HAUNTED LAWRENCE

Not many people know about Pioneer Cemetery, a graveyard that is
nestled in a discreet and shady grove directly across from the Daisy
Hill dorms. Today maintained by the University of Kansas Endowment
Association, this patch of land serves as a memorial to the early settlers of
the city. But in the last few years, stories have circulated that the cemetery is
haunted by those who were laid to rest in the area long ago.
The origins of the burial grounds can be traced back to the 1850s.
During this time, there was no established public cemetery in the city of
Lawrence, but with the death of early settler Moses Pomeroy in 1854,
the need for one quickly emerged. In time, Aaron Perry, a farmer who
lived west of the city, kindly allowed a barren hillside on his property
to serve as the resting place for Pomeroy’s body. Eventually, this knoll,
which was dubbed Oread Cemetery, became the de facto graveyard for
the citizens of Lawrence. Many of those who were eventually interred at
the cemetery were victims of the violence that preceded the Civil War,
such as the seventy or so individuals who were buried en masse following
Quantrill’s Raid.
In 1865, Lawrence officials established Oak Hill Cemetery in the western
part of the city, and they soon decided to re-inter in this new graveyard
almost all of those who had originally been entombed in Oread Cemetery.
The final burial in Oread Cemetery came when Alfred and Sarah Peake
were laid to rest there in 1882. Sadly, within a few years, the graveyard was
desecrated by mischievous youths, who either sneaked in and stole tombstones
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for use during Halloween or impishly fired bullets at the graveyard’s mossy
monuments. It was as if the citizens of Lawrence had no interest in their
town’s earliest burial ground.
There were those, however, who objected to the general indifference
shown toward the cemetery. In 1906, a local undertaker named Charles
Smith, working with the Grand Army of the Republic veterans’ organization,
arranged for a monument to “the Unknown Dead Union Soldiers of the Civil
War” to be erected in the cemetery, as well as burial markers for eighteen
members of the Thirteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment who
had been interred there in 1862. Several years later, in 1915, W.C. Simons
(the owner of the Lawrence Daily Journal-World) penned an article entitled
“Beautiful Old Forgotten Cemetery” that detailed the history of the
graveyard and bemoaned the fact that “so few residents of Lawrence seem
to know about it.”
Perhaps the most serious attempt at revitalization occurred in 1928, when
the graveyard was rechristened “Pioneer Cemetery” by Lawrence mayor
Robert Rankin. The mayor also allocated money for the upkeep of the area.
Alas, the fruits of Rankin’s labor proved short-lived, and following his tenure
as mayor, the cemetery once again fell into relative obscurity. For many
years, animals were allowed to graze on top of the graves, and eventually,
the entire patch of land was forgotten once again—swallowed up by wild
prairie grasses and rogue sunflowers.
Then, in 1952, University of Kansas chancellor Franklin David Murphy
and his two daughters were walking on what they believed to be an overgrown
hill just outside the city when they happened upon the crumbling remains
of the cemetery’s long-neglected tombstones. Murphy soon convinced the
University of Kansas Endowment Association to purchase the land. Although
some Lawrence citizens feared that the university would commandeer the
cemetery for its own use, KU promised to take care of the land and preserve
its important legacy.
Today, Pioneer Cemetery is one of the many stops made on the Lawrence-
centered version of the Kansas Ghost Tour, organized by Cathy Ramirez.
While the cemetery was originally placed on the tour for historical purposes,
several odd things have happened during these stops that have led many to
think that it is indeed home to spirits.
Once, according to Ramirez, a psychic claimed to have communicated
with the spirit of a deceased soldier buried in the graveyard. Another time,
a group of individuals claimed that their cellphones, cameras and other
electronic equipment would not work inside the boundary of the cemetery.
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But potentially the most startling story concerning supernatural events
in the graveyard comes to us courtesy of Ghost Tours of Kansas guide
Beth Kornegay:
During one of my tours several years ago, there was a gentleman who was
serious about getting a picture of a ghost.…I could tell he was serious
because he came prepared with a tripod, several different lenses and other
photography equipment. We had just entered the cemetery and I was talking
about the history when he called me over to where he was, about six feet
from where I was standing. He had already snapped several pictures in the
dark cemetery and showed me one of them that had a man. The profile
was from the side and he was walking somewhere because his legs were
split mid-stride. He also had on a top hat and one arm was swinging as
he walked. The dorms behind him could be seen through his “body.” There
was no one in the cemetery in front of us.
Pioneer Cemetery is situated at the southeastern corner of the Constant
Avenue at Irving Hill Road intersection, located on West Campus. The
cemetery is open to the public.
Pioneer Cemetery, looking east toward the Daisy Hill dorms. Author’s collection.