Woodland Cemetery

One of America's five oldest garden cemeteries, Woodland in Dayton holds the Wright Brothers, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Erma Bombeck across 200 acres of Tiffany-windowed chapels and Greek statuary. Its most persistent ghosts are Johnny Morehouse, a boy who drowned in 1860 whose dog refused to leave his grave, and a blonde girl in white tennis shoes who vanishes in blue light.

A woman researching genealogy at Woodland Cemetery looked up from her notebook and saw a blonde girl sitting on a gravestone, swinging her feet. White tennis shoes. Blue jeans. The girl hopped off the stone and ran. A blue light followed her across the grass, and then, according to the witness, "that blue light sort of went into her and she was just gone."

The blonde girl is one of Woodland Cemetery's recurring figures. Multiple visitors have described the same person: young, blonde, dressed casually, sitting on a stone that reportedly glows with a faint blue light. Witness Christine Marks said the girl warned her, "Oh you better get home now, this is not where you should be," before vanishing during a sudden gust of wind. Visitor Chuck Wick encountered a small child playing unattended near the exit fence who asked if they needed help finding their way. Nobody knows who she is.

But the cemetery's most famous ghost has a name, a gravestone, and a tradition behind him. Johnny Morehouse drowned on August 14, 1860, after slipping into the Miami and Erie Canal while playing with his dog. The dog dove in after him. It was too late. After the funeral, the dog came to Johnny's grave and refused to leave, staying there morning, noon, and night until it died. The tombstone, carved with a sculpture of a boy and his dog standing guard, has become a Dayton landmark. Visitors leave toys, coins, candles, and dog treats on the grave. After hours, people report hearing a boy's laughter mixed with the barking of a dog, coming from Johnny's section of the cemetery.

Woodland Cemetery was founded in 1841, when John Van Cleve purchased 40 acres of land one mile south of downtown Dayton. It has since grown to over 200 acres with more than 100,000 burials. It is one of the five oldest rural garden cemeteries in the United States, and the grounds reflect that ambition: rolling hills, 3,000 trees representing 165 native Midwestern species, a chapel with original Tiffany windows, a Romanesque gateway, Greek statues, marble mausoleums with stained glass. The Victorian section was designated a historic district in 2011.

The burial list reads like an American history exam. Wilbur and Orville Wright are here. On June 1, 1912, a funeral procession of 25 carriages wound through Dayton for two miles to bring Wilbur to Woodland. Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the first African American poets to gain national recognition (and Orville Wright's high school classmate), is buried nearby. So are humorist Erma Bombeck and inventor Charles Kettering.

Paranormal investigator David Weatherly spent time at Woodland in the early 2000s and documented light anomalies and voices he could not explain. Visitor Don Bursar described gravestones that fluctuated in temperature, shadows that seemed to move with purpose, and conversations between voices that relocated when he approached. Civil War soldiers and early Dayton businessman Adam Schantz are among the other reported spirits.

The cemetery sits at 118 Woodland Avenue. Tours run regularly, covering both the history and the famous graves. The blonde girl, if you're lucky (or unlucky), handles the after-hours welcome on her own terms.