Located just south of Route 22 on Otterbein Road in Perry County is Otterbein Cemetery, home to a locally renowned haunted site: the horseshoe grave. The legend behind it has a narrative quality not often found in minor ghostlore--probably embellished through the process of retelling, but still interesting enough to relate on any late-night trip to see the famous grave.
This is it: James K. Henry had a horse named Bob. He also had two different women who wanted to marry him: Mary Angle and Rachel Hodge. He was out riding one night, trying to decide between the two of them, when he fell asleep and later woke to find that Bob had carried him to Mary's house. Taking it as a sign, he asked her then and there, and she accepted. Rachel was a bridesmaid at the wedding.
The newlyweds rode around in a carriage pulled by Bob, who James had given his wife as a wedding present. Then Mary got pregnant. On February 28, 1845, Mary Angle Henry died in childbirth. The baby was stillborn. James had his wife buried in a corner plot at Otterbein Cemetery.
He waited more than three years, until December 7, 1848, to marry Rachel Hodge. She wore a black dress to the wedding and afterward stood with James at his dead wife's graveside, where an icy winter wind drove them back to their carriage, drawn by Bob the horse.
That was the beginning of the supernatural occurrences at Mary Henry's gravesite. The cemetery's caretaker came knocking a week after the wedding, summoning James and Rachel to see what had happened to her tombstone. A sharply defined horseshoe was emblazoned in the granite. Strange wailings were heard in the cemetery that night, and a blazing ball of light was seen to hover above Mary's plot.
The next morning, James K. Henry went out to the barn to begin his chores for the day. When he didn't return in time, Rachel ran out to the barn to check on him...and found him dead in Bob's stall. The imprint of a horseshoe, identical to the one on his first wife's gravestone, was punched into his forehead.
That's the story. It's also said that even killing her husband wasn't enough for Mary Angle Henry, and that her spirit is still restless at Otterbein Cemetery. Mary and Rachel sometimes appear, fighting and arguing over their long-dead husband. A guy I met told me that he went one night and was chased off by a mysterious blue light which both he and his friend saw. Such things reportedly happen from time to time.
It's not hard to find; just look for Otterbein Road, west of Somerset. The graveyard is beside a church.
This is it: James K. Henry had a horse named Bob. He also had two different women who wanted to marry him: Mary Angle and Rachel Hodge. He was out riding one night, trying to decide between the two of them, when he fell asleep and later woke to find that Bob had carried him to Mary's house. Taking it as a sign, he asked her then and there, and she accepted. Rachel was a bridesmaid at the wedding.
The newlyweds rode around in a carriage pulled by Bob, who James had given his wife as a wedding present. Then Mary got pregnant. On February 28, 1845, Mary Angle Henry died in childbirth. The baby was stillborn. James had his wife buried in a corner plot at Otterbein Cemetery.
He waited more than three years, until December 7, 1848, to marry Rachel Hodge. She wore a black dress to the wedding and afterward stood with James at his dead wife's graveside, where an icy winter wind drove them back to their carriage, drawn by Bob the horse.
That was the beginning of the supernatural occurrences at Mary Henry's gravesite. The cemetery's caretaker came knocking a week after the wedding, summoning James and Rachel to see what had happened to her tombstone. A sharply defined horseshoe was emblazoned in the granite. Strange wailings were heard in the cemetery that night, and a blazing ball of light was seen to hover above Mary's plot.
The next morning, James K. Henry went out to the barn to begin his chores for the day. When he didn't return in time, Rachel ran out to the barn to check on him...and found him dead in Bob's stall. The imprint of a horseshoe, identical to the one on his first wife's gravestone, was punched into his forehead.
That's the story. It's also said that even killing her husband wasn't enough for Mary Angle Henry, and that her spirit is still restless at Otterbein Cemetery. Mary and Rachel sometimes appear, fighting and arguing over their long-dead husband. A guy I met told me that he went one night and was chased off by a mysterious blue light which both he and his friend saw. Such things reportedly happen from time to time.
It's not hard to find; just look for Otterbein Road, west of Somerset. The graveyard is beside a church.
As Always my friends.....HAPPY HAUNTING!
