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| The Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery |
Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery
(also known as the
Green Lady Cemetery)
This very old cemetery is located at the extreme
end of Upson Road, a sandy dirt lane which passes through creepy swamp-riddled woods. At the main entrance to this road
is a small colonial-era Cape Cod home that is currently being renovated with new windows and siding. It is very obvious
by the foundation of this home that the house is at least 150-200 years old, if not older.
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| The easy-to-miss stone and dirt foundation |
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| Was this the Palmiter residence? |
Driving along the clay road, one
is struck by the swamplands to the left and right that choke the trees and plant life. About a third of the way in,
on the left-hand side is a small pond. Also about a third of the way in, if one is alert, a raised earthen wall can
be spotted off the road to the right. It is raised on three sides about eight to ten feet and looks suspiciously like
the foundation of a small building, perhaps a home. Although there is no evidence of bricks, mortar or quarried stone,
one can't help but see the too-perfect half-square configuration of the mounds. Large pieces of traprock are scattered
about the base of the raised mounds as well.
UPDATE: GHOST members have discovered
upon closer examination that this earthen mound is, in fact, the wall of what was once a stable. We have found the three
walls that made up the walled structure, with one side of the building completely absent. This is due to the fact that
the front of the stable would have been made from wood which has since disintergrated. Upon inspection of the surrounding
area, GHOST members also discovered the remnants of not only a home nearby with evidence of a storage building, but also the
remains of a chimney, the metal rings from barrels, and a meticulously built well. We are currently looking into property
records to discover if this was actually the Palmiter home and its grounds. If it was, we may have actually located
the place where Elisabeth was possibly murdered. More information will follow with a wealth of photos.
August 19, 2008
The cemetery sneaks up on you on the left side
of the road. There's no fanfare or signs, merely the old stone wall surrounding the burial site in a large square.
The stones making up the wall are coated with a green lichen which helps promote the local legend (see below). The entrance
at the lower right corner of the wall is unbarred, but a stone gate post still remains to the left of the entrance.
The lower stone wall sits nearly directly upon Upson Road, behind which rise five huge maples. Inside, the four
walls are separated by approximately 150' of burial ground. There are many gravestones in the cemetery, but, sadly,
each and every one has been vandalized. There are literally only two gravestones in the entire cemetery which are still
readable. Most of the gravestones are nubs of bare rock rising from the sparse grass and dirt. Signs upon the
trees claim "No Trespassing - Punishable by Law" due to this past vandalism. It appears that the land is currently owned
by the New Britain Waterworks.
One of the gravestones is that of Amy Spencer.
This white stone (one of only four white stones in the cemetery) has been fractured from its base and now lies partially
sunken into the earth on its back, the words beginning to be covered at the outer edges with dirt and grass. The other
is that of Elisabeth Palmiter. This headstone still stands upright, but is badly damaged on its top edge. Herculean
efforts have been undertaken to keep the only intact headstone of the cemetery from being vandalized for the simple fact that
a ghostly legend surrounds it. Interestingly, both readable stones bear the same date of death: April 12th.
Elisabeth died in 1800, while Amy in 1817.
The History
The legend of Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery
is referred to as the Green Lady of Burlington with the burial site itself often called the Green Lady Cemetery.
There are quite a few different versions of the story, most of which agree on the following points: Benjamin and Elisabeth
Palmiter were a local husband and wife who lived near or upon Upson or adjacent Covey Road. During the winter months
of 1800, Benjamin went to town for food supplies when a terrific winter storm struck. Unable to return home for a few
days, Benjamin stayed in town until the weather broke. Meanwhile, Elisabeth, so distraught over the fact that her husband
had not returned, went out into the storm in search of him. According to most accounts, she tragically fell into one
of the surrounding swamps and drowned. As her husband returned from town after the storm had subsided, he found her
missing. After an exhaustive search, he finally located her frozen corpse, clothed in a pretty green dress.
Strangely, there are several versions of the story that
put forward the opinion that he was "unwilling" to go out and help her. I'm not sure where this originates, but I was
unable to find a source. It is also proffered that Benjamin himself may have murdered her and covered up the crime by
telling the above tale. Nevertheless, since her death, many people, local and otherwise, have claimed to have seen a
greenish, misty apparition either walking along Upson Road or appearing near or in the swamps that surround the area.
According to most accounts, she merely appears without provocation or pattern, smiles and then dissipates.
I took a video camera into the cemetery and filmed for
approximately one hour. One of my staff was with me and spoke to Elisabeth constantly during that time, lighting a small
candle that was already present in the ground at the base of her gravestone (Josh later informed us that the silver candle
is known as an energy amplification candle for the goddess). I must mention that the day, while overcast, was neither
windy nor rainy; however, the candle stubbornly refused to stay lighted until Donna asked Elisabeth to keep the flame burning.
Once lit, it burned for a full hour while I filmed about the cemetery. As I approached Elisabeth's grave once again,
Donna asked if I thought that Elisabeth would be angry if she asked about her death. At that very moment, a gust of
wind blew out the candle. I have the video that shows everything in detail. It made the hair stand up on my neck.
Donna approached the grave, re-lit the candle and the close-up on the candle showed this unexpected wind keeping the
flame nearly invisible. She asked, "Elisabeth, can you please help us by keeping the candle lit?" At that, the
wind ceased and the flame popped up, remaining lit until we left the site.
Also, it must be mentioned that there was a foot-high post
upon the hill of the cemetery that is normally reserved for holding a chain or metal pole/pipe. Usually, four to six of
these guardstones are used to enclose a special gravesite. While only one of the four posts remained and the chain/pole/pipe
was absent, you could still see the hole in the stone where they had previously been attached (for a good photo
of an intact guardstone arrangement, see the Newell Sarcophagus photo in the Downs Street Cemetery Investigative Report). As I swept past the stone with the video camera, an eerie sound came into the camera's
microphone. It was a woman's humming voice. While only lasting three to four seconds, I had not heard it while
I was walking about the graveyard filming, yet upon reviewing the tape at home, I heard the unmistakable melody. Donna
is heard to be speaking in the distance across the cemetery and we were completely alone. I will be downloading that
particular portion of the video to another website, as well as the "candle incident", so that you can judge for yourself.
NOTE: Click here to watch and hear the EVP video!
In departing the area, we filmed the swamps and surrounding
wooded area, but nothing further showed up on the tape.
What's Next?:
I'm quite convinced that the next step for the town of Burlington will be to make the cemetery
off-limits to visitors due to all the tremendous amounts of vandalism that have occurred over the years. It's a shame
for such history to be ruined by people who have no respect for our heritage. I implore those who visit this site to
read the Disclaimer for Creepy Connecticut and abide by
its guidelines.
False Claims
It is important to note that many false claims
have been reported on websites regarding this cemetery. I will elaborate on each of them below.
1. The cemetery is on Upson Road, not Covey, as has
been widely published.
2. Elisabeth's grave is not the only grave still
visible in the cemetery. Amy Spencer's headstone is still readable, as well as Elisabeth's. Another damaged white
headstone in the cemetery reads, "Died Oct. 7, ----" and the rest is unreadable because the greater part of the headstone
has been broken away and vandalized. In checking the records of the site, it has been discovered that this headstone
belonged to Amos Stillman, who was an Ensign with the 4th Company of Hopkinton, Rhode Island Militia during the Revolutionary
War. He was born in 1762 and died in 1807 at the age of 45.
3. According to city records, absolutely no deaths
have occurred in the cemetery.
4. There are no "remarks" or "poems" upon Elisabeth's
gravestone that, when read, will cause her to haunt you. As you will see from the photos, her headstone is quite plain.
The older headstone was apparently as bare as the refurnished stone, but it has been discovered that Elisabeth's headstone
has been consistently confused with that of Jared Covey's headstone which read, "Stop; look at me as you pass by, As you are
now so once was I, As I am now so you will be, Prepare for death & follow me." This poem has been falsely attributed
to Elisabeth's original headstone for many years. The Covey headstone still exists, the broken monolith housed in the
basement of the public library to this day.
5. The reason that the ghostly image is green is
not due to "swamp slime", but supposedly due to the fact that she died in a green dress.
6. One cannot drive a car into the graveyard (as
has been claimed in certain books) as the entrance is too narrow. There are no other ways into the graveyard, except
through that narrow opening. All the walls are and remain intact. Even if one could drive into the graveyard and
accelerate toward the maple trees to the front of the cemetery (as has been claimed that two kids crashed their
car into a tree and died) the cemetery's interior is much too small to accelerate beyond 15-20 mph.
7. I saw no house near the graveyard that had a portrait
of Elisabeth, nor any house at all, aside from the Cape near the entrance to Upson Road.
8. There are no reports among locals of Benjamin's
ghost having been spotted in the graveyard with a lantern. The only ghost that supposedly haunts the area is Elisabeth's.
9. The story that if a girl enters the cemetery with
long nails, she will become possessed and turn on the nearest person and try to slash him is laughable. By all accounts,
the Green Lady is a harmless apparition who smiles and disappears. I don't believe she's Freddy Kreuger.
10. The Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery is incorrectly called the
Burlington Cemetery on other websites. Although it is listed as the cemetery on Route 4, that is actually the Center
Cemetery, not the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery. It is actually upon Upson Road, off of Route 4.
GOOSEBUMP FACTOR: 45
Barry A. A. Dillinger
February 25th, 2003
UPDATE:
Creepy Connecticut returned to this cemetery
on November 26th, 2004 at night during the full moon to ascertain whether or not the previous events could be duplicated;
no such spirit activity occurred, however. Josh has joined our team and is a resident know-it-all on local legends and
hauntings. He managed to dig up the names of all 35 people who are buried in this cemetery. Members of the families
of Burdick, Crandell, Crandal, Covey, Davis, Meacham, Newton, Palmiter, Spencer, Stillman, West and Wilcox are all buried
here. It appears that the first person buried here was John Davis who died December 10th, 1780 at the age of 29
and the last was William Palmiter, born May 24, 1794 and died October 1, 1883. Interestingly (and sadly) two of the
graves are for Henry and Lury Palmiter (twins) sons of William and Aurilla Palmiter, who were born September 22, 1816,
and died February 12, 1817. Another visit took place on May 3rd and 4th of 2005. Sadly, Elisabeth's gravestone
has again been vandalized as we found pieces of her headstone upon the ground, freshly smashed from its apex. If the
vandals are not stopped, soon there will be no more graveyard. More EVPs have been found as well, and an eerie natural
formation upon a tree in the northeastern corner of the cemetery which resembles a woman wrapped in a hooded cloak (see below
and also at Natural Formations).
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| Signs posted on the trees at GLC |
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| The Lady in the Tree |
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| The Lady in the Tree (close-up) |
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| Unreadable weatherworn stone . . . but whose? |
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| This is not Elisabeth's original headstone! |
UPDATE: Yet more information has surfaced
about this very strange and interesting site. We have learned that the headstone you see pictured above is not
the original headstone for Elisabeth Palmiter. In fact, this stone was placed here in the 1970s after the original headstone
was sadly destroyed. This means that the oldest intact headstone belongs either to Amy Spencer or another individual
whose stone is not readable (pictured above), not Elisabeth. Although Amy's headstone is no longer upright, it is still
easily readable, being one of four white headstones in the cemetery. The other unreadable headstone remains upright,
but is too weatherworn.
UPDATE: Intriguing coincidences appear to accompany this investigation
at every turn. Upon delving further into this story, we have inadvertently discovered that Google Earth satellite images
of the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery (below) appears to bear a strange image of a woman's face upon the grounds.
(Please be aware that this image has not been enhanced or tampered with and you should feel free to check out the satellite
images yourself by downloading Google Earth):
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| Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery in Burlington, CT |
Barry A. A. Dillinger (February 7th, 2005)
For the definitive history of the Seventh Day Baptists and why they
disappeared, read the full report below.
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The Beginning
Due to the massive volume of interest
and e-mails regarding the Seventh Day Baptist Church and Cemetery (popularly known as the Green Lady Cemetery) we have
decided to devote an entire report to the research. If you have not read the information contained above, please
do so in order to understand the contents of this report, which contains information regarding not only the history of
the people who founded the Seventh Day Baptist Church, but also some unexplained details of their lives and their sudden disappearance
from the area in the early 1800s.
The Colony
Stories vary on the exact number of Seventh Day
Baptists who migrated from Rhode Island to this area now known as Burlington, but they all agree that these (up to twenty)
families were descendents of the Roger Williams colony. Roger Williams departed London and arrived in Boston in 1631.
He escaped the British occupation by fleeing to Rhode Island in 1632 and started his own colony of Sabbatarians
(or Seventh-Day Baptists) thriving there for many decades. He had purchased much of the land in or about Westerly,
Rhode Island (current-day Hopkinton) from an Andrew Hadsell. For more information on the life of Roger Williams,
click on this link: http://www.rogerwilliams.org/biography.htm The first preacher, Reverend Joshua Clark began sermons in 1771 and remained in Rhode Island for 9 years.
At one point, twenty or so families (including the Coveys, Clarks and Stillmans) migrated from Rhode Island to a place
known then as Farmington West Woods, Connecticut, then West Briton (now, Burlington) and established the Seventh Day
Baptist Church on September 18th, 1780 (although no actual religious organization was formed under it until 1783).
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The Church
Jared Covey, the obvious benefactor
for the Seventh Day Baptists, puchased a multitude of acres in the northern portion of the region, later referred to as "Covey
Town". Within this North District, the twenty families went to work building their homes and settling into the densely
wooded, hilly and rocky region. Once the nineteen elders of the church were organized, the meeting house was chosen
as their church (currently a barn near the corner of what was Hezekiah Bunnell's property) and the Reverend Jonathan Burdick
and Deacon Elisha Stillman began services in 1783. The settlement and meeting house were located about two miles north
from the village now called Burlington Centre. Although records show that these were an industrious people, ardently
attached to their faith, it is evident from multiple research documents that the Sabbatarians were despised and persecuted
by the local populace, most likely due to their particular brand of Puritanical theology. Documents refer to this persecution
in passing, but we did locate a specific reference to the continuing harrassment of the settlement folk in the following passage:
"In those days people rode to church on horseback.
The
gude [good] man and his wife and two
children often
forming the burden on one horse.
Jared Covey was
threatened with prosecution for carrying
his family to
Meeting [church] in a Wagon. The
noisy clatter of the
wheels disturbed the quietness of their
Sundays. The
offense seemed worthy of punishment."
It is this type of petty offenses with which the Sabbatarians were
branded, but it appears that the Seventh Day Baptist Church itself was not without harsh punishment. Across from
the meeting house stood both a whipping post and stocks which were used to "restrain refectory fellows on training days [services] and
on other occasions, when flip [ale] and other drinks were circulated too freely among the crowd of people." It is more
than apparent that the Seventh Day Baptists were quite stringent in their beliefs. Over the next thirteen years, the
Sabbatarians grew in importance and influenced much of the growth of the small village, active in politics and a few even
having fought in the American Revolution. Yet, the church membership never really flourished, as evidenced by the official
membership numbers of 1807: thirty-six. |
The Cemetery
At
the meeting of the Seventh Day Baptist Society on October 12, 1796 ( in the house of Jared Covey) a deed was presented by
Covey to the other members detailing a "parcel of land laying at the south east corner of the ninth lot in the fourth division
in Bristol containing about half an acre for the purpose of a public burying ground". Additionally, the deed, if purchased
by the members of the Society, would allow "fencing said land and giving him [Covey] the privilege of pasturing sheep on the
same". The deed was accepted and each member pledged a certain amount of money (or the equivalent in work and/or materials).
According to the Book of Records for the Seventh Day Baptist Society Bristol; County of Hartford, Connecticut, 1796, the following
members present at the meeting pledged thus:
John Crandal
16 Shillings In Rails [for the fence]
Elisha Covey
12 Sh To Be Paid In Work
Hezekiah West
12 Sh
Elias Willcox 12
Sh
Jonathan Davis
12 Sh
Stephen Willcox
9 Sh
Amos Burdick
9 Sh
Silas Covey
8 Sh
Amos Burdick, Jr.
8 Sh
Amos Stillman
8 Sh
Asa Clark
8 Sh Timbers & Rails
Matthew Newton
8 Sh
Benjamin Palmiter 8
Sh
Ethan Stillman
8 Sh Paid In Work
John Lewis
8 Sh
Benjamin Lewis
8 Sh
John Willcox
8 Sh
Jonathan Burdick
6 Sh
Joshua Burdick
4 Sh Paid In Work
Robert Burdick
4 Sh
TOTAL: 8 Pounds, 3 Shillings, 0 Pence
Assignments for specific duties were given out during the meeting as
well, including the building of the fence on said land, as well as church duties, such as repair of walls, ground and other
society services. Benjamin Palmiter, husband to Elisabeth (The Green Lady) was given the simple task of "making the
door" for the church. It's not clear whether "making" meant creating or merely repairing. Regardless, Benjamin
was assigned that task.
Upon the notes of the September 16, 1797 meeting, it appears that neither
the fence for the parcel of land, nor the church door have been completed. Apparently, the work of fencing the burying
ground is going too slowly and a superintendent is appointed the business of the fencing. In addition, it is decided
"to have a gate of six feet wide by which to enter said burying ground". Benjamin's own task of "making the door" is
reiterated. Within the next three years, the cemetery is completed. Of curious note is reference to a John Davis
being the oldest burial in the cemetery in 1780, yet, by statement of the records above, that would have been quite impossible,
since the cemetery land was not even purchased until 1796. Perhaps a mistake was made in the date for the burial, or
the possibility exists that a previously buried John Davis was later exhumed and re-interred in the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery.
The official record of the final dimensions of the cemetery are 164' (north) x 107.9' (east) x 163.5' (south) x 146' (west).
The Mysterious Deaths
For the next three years, Benjamin Palmiter became
more and more removed from the church duties. While his wife, Elisabeth, was originally of the church faith, Benjamin
was not. He had been a member of the Connecticut society, his family of importance in the area. When he married
Elisabeth, he joined the Seventh Day Baptists, but it apparently did not sit well with his family.
In April of 1800, Benjamin returned home from town after being
away for several days due to a blizzard. When he did so, he claimed to have found his wife frozen within the swamps
outside their home. There is no record of the state of the Palmiter's marriage. If there was trouble, the couple
did not seek counseling with their reverend. Even if they had, it was not recorded. The fact is that there was
no witness to what Benjamin had attested. For all we know, Benjamin may just as well have murdered his wife and used
the story of the blizzard as an alibi. Many documented hauntings have been triggered, after all, following a grisly,
unsolved murder. Her death raises a few questions.
If Elisabeth knew of the swamps surrounding her property and did not
know the area well, why would she tramp off into a blinding blizzard, aware of the danger?
If Elisabeth did know the property well, why then was she found in
a swamp at all, and not upon the well established road?
Following her death, the Society appears to have taken the tardy duty
of "making the door" for the church away from Benjamin. Over the next few years, Benjamin eventually remarries (another
Elizabeth) and joins another church, never returning to the Sabbatarians.
During the years between 1810 and 1820, accidental deaths appear to
plague the Seventh Day Baptists. One member dies when he falls from a ladder while repairing his house, while another
dies when a recently-dug well collapses on him. Another is hanged while repairing a lamp in her home and yet another
is killed when a tree falls upon him in the woods. While these bizarre deaths may have been legitimate accidents, it
is not difficult to make the leap in logic that the early Burlington residents may have had a secret agenda toward forcing
the Sabbatarians from the area, eventually confiscating their lands and properties. In a discussion regarding the origins
of Coveytown, an historian named Peck describes the area: "[the founder, Jared Covey] fr. whence it received the name
Coveytown, which is still sometimes heard, although after the church had died out there, and the clock factories had brought
in a population of less pious men than the orig. settlers it received the unflattering name of Heathenville." This last
statement appears to illustrate the extreme dislike of the Seventh Day Baptists by the local populace. It is surmised
that the "less pious men" refers to those like the Sessions family who owned great tracts of land in the high society areas
of Bristol; however, it seems curious to name them thus, considering that it was the Sessions family money that actually constructed
many houses of worship back in the day (including the place currently known as the Church of Eternal Light). By 1820,
the last of the Seventh Day Baptists depart Burlington and migrate to Brookfield, New York in Madison County, never to return.
Afterword
Whether the early inhabitants of Burlington were
devious enough to commit secret murder or not, the fact remains that their indifference to the disappearance of the Sabbarians
was evident. In his "Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut - Volume 2" (1886), Superior Court Judge Roland
Hitchcock wrote, "Many of its influential members ultimately removed with their families to the State of New York, and there
joined a church of their faith. This weakened the old pioneer church to its ruin, and after a precarious existence of
forty or fifty years it became extinct. Many of the dwellings built by these people are still standing, though none
of the well-remembered builders, none of their descendents, none of the faith so dear to them, and for which they endured
so much, remain to care for the graves of the many they left in the silent city of their dead."
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| The Lady in the Tree |
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