who seem so anxious to speak with the living.
CONGRESS GREEN CEMETERY
50 Cliff Road, North Bend, OH 45052
directions
From Cincinnati, take Route 50 west all the way to North Bend or take I-74 West to the SR 128 exit (exit 7) and follow 128 south until you reach Route 50. Turn left on Route 50. Turn onto Miami Avenue in North Bend. There should be a sign pointing you to the tomb of William Henry Harrison. Follow Miami Avenue to Brower Road and turn left on Brower. Turn right onto Cliff Road just after the bridge. Follow the road up the hill past the William Henry Harrison tomb. Parking is on your right; the cemetery is on your left near the top of the hill.
history
The cemetery was built by the man who founded North Bend (not to mention most of the rest of the Cincinnati area). His name was John Cleves Symmes, and he hoped that North Bend would become the jewel of southwest Ohio. In 1814, Symmes was one of the first to be buried in the graveyard. At the time, it was called the Pasture Graveyard. Symmes’ son-in-law was President William Henry Harrison, and his great-grandson was President Benjamin Harrison.
In 1878, a man named John Scott Harrison died. He was the son of William Henry Harrison and the father of Benjamin Harrison. He was taken to Congress Green Cemetery, where his children noticed that a grave had been disturbed and the body stolen. To prevent their father’s body from being stolen in the same way, they buried him in a concrete vault without a marker. After the funeral, Benjamin Harrison went back to his home in Indiana, but John’s other son, John Jr., went looking for the body snatchers. His investigation led him to the Cincinnati Medical College in downtown Cincinnati. As he entered the school to question them about the recent robbery, he found the body of his father, John Scott Harrison, sprawled on a table about to be dissected.
ghost story
People say that John Scott Harrison and John Cleves Symmes both haunt this cemetery. John Scott Harrison supposedly haunts it because of the grave robbery, and John Cleves Symmes haunts it because he is upset that North Bend didn’t become the jewel of southwest Ohio. People will hear voices and see figures walking through the cemetery. Sometimes strange mists will rise from certain headstones. Other times people will see men dressed in Civil War uniforms walking through the cemetery.
visiting
The best time to visit this cemetery is during the day. Many ghost hunts have been conducted here during the day, and some strange images have been caught in photographs. The area is kind of out of the way, so many times you will be the only person wandering through the cemetery.
There are clear indications that the cemetery closes at dusk, so it is in your best interest to follow these warnings and leave when the sun goes down. There is a house adjacent to the cemetery, and the owners are likely to report trespassers after dark. Since there has been ghostly activity caught here during the day, it is not worth the risk to break the law and wander into the cemetery at night.
DARBY LEE HISTORIC CEMETERY
5999 Bender Road, Cincinnati, OH 45233
directions
This location is somewhat difficult to find. It is hidden quite well just outside of Delhi. The easiest way to get to this cemetery is to take SR-50 west from Cincinnati toward Delhi. Take a right onto Bender Road up the hill. Near the top of the hill is a retirement community known as Riverview Community. The easiest way to get to the cemetery is to park in the lot of the retirement community. Near the back of the lot, you’ll see a rusted metal sign hanging on an old shed directing you into the woods to the Darby Lee Historic Cemetery. Follow the path into the woods for about a hundred feet, and the small overgrown cemetery will be on your left.
history
The story behind this cemetery is quite inspiring. It was an important place along the Underground Railroad in the Cincinnati area. Since Kentucky was a slave state and Ohio a free state, the Ohio River was both a symbolic and physical barrier between slavery and freedom. Crossing the Ohio River was a major step on the slave’s escape to freedom, but often it still wasn’t safe for escaped slaves in Ohio. There were harsh penalties for anyone known to be harboring a fugitive slave, and the slave would be shipped backed to his or her former owner and would likely be punished severely.
It was therefore imperative that those operating the Underground Railroad work out a system letting the escaped slaves know when it was safe to travel. A man who lived near the location where the Darby Lee Cemetery is today would light a green lantern and play his fiddle when it was safe to cross the river. The fugitive slaves would see the green light on the other side of the river and hear the fiddle music and know when it was safe to cross. Today, the area where the fiddler would guide slaves to freedom is a cemetery. The fiddler was the first person buried at the site.
ghost story
People who have visited this cemetery at night report seeing strange green lights floating around the property. These green lights will either appear to be a green lantern sitting in the forest or will appear as a green glowing ball that floats through the cemetery. The lights always fade away before the witnesses can determine what they are. Other times, people will hear the sound of a fiddle playing in the darkness without any discernible source.
visiting
Several obstacles stand in the way of visiting this remarkable little cemetery. First of all, the closest available parking is within the property of the Riverview Community. While this is the easiest way to get to the cemetery, the property’s managers can ask you to move your car if you park there with the sole purpose of going back to the cemetery. They have always been incredibly accommodating to me and have never asked me to leave, but I have always visited the site during the day and have always kept a polite silence while I was at this cemetery so close to the retirement community.
If you are uncomfortable leaving your car in the lot of the retirement community, there are a couple of other options that are available to you. You can find a place to park down on River Road/SR-50. There is a building at the corner of River Road and Bender that if you walk up to the end of their parking lot, there is a trail that goes off into the woods. Your car will be towed if you park in that lot, but you can use the lot to walk up to this trail. Simply follow the long trail up into the woods. The cemetery will be on the right.
There is another trail up near the Mt Saint Joseph Motherhouse on the other end of Bender Road. If you park up near Mt. Saint Joseph College (you cannot park in the Motherhouse lot), you can walk past the Motherhouse cemetery to another trail that moves off into the woods. If you follow this trail, it will take you past the retirement community and to the cemetery.
While there is nothing suggesting that this cemetery closes after dark, there is another obstacle that stands in a visitor’s way after dark. This obstacle is that it is very hard to navigate the trail after dark. The woods are very thick in this area, and the trail is very skinny and difficult to find at times even in the daylight. You need to make sure that you have a strong flashlight and a strong sense of direction when traveling into these woods at night. My suggestion to you is that you find your way to the cemetery near dusk so that there is still some daylight by which to navigate the trail. That way you can experience the cemetery at night and possibly see those mysterious green lights. After you have finished your investigation, the easiest way out would probably
