Bloody Mary:
Legend of
Vernon, Indiana
by Elisa Walter
| Down
a dark gravel lane, off of Highway 7 in Vernon, Indiana you will find a
very old but still active cemetery. Baldwin Cemetery was named for
Ebenezer Baldwin, an early resident of Vernon who earned his fame by
building and operating the Tunnel Mill. Ebenezer’s
resting
place is just a few yards from the ruins of his grist mill. The ruins
of the mill and the cemetery are equally spooky, time worn and moss
covered. The favorite ghost of Baldwin is “Bloody Mary”. Who was she? Why is her legacy so bloody? What did she do? Where is she buried? Were her remains actually removed from Baldwin due to public outcry? I’ve been searching the net and what I’ve found about “Bloody Mary” seems to have nothing to do with any woman who lived and died long ago in Vernon, Indiana. The legend seems to have originated in the Victorian era. Usually the tale describes a mother, named Mary Worth who killed her children. However, depending on what part of the country you are from she may appear as anything from a witch, to a woman whose baby was taken from her, to a young woman whose face was horribly mutilated in an accident. Some believe that the legend stretches back to Tudor England and Mary I, Queen of England who was known as Bloody Mary because of the number of death sentences imposed during her 5 year reign. |
It
is said that her spirit can be summoned by standing before a mirror in
a darkened room with a candle and chanting her name 13 times. Some
versions have you spinning around 3 times in order to invoke her.
Either way, it is a test of courage because she may proceed to scratch
your eyes out or try to drive you insane. Somewhere in Vernon’s history there must be a dark, unsavory story which has taken on the auspices of this popular Victorian parlor game. My task is to find that story. The Jennings County Historical Society tells the following tale: In 1837, 2 sisters, Mary and Gladys Smith, lived alone on their family farm after the deaths of both their parents. Young Mary had been harassed by some of the men working on the railroad nearby. One night, after dressing for bed, Mary went outside to get fire wood. She was attacked, raped and stabbed to death. The assailant was never identified. She was buried in Baldwin Cemetery where she rested undisturbed until one night when a man, in a drunken stupor, tripped and fell upon her grave. Looking up, he saw her standing there, her white nightgown bloody from the fatal wound. Thus, the legend was born. |
A
resident of Jennings County has reported a very different story to HPR:
Sometime in the late 1800’s a woman named Mary Crist killed
her
husband for unknown reasons. In a psychotic state, she paraded through
Vernon carrying her husband’s severed head. The townspeople
apparently took her into custody. She was tried, found guilty and
hanged outside the Courthouse. She was buried in the Crist family plot
at Baldwin Cemetery. As time passed, her infamy grew and several of her
husband’s relatives had her removed from their family plot
and
moved to the city cemetery. What do we find in the county documents to support either of these claims? We find very little. Yes, there was a Mary Crist. She was the wife of Samuel Crist, a successful local farmer. The names of Samuel and Mary appear on the Baldwin Cemetery records but there are no stones in the cemetery for either of them. Two of their children are buried at Baldwin, both having died at a young age. We can only speculate why the couple’s burial plots at Baldwin are empty. In his will, dated 1889, Samuel requests to be buried with his parents at Baldwin. He is not there, however. Featured Story Continued> |
Home Featured Archives