More than 20 spirits from Woodbury's past will be stationed in the Ancient Burying Ground near the Glebe House this Saturday, each anxious to tell how they lived and how they died.
"It is indeed a haunted cemetery," Glebe House Museum and Gertrude Jekyll Garden Director Judith Kelz said. "It's like the Glebe House. We know there are spirits here."
Folks can experience those spirits and their stories at All Hollow's Eve, an annual event featuring cemetery tours, a candlelit museum tour, storytelling by Joyce Marie Rayno, Tarot card readings by Madame Suzolo and more. Rayno portrays .
All Hollow's Eve Details
Time: 5 to 8:30 p.m.
Date: Saturday, Oct. 20
Rain Date: Saturday, Oct. 27
Address: 49 Hollow Rd., Woodbury
Cost: Tickets in advance are $10 per person and $20 per family. At the door, tickets are $12 per person and $25 per family.
Contact: 203-263-2855; ghmgig@snet.net
A Spirited Evening
"We brought back the murderers and the people who were murdered," Kelz said, and those spirits will be sharing their stores in the graveyard. "Whenever possible, I try to have the spirits where they are buried."
Last year, the ghosts and stories were all related to the 17 settler families of Woodbury.
"Because we've been doing this for 10 years, I now have a file of 150 different characters so I keep rotating them," said Kelz.
Samuel Foote, an original owner of a tavern located where the Curtis House now is, was murdered in the horse barn near St. Paul's Episcopal Church years ago.
"We see him in the cemetery a lot," Kelz said.
The Curtis House has its fair share of spirits wandering about.
Jemima Bacon Tomlinson also has a sad tale to tell. She was married and her husband and father were both Tories, Kelz said, but the Sons of Liberty went around to local families and demanded allegiance.
"The father did but the son was very idealistic," Kelz said. "He didn't pledge his allegiance and he fled. He left and he never came back. Jemima did away with herself. She roams the cemetery."
