|
Great Hill Cemetery
(also known as
Hookman's Cemetery)
At the corner of appropriately-named Cemetery and Holbrook
Roads in Seymour sits the relatively well-preserved Great Hill Cemetery, more widely recognized as Hookman's Cemetery.
Great Hill Cemetery was constructed in the 1700s by the Holbrook family and many of the stones are from that era, however,
the cemetery does have some newer grave markers, the most recent in 1997. There is a dark pall that is draped over this
final resting place.
The History
There are many different versions of the tales surrounding
the Hookman's Cemetery and its insidious haunt. The most popular version is that a former caretaker of the cemetery,
who had a hook in place of his hand, murdered a local boy when he had stayed in the graveyard past dark. The story says
that the boy was found impaled on a large hook and dangling from a tree the next day.
Another version states that a man named Hookman (a rather
popular name in the 1700s) was wrongly accused of a crime and hanged in the cemetery itself, his ghost now haunting the site.
Yet another is a rather trite and rote version of the popular
campsite ghost story about how a couple drove up to the area in a car and parked. When the woman thought she heard something
outside the car, the man got out to investigate. When he didn't return, the woman exited the vehicle, only to discover
her boyfriend's body hanging from a hook in the trees.
The story has been going around this area for quite a while,
but it is interesting to note that the three versions above are relatively young in age, circulating since the 1950s.
|
| The oldest part of the cemetery on Cemetery Road |
|
| The Holbrook family plot |
|
| From the lower southwest corner, looking up |
The Investigation
GHOST members arrived at Great Hill
Cemetery and immediately set up equipment, fanning out over the broad expanse of the graveyard. The site is fairly large
(about four times the size of the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery in Burlington - see below) and the entrance is located on Cemetery
Road. Holbrook Road, which runs along the western side of the cemetery, is a pretty busy road and traffic is fairly
consistent with cars passing every minute or two. Although the site is set upon a mountainside, the road appears to
get constant use. Cemetery Road, however, is very quiet, and winds, snakelike, up the mountain.
|
| Cemetery Road snaking up the mountain |
The entrance is marked by two four-foot-high stone posts,
the remnants of hinge pegs which once held wrought iron gates still visible. Immediately to the right, the oldest plots
in the graveyard are seen. Here is where you'll find all the 1700-1800 headstones.
|
| Oldest headstones still readable, but no longer standing |
|
| Most face westward toward the setting sun; but some do not |
|
| More stones from the past |
This area of the cemetery is the highest ground in Great
Hill, the northwestern, western, southwestern, southern, and southeastern regions situated lower than the northern and northeastern
regions. The newer portions of the cemetery appear to be those reached by traveling downhill to the lower parts of Great
Hill. There is a moderate amount of vandalism and element exposure damage to the stones, but nothing quite as devastating
as what has been witnessed by GHOST members at other sites. The Cemetery Road side of Great
Hill is unfenced, but makeshift poles and chains have been strewn across at intervals; a shoddy appearance from the road.
The eastern edge of the cemetery is lined mostly by an old stone wall, beyond which is forest running up the mountain.
A dirt utility road runs in an "L" shape from the lower end corner on the northwest to the southwest and turns left,
following the fenceline to the lower southeast corner, where it ends abruptly. The entire southern side is lined with
many maple and ash trees, large foreboding branches hanging over the road. Behind this line of trees is a sporadic,
turn-of-the-century wooden fence.
|
| The utility road |
|
| The fence along the southern side |
|
| The utility road from the southwest corner |
Beyond the southern side is a deeply wooded area as well. Other
than the nearly constant sound of cars along Holbrook Road, the cemetery is rather quiet and peaceful. A slow walk around
the entire cemetery took approximately forty-five minutes, during which time video, audio and EMF were employed to gather
evidence.
The Evidence
Video was scrutinized and re-scrutinized on both computer analysis
software and on the big screen, showing nothing remarkable. Aside from the natural lense flares, the video evidence
was basically flat. Auditory evidence was equally unintriguing, with no occurrence of EVP or other activity outside
normal parameters. EMF was lifeless as well.
While on the premises, we encountered two gentlemen who were visiting
the cemetery in search of a family headstone, marked Donnelly. While no such stone was found at that time, we noted
that many of the older stones were difficult to read, at best, and that perhaps the search for the family name should be done
online. One of the gentlemen mentioned having spoken to the Warrens regarding this particular cemetery, to which they
responded that he should never enter the grounds. When he inquired why, they answered that the cemetery held so much
demonic evil, that he would be in peril. When I asked him what he thought about Great Hill Cemetery, he simply shrugged
and said, "It seems nice and quiet." Damn those demons for not showing up when Creepy
Connecticut came to visit!
Needless to say, versions of this story on the worldwide web appear
to be at odds with actual fact. One glaring problem is that the cemetery is posted on haunted lists as being in Oxford,
when, in fact, it is located in the town of Seymour. Secondly, in 3,260 legitimate sources of Oxford cemeteries and
947 legitimate sources of Seymour cemeteries, there is not a single mention of a man named Hookman being hanged at the site.
Nor is there any mention of the murder of a boy in the cemetery, nor any other person. A story is bandied about in passing
that a young man murdered his entire family in a home that used to stand nearby, but that must also be a local myth,
as there is no news or police resource to support that assertion. It was noted by a local area resident in Ansonia that
a small caretaker's house used to actually stand on the property of the cemetery itself, but has long since been demolished.
This small home, if it actually existed, may have been the catalyst for the story of the murdered family above.
As for the campfire ghost story of the escaped convict with the hook-hand
attacking the couple in their car, we assume that this is merely an extension of the hookman legend begun in Maine in the
mid-1920s.
What's Next?
GHOST members packed up and drove
up the mountain along Cemetery Road because we wanted to see if there were any cellar holes or house ruins in the area that
may warrant the story of the caretaker. When we did so, we came upon a few new homes. Spotting someone in their
yard, we pulled over to inquire about the stories of Hookman's Cemetery. She pointed to her next door neighbor and instructed
us to speak with them, as they were the current caretakers of the cemetery and knew much of the history of the site in question.
When we pulled close to the house, we noted cars in the driveway from out of state and realized that Easter weekend was approaching.
We opted to bother these nice folks at another time and will present an update as soon as possible. Stay tuned.
GOOSEBUMP FACTOR: 0
Barry A. A. Dillinger
April 18th, 2006
|
| Goodbye to Hookman's Cemetery . . . for now |
|
