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Spooky legends swirl around unusual monument in rural cemetery |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Tuesday, 28 October 2003 |
Posted on Mon, Oct. 27, 2003
The Witch's Ball
Spooky legends swirl around unusual monument in rural cemetery
By Mark J. Price
Beacon Journal staff writer
Akron Beacon Journal
For at least three generations, curiosity seekers have flocked to this granite monument at Myrtle Hill Cemetery in Medina County's Liverpool Township. The shiny decoration that rests atop the marker is known as 'The Witch's Ball' because, according to local legend, a witch was buried alive beneath the sphere.
According to local legend, the witch was buried standing up.
She had preyed on Medina County residents for years, stealing beloved pets, performing unholy rituals and casting spells on neighbors.
Finally, the townsfolk had enough. They raided the witch's home near Valley City and dragged her off to trial, where she was convicted of sinister crimes and sent to her death.
The villagers buried her alive -- standing up -- beneath a heavy granite sphere in a rural cemetery in Liverpool Township. More than 100 years ago, the evil witch met her eternal fate.
If you believe the legend.
Apparently, a lot of people do. For at least three generations, curiosity seekers have made a spooky pilgrimage to the Myrtle Hill Cemetery in Liverpool Township. They go to lay their hands on a dark monument known as ``The Witch's Ball,'' a shiny decoration that rests atop a rugged base about 3 feet wide.
There are no dates on the marker. The only thing that's carved is the name ``Stoskopf.''
Strange legends have swirled around the odd-shaped monument for years. It is alleged that its surface temperature defies nature, feeling warm in the winter and cold in the summer. Some say leaves won't fall near it or snow won't stick to it. Every once in a while, it is claimed, a mysterious stranger leaves a black rose at its base.
Perhaps most frightening, the Witch's Ball casts an eerie glow as motorists drive up Myrtle Hill Road, some say.
The legends have been handed down from generation to generation, and Internet sites are widening interest in the marker, especially around Halloween.
Medina native Alliey Bender, 19, a photojournalism major at Kent State University, discovered a Web site about the ball and ended up visiting the cemetery three times in three days.
``My friends and I get bored over the summer so we look for neat stuff around the Medina area, and this happened to be one of them,'' she said.
She and a friend drove out to the cemetery about 10 o'clock one night and used their headlights to find the sphere. ``The first time we went through, we were scared because we didn't know what to expect,'' she said.
The two young women grew frightened as their imaginations ran wild and they contemplated the legends of the witch.
``I heard that she was buried standing up so she couldn't get out of the grave,'' Bender said. ``I heard that in the winter, the ball is hot and in the summer, it's freezing.''
Bender said fear caused her mind to play tricks on her in the darkness. ``I was imagining the headlights being eyes and the thing watching us,'' she said. ``It was just kind of scary.''
The next morning, in the comfort of daylight, the friends returned to the cemetery with Bender's boyfriend in tow, and they went back a third and final time on the following night.
By then, Bender was questioning the stories. First of all, the sphere wasn't nearly as cold as advertised. The sun had baked it all day, and stone is ``going to retain the heat,'' she said.
There was no black rose. No leaves either. ``I heard that no leaves fall around it, which is kind of a dumb thing because there's really no trees around it,'' she said.
She now doubts there is anything supernatural about the monument and chalks up her earlier fears to an overactive imagination. ``I think that since it's an odd-shaped figure in the graveyard that people tend to believe stuff that's really not there,'' she said.
Under closer scrutiny, the eerie legends of the Witch's Ball fall apart.
Tom Hilberg, curator of the Medina County Historical Society, said there is no evidence of a witch trial ever being held in the county, and certainly none in the last 100 years.
It's possible that the folklore has warped over time and that the facts have been garbled. ``I've seen reference to an Indian witch being hung by Indians in Hinckley or Granger,'' he said.
But that legend has nothing to do with Liverpool Township or the Witch's Ball. ``I think it's just a story that's grown up over the years,'' he said.
A strong possibility is that modern-day residents are confusing a real-life murderess for a fictional witch. In the 1920s, Liverpool Township resident Martha Wise was sent to state prison for killing her aunt with arsenic. She also was suspected in the arsenic deaths of two others and the illnesses of six children.
The name on the monument isn't Wise, though. It's Stoskopf.
``This is about that ball, isn't it?'' Liverpool Township clerk Debra Gillin asked in response to a request for burial records from Myrtle Hill Cemetery.
Most of the township's old records weren't saved, she said, but a cemetery map appears to shed light on the mystery.
This burial place isn't for one woman. The sphere marks seven lots, although only four people are buried there.
``There are two people buried to the right of the ball, there's an empty lot and there are two people buried to the left of the ball,'' she said.
No witch, standing or otherwise, is beneath the ball, according to the map. ``The ball sits over no one,'' Gillin said.
It's a family monument, not a tombstone. In fact, it's not even unique. There are two nearly identical spheres at Akron's Glendale Cemetery.
Laverne Tolsma, president of the Liverpool Township Historical Society, has heard the stories. ``When the cars came in with their lights, it looked like it was an eye following,'' she said.
But she dismisses the notion of anything sinister.
``It's the Stoskopf plot,'' Tolsma said. ``It's just the nice Stoskopf family there.''
That leads us to Lucile Stoskopf, 89, of Valley City, who can testify that the place isn't haunted. Her father-in-law and mother-in-law, who both died in the 1940s, are buried there.
``Mr. Stoskopf was George and his wife is Alma and the daughter is Helen Toth and her husband is Joe Toth,'' she said.
Their four headstones, complete with names and dates, are found several paces beyond the ball. ``Mr. Stoskopf just asked for something unusual, and that's what they came up with,'' she said.
And one more thing.
``No one is buried standing up,'' she said.
Despite the truth, the legends keep people coming back to the ball for some strange reason.
``One time they even pushed it over to see what was inside,'' she said. ``They have it anchored now so you can't do it anymore.''
The witch legends have created a regular headache for the Medina County Sheriff's Office, which has boosted patrols to crack down on trespassers who enter the cemetery after dusk.
Sgt. Warren Walter, who has patrolled Liverpool for 26 years, said young people often drive from Cleveland or the suburbs to look for the ball. ``The majority of those kids come out to prank or scare their friends,'' he said. ``It's usually boys with girls.''
But they had better think twice before going after dark. A parked cruiser, not a witch, might be waiting for them.
``If you're caught up there, you're susceptible to a trespassing charge and the vehicle is towed,'' he said.
He's kicked out plenty of intruders and even broken up parties at the cemetery.
``They go off the grounds with their car and they tear up the ground,'' Walter said. ``They run over the top of the stones. I've had vehicles up there that have been actually stuck. They've buried their wheels over the headstones.
``They'll bust stuff up there, they'll throw beer cans. It's a mess for the maintenance department for the township.''
Thrill seekers had better not get any ideas this Halloween. If they get caught, a witch will be the least of their worries.
``I would just caution them not to go there,'' Walter said.
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