Sunday, July 21, 2013

Stull, Kansas: Sometimes Fiction is Simply Fiction


I realize that I normally write fiction, but sometimes a topic comes along that moved me. Stull, Kansas Cemetery is one of those topics. A cemetery is hallowed ground and therefore should be respected, and not trod upon lightly. So when fanatical stories are told that make a holy place an oddity to the masses I feel slightly sick inside.

Stull, Kansas has become known as one of the most
 haunted cemeteries in the country. It is even said that Stull Cemetery is one of the two places on Earth that Satan himself rises from Hell. In my experience this seems outrageous. I have to admit that not only did I not see the devil, I also did not see or feel any ghostly specters. Above is a picture of Anna A Andrews Wittich, whom has a story around her. She has been accused of being a witch in league with the devil. I realize that witches were extremely common in eastern Kansas in the early 1900's, but I think this might be one of those little fictions that mocks this hallowed ground, along with the idea that Satanic cults practiced in the church.

It is said that Stull is one of the "Seven Gates to Hell" also there are stairs that lead to Hell behind the church. I didn't see them, but of course they're suppose to be covered and hidden by the tall grass. I did however see a stone marker was placed inside the church foundation. Which means that the foundation of the church has been used as a plot for the last 75 years. The church walls were standing until last year when it was demolished under mysterious and unfortunate circumstances, apparently.


 While I visited the cemetery I really didn't notice anything strange. No devil, no ghosts, no Hell mouth. I was almost disappointed after all the build up. I fear that a bunch of bored college students have brought the Devil to Stull, Kansas at the expense of the people that live there.

 The Old Glory stands over Stull's dead just as much as anywhere else. It is not a big cemetery probably fewer then two hundred plots lay on the land, most of them are over grown and lost under the dirt. They aren't stones that say Devil and Witch, but rather it is where Mother and Father are laid to rest. 



In some cases the whole damn family is buried there. And the whole Damm family is actually buried there.

 
Our boys are buried there. More then a hundred years of Wulfkuhle rest in the Stull Cemetery grounds.

Yet, some see fit to come a rile the dead with their living nonsense. They cause damage, and make parts of the past disappear altogether. And tourists wonder why the people of Stull hate kids going into their Cemetery? This isn't an oddity for the world to spy on, this is where their families lie.
Cemeteries are creepy. That's a given, but Stull is such a quiet and calm place that is seems hard to believe that anyone would want to stir up a little Hell there.
My suggestion? Let the dead lie and find your thrills elsewhere, unless you come to show your proper respect to the century and a half of intimate family history that can be found there.