Forest Park Cemetery

Hi, I'm Holly. And I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Hello.

Hello. I felt there was a lot of intake of breath. I mean, I'm glad you're breathing. It's great.

But we're back. We're in oxygen tank. It's been a journey. You know, life is a highway, Hailey.

It's September. It is. And I am really excited because that, you know, fall is imminent. It's imminent.

It doesn't feel like it currently. You know, fall is imminent. Yes, it is. It's been hot as Hades this summer.

All right, let's just say it. Take deep breath in. Yeah. Yeah.

It's been ridiculously hot. It has been in the mountains. We were not prepared. I want to wear flannel.

I want to do the things. Right. I want to go pumpkin patch, picket, okay, parking, pooping. No, something with a P and an I and G.

I'm ready for spooky season. Yes. I'm ready for it to put it my Halloween decorations. I just I'm ready for that.

And I need it to come quickly. But September means that we have been back in school for three weeks, two weeks. I don't know. Probably like three weeks.

I don't know. I'm trying to remember when you started. It does. How's it going?

It's good. You're living the dream. That's great. Obviously.

No, we have. Yeah, it's I do really love what I do. The kids are good. Most of them, they all are.

They're all just little turds and I love them all, you know, see, pooping. They are. They're just they're just some of them aren't just little nightmares. And I love them dearly.

I hope nobody says that about my son. He gets to that. You know, like I I want them to be like, oh, he's so wonderful. I mean, I get that right now at school for them.

Yeah. I just wanted to continue. You know, I don't want him to be that kid that Haley is like a little turd bucket. But those are my favorite kids.

I don't. Oh, right. Well, why? I just like they're just got a lot going on.

And I just really like them. As a parent, I don't want my kid to be a turd. But sometimes our turds for good reason. Well, no, we just got to work through how we did express that sometimes.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don't fight others.

And you know, even right now when we're tired and emotional and think, Oh, we don't hit our mama. Mm-hmm. No, we do not. No.

Yeah. So, Haley, we don't hit our mom. Okay. I'm interested.

I have to teach the children that teach the teacher that we don't hit our mom. Yeah. And they're when they're, I mean, 16, 17 and twice my size. Sometimes that's a little tricky.

But also, you know, things for life, like don't wear your house boots out. Right. Yeah. My son has, I think we talked about it.

He has house boots that Haley's mom got him. They're a little, a little too big so we can't wear them out. Yeah. They're like three sizes too big.

But they're so darn cute. And he calls him this house boots and he says, I always say, Hey, what's the rule? I don't wear my house boots out. That's right.

He will try. He was like, until I'm bigger. And that's right. Because you will try them both.

Oh gosh. And when I say my children are turds, I mean that with the most. Because you know, their parents might be listening to this. They're not.

And if they are, it's not your kid I'm talking about. No, they're, they're all. I mean, it's the ones who aren't listening. We're talking about them.

No, they're all great. I mean, really. Yeah. And that's the thing with like, I think getting to work in my role in the school, like I get to see them out of the classroom.

Right. And it's such a different, we have such a different relationship. So like, I can find a redeeming quality in every single one of them. Yeah.

Like, I mean, if you can find a redeeming quality in me, good Lord, you can find it in those kids. Same. Yeah. But no, we just, I have really awesome kids.

That's good. They're just awesome. And I'm glad that you love what you do. And you kind of have found your niche, I think.

So I do. And it's one of those things like I can talk or I can say that my kids are turds sometimes and make bad choices. But if anybody else talks about my students. Oh, what?

Oh, no, no. I feel snare. Like that. Yes.

Is that kid in the principal's office like twice a week? Yes. But you don't get to say anything about it. Because he's mine.

They're not bad kids. Just bad choices. We just make some bad choices. Right.

Does it mean we can't change? Although we do do a podcast about people who make a lot of bad choices who may very love bad people. Yeah. You know, but none of my kids are bad.

Let's hope not. Let's hope that doesn't. That's going to be because, you know, we're intervening. We're doing the thing.

You're doing all the things. Right. I am intervening as well. In my job.

So look at us. We got your magical. All right. What's the story about?

Is this a bad choice? No. Oh, actually, we are going to travel again to the north. We're going to go to New York.

Yeah. And we're going to talk about Forest Park Cemetery. Oh, your favorite place to go. I love cemetery.

I know. I know. I know. For a good time.

Where's Haley? In the cemetery. Yep. When I go on vacation, some of the things I like to find.

Are all cemeteries? Absolutely. We've got one that we see every day on our drive and my son is always looking at it. So I like to read the names and do the dates.

I know. But would you ever be buried yourself? Like, are you planning to be going to have a headstone and epitat? All the things you have a writing on it that says, Oh, sweet ginger.

It really knew you. No. It is a sweet ginger. Just a sweet ginger on it.

1997 to 2023. Oh, it's the first. The fall of the month. It's maybe a fall.

It might be. No, I, um, no, I don't think so. You know, cemeteries, like for me, personally, I don't want to be around that many people in death. You know, like the solitude.

You know, lane, you know, like a hole for me in, you know, a nice secluded area. The woods? Yeah. You know, just a nice calm, peaceful area, maybe under a library.

Oh, I want to be checking out my books and your bodies under my feet. Nothing. It's fine. It's not fine.

It's not cool. Well, we're going to talk about some people who are buried in the cemetery. And think about my death or where I am buried. Don't ask me.

A big thanks to exemplore.com. Of course. For this article. Also, Wikipedia, thank you for your service.

Do the research for this article. Big thanks. Okay. So all right, we're going to talk about Forest Park Cemetery.

It was first incorporated in 1897. Oh, so that it's pretty old old by a group of wealthy Troy businessmen under the Forest Park Cemetery Corporation. However, based on some older gravestones, the cemetery had apparently been in use since at least 1856. Wow.

The crease of a woman. Yep. The original area chosen for the cemetery occupied about 200 acres of farmland. And what was then rural Brunswick.

Okay. Mint to about grow and even out class Troy's Oakwood Cemetery was so fancy. It was originally designed by Garnet Baltimore, who was the first African American graduate of Rinsler Polytechnic Institute. That's amazing.

It's kind of cool. Yeah. Baltimore planned on the cemetery to offer visitors a park-like experience, complete with statues, winding trails, and a large receiving tomb near the entrance. I'm going to say two things about this.

Number one, the whole statue is kind of creepy out a little bit and a receiving tomb. Welcome. This is where you will be resting. This is where we take your information.

Hello. All right. Now you're going to be to the left under the pine tree. Oh, I hope you have a lovely, lovely rest.

Like that's kind of what it sounds like receiving tomb. But I do kind of like the idea that it, you know, when soon you go to a cemetery, you know, you visit a cemetery to feel close to your loved one that's passed. So being able to have kind of like a park almost, yes, of like, you know, there's some calm walking trails through your waterfall, you know, nice benches, perhaps, that kind of thing. Stone pathway or something like that.

I don't like the statues. You know, it's a choice. I know and it's often seen. I just feel uncomfortable.

They get a little spooky after time when they start to kind of wear down a little. They just get spooky. Yeah, they do. And we're going to talk about that.

All right. I'm so excited. The Forest Park Cemetery Corporation actually went bankrupt in 1914 and the cemetery was never completed to the original plant. Interesting.

The only structure that had been built was the receiving tomb. Welcome. There's nothing else here for you. Just this.

But I'm glad the experience was delightful. Please rate us. By far. Trip advisor on Yelp.

Because it was a real good trip. We never came back. It was so good. We stayed forever.

The one way ticket. Yep. Okay. Without the jokes.

Oh, it's left and right. The receiving tomb, which actually does still stand today, is in kind of a dilapidated state. One would extend. It was built from granite featured at copper roof with a large skylight and contained 128 marble catacombs used for storing corpses during the winter.

So it could be buried right because the ground was too hard. I had a moment of like they took it out during the summer and they put it in there and I put it back in the ground. The whole idea here changed for me from like who can say where the road it was just very chill and zen to things like like a lit biscuit song or something like that. Just crazy.

All right. Okay. I took you on a journey. You're welcome.

Yeah, that was a lot. Okay. In 1914, the cemetery was reincorporated by New York City natives under the name Forest Hill Cemetery. Oh, I heard that then.

Yeah. Due to financial difficulty, the corporation sold all but 22 acres to the neighboring County Club of Troy to use in the construction of its golf course. Uh, okay. So I'm not sure there were like actual bodies there.

So when you sell a graveyard, you're essentially selling these bodies as well. And it's pretty much so to speak. Yeah. I'm not sure if the land that they sold to them had bodies in it.

Okay. But maybe four. Oh, sorry about that. Mr.

Leroy. I didn't end it hit you. Yeah. That's the first anyway.

So even though they did this, they too went bankrupt during the 1930s. The cemetery is not bad. It's the Christian. The cemetery went mostly unattended except for a local man named William Christian who volunteered to be caretaker and did so from 1918 until his death in 1961.

Wow. He took care of the cemetery. Christian kept notes of internments, which indicated the cemetery served upwards of 1400 burials and burials continued in the cemetery until about 1975 when the cemetery went completely unattended until 1987. Control of the cemetery was in dispute during that year.

Control was vested in the town of Brunswick at the decree of New York State in response. The town created a forest park cemetery advisory council in 1991, but it ended up being disbanded in 1994. So that's just nobody can get it together for this cemetery. No, based on local obituaries, the cemetery was put back into use in the late 1990s and has been used as recently as 2005 for a burial.

Employees of the town of Brunswick made multiple attempts during the 1990s and 2000s to remove the overgrown brush and plants, which have become a major problem. So nature is like taking it back. In 1988, the cemetery was featured in the local Times record newspaper after two youths discovered a partially exhumed grave. I feel like this is the same story that we had with the Irwin High School where it was just a couple of youths.

Just a couple of youths, you know, just hanging out and all of a sudden they're like, oh man, I see a dead body. You know, it's like that sometimes. Haley's hoping to find it. She wants to be the youth.

Sometimes. There were two shovels, a pick and several beer cans found at the crime scene. What the heck? Oh my gosh, she was just drinking with a dead body.

It's just an attempting to dig the mums. Wonderful. What else are the youths to do and was it a local draft? Brunswick.

Something maybe. Yeah. So although there were some police reports filed, no one was ever apprehended for the crime. See nowadays they could just pull like DNA from the beer can.

Right, you know, they're not going to. Nobody's fine. I'm going to be curious now. Okay.

In 2007, a local boy scout and Brunswick resident Evan Duffy completed his equal scout project, which was a census and map of all the gravestones in the cemetery. What a cool project. That's really cool. And what an undertaking.

Right, from the undertakers. But that's insane. That's such a cool project. I think it's so cool.

A map and a database containing all of the gravestones and names that are on them is available at the town of Brunswick offices for those that are trying to locate family that were buried in Forest Park. Cool. So cool. I love that.

Yep. There is a persistent rumor that Life magazine once ran an article stating that this cemetery is one of the 10 most haunted places in the United States. However, this article doesn't exist. That's convenient.

So people have been like saying like, Oh, yeah, it's in this article. Like this art that came out here and did this story and that people have even contacted Life magazine to be like, Hey, is there this? This exists? And they're like, we have no idea what you're talking about.

So it's just kind of weird. Do you think maybe as a ghost who was like, Hi, I'm Heidi. Yeah, I'm with Life magazine. I'm here to do an article on the creepy at cemetery.

Let me go ahead and get you to talk. You're like, gosh, it was so weird because that reporter was in some really old-fashioned looking clothes. I mean, maybe that's her style. It's kind of weird.

And suddenly you call up and they're like, what do you mean reporters? We haven't seen that. Oh, or you then wonder too, if the story wasn't given the collage, like, no, we're not going to do this. Yeah.

Weird. I don't know. I don't know. Okay, so let's talk about some things that make this place spooky.

Oh, let's do. Okay. So obviously the empty mausoleum. That'll be right.

The front, you know, the entrance, the welcome to or whatever. You know, we talked about how it's they store all the bodies there in the winter. So it doesn't, you know, they don't rock. Kind of like your plants.

You bring them in the winter. Yeah. Similar. You bring them in there because it's cold enough in there that they stay cold during the winter, but you can't bury them because the ground throws.

Grandma looks like she did on the day she did. Yep. So you have to wait till the ground falls out. Wonderful.

And then you can chuck the body. That happened with my great-grandfather up in New York, actually. We went to his funeral and we had the ground was frozen and they were like, so, you know, I said, we were going to go to the burial. Guess what?

No. So we had to wait a couple days until the period. Okay. So, here's another kind of spooky story.

In 1916, a buffalo man by the name of Harold Hubbard Horn. It's a lot of age-able age. Well, we like ages here. We do.

Was visiting with his girlfriend. Not much is known about the details of what happened. All that is certain is that the man died in the cemetery from a gunshot to the dead. So some say that he and his girlfriend park their car at the entrance and spend the night talking in the car- In the cemetery?

In the cemetery. At some point, the girlfriend fell asleep and when she woke, she found that he had shot himself in the head. Others say that she woke up to find him hanging from a tree. Okay.

So he's dead. Many people say that if you drive by at night, you can see this troubled man roaming the cemeteries. Others say if you call his name three times, he will appear. His aura is explained to be a warm feeling, not cold, like most spirits.

Okay, so he's a nice- He's a friendly ghost. He's a friendly ghost. His spirit is described as giving off warm feelings of comfort, especially to those who are depressed because he does not want them to share his fate. So it seemed like very likely he did.

Yeah, commit suicide. Yeah. Okay. Now we've got some great- Of course we do.

So we're going to talk more about this dugout grave that we found at the end. Okay, the youths. The youths. In the late 1980s, two teens found a partially dugout grave.

Those pics and shovels were found at the scene. This is, you know, just a problem. I mean, obviously- People are out and about just digging up the bodies. Yeah, yeah.

Apparently that's not the only instance of that. Because grave diggers are usually seeking like fortune or like money or like jewelry off the bodies. Yeah. I mean, I will say, our good pal, Walter, who passed.

Yeah. If he was buried with a bling he had on him, that's a funeral. He was dressed to the nines. I'm going to say he looked better, dead than I look alive.

Oh yeah. He was well put together. Always a well put together man. He was always like silish.

Great guy. Yeah. Miss him dearly. Those two years ago.

No, no. It's crazy. He was a good guy. He was.

He just, you know, he was. Miss. Miss. Miss.

Miss Walt. Yeah. Me too. Okay.

All right. So speaking of those, spooky statues. What has apparently lost its head? So your head is it to the cemetery.

A visitor said that, you know, she followed a pathway that led into the woods. Nope. She had heard there were statues, but you know, she seemed to be going deeper and deeper into the forest and was like, maybe I should turn it back. Yes.

But instead she continued. Nope. And when she found the statue, it was that of a headless angel statue in the middle of the woods. There were apparently several of them.

There were fresh flowers laying by the statues. There were no graves nearby. And the cemetery, you know, was considered to be abandoned. So there should be no fresh flowers next to the statues that are this deep into the woods as you know, nature has kind of taken it over.

Right. Um, rumor has it that these angel statues bleed quote unquote from the neck. So it looks like they're bleeding. So probably honestly, it's when the rains, like in the waters running down, it looks like they're blue, but still spooky.

It's still super weird. Um, so the biggest question is, why are they out there? Why are these statues just there? Um, why do they have no heads?

Who removed the heads and where are they now? And who's brought the fresh flowers? Yeah, and who's bringing these flowers? So some, some could be some youth out in the woods or like, Oh, watch this.

And they like knock the head off the, you know, and then took the heads or something and it's like memorabilia. So that could be explained. Um, the whole flesh of fresh flowers is a little creepy, especially deep in the woods. It's like, who's coming out there?

Um, that's a little weird. It was also weird that there's no like graves around it. Yeah. They're just there.

It's a part of me wonders. Like when they were, you know, they were building the cemetery and they kept going bankrupt and kept going bankrupt. They're going to be the process and they built the stones, the statues first. They brought these statues in and just like set them to the side and we're like, okay, we'll place them.

And we're also thinking like, eventually this will have graves here because we're expanding. Right. That makes sense. So we've just put these angels here and maybe they were going to move, you know, once like into different areas and have one angel area and then bankrupt and whips and then the youth, you know, with their baseball bats just took their heads off.

Yeah. So, and then, you know, it rained. And then somebody came along and put fresh flowers because why not? Maybe?

Yeah, sure. That's what I'm going with. Great. Well, that's all I got.

I think we obviously should go there and see what we can see. Here's a question I've always had for these, these ghosts. Like we only really talked about one ghost, but so let's say that you have a like benevolent ghost and then you have a ghost who's kind of angry. Do you think cross paths?

Probably. So can ghosts cross paths with each other if they're on like essentially different planes? So you've got one who's kind of evil and you got one who's kind of sweet. Do they manipulate the other?

Like, I mean, do they see each other talk to each other because they died at different times? Probably because you know, in my afterlife, I plan to be like, we have a business, be like, constantly of people like, oh, you didn't even just say hunting. I think terrorizing was one of your most post or quote and quote, post or guide, post or poltergeist and shit. Yeah, pretty sure that's what you said.

Yeah, you're not wrong. So I fully plan to do that. But that's just like my day job in the afterlife. My like, weekends, afternoons, like if I take some time off during the day, I plan to just be hanging out, chilling around.

Where do you think you're getting this PTO from? I mean, I don't have to request it. I'm dead. Everything has to go past my desk.

I mean, I need to see a memo at the East. I have to approve it. I'm the manager. You are the supervisor.

We have so you are the supervisor. That's true. Ellie and I have this running joke years ago. I had a supervisor who was a little bit of an ego maniac.

I hope she listens. Honey, I hope you listen. I remember she does. Maybe secretly, but she doesn't want to.

She never admitted to us, but she loved her little ego trip. And so now we just say things like actually in my role, I am the supervisor. But yeah, I never I never do that with people. Like, I mean, they know I'm their boss.

Like, it's not a you know thing, but yeah, I'm a supervisor. So in this scenario, Haley, I mean, supervisor, so like all your PTO needs to come across my desk and I need to help her out before you just take time off and just willy nilly start like hanging out. Okay. I just want you to be aware of that.

I understand. Oh, hold please. I have a call. Hello.

Welcome to the afterlight. And then that's how you have to switch gears. You have to be, you know, the bad bitch boss, you know, and let them know that you are in charge. I am in charge here.

Where's the PTO? And but then, hello. Welcome to the afterlight. Tell me I assist you.

Yes, please hold. All right. So I wanted in today, you know, like, you have to speak like that, you know, I know, I'd like the idea of haunting wouldn't it be fun for you and I to haunt a seat by there? The old supervisor, I would still haunt her.

Yeah, there's a couple people at haunt from that place for me that we were on all the years ago. Yeah, same. I am still so incredibly traumatized from that. I really am.

It's been years. But that was such a traumatizing. We trauma bonded. We did hardcore.

We did together. And I was thinking about that of how many people, I mean, mass exodus left that job. We went from a team of 12 to five. Number 13.

No, it was even less. Like there are, yeah, three or four people left. Three from that. Yeah.

So like 11, 11 people. So just listen, we all know that there are toxic jobs out there and just think in the afterlife, you get to haunt them. That's your justice. That's your justice.

That's your justice, which is kind of nice because then it's everlasting in a way. Yeah. So just think of that. All the good things.

Yes, all the good things. They hold no power over you. Well, that'll be a fun time. Make sure to get your PTO in my heart.

Understood. It has, um, considered that the provider. Supervisor. Supervisor.

And your supervisor. Oh, God. Okay. Well, listen, if you have stories about toxic jobs or supervisor or you're the supervisor, just go ahead and let us know.

And you can do that by sending us a email to mountomiseries.appleaction.gmail.com. Find us on Facebook at Mountomiseries.Tales from Appalachia. Find us on our Instagram at Mountomiseries.apple atcha. Check us out on our Patreon for some good times.

You can do that at Mount or Patreon.com.com.com. You did it. I did it. I'm proud.

Oh, that was a lot. I'm winded. You want to like take in some oxygen you need in hailor? Yeah.

Maybe you like walking about in the streets. I know something like that. Yeah. It knows.

I'm going to give a shout out to, well, Haley Breats to Anaheim, California. So that is where Disney Land is. It is. Never been there.

I have. Funny fun fact is I have never been to Disney World in Florida, but I have been to Disneyland in Anaheim. I've been to Disney World twice once when I was like five or six and then I went with a dance team to perform. Fun.

Fun. I don't know. I don't know about the idea of like standing in line forever and a year, just to like ride a ride. Like no thanks.

I'm good. No, I don't think I would ever go back. Yeah. To me, it doesn't sound appealing.

I know. I don't know. A lot of people really enjoy it. Yeah.

I mean, I was, I mean, I like a good theme park. Don't get me wrong, but I'm also like, as I've gotten older, I, my motion sickness is horrific. So I just, I was, I don't know if I would there's anything I could ride anymore because I'm getting really sick really easy. Well, one of my workers, because I never supervised her, actually they had gone to Disney World and she came back and she brought my son a little Mickey Mouse.

It's really sweet, but I can live like seriously through her and all of her fun times. Right. Like I can watch other people's like TikToks or whatever about, you know, their Disney days or whatever. And like, somehow I'm on like Disney pins TikTok.

That's weird because it's not like your thing. It's not, but I really enjoy there's one creator on their um, like, Silva is his name. And he's just like the purest. Like if you just could imagine just like a pure soul who just, it's hard to find a new name.

He's excited about life and it's just so sweet. And I just, I really want to be his friend. That's because he knows the antithesis of us. Exactly.

But like, I just, he just is so positive and pure and kind. And then he goes around and like gets, you know, all these like mystery pins and like opens them and like all these different little things. He's just really cute. I'm gonna make an executive decision right here, right now as manager of this Afterlife game.

He's, he's one of them that we need. We need him to protect him and I'll cause yes. We'll take him. I don't really know anything about him other than I follow him to go.

But when he passes and he comes to us and as many will come through the tomb. Yeah. The afterlife. Yeah.

Welcome to him. Yes. He is one of our good ones. He'll go on this side, you instantly.

That side. Yeah. But it's okay. I like that from second.

Well, just keep on being the super binder. And we'll see. I told you to end this. I'm your super binder.

All right. You'll have the one. Bye. Bye.

I'm your super binder. I'm your super binder.