Ramsey Casbar Cemetery Investigation

Twenty-nine-year-old Alexander Ramsey was the first to be buried here in a marked grave in 1851. A few years’ later three more of his family would join him here.

The official foundation of Ramsey was probably in 1863 during the middle of the American Civil War. The land where the cemetery is today was owned by the Hooten family, according to John Russell’s book, Effingham County, Illinois – Past and Present. A Corporal Henry A. Hooten served in Company K, 89^th Illinois Infantry Regiment of Effingham. He is also interred here.

Why the cemetery isn’t known as Hooten rather than Ramsey Cemetery is not known. The Ramsey’s did own a large and profitable mill and perhaps had a bit of pull when it came to naming the cemetery and a Ramsey was the first to be buried here as well.

In the 1920s a small mourning chapel was on the property and was used to keep the mourners out of the rain during inclement weather.  It had already began to fall into disrepair in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

A documented suicide happened in the mourning chapel in the 1960s. A distraught teenager by the name of Bartimus used a shotgun to blow his brains out in the chapel. Others say that another, (not documented) suicide happened state that another young man brought some rope into the chapel one evening and was found hanging. Still another story relates a suicide by hanging from a large tree, also not documented by newspaper articles. The chapel was demolished sometime in the 1980s.

There is a small road that leads to overhanging limestone formations where there is a cave. Some believe that this may be a shelter for homeless persons and maybe something even more sinister.

Address: 1230^th Street, Douglas Township, Effingham County, Effingham, Illinois 62401

GPS: 39°12’18’N, 88°24’27”W

Directions: Take 33/32 W, it will split – take 32N. Turn right on 2000^th Avenue and follow it until it curves to the right and then back to the left and becomes 1975^th Avenue. Take that until 1230^th where you will turn right. About halfway to the cemetery, you will see a small road on your left. There is also a small parking area.

Phone: 217-342-6633

Hauntings: There has been reports of a Werewolf-like creature with glowing red eyes that may shelter in the caves and sometimes roams the cemetery. A cloaked figure has also been seen with burning red eyes at night. Is this one in the same entity or perhaps a shape-shifter?

There is a grave that has a lot of coins lying on top. It is said that if you flip over a coin and then come back in a few minutes, the coin that was flipped has now righted itself to the side it originally was.

Apparitions occur and maybe some of the unfortunate suicide victims that took their lives here throughout history.

The cemetery sexton has related some strange encounters including finding a crucified possum was pinned to one of the trees. He has seen strange occult-like symbols and unusual offerings hanging from nearby trees.

The nearby caves are allegedly haunted by the Werewolf creature and even the black hooded figure with the red eyes. No one has been able to research these stories to determine if they are true or false. Maybe they’re just urban legends?

The Ghost Research Society investigated Ramsey Cemetery on August 29, 2020 and the team members included: Mike Rosario, Kelly Griffey and Dale Kaczmarek, with help from Jason Snider, Jason Dickerson, Courtney Mendenhall, Courtney Bowen and Ed Reese from Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunter's Society

Equipment setup: Static Sony Nightshot cameras were recording Phasma Box session. Also used were digital recorders, cameras and the Phasma Box using an external speaker.

Experiments performed: A single Phasma Box session was conducted by a Masonic gravestone which was recorded by Rosario using a Sony Nightshot IR camcorder. Jason gave a bit about the history of the place and during that history a strange voice and yelling in the background was picked up and heard.

Personal experiences:

Kelly Griffey: I saw something walking by a tree in the cemetery. I watched it walk back and forth about four times and that’s why I was so quiet for a while.

Mike Rosario: Introduction:  This time, a small group of GRS members went down state to Robinson, Illinois for a weekend haunted ghost excursion with fellow paranormal investigators from the Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunters Society.  We checked out Port Jackson Cemetery, Suicide Bridge, South Bend Cemetery, a haunted Masonic Lodge where Abraham Lincoln once preached at, Hatchet Man’s Cemetery, and other undisclosed cemeteries on our trip.

Equipment and Initial Investigations:  We began our investigations in Robinson, IL on Friday, August 28, 2020 at around 2:30p.m., I believe at Port Jackson Cemetery.  All days I had the following equipment that I used to investigate with: K-II Meter, a Sony Night Shot Handy-Cam DCR-TRV13 NTSC 560 Digital-8 20X Optical Zoom Video Camcorder, an Amzdeal Tri-pod, a Green Laser Grid (nighttime investigating), a Philips Voice Recorder, iPhone8 Cellular Phone (for pictures and video), and a Police Security Elite Blackout 615 Lumen Hands-free Heavy-Duty Head Strap Flashlight.  The weather for all of these investigations was hot, near around 86° or so, but the temps dropped significantly during our nighttime investigations.  Jason Snider from the CCIGHS co-led the excursion, and we traveled to many great locations, many of which I have never been to, including a southern Illinois Masonic Lodge!

Investigation/Trip Wrap-Up:  Our trip to Robinson, IL wrapped up on Sunday, August 30, 2020 at approximately 4:30am.

Evidence:  I did capture a video clip containing an interesting piece of evidence at an undisclosed cemetery where Dale was conducting an EVP session at a gravesite.  He had put his external speaker on the grave marker.  This speaker was completely stationary for at least ten (10) minutes.  Afterwards, Dale had asked a question, and suddenly the speaker looked like it was pushed off the stone!  It was incredible that had even happened in such calm atmospheric conditions. 

Conclusion/Overall:  This was a really exciting trip to take with our great friends of the CCIGHS  Some places need another visit to gather further data when it comes to hauntings.  However, these locations we went to were phenomenal and spooky.  As always, Jason Snider’s group has always been great, and provided us with awesome and adventurous sites to investigate and explore.  I would definitely love to come back again and investigate with him and his group!

Dale Kaczmarek: I have visited this location once before over ten years ago on August 21, 2010 with Graczyk and Suho during the daytime. It is definitely much creepier at night!

Not much occurred during the Phasma Box session except the speaker falling off or being pushed off a tombstone where I was conducting the session. I don’t have a good explanation of how or why that happened. It was captured on Rosario’s Nightshot camcorder and we quickly replayed it for all to see.

However during the history lesson by Snider, Griffey heard some yelling in the background which was picked up by the digital recorder and also a strange sounding voice just as I was about to deploy the IR binoculars.  I don’t believe it was one of us!

Evidence collected:

Speaker fall Ramsey.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in an area where CCIGHS had picked up EVPs in the past, the external speaker fall off was pushed off the tombstone.

Strange voice Ramsey.MP4 – during the initial history lesson and just as I was stating that I was going to deploy the IR binoculars, a strange voice talks over me and it sounds like it was very close to the recorder.

Yelling Ramsey.MP4 – during the initial history lesson, Griffey and possibly Snider heard some yelling in the background which was indeed picked up on the digital recorder.

Words spoken by the Phasma Box: Jim Baum, I’m just happy, love you, I’m cold, offered by me and the name Bob. (These words however did not correspond to any questions asked at the time and were random.)

Conclusions: This location definitely needed more investigative time but we were on a tight schedule and had a long drive ahead of us to travel to Ridge Cemetery on Williamsburg Hill, otherwise I would have loved to stay here longer. People we seeing shadows moving about and actual disembodied screams in the distance. These were some of the reposts in the past that others had encountered.

Further exploration is warranted here due to the level of activity that occurred during our short visit to this cemetery. It would have been interesting to visit the nearby caves under the overhang where a lot of alleged activity was also said to occur such as the Werewolf with red eyes and the dark-cloaked figure with glowing eyes.

I definitely want to go back in the future for a bit more exploring and investigating here!