Old Pevehouse Cemetery - A Ghostly Tale From Generations of Old
by Tim Campbell · first published 18 October 2017 · his original post
Since it is the season of haints, boogers, spooks, witches, and the like, I would be remiss if I didn't relay this story which has been told and retold since the earliest days of old Gradyville and Blooming Grove. My father related this tale to me as a boy, as his grandfather, pioneer William Furra Campbell related it to him.
Old Pevehouse Cemetery sits about 2.5 to 3 miles south southwest of the present village of Blooming Grove. Its earliest graves date to before the Civil War. An above average number of the tombs in the graveyard appear to be those of children. Growing up in BG everyone I knew called it the "Baby Cemetery". It is overgrown with trees and vines and if you don't know to look for it you would probably drive right by it and not know it was there.
In the very early days of our community, before the coming of the railroad, the town sat one mile to the south. The town of Frost also sat about a mile south of where it is now. I believe it was called Crossroads. There was a large ranch near Crossroads called Jones Ranch which had its own school.
Anyway, for whatever reason, it seems there was a man driving a team of horses and a buggy from the area of Jones Ranch to Gradyville and this trip was being made at night. I recall my father saying the man's name but don't remember exactly what it was, a long name, something like Brumbelow or Treadaway. He was driiving his buggy eastward on the road that passes Old Pevehouse Cemetery, coming down a hill, when his horses began to stall and act spooked. He convinced the beasts to move forward and was on guard for some predator like a mountain lion. As he reached the bottom of the hill and passed the old cemetery he caught an object in the corner of his eye coming behind him. He turned to look and it was something white following him, hovering and floating like a sheet in the wind. The man frantically sent his team at top speed down the road, scared out of his wits by the ghostly sight. He ran the team all the way to Gradyville where he recanted the tale to his wife. When the man awoke the next morning his full head of dark hair had turned completely white.
Now fast forward a few years and add a couple of notorious pranksters. The above story was being retold robustly by BG natives Thomas M Campbell and Kermit "Bug" Cumpston to whomever would listen on the sidewalks in town. One such avid and wide-eyed listener was a fellow whose name I think was Lockridge and who lived on the west side of town. Not long after the tale was told, Campbell and Cumpston got wind that Lockridge would be coming past Old Pevehouse Cemetery on his horse one evening. The boys pilfered two of their grandmother's white sheets, cut holes for eyes, and at the appointed time hid in the tall summer milkweeds by the road just past the cemetery. Sure enough Lockridge came by on his horse a little after dark. The boys rose up in the sheets groaning and moaning as you can imagine and the spectacle so scared poor Lockridge that he almost ran his horse to death getting back to Blooming Grove.
Nowadays the Old Pevehouse Cemetery is called "Crybaby" Cemetery, by the younger generations. I do not know why. Perhaps they have a ghost story of their own to tell.