Aurora Cemetery is a square, garden-like cemetery at the southwest corner of Route 14 and West 14 Road, north of Aurora in central Nebraska. The grave of Susan A. Gavan sits in the northwest corner of the cemetery, surrounded by iron posts that formerly held up heavy chains. Historically, Susan died in 1882 at the age of 40 and was buried with her 7-month-old daughter, May. Oddly, her husband and she were married on Halloween in 1861. Every Halloween, on their wedding anniversary, local teens venture out to her grave and dare each other to step on it. Susan, they say, was a witch who put a curse on the town before she was executed. Anyone who steps on her grave will either die within nine years, or by the age of 21. In reality, however, Susan was a respected woman. Her obituary read, “the community realizes that from our midst in life has gone an estimable lady, and extends heartfelt sympathy to the bereaved family.” That has not stopped generations of local children from making nighttime journeys to the infamous Nebraska “witch’s grave.”
Bertha’s Grave in Lakeside Cemetery - Itasca County, Minnesota
Located at the southern tip of Trout Lake off Crooked Road, just north of Trout Lake Road, the tiny rural graveyard of Lakeside Cemetery is just a collection of scattered headstones, at least to the casual observer. According to local legend, however, it is home to the grave of a notorious witch named Bertha. Bertha Maynard was born on January 26, 1872 and died January 27, 1910, exactly one day after her 38th birthday. Not much is known about her life, but the legend has been around for many decades. Bertha’s grave sits alone at the bottom of the hill, because her family did not want it to be moved with the others when they were relocated due to concerns over flooding. Due to frequent vandalism, however, her headstone disappeared for seven years until it was replaced at the request of the family. This led to rumors that her headstone moved around and became invisible on Halloween. Bertha’s ghost has also allegedly been seen lurking in the cemetery.
Chesterville Witch’s Grave - Chesterville, Illinois
Chesterville is a small Amish and Mennonite community that consists of no more than a few dozen houses located a couple of miles away from Rockome gardens. Within the neatly trimmed grounds of Chesterville Cemetery, an old oak tree stands at the edge of the woods that separates the graveyard from the river. The peculiar thing about this tree is the iron fence that surrounds it, and the old stone marker that no longer bears a name. According to Troy Taylor, this is the grave of a woman who turned up dead after being accused of witchcraft in the early 1900s after she challenged the conservative views of the local Amish church elders. The town planted a tree over her grave to trap her spirit inside and prevent her from taking revenge. Her ghost can still be seen from time to time hanging around the area. In 2014, this legend was featured in episode one of An Amish Haunting.
The Smith Grave - Kirtland Hills, Ohio
A stone memorial sits along Hart Road near the intersection of Hart and Baldwin roads, northeast of Cleveland in the scattered rural community of Kirtland Hills. Locals whisper that if you face the memorial, turn your back to it, then turn to face it again, it will move closer. This memorial, surrounded by a low stone wall, contains the remains of the Levi Smith family, early settlers of the area who migrated from Derby, Connecticut in 1814. Levi’s wife, Ruth, died in 1818 and Levi died in 1820. Some claim Levi Smith helped bring Mormonism to the area, but Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, was only 15 years old when Levi died. He did not publish the Book of Mormon until 1830. Another popular legend is that Levi and Ruth were witches who had been driven out of Connecticut, which was a hotbed of witch persecutions. The problem with this theory is that the last witch trials in Connecticut (and in New England) took place in the late 1690s. These facts have not prevented the legend of the Kirtland witch’s grave from spreading, and each year brings a fresh batch of curiosity seekers to this isolated stretch of road.
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