Chesterville Witch's Grave
Chesterville, Illinois
The exact location is not shown on the map. Go east on County Road 400, the cemetery is across the bridge and around the bend. The cemetery is next to the road.
Like all good urban legends, the story of the Chesterville Witch has several versions. The basic premise is that a lady, for some reason, was accused of witchcraft and subsequently murdered/executed due to the fear generated by her supposed practice of witchcraft.
In one of the first versions of the story, around 1900, a woman in front of her Amish community openly professed to being a witch and communing with the devil. A week later, she was found murdered in a nearby farm field. The community was so relieved by her death that no one ever bothered to investigate her murder.
In another version, sometime in the mid-1800s, a woman openly disputed the teachings of her Amish faith. Overzealous members of her Amish community were offended by her objections and accused her of being a witch. Members of her community started shunning her, and eventually, enough people believed the accusations of witchcraft that they tried, convicted, and sentenced her to hang.
In a third version of the legend, a lady in the mid-1800s was a well-known healer. Not only was she a gifted healer, but she had an uncanny knowledge of local flora. She would often make remedies for her patients from plants and items she gathered from the forest. After a prominent member of the community suffered an unusual death. The healer was charged with murder and witchcraft. Her accusers claimed she killed the man by either making casting an evil spell or by brewing a deadly concoction. She was tried for witchcraft, summarily found guilty, and put to death for her supposed crimes.
According to the rest of the legend, the accused witch was buried in the Chesterville Cemetery, and a tree was planted on top of her grave. It is believed that planting a tree on a person’s grave will trap their soul. As long as the tree is alive, their spirit will be bound to her grave.
People obviously believe in the legend of the Chesterville Witch because saw marks are noticeable in the tree’s bark. The only reason why someone would attempt to cut down the tree on top of her grave would be to release her soul from captivity. Also, trees are living things, with a finite existence. So eventually the tree will die, and the witch’s vengeful soul will escape. Sometime in the future, the Chesterville Witch will escape her grave and take her revenge on the community that murdered her and imprisoned her soul.