Published: October 24, 2009 11:20 am      

Tales from the crypt

Those who have passed tell many stories

Editor’s note: This the first of an occasional series of articles about strange stories surrounding Johnson County cemeteries.



With Halloween around the corner, thoughts naturally turn to ghosts, ghouls and tales of terror.

Johnson County’s many cemeteries would seem the obvious source for scary stories galore.

But, apparently, not so much.

Doris Lanfear, president of the Johnson County Cemetery Association, could think of none.

Lanfear ought to know. She, along with her husband, Leroy Lanfear, have worked to clear, clean and maintain more than 30 cemeteries throughout the county since the late ’80s.

Maybe the goblins prefer to bump in the night at Tarrant County bone yards instead.

But Johnson County cemeteries hold tantalizing tales aplenty, some of which, Lanfear said, have been well documented, while others consist of folklore, conjecture, and perhaps, varying degrees of exaggeration.

“A lot of this comes from going around finding cemeteries, talking to people and the stories they told us,” Lanfear said. “Which is why we stress a lot of it’s folklore and hasn’t been documented.”

Hardly matters in a case like this. The story’s the thing. And, as Times-Review reporter Pete Kendall once said, “If it didn’t happen that way well, it should have.”



Lady in red

The mystery woman in a red dress may provide the county’s most famous cemetery story.

The identity of “Annie” remains unknown to this day.

In May 1867, a man and woman rode into Grand View, as it was called at the time, stopping to purchase supplies at the Scurlock General Store.

“They rode what were described as well-groomed, apparently well-bred horses, and the young lady, who paid for the supplies, wore an expensive looking red velvet riding habit,” said Sandra Osborne, secretary of the Johnson County Historical Commission. “As a storm was brewing, the shopkeeper invited them to stay the night at his home, but they declined. The young woman said they were, ‘quite prepared for any weather that might come their way.’”

The next morning, just outside of Grand View, at that time located where the Grandview Cemetery is located today, town folks found the woman lying in a field, a bullet in her head. Her companion and both horses gone, never to be seen again.

“Nathan Hale, proprietor of a local sawmill, built a pine coffin, local women made a dress, and a well-attended funeral was held by the caring residents of Grand View,” Osborne said.

A handkerchief with the name “Annie” embroidered on the hem provided the only clue to the girl’s possible identity.

Two large cone-shaped stones — Osborne refers to them as cave stalagmites — mysteriously appeared, one at each end of “Annie’s” grave, shortly after.

One is said to have been inscribed with the name Annie.

The inscription is long gone, but the stones remain, one having been nearly swallowed up by the growth of an oak tree at the foot of “Annie’s” grave.

Where they came from remains as much a mystery as the identity of “Annie.”

Also long gone now is “Annie’s” red dress, hung on the much smaller at the time oak in the hope someone would recognize the dress and identify “Annie.” No one ever did.

“Through the years, I’ve heard, several people claimed that they knew her or were related to her,” Osborne said. “But, as far as I know, none of those claims were ever proven.”

The tombstone reading: “The Mystery Grave, Annie, June 1, 1867” attracts visitors to this day.

Some even leave flowers behind, usually red.



Bone Corner

Annie’s story reminded Doris Lanfear of another tale involving an unidentified person.

“I went to school at Rock Tank,” Lanfear said. “And my older brother was supposed to walk with me. Well, as soon as he got outside the house, he and his buddy were long gone. We had to go up and down Bone Corner. And the reason it was called that, some years prior to that a body had been found at the bottom of Bone Corner, and no one ever knew who it was.

“Well, every spooky story in the world was told to us young kids about Bone Corner, and my brother was the worst in the world. He said when you get to the bottom of that hill, that man’s going to jump up and get you.

“Now my mother kind of knew how [my brother] was, but she didn’t know how mean he was. She’d say, ‘Now son, don’t be mean to little sister,’ and, ‘Oh, I won’t.’

“But he wouldn’t be anywhere near when I got to Bone Corner. So, going home from school I had to go down the hill, down where that man was found, and I just knew if I wasn’t careful he was going to jump up and get me.

“Now, on the other side, the only house on that road, lived a lady who believed in ghosts. My mother told me not to ever stop at that house. She didn’t have to worry. I always ran all the way through Bone Corner and past that house.”

The identities of others occupying local cemeteries remain open to speculation while other cemeteries no longer exist.

No marker, except for four cedars, identifies the sole grave in Bohannon Cemetery, located near Alvarado.

“Bohannon, that’s apparently her name,” Lanfear said. “The folklore goes that she and her baby died while crossing through Texas in a wagon, and both were buried in the same grave. Now you know as well as I do there was no casket involved there. There’s no way it could have been.

“But that’s what the cemetery is, just that one grave and those trees around it. A lady called us. We were asking people to send us information while doing the map [of Johnson County Cemeteries]. She called us and said, ‘I bet I know of one that you don’t have.’ And we truly didn’t. Several people called about these old cemeteries we didn’t know existed out there.”

Eledge Cemetery, near Grandview, provides the final resting place for a man, a woman and a horse.

“That’s all that’s there,” Lanfear said. “Their graves are mounded, and the horse’s grave is mounded higher than theirs. Whoever did that, had to be family, late 1800s, early 1900s I’d guess.”

Friendship and Old Hill cemeteries no longer exist, according to the cemetery map, although people are apparently still buried there.

“There are no headstones left in Friendship,” Lanfear said. “We know it was there because we talked to a man who said he and his friends rode horses through the cemetery years ago. Old Hill we heard of and looked for but were never able to find.”

Check the next installment for the story of an unknown drowned man later identified, bank robbers, bears, guardian angels and more.