Noxubee Wildlife Refuge Cemetery

When I attended Mississippi State University, there wasn't much in the way of entertainment. My senior year of college ended up consisting of a lot of hiking, usually done at the Noxubee Wildlife Refuge south of campus. It's a beautiful park, full of trails, a lake and lots of small rivers, swampland, and this really beautiful field where a pavilion sits, into which my husband carved our initials before we were married.

The pictures I'm posting today are from a tiny graveyard that I, my future husband, and our friends accidentally found while searching for another, completely different cemetery. It was especially creepy, as it was unmarked, unlit, in the middle of the woods, and surrounded by barbed wire. It would have been creepy in broad daylight, and without the eerie drizzle.

We also ended up finding a really awesome abandoned barn down the street. I wish like hell I had taken more photos of it, but as soon as we entered we became distracted by the discovery of a female beagle lying down in the hay covering the floor, looking as though she hadn't eaten in weeks. We took her home, bathed her, and named her Daisy.

noxubee refuge cemetery

Waverley Mansion/George Hampton Young Cemetery

(photo by me!)

Today was my very first visit to the Waverley Plantation in West Point, MS, even though I've lived in the area since 2007! The place is a pretty well-kept secret; I hadn't even heard of it until last fall.

The house is just gorgeous. The picture does not do it justice. Obviously Greek Revival, the house was built in the middle of the woods between West Point and Columbus by Colonel George Hampton Young, who owned 2000 acres of land out there, most of which he'd purchased for $1.25 an acre. About forty acres of it was cotton fields, and the Youngs first lived on the land in a small log cabin after moving to the area from Georgia. After the Youngs started to become wealthy from their cotton crop, the Colonel decided he wanted a bigger house and began construction. It was finished in about 1852, but his wife Lucy Woodson Watkins died six months after the building started. They had ten children.

The most impressive feature of the house is undoubtedly the octogonal rotunda, visibile from your first step through the front door. It goes up four stories and it is completely breathtaking.

(To see pictures of the inside of the mansion, as well as learn a little more about the history of the place, follow this link: http://www.newsouthernview.com/pages/nsv_ie_waverley.html. Credit to The New Southern View ezine. There's a big, fat sign on the door that said I wasn't allowed to take pictures.)

In its day, the Waverley Plantation was amazing. It was a completely self-sustaining community, with an icehouse that had ice shipped from New York, a silkworm farm, a general store, a cotton gin--you name it, and Waverley probably had it. There were fantastic parties for Civil War officers and the National Fox Hunters Association started there. The house played host to frequent ballroom dances. There is an alcove in the "ladies' parlor" where christenings, weddings, and funerals were often held. Two of Colonel Young's daughters were married there, and several of his grandchildren were baptized there. During funerals the bodies were laid just in front of the alcove. Cool.

Like many old family homes, there is a small graveyard that served as the final resting place for many members of the Young family nearby, on land that the family would have owned.

The tiny cemetery is badly in need of repair. A tree has fallen on the fence toward the back of it, many gravestones are crumbling from age, and many of the tombs have been broken open by falling limbs or crawling vines. The encroaching woods have almost succeeded in reclaiming the place.

I don't know for sure if all six of Col. Young's sons are buried in the family plot, but I know there are at least four of them: William, aka "Captain Billy," Val, John, and Beverly. Col. Young's mother is buried there as well.

To the left of the Young plot is the Burt family plot. This is where I start telling you some ghost stories (come on, you knew it was coming).

As the story goes, the Burts were friends of the Youngs, and lived in the Waverley area, with a plantation of their own south of the Youngs. They were frequent visitors to Waverley Mansion. Two of their daughters died in the house--a nine-year-old who was lost to diptheria and a toddler to preschool-aged girl who accidentally hung herself in the stair railing on the third floor.
The Snow family, who owns the house presently, have witnessed the haunting of at least one of the little girls, who they believe to be the young one who died on the stairs. According to our tour guide, Mrs. Snow sometimes heard the voice of a small girl calling out "Mama, Mama!" She claimed to have even seen her once, wearing a high-necked nightgown and having blonde hair.

There are four bedrooms on the second floor of the house, the Blue Room, the Egyptian Room, the Green Room, and the famous Red Room, or "ghost room." The Red Room, named for the luxurious red carpet and the bedclothes, is the room haunted by the little girl ghost, according to the Snow family. Mrs. Snow would often see the indentation of a small body on the canopied bed in the late afternoon, during the summer months, as if she were taking a nap. This was the room where Mrs. Snow first heard the voice of the little girl as well.

I didn't find out about the little girl being buried in the Burt-Young cemetery until AFTER I had already been there, so another trip will be in order soon to see her. Till then, here are the few pictures I took, before it started to rain and I saw a snake.

Waverley Plantation and Young Cemetery

Friendship Cemetery, Columbus, MS

 

There are a ton of rumors circulating throughout MSU that Friendship Cemetery in Columbus is haunted. The historic graveyard is also the final resting place for many Confederate soldiers that died during the Civil War, in the Battle of Shiloh. For a short video documenting the graveyard, click here.

Now to the creepy stuff!

Accoring to The Shadowlands, the ghost of a Confederate soldier can be seen patrolling the graves, watching over his fallen comrades. While we didn't see anyone on patrol, it was an area that felt full of some kind of presence. Some areas of the graveyard made me feel like someone was standing on my chest, the air was so heavy.

Friendship Cemetery, Columbus

Whew! It's Been a While

Wow! I can't believe I haven't posted since November...

So I'm back home on the Coast, and back at my picture-taking. Within the next few days I'll be posting all my new pics from Biloxi City Cemetery and from a tiny cemetery in d'Iberville that is allegedly haunted. More to come; stay tuned!

Starkville Cemetery

To be honest, I do not know the name of this cemetery... After an entire afternoon of taking photos, I forgot to go to the gates and get the name. Edit: It is also called Oddfellows Cemetery... There are two in Starkville apparently! I can tell you that this one is in downtown Starkville, in the area known as the Cotton District. On the internet I've seen it listed as Odd Fellows, but I'm not sure that's correct as there's already one Odd Fellows in Starkville... I haven't had a chance to go back and see the gate, as the semester is winding down and sending me into a cramming frenzy! But enough excuses.

Many of the surnames in this cemetery are also the names of buildings and streets here at Mississippi State, like Critz, Montgomery, Magruder... I think I even saw a Sessums in there.

Most of these graves are from around the turn of the century--late 1800s to early 1900s. There are many very unique graves here, and a lot of astounding marble work. To be honest, I've never seen anything like the art in this graveyard.

More history on this one as it comes. Till then, click the link below for pictures.

Cheers,
Jes

Starkville Cemetery

Gulf Hills Resort

Ocean Springs is an artsy little town between the Coastal cities of Biloxi and Pascagoula. It is the town where Pierre LeMoyne d’Iberville landed in 1699 and Fort Maurepas was built, under the rule of King Louis XIV of France. For a little more background info on Ocean Springs, check the Wiki page here.

Like any city, there are several little sub-cities and towns all over the place on the Coast. Biloxi has Woolmarket and d’Iberville, Gulfport has Orange Grove and Lyman, and Ocean Springs has St. Martin, Gautier, and Gulf Hills or Bayou Puerto, as it used to be known.
Gulf Hills is mostly just known as a subdivision now, though it’s a large one. It’s located right on the Back Bay and pretty much 99% of Gulf Hills residents are very wealthy.
I think the reason that Gulf Hills was turned into a wealthy neighborhood to begin with was because of the arrival of the Gulf Hills Resort. According to a little article on Wiki I found:

An event, which permanently changed the history and culture of Bayou-Puerto and St. Martin, occurred as a result of the land boom of the mid-1920s. A group of investors from Chicago and New York enamored with the natural beauty, temperate climate, and propinquity via rail to the "snow birds" of the Midwest, chose an area in eastern St. Martin along and at the mouth of Old Fort Bayou and Bayou Puerto, to build a winter resort. It was called Gulf Hills because small tributaries and intermittent streams flowing into Old Fort Bayou and Bayou Puerto have dissected the topography in the area creating a somewhat rugose topography.
Harvey W. Braniger (1875-1953), a native of Morning Sun, Iowa and developer of Ivanhoe at Chicago, is generally considered the founder of Gulf Hills. A charter of incorporation was issued for Gulf Hills by the State of Mississippi on September 15, 1925. (The Jackson County Times, September 19, 1925, p. 2)[2]
The Chicago developers envisioned selling three-acre homesites to wealthy northerners who would come to escape winter's cold blasts, then peacefully retire here.
The Branigars hosted a gala early January 1927 opening of Gulf Hills on No. 1 tee. Billed as the golf city of the Gulf Coast, Gulf Hills covered 667 acres (2.7 km2) with 249 of them dedicated as fairways, parks, playgrounds and waterways. Of the ten miles (16 km) of narrow roadways, four of them were waterfront and seven, on the golf course.
The Depression put the skids to the program. By the end of World War II, there were only 40 homes. By the 1950s, homes were being built again in Gulf Hills. Activity heightened in the 1960s and continued into the 1980s.
The Gulf Hills Inn was revitalized by renaming it Gulf Hills Dude Ranch and creating a western atmosphere. Gulf Hills became a popular place with nationwide recognition. Stars like Judy Garland, Elvis Presley and honeymooning Mary Ann Mobley and Gary Collings adopted the resort as a retreat. Until the 1970s, Mafia bosses would annually gather for business and pleasure. They were so unobtrusive and looked like other golfing businessmen that few people realized they were there. [3]
Presently most people live in Gulf Hills all year round not just in the winter, and it is no longer only for the wealthy. A diverse group now occupies this once resort community. Although, most people that live in the quiet little community of Gulf Hills are wealthy or considered, "old money."

The caretakers and employees I met the night I took these photos were able or corroborate the story that the resort was frequented by mob bosses and Elvis Presley. They also said that the mobs would hang out at the resort because it was so secluded from the rest of the city, and that they would normally station their body guards and local police officers around the property as a means of protection.
When I asked them about the rumors that the hotel and grounds were haunted, they didn’t even bat an eyelash before telling me that the place was practically swarming with ghosts and restless spirits. Not only does the spirit of a recently-deceased caretaker (apparently he had worked at the resort for decades and enjoys switching the lights on and off and making the phone ring) call the place home, but it’s not unusual to feel the presence of Elvis and even Al Capone, who they said was also a frequent visitor. They told me that Elvis tended to float around the ballrooms and pay special attention to pretty girls, where Capone liked to hang out in the basement/wine cellar (don’t ask me how they managed to put a basement in a resort so close to sea level).
Residual hauntings maybe? Anyway, click on the picture below to see the photos.

Gulf Hills Resort

There are several local legends about time that Al Capone spent on the Coast. Some say that he stayed in a house in North Ocean Springs/Vancleave and the owner of the building is trying to demolish it while Mayor Connie Moran is trying to save it. To read about it, click here.

Odd Fellows Cemetery I

Odd Fellows Cemetery

Click pic above for photos.

This cemetery is right here in Starkville where I go to school, just right up the street from my apartment.

This is probably one of the saddest little cemeteries I've ever been seen. Not only was it not properly cared for (parts are overgrown and covered in anthills, knocked over and broken tombstones), but many of the graves didn't have headstones at all. Instead, they had the little green plaques that are temporarily placed over graves. Oftentimes, these plaques will stay there because the family can't afford a tombstone, or there is no family around.

According to the sign at the foot of the hill, Odd Fellows is one of the oldest black cemeteries in Mississippi.

Next post will include photos from the allegedly haunted Gulf Hills Resort. Also, this weekend there is a good possibility I'll be driving out into Noxubee county to document a really creepy, really old cemetery out near the wildlife refuge. Stay tuned. :)