More from Old Baptist Cemetery

Out at Old Baptist cememtery, near the south entrance, is a sign that was erected in 2000 by Hannibalian Paul Fix. He earned the distinction of Eagle Scout by creating an impressive sign of his own design that describes the “Tom Sawyer” legend -- some people believe that Old Baptist is the cemetery Mark Twain had in mind when writing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

You'll recall that Tom and Huck decide to go out late one night to the cemetery with a dead cat to hold a ritual for removing warts, and that's where they witness Injun Joe murdering Doc Robinson...well, some believe that this is that cemetery!

In his description of the cemetery, Mark Twain would write: "It was a graveyard of the old-fashioned Western kind. It was on a hill, about a mile and a half from the village. It had a crazy board fence around it, which leaned inward in places, and outward the rest of the time, but stood upright nowhere. Grass and weeds grew rank over the whole cemetery. All the old graves were sunken in, there was not a tombstone on the place; round-topped, worm-eaten boards staggered over the graves, leaning for support and finding none..."

ParaHannibal

Hello again friends, what a week we've had here in Hannibal! More paranormal activity detected on tours, more great photos to make you go Hmmmmmm...

I'm posting a photograph that we received from Deborah Blaesing back in June of the Stillwell family monument. This was taken on our 3pm tour, on a sunny day with low humidity. Do you see the fog rising from the headstone? Hmmmmm....

Old Baptist Cemetery continues to provide chills for guests on our tours...literally! On Friday, I was walking around the cemetery with Matt and Carrie King on our 3pm tour and we began to detect NUMEROUS cold spots in the cemetery. At one point, Matt showed us that he had goosebumps on his arms from the chills he felt when sensing one particular cold spot at the north end of the cemetery!

Later on Friday, at the 7pm tour, we again could detect numerous cold spots...and again, at a special 8:15pm tour, the crowd detected even more cold spots! There was a lot going on in the cemetery on Friday -- orbs were photographed, dowsing rods were moving around like crazy, and everyone was having a great time.

Old Baptist Cemetery is a very old cemetery, having burials as early as 1837. For many, many years it was virtually abandoned with no upkeep being done to the property. The weeds and trees eventually overtook the cemetery to the point that you couldn't even see the headstones. Then, in 2002, a group in town called Friends of Historic Hannibal began the arduous task of reclaiming the cemetery, cutting down the weeds, removing dead wood, and resetting headstones. FOHH and the City of Hannibal are now partners who take on the responsibility for the cemetery's upkeep.

Now, when we bring groups out to the cemetery, I get a sense from the energies there that they are saying, "Thank Goodness You're Here!". The people buried at Old Baptist were not visited for many years and I think they are happy there is "life" at the cemetery again.

We try to be extremely respectful of the graves while visiting the cemeteries in Hannibal. By sharing the cemeteries with our guests, we are celebrating the lives and the histories of those buried there and tell with gratitude the contributions these former Hannibalians made to our town.

Please visit again soon, each tour gives us more stories to tell! Lisa Marks

Compelling Evidence!

We had a fun Haunted tour last night at 7pm, and two of our guests shared some very compelling photos they snapped. We've enlarged the area that shows the orb in each photo so that you can see the image more clearly, but no other alterations were done, guaranteed. One was taken by Lisa Clark inside Mark Twain Cave. The other photo was taken by Julie Thimesch at Old Baptist Cemetery while on our Haunted Hannibal tour. Incidentally, the photo at Old Baptist shows an orb in the same location that earlier that day, while at Old Baptist Cememtery on our 3pm tour, a nine-year-old boy said he saw a man walking in the cemetery. He very clearly saw a man, dressed in a full suit (at first he said "tux"), walking with a fancy cane! Judge for yourself...!

Yes, Virginia, Hannibal Missouri is Haunted!

Summer is in full swing here in happy Hannibal, Missouri, and the hauntings continue! We began our Haunted Hannibal Ghost Tours last month and they are a hit, regularly selling out tickets well before tour time!

Our tours usually begin at Mt. Olivet Cemetery, the final resting place of Sam Clemens' mother, father and brothers, Injun Joe, and many wealthy and prosperous Hannibalians from days gone by. We also drive by and visit many of the mansions and buildings that are purported to be haunted today, including sites related to the infamous (and still unsolved) Stillwell Murder of 1888. We conclude each tour with a thorough walk-through of Old Baptist Cemetery, first platted in 1837 and believed by some to be the cemetery Mark Twain describes in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Creepiness and spine-chills ensue on each of our fun, and historic, Haunted Hannibal tours.

When visiting Hannibal please make time on your itinerary to join us -- we'd love to share Hannibal's rich history, legends and lore with you! Ken and Lisa Marks