Haunted White Memorial Cemetery at Barrington, Illinois


“Haunted” White Memorial Cemetery

Cuba Township, Barrington, Illinois

The graveyard is located on West Cuba Road, 1/4 mile west of N. Hough Street (IL Route 59) near Barrington IL.
CAUTION: The cemetery is locked after sunset and patrolled by police. Trespassers are arrested.

Sunday, March 29, 2009 — Word has it police are puzzled and concerned over increasingly frequent would-be visitors to this supposedly haunted 2-acre quaint country cemetery. The cemetery dates to the 1820s, but no record exists of when reports of mysterious lights and apparitions began. Efforts by police and city officials to quash the rumors and sightings have repeatedly failed, and many Chicago-area ghost hunters are attracted by the frequency and persistence of the phenomena. I might suggest the ghost-hunters themselves are the source of the folklore.

White Memorial Cemetery White Memorial Cemetery

The oldest readable tombstone dates are 1830 (for birth) and 1857 for a death. There are numerous pieces of headstones scattered about that are weathered into near oblivion; it is these that probably represent the earliest graves from nearly 200 years ago. One prominent marker lists 4 different family members, one of them, an infant boy, Frank L_____ , born May 1857, died February 1859. His mother listed, on the same stone, was born 1831 and died 1861 – only 30 years old, and perhaps still grieving her child.

Perhaps this mother and child are the source of the ghostly apparitions seen along the fence at the front of the cemetery?  Witnesses in recent years run the gamut from thrill-seeking teenagers to police officers. Many have described bright globes of light floating amidst the tombstones, stands of trees, and even along Cuba Road itself.

The Fence: Site of Many Mysterious Phenomena

Legends have circulated for years concerning a mysterious house on Cuba Road that burned down many years ago, but reappears temporarily and is seen by passersby who have no idea the house no longer exists. (Why anyone would comment on a nondescript house they don’t know does not exist, I leave up to you.) There is also supposedly an apparition carrying a lantern along Cuba Road, flagging (well, lanterning) down motorists, that disappears when offered help. It would appear this ghost shares some features of the region’s most famous specter, Resurrection Mary.

Cuba Road: Dark and Lonely at NightCuba Road: Dark and Lonely at Night