Bellair Cemetery

This cemetery survey starts with Row 1 on the far east side of the cemetery, and Grave 1 starts from the south end and goes to the north end of the cemetery. All other rows do the same.

The cemetery was re-canvassed by visually checking each monument, by sight, at the cemetery in 1999/2000 and indicating the data on these monuments. The ones that were unable to be read were rechecked using old listings. This cemetery is also known as Freeland Cemetery.

Also a plat diagram was used from Pulliam Funeral Home, Oblong, that Lucille Randolph had prepared in her research. This indicated more data on some of the unmarked graves and help determine where the uneven rows were indicated at. The notations of empty spaces, several lots, old graves, etc. does not always know if they are open burial spaces or not. Some lots do have reserved family lots noted. There are many, many old graves lot in this cemetery.

The oldest marked burial was Benjamin Tharp who died February 22, 1841, at age 26. His grave is located in Row 11. The latest burials, so far, are Geneva P. Beauchamp Goodwin, who died November 25, 2000, and Vena Harris, July 28, 2001.

This is a beautiful old large cemetery that lies on the north side of the road that runs east of the Bellair's "Main Street" road approximately 3/4 of a mile. There is reason to believe that this cemetery has been a burial ground for more than 150 years. This cemetery is large and contains many hundreds of graves, estimated at least to be 1000 or more. Many graves are old unmarked graves and it is no longer known who is buried there. The current burial known in this cemetery, based on Monument readings and old known unmarked graves is around 600, including reserved lots for other family members.

There are graves from the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Blackhawk War of 1832, Mexican War 1845-47, Civil War, World War I, World War II and possibly even the Vietnam War.

This Cemetery Project was done by Norman K. Miller, Robinson, Illinois, 618-544-8234. A member of the Crawford County Genealogical Society, Robinson, Illinois. This data is as accurate as the existing material that was available.

A ghost of a young boy has been seen walking or running between the tombstones. He is dressed in a golf hat, suspenders and pants. There is a man who died on Halloween and nearby his grave, the sounds of voices have been heard and numerous EVPs recorded.

The back part of the cemetery, visitors have seen strange dark shadows and apparitions in the past. This is also near to where Civil War veterans are buried and a past EVP was said to have said, “Don’t talk about the war!” There has been the sound of a dog barking within the cemetery and Snider’s group claimed to have chased the sounds for over ten minutes and found nothing. Neighbors of the cemetery have buried their coon dogs in the front part of the cemetery grounds.

Balls of lights have been seen and there have been a lot of paranormal equipment failures. During a ghost tour there in the past, someone’s flashlight became extremely hot and they had to dump the batteries which were steaming when they hit the ground. Later that same evening, someone else’s car caught fire in the parking lot. Strange fogs and mists have been reported.

The old chain fence in the front was the scene of the fence being rattled from one end to another and there was nothing visible that could have caused that sound. A very bright green light was reported in the past that actually illuminated nearby stones!

The Ghost Research Society investigated Bellair Cemetery July1, 2017 and the team members included: Stan Suho and Dale Kaczmarek, with help from Jason Snider, Jason Dickerson, Marcus Cook and Courtney Bowen from Crawford County Ghost Hunters

Equipment setup: Only handheld pieces of equipment were used during this investigation including a static IR camcorder, Ovilus X, digital tape recorder and camera.

Experiment performed: Ovilus X sessions in both dictionary and phonetic mode were conducted by some stones where the ghost of a little boy has been seen in the past running around and near the Civil War graves near the back of the cemetery.

Personal experiences:

Stan Suho: Jason Snider, who knows more people than Larry King, was kind enough to spend two days and nights showing us around the area. Following a hectic pace, we visited; Dale says 18 haunted buildings, cemeteries, and wooden bridges.

We were even shown a marker to the Tippecanoe solders that Jason had discovered and reported to the Historical Society. Dale was dutifully dragging his EVP suitcase all over Hell’s Half acre. As we were leaving Jason assured us he had even more haunted places to show us in a future visit. Hey Jason I’d like to see that 4000 acre farm of yours. Thanks for spending your time with us.

Dale Kaczmarek: While setting up for our first Ovilus X session near some stones where a young boy ghost is said to run around, Jason Dickerson caught the image of a deep green light and called out. I immediately turned in the direction that he indicated and caught the tail end of this ghost light. I don’t believe it was a firefly because it was too bright and did not reappear again.

I also caught the image of a shadow figure about the size of a small boy quickly dart between a couple of tombstones no further than 15 feet away from me! It was pretty amazing because both of these encounters are actual claims that people have seen in the past while visiting here.

There was a strange growling noise that I didn’t initially hear but I did record it on my camcorder that was facing in the proper direction. The Ovilus X kept kicking out the name “Ed” over and over again however the nearest tombstones had the name “James” on it.

Evidence collected:

Asshole bellair cemetery.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode, Snider’s unusual ringtone went off and immediately after that, the Ovilus said, “Asshole” very clearly.

Get out of here bellair cemetery.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode, a question was asked, “Do you want us to leave or stay?” The Ovilus responds with, “Get out of here!”

Strange growling sound bellair cemetery.MPG – while conducting an EVP session, a long, low growl was heard by many and recorded. One claimed it was a horse but the majority of those who heard it said it sounded nothing like a farm animal.

Word spoken in dictionary mode: anti, Venus, communicate, though, gender, be, comfort, though, mother and indicate.

Conclusions: This was a fascinating cemetery and I had quite a few visual paranormal experiences there that matched what others had experienced in the past. The area around the Civil War graves however was very quiet with no EVPs or visuals encountered there. This location was only steps away from a schoolhouse were another investigation was conducted. I would like to come back here again and really flood the cemetery with IR lights to see if any running shadow figures could be recorded.

It was a pleasure working with Jason and members of his group. They are great investigators and I would not hesitate to travel down south for another batch of investigations. This area was just infested with ghost stories and other locations.