Local Haunts: Chester Cemetery

Welcome to Halloween week, the time of year when we celebrate all things spooky and mysterious. In a town as old and full of history as Chestertown, whether or not you believe in ghosts, you can be sure that invisible memories are lurking around every corner. Is time linear, or is it happening all at once? In indoor and outdoor spaces, what exactly separates events in 2024 from events in the same space two or three hundred years ago?

What better place to look for a community’s memories than in the local cemeteries? Chester Cemetery, Chestertown’s public cemetery, is just past the thin strip of woodland on the western side of campus and within sight of many of our campus buildings and playing fields.

Before the establishment of Chester Cemetery, the town’s chief burial place was the one that had been associated with Emmanuel Church since 1765, located on land that is now occupied by the current courthouse.  Less than a hundred years later, the cemetery was full, and “the burials of the century (had) mingled with every foot of soil.” * The advent of the Civil War and the many losses suffered by the community made the establishment of a new cemetery an immediate necessity.

Noted Chestertown resident and Washington College alumni, Senator George W. Vickers, had sons serving in the War. Against the Senator’s wishes, his son Benjamin, who had relocated to Memphis just before the war, joined a Confederate regiment. In April 1862, Benjamin was fatally wounded at the Battle of Shiloh. His parents moved heaven and earth to have his body recovered and brought back to Chestertown for burial.

Senator Vickers then donated several acres of land at the top of High Street to become the town’s new public cemetery. Bodies from the courthouse cemetery were moved up to the Chester Cemetery, but many were left behind in ruined or lost graves, or because families could not afford the cost of having them moved. For unknown reasons, Senator Vickers’ own parents were among those left behind. Human remains continued to be found at the courthouse site as late as 1969, when an addition to the present courthouse was built. This could be the source for the strange happenings sometimes reported at the courthouse.

But there are stories about Chester Cemetery, as well. Long ago, High Street past the railroad tracks was just a dirt path. It has been said that when a horse and carriage had to venture beyond town limits and “out the path,” the horses would perk up their ears and act frightened while passing the cemetery. You see, before this land became Chester Cemetery, it had been a place of public execution. Most notoriously, it was the site of the hanging of three men accused of the mass murder at the Cosden farm outside Galena in 1852. One of these hangings was a botched execution that turned grisly when the rope repeatedly broke, tearing his throat in the process. Some say this is what happens when an innocent man is executed.

In D.S. Daniels’ book, Ghosts of Chestertown and Kent County, the author tells of the experiences of a friend who grew up in a home adjoining the cemetery. He had seen shadowy figures moving through his bedroom at night, and the family dog would intently watch something invisible move through the family’s living room, up around the ceiling and then out the door. There was once an enormous crash in the attic; when investigated, nothing had been disturbed. More recently, friends of the author went on a lighthearted jaunt to the cemetery to see if they could photograph orbs, not really expecting any results. They were delighted to find bright orbs of light hovering above headstones in many of their photos.

Read more about Kent County’s historical events and folklore from the entire state of Maryland in our Maryland Collection, located on the second floor of the library in the open study area.

So…will you take a walk through the cemetery one night this week? Look for the Vickers family…and for headstones predating 1862, belonging to those who were moved from the courthouse site. Don’t forget your camera.