Ghost in Minneapolis

                                                                    True Ghost Story

First, I will provide a little history of this cemetery in Minneapolis to put the story in context.

Minneapolis's first cemetery was established in 1857. By the end of thirty years, Maple Hill Cemetery had five thousand graves. It was located at Broadway and Fillmore. The graveyard was not cared for, the paperwork was shoddy, and some graves were only two feet deep. After a storm, some caskets could be seen. The people in the area complained of health hazards, and efforts began to move the graves. However, the lack of funds halted the removal, so graves and markers were left.

In 1908, Minneapolis Park Board decided to acquire the property and make it into a children's park.

By 1918, the children's park was opened at one end of the land. But the cemetery section was still a mess.

Thirty men from the neighborhood went under cover of darkness and hitched up three teams of horses to clear the land of all the debris. They dumped the headstones and markers in a ravine.

Eight of the thirty men were implicated in the "vandalism". Two of the eight were charged but acquitted at the trial.

The Park Board decided to do something, so they cleaned up the land, added a skating rink, a warming house, and horseshoe pits, and renamed the park Beltrami Park in 1948.

Two small gravestones and a monument to forty-six Civil War veterans who were once buried there are still on the northwest side.

This story is repeated from last year as I enjoy it. I hope you do, too.

This true story is taken from Ben Weller's book Minnesota Mysteries. It was published in the Minneapolis Tribune on November 6, 1899.

Now, On to The Ghost of Maple Hill Cemetery.

(Before it became Beltrami Park.)

Ida Olson slipped her arm through Ole Johnson's arms as they walked on Central Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis. Despite the night's blackness, they could see the smile on each other's faces. 

Ole asked, "Will you go to the movies with me next Saturday night?"

Ida opened her lips to speak as she looked at Ole when she caught a movement in the cemetery they were walking past from the corner of her eyes. "What is that?" She pointed to a white shape that rose up from the ground.

"Run!" yelled Ole. "A ghost." His long legs went at full speed up the street.

Ida froze for a moment before she began running and screaming. She saw a man walking further up the street past the cemetery and ran toward him, shrieking, "Help! Help!"

"Calm down. What's the matter?"

Ida gasped and shook and could not speak coherently.

"My name is John Adams. I work at the Columbia Heights mills. Let's go into this drugstore, and you can tell me what has happened." He led her into the nearby lighted warm store with other customers.

"Please, everyone, listen to me," said Ida frantically. "There is a ghost in the cemetery. I saw it. It chased me. A ghost!"

One customer said, "I think she is a bit looney."

"I think she has had too much to drink," said another. The customer stepped over to her and smelled her breath. "Nope. Don't smell any booze."

"Believe me, I saw a white figure rise from the graves. It had horns and a long white beard." After describing the ghost, Ida became hysterical.

Ole Johnson came into the drugstore. "Ida, are you all right? I've been looking for you."

"You ran off and left me. I'm never going to the movies with you."

"After I saw the ghost, I ran toward it to see what it was, but it disappeared. I thought you were right behind me. Believe me, I would never leave you alone."

"I don't believe you."

John Adams spoke up and said, "Mister, what's your name, and did you see this ghost she is raving about?"

"My name is Ole Johnson, and yes, I did see the ghost with my own eyes."

"I'm going to the cemetery to look for this ghost. Anyone want to come with me?" asked John Adams.

Several men from the drugstore, John, Ida, and Ole, walked to the cemetery. In the pitch darkness, they entered the graveyard carefully so they would not trip on gravestones.

Ida stopped. "This is where the ghost rose up."

The men could see the crushed dead leaves and the dried grass, indicating that a body had indeed lain there.

They whispered to each other and stayed together in small groups. After an extended search, during which nothing was found, they headed back to Central Avenue.

A gasp of horror from Ole Johnson as he sank to the ground caught everyone's attention.

A few yards away and hardly visible in the blackness, a white figure with horns and a long white beard loomed up from the ground. It made no sound.

Silence gripped everyone as they stared.

A group member drew his gun from his pants belt and said, "Speak, or I'll shoot."

The figure remained silent and did not move.

"Speak up, or I'll shoot."

The horned white shape moved a trifle and then broke the fearful black silence with "Ba-a-a-h!" It moved toward the men. "Ba-a-a-h," issued forth from a huge white goat with beautiful horns and long gray whiskers as it approached the men and began nosing around for food.

Tension broke like a dam, and laughter split the air until everyone had tears streaming down their faces.

After the 'ghost' was spotted, Ole Johnson was nowhere to be seen, and the brave-hearted men walked Ida home.

Later, it was learned that the goat's owner had pastured it in the graveyard for the summer and had not yet come to claim it. 

I must admit that if I were walking in the blackness of night past a cemetery and saw a white shape rise from the ground, I would likely run screaming, too.

                                                          Happy Halloween.

What about that black cat?

                                         What About That Black Cat?

A witch can have familiars, and cats are one of them. All the familiars have magic powers.

It may have started in Egypt, where they were first tamed to keep the grain storehouses free of mice. They soon worshiped a cat-head goddess named Pasht. They carved cat statues and made furniture and jewelry shaped like cats.

The ancient Greeks and Romans believed the goddess Hecate ruled over witches, wizards, and ghosts. The priestess was a cat they thought was once a woman.

Freya was a Norse goddess of beauty, love, marriage, and of the dead. After warriors were killed in battle, she was allowed to claim the souls of half of the slain by gathering them in a chariot drawn by cats. 

The familiar cats in days of yore could be any color, but as time passed, it was decided the cats were black because, in the shadowy night, all cats were black. The cats were feared because they crept; their yellow eyes looked sinister, and they could see at night while humans couldn't.

Some people believed a witch could become a cat. 

Some sayings developed, such as the following. Being honest as a cat when the cream is out of reach. Never let a cat into the same room with a corpse. It might be a demon and turn the dead soul into a vampire. A cat that sits with its back to the fire is raising a storm.  

Cats could be a good omen, and these sayings developed: If a cat rubs against you, expect good luck. If it yawns, an opportunity awaits. A ship with a cat on board is never wrecked, for the cat acts as a countercharm.

                                         OWLS

Owls can be a familiar to the witches.

In ancient Rome, owls were thought to bring evil, while in Greece, the owl was a familiar of the Creek goddess of wisdom and, therefore, was sacred.

The Screech owls nest in hollow trees during the day and only come out at night and make a weird, trembling call and hollow whistle, frightening travelers.

I have never read this tale by the Brothers Grimm, and you may not have read it either, so I will post part of it here.

                                                                Jorinda and Joringel

Jorinda is the sister of Joringel, who is a boy. They walked too close to a witch's castle. An owl circles overhead, screeching. The boy, Joringel, is struck motionless and speechless. His sister Jorinda turns into a nightingale. The owl disappears into a thicket, and a bent old woman emerges. When she takes the nightingale away in a basket, the boy, Joringel, realizes that the old woman is a witch. To read the whole story, go to Grimm's Fairy Tales online. 

Still, some people believe the owl's screech means death or disaster.

                                       Bat

Bats are creatures of the night, which in itself makes them scary. Their heads are oddly shaped. Some bats's heads are shaped like tiny bulldogs. Other bats's heads are like miniature bears with long, pointed teeth. Their bodies can be two inches long, but their wingspan can be over one foot. They live in scary places such as caves, abandoned homes, empty barns, and deep in a forest. By day, they hang upside down with their wings wrapped around them like a witch's cloak. They fly quickly in the deepest dark of night. To the ancients, that meant they were evil.

                                        Toad

During the witch hunts in Europe, most people lived on farms. There were toads in their gardens, under their porches, in the fields, and along the road.

Rocks were thrown at the toads as they were thought to be poisonous. If a dog or a human caught a toad, the catcher soon regretted it. Their eyes, nose, and mouth would burn or itch.

And a toad can change its size from minor to larger by absorbing water through its skin.

William Shakespeare wrote:

"Round about the cauldron go;

In the poisoned entrails throw.

Toad that under the cold stone,

Days and nights hast thirty-one

Swelter's venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!"

Much of the above information is from Edna Barth's book Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts.

My next blog will be about sighting a "ghost" in the Maple Hill Cemetery in northeast Minneapolis, Minnesota. Stay tuned.