The End of the Witch's Grave

I grew up in a semi-rural area in the Northeast. As a teen, a really exciting evening would consist of walking down to the creek to sit on the stone bridge and gossip. Once we were old enough that at least some of us had cars, our adventures would take us further afield. A favorite destination, especially for me and my particular group of friends, was The Witch's Grave. This was in a very remote location down a series of dirt roads in a large state game preserve way out in the countryside. It was actually one of those old graveyards that are fairly common in the Northeast - consisting a dozen or two stones with dates no later than the 1800's set in a clearing of woods somewhere and surrounded by a hand-built fieldstone wall.

The exact grave of interest to us was made evident by the fancy, unusual-looking iron railing set in slate all around it and the fact that the head stone faced opposite from all the others. Those differences were all it took to make the young woman buried there into a witch and a fetish for night-traveling teens from all over upstate New York.

Me at Eva's Grave, late 1980s

The groups of teens that frequented the spot at night vandalized the grave. Over the years, the fancy iron railings were destroyed and the headstone was smashed. When I first visited the grave in the early 80s I recall those being intact, but in the photo above, which must have been taken a little less than a decade later, you can see the damage that has been done. The original iron railing consisted of several prong-topped uprights connected by links of forged chain. It was absolutely special and significant, and part of the attraction the grave had for one and all.

While the remote graveyard had been a destination for adventurous young people since at least the 70s (according to Eva's Facebook page) it seemed the bulk of the damage happened in the mid-80s. That's right around the era when nutjob Christian fundamentalism started coming into its own as a cultural force in America. One of the ways it did so was to whip up hysteria about satanism, witchcraft and the occult - resulting, ultimately, in the satanic panic of the early 90s, which destroyed entire lives. Maybe those cultural forces encouraged people visiting the grave of an alleged witch to vandalize and treat it with disrespect. But I digress.

Eva's grave, rebuilt by locals

At one point, locals repaired the stone walls of the cemetery and also place a stone covering over Eva's grave. Remember how I just said these walls were hand-built out of field stone? Maybe you're not familiar with field stone.

Cows and field stones

This guy is pretty happy. He's got land, he's got water, he's got timber, he's got a barn even. But farming in this area is notoriously difficult because of all the stones in the soil. In this picture, you can see them scattered about. They are useful for stepping over mud, but not so good when you want to plant crops. If you want to plant crops, you have to dig out all the stones and, oh, I don't know -- 

Another pic stolen from Eva Messer's Facebook page

Maybe build a wall with them? (This guy is also happy. He's holding what is basically the latest version of the iPhone in his hands.) Or at least get the space aliens to build a wall for them; space aliens seem to like working in stone.

Anyway, back to Eva's grave. 2015 has seen the culmination of a lot of activity around researching Eva's life and restoring her grave. For instance, we now know that Eva was a young woman who sailed from Bavaria to the United States at the age of 19. She married a farmer in upstate New York, had a child, then died at the age of 21. The unusual iron work and orientation of her grave were the traditions of her culture and religion; to me, the attention to that level of detail by the people who buried her suggest that she was a valued person, not a pariah.

This has all come to light through the work of local people who have researched her history and have just now actually rebuilt Eva's grave with historically accurate ironwork and a new headstone:

Eva was not a witch. She was a brave, adventurous young woman and mother who was clearly loved by those who knew her and somewhat more obscurely loved by those of us who came to celebrate her grave after she died. Kudos to the Berne/Turner Graveyard restoration team and the Eva Messer Friends group on Facebook who gave me closure on something I didn't even know I needed closure on. Check out their cool video:

Happy Day of the Dead