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Stockum Cemetery is located on a haul road, south of OH-541, outside Coshocton, Ohio (Linton Township, Coshocton County). I do not have the coordinates for the cemetery.

Finding Stockum Cemetery is a little challenging. To get to it, you'll want to take OH-541 east out of Coshocton. Once you pass TR-123 on the right, look for the "Caution - Haul Road" sign on the right...it should be the next road. Turn onto the gravel haul road. You'll eventually come to an intersection. Turn left. After turning left, the road will soon come to a fork. Veer to the left, it's the scary dirt road with deep grooves. This is the road the cemetery is located on. It looks like it washes out/floods, so use caution. Greg and I ended up parking and hiking back to the cemetery rather than risk getting stuck in the mud.

Stockum Cemetery is a small family cemetery that is no longer active. Not only is it no longer used for burials, but it's not even maintained. The grass was extremely high when we visited, and there was trash EVERYWHERE! It appears to be a popular place for kids to hang out. Unfortunately, just about all of the gravestones have been broken and vandalized. Many gravestone pieces have been moved into the woods surrounding the cemetery. It's so sad to see it in such horrible condition.

So why would the cemetery be such a popular place for kids to hang out? Well first of all, it's in a very desolate location. And there's also the ghost stories. Legend has it that a woman named Mary Stockum haunts the cemetery and woods around it. Supposedly her second husband killed her mentally challenged daughter. But that didn't make her angry. What did make her angry was the town hanging her husband for the crime. She was so upset that she started to poison her remaining children, one by one. After the fifth child died, the town fathers charged her with murder and had her burned as a witch. They buried her in the cemetery with the rest of her family. However, shortly after she was burned at the stake, a sixth child died. They dug up Mary's body and cut off her head, and they buried it at an unknown location outside of the cemetery. No more of her children died after that.

Today Mary Stockum's ghost is sometimes seen wandering around the cemetery, searching for her head and her remaining children. There have been numerous reports of her asking people to follow her into the woods. Many people have also experienced strange car problems there.

On November 17, 2004 I received the following e-mail from William about his terrifying experience at the cemetery:

I have not been to Mary Stockum's cemetery in such a long time, but recently I was thinking about what happened to me there. You know, I can found nothing on the internet about her family issues in Coshocton County Records??? Can you help set the record straight so people know? I think I see her in dreams.

I have never told anyone about this for fear of being laughed at.

Now that I am older, I am disappointed in myself for the reasons I went there. In a strange way I am glad Mary did what she did.

It was nighttime, probably about 2:00 AM. I remember walking and walking around looking for her grave, just for the simple reason to say I was there before (for some reason it is a big thing in the area I grew up in).

I would say 20 or 30 minutes passed, and I remember saying in my mind stuff like "Where is this fucking grave!" I was down over a knoll and in a thicket searching around for her grave. I was saying other bad things in my mind about not actually finding her tombstone, when suddenly I heard a loud banging or thuds. I stopped moving in the thicket and just listened because it scared me. The noise just keep going and going. I realized the noise was coming from where I parked my car. So my next thought was someone is messing with my car. I never thought at all it could be anything else. I wanted to get a closer look but I am not an idiot (getting beat up or robbed by drug dealers, etc). So I moved slowly staying in the tree line back over the knoll. While I am moving, the banging stayed constant. I swear every second: bang, bang, bang. As this sinks in my mind moving up the knoll, it also sinks in that this cannot be drug dealers, or a gang. It just can't be. If you heard the sound you would understand.

As I come creeping over the knoll in the tree line my heart jumped through my chest, and I remember feeling weak. What was happening was unbelievable. My car hood was opening all the way up and closing fast - over and over and over. I actually stood up and could only watch in horror. It just kept going. I called out to Mary quietly and gradually yelled her name. I asked her to please stop. My hood just kept opening and closing. Then thought I should be tough, so I started walking toward the car and yelled to her to "stop fucking around!" My hood just kept going and going. I got about 10 to 15 feet from my car, and a hole or the ground moved down from about my car doors to about 3 feet in front of my car, 3 feet or so wider than my car and about 6 inches deep. This took just seconds and my hood was still going up and down faster and faster. I took off fast! I ran as far as I could, and as fast as I could down the lane to get out of there. I ran until I slowed to a jog, and then jogged to the haul road. I WALKED 9 miles back to the house I rented.

The next day my friend Garry and I went out there. I just told him I got stuck in a little hole. He could not believe I went out there by myself. As we got closer to where I saw my car it was clearly in almost a perfect circle. The back tires were not in. Just from about the rear of my car doors to 2 feet in front of the bumper. I was scared to get in the car but I did not want Garry to know what actually happened (small town, people talk and then you become a wuss or a wimp). He put chains on and pulled me out easily. My car ran fine. I left there and have never returned.

If you go there...THAT'S WHY I SAID GO WITH SOME ONE & TELL OTHERS WHERE YOU ARE GOING! BRING a camcorder.

Lastly please tell Mary I am sorry.

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