Harkins - Haunted Graveyards of the Ozarks

Published by Haunted America

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2013 by David E. Harkins

All rights reserved

Cover photography courtesy of Shane Wade Corkren.

All photographs by the author unless otherwise noted.

First published 2013

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.052.3

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

print edition ISBN 978.1.60949.984.6

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Spirits of the Dead

Thy soul shall find itself alone

Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone;

Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy.

Be silent in that solitude,

Which is not lonelinessfor then

The spirits of the dead, who stood

In life before thee, are again

In death around thee, and their will

Shall overshadow thee; be still.

The night, though clear, shall frown,

And the stars shall not look down

From their high thrones in the Heaven

With light like hope to mortals given,

But their red orbs, without beam,

To thy weariness shall seem

As a burning and a fever

Which would cling to thee forever.

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,

Now are visions neer to vanish;

From thy spirit shall they pass

No more, like dew-drop from the grass.

The breeze, the breath of God, is still,

And the mist upon the hill

Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken,

Is a symbol and a token.

How it hangs upon the trees,

A mystery of mysteries!

Edgar Allan Poe, 1827

CONTENTS

DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to dedicate this book to my father, Edward Eugene Harkins, who passed from this life much too soon; my mother, Phyllis Harkins; and my two sisters, Lori and Robie Harkins; and a special thanks to my partner, Don Fohn, who has been my source of strength for the past thirty years. I would also like to acknowledge my fellow Ozarks Paranormal Society teammates, Shane Wade Corkren, Tonya Mulitalo, Debra Stanton, Jimmy Robison and mostly to my great friend Bud Steed, who inspired me to pursue the task of writing this book. Thanks, Bud, for your guidance and insight during this process. I would also like to thank the people of the Ozarks for inviting me into their homes and businesses and sharing their stories of history, folklore and the paranormal, which were the inspiration for writing this book.

INTRODUCTION

As gray and marbled tombstones weather and fade into the ground on the remains of those over whom they kept vigil so well, many of the departed who once called the Ozark Mountains home may very well still be with us. The Ozark Mountains have long been the source of many tales of forgotten as well as legendary characters and the mysteries that surround these quiet cities of wood and stone that house their earthly remains. While the names on many of the markers may have very well faded away from memory, some of these departed souls still linger within the confines of what once was. And for the living, many a ghostly tale has been passed down throughout the generations by folks living in the Ozarks.

Whether passed down by locals or the occasional passerby, these hauntings have been attributed to many factors, including grave robbery, occult rituals, unmarked and forgotten burials or natural disasters that have disturbed the resting places; many in the Ozarks believe that these occurrences may even be due to improper burials. No one really knows for sure the reason why these departed individuals still embrace this realm. Added to that, cemeteries have always held a certain mystique about them. Whether in broad daylight or on the darkest night, many of these Ozarks cemeteries have a somber feeling about them. From the more known urban necropolises to the long-forgotten family plots situated down rugged and winding gravel roads, these quiet cities of the Ozarks have the power to send chills up and down the spines of even the most hardened skeptic.

Typical Ozarks family from the early 1900s. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Along with the many tales and legends passed down through the years, numerous accounts of paranormal phenomena have been reported and experienced in the cemeteries of the Ozarks. Among them are sightings of phantom funeral processions, mysterious orbs of light, disembodied voices and even ghostly apparitions and black shadows moving about. Be it the Wilson Cemetery, which lies in a long-forgotten place in the woods that once thrived with life and wealth; Greenbrier Cemetery with its tales of ghostly apparitions of fallen Civil War soldiers; or even sightings of the apparition of mass murderer William Cockeyed Cook at the Peace Church Cemetery in Joplin, Missouri, tales of ghostly activity abound in these ancient Ozark hills. I invite you to follow me as I explore some of the more interesting historical accounts, legends and lore associated with the people, cemeteries and burial sites of the Ozark Mountains. Put your thoughts and judgments on the line and decide if you believe.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OZARKS

The Ozarks has been home to a wide variety of peoples for thousands of years. Flint work, dating back ten thousand years or more, was left by hunters and gatherers who migrated through the region. Arrowheads, spear points and knives, which belonged to ancient Indian tribes, have been found dating back one thousand to three thousand years.

Prior to the 1800s, the Ozarks countryside was a rugged wilderness that contained an abundance of wildlife. Since there were no roads, the White River in northwestern Arkansas became the highway of commerce for French explorers and trappers. It was the French who gave the Ozarks its name. It began as aux arc, which were the French words for the bows and bends in the areas streams. French Canadian trappers also made bows out of the Osage orange trees that grew in this area.

In the early 1800s, Napoleon Bonaparte, the ruler of France, was badly in need of money to finance his wars in Europe. United States president Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803. The northern part of the territory was called Upper Louisiana and included the present state of Missouri. Upper Louisiana extended northward from the thirty-third parallel to Canada and westward to the Rocky Mountains. The Ozark Mountain range extends from the southern part of Illinois, across Missouri and into Arkansas and Oklahoma.

The Ozarks Plateau rises from 1,500 to 2,300 feet above sea level, with the highest peaks being the Boston Mountains of Arkansas. The Ozarks region has a total area of about forty thousand square miles and is surrounded by the Missouri River on the north, the Mississippi River on the east, the Neosho River in Oklahoma on the west and the Boston Mountains in Arkansas on the south. The hills are covered with timber and contain rich mineral deposits.