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Vernon Cemetery always drew the attention of children. From as early as man can recall, Cemeteries have been a special interest of children and many adults. Over the years, many tales have come from the ranks of town and church cemeteries. Some true, some not so true, all folklore, ghost stories and legends handed down through the years by grandparents, great grandparents around campfires late at night. This story is one that came from around the campfire, late one summer night, in the 1950’s.
It was the month of June, hot, sultry, with overcast skies. Shadows flickering, leaves rustling, birds whistling, and insects chirping fed the growing tenseness as one story after another was spun around the campfire. Hot dogs and marshmallows were roasted and eaten. The howling of a lone dog in the distance adds to the jumpiness. No one knows for sure why he howls; perhaps he is hungry, lonely or perhaps wandering aimlessly in search of friendship. Then a piercing howl in the distance and many jump and squeal with fright anticipating the next tale.
Tradition has it that in the 1890’s a young priest was walking down the lane towards the town of Union when he happened upon an elderly man running with face white as snow as if he had seen a ghost.
“My son, what is it that troubles you.”
“Father, the devil is at the cemetery with Saint Peter and they are dividing up the dead souls.”
“The devil and Saint Peter you say, dividing up the dead at the cemetery?”
“Yes, it’s the devil and Saint Peter sure as I stand here now! You must come with me to the cemetery and see this your self.”
The priest and the elderly man talk a little more and finally the priest agrees to go with the elderly man to assure him that every thing is okay. As they walk the road towards the cemetery the elderly man tells the priest that he was at the cemetery to gather apples for baking when he heard the two dividing up the souls of the dead. As they got closer to the cemetery the sun was beginning to set and the elderly man was having second thoughts about facing the two gathering souls, even if he was with a priest. The priest convinced him that every thing would be okay and that they would simply hide at the bottom of the hill that goes to the cemetery behind the old wooden fence and listen.
Upon approaching the old fence they quickly knelt down in the ditch behind the fence where they would be out of sight. Looking towards the cemetery the priest saw nothing but soon heard more than he wanted.
“Peter, you grab those two over there, I’ll get these three here. And I’ll get those over by the road.”
“Okay, some of these are really bad, I’m not sure if we want them at all.”
“I’ll take all the bad ones, I’ll boil them up.”
As the two gathering souls moved further away from the priest and elderly gentleman the priest decided that he would face them. Soon the voices were closer and they could hear better. The priest began to get up as they spoke again.
“Peter you gather those last couple over there and I’ll go get the two by the fence and we’ll be done here.”
Before the priest and elderly gentleman had a chance to hear Peter’s response they jumped up and ran quickly away from the cemetery towards town.
Startled by the sudden movement from by the fence both men in the cemetery dropped their baskets of apples they had been gathering from the grounds.
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