and warn the public that it could happen to them, too! 

A product known as R.E. Danforth's non-explosive burning liquid did just what it was marketed NOT to, and the results were deadly.  In fact, it wasn't the only time Danforth's product claims failed to deliver.  In November of 1872 a twelve year old boy suffered a similar fate trying to light his wood stove. 

In a time before Consumer Reports, the Better Business Bureau, and the internet, one family took it upon themselves to find a unique way to not only warn others of a dangerous product, but to get in a sweet little jab to the company as well. Over 100 years later, this tombstone still exists to tell the tragic and ironic tale of a young Irish girl's death...a death that should never had happened. Buyer Beware. 

In Memory of

 Ellen Shannon

Age 26 Years

Who Was Fatally

Burned Mar. 21 1870

By the Explosion

Of a Lamp Filled

With R.E. Danforth's

Non-Explosive

Burning Liquid

Baby Monster

Saar Pioneer Cemetery is located in King County, Washington and is home to a rather unique tombstone that has gripped the Pinterest world in its clutches.  It is the tombstone of Baby Monster.

Baby Monster was born on October 23, 1888 and passed away on February 3, 1889, not long after his/her third month of life. One does not normally expect to see such a tombstone with the words BABY MONSTER spelled out so clearly, especially in such a quaint, older cemetery.  This is something creepy...this is something Halloweeny...this has to be a joke, right?

No, its nothing like that.  It's simply a sad reminder that death does not discriminate and at one point in our nation's history, the infant mortality rate was through the roof.  Frankenstein Jr. does not rest in the cemetery, nor does this stone mark the grave of a deformed or handicapped child.  The word, 'Monster,' is simply a surname.  This "shocking" revelation can be backed up by the fact that Baby Monster was buried with a man named John C. Monster.  The elder Monster was born in 1851 and died in 1890.  More than likely John C. is the baby's father as they share the same stone...in fact, his name is listed directly above the baby's...a clue that is conveniently cropped from most of the photos of the Baby Monster tombstone.

According to Find-a-Grave researchers, John C.'s wife was Anna Marie Nelson Monster.  Anna was born in 1861 and died in 1920.  She is apparently buried in the same cemetery, but in an unmarked grave.  However, she is memorialized on a public tombstone honoring others buried in the cemetery without markers.  Sadly, there are two more members of the Monster Family buried in unmarked graves.  One is a female born in January of 1912 without a death date listed.  The other is a male born 9 months later in October of 1912 who died at the age of 2 days old. 

Photo  by Find-a-Grave contributor, Billie Sorrels

It's an extremely sad circumstance and one is left wondering why Baby Monster wasn't given a proper name on his/her tombstone, even after three months of life.  It's possible that this tombstone was erected or carved well after the two people it memorializes had passed away...and the person simply didn't have a record of the name of the baby.  Or, it could have possibly been because the child had never been baptized, and thus, never had a Christian name given to it. With such a high infant mortality rate at that time, it wasn't unheard of to wait several months before giving a child a proper name.  Either way, if you find yourself roaming around Saar Pioneer Cemetery, stop by the Monster grave, not to gawk, but to pay your respects to a life taken so soon...and if you see anyone on social media freaking out about it, feel free to send 'em the link to this blog post!



Update October 2018:  This photo is making its rounds again, with some added misinformation.

Again, 'Monster' is a family surname; in this case it does not indicate whether or not the child was handicapped or deformed.  As I said before, if you see someone in a Facebook group or other social media platform sharing this graphic, feel free to refer them to this blog post...or at least let them know the truth.