This large and very actively haunted cemetery is known for the ghostly weeping Greenwood Bride, and it’s also home to many Confederate soldiers’ spirits. The soldiers were prisoners in the Civil War, and died of yellow fever only to be cast into unmarked graves. The soldiers have been known to confront cemetery visitors. There are other spirits here too; ghost lights have been seen along the cemetery’s southern border.
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Geographic Information
- Address:
- Greenwood Cemetery
Decatur, IL
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 39.8349608, -88.95634899999999
- County:
- Macon County, Illinois
- Nearest Towns:
- Decatur, IL (0.4 mi.)
Long Creek, IL (6.0 mi.)
Mount Zion, IL (6.2 mi.)
Forsyth, IL (6.7 mi.)
Boody, IL (6.8 mi.)
Harristown, IL (6.9 mi.)
Oreana, IL (8.6 mi.)
Macon, IL (8.7 mi.)
Warrensburg, IL (8.8 mi.)
Chapin, IL (10.2 mi.)
Please note: It is your responsibility to acquire appropriate permissions before investigating any location listed on this site. Private property should be respected at all times, as should all posted signs concerning trespassing, hours of operation and other local regulations. Many "ghost hunters" have been arrested because they failed to contact property owners and/or local authorities ahead of time.
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Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the nature of "ghost stories," largely unverifiable. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. The vast majority of information provided on this web site is anecdotal, and as such, should be viewed in the same light as local folklore and urban legends.
One night when I was 18, a group of my friends and I decided we would go check out GreenWood, we parked on the south bank of the river and walked across the railroad bridge to hop the fence, as to avoid being caught sneaking in, we walked all through the cemetery and even had one guy sit in what some call the devils chair, others call it the weeping brides chair. nothing much happened until we went to leave, we hopped back over the fence and started walking back toward the railroad bridge, my friend and I were at the back of the group the others about 25 feet or so ahead of us and he and I heard some one walking behind us a little ways. He and I turned around thinking it was some one from our group trying to mess with us. That was not the case, standing about 20 feet from us was a man dressed in a uniform and he was holding a long rifle kind of across his chest. me and my friend turned and ran up with the rest of our group and we asked if everybody was with us and if we had lost anyone that had came with us and all were accounted for, we got about half way across the rail bridge and me and the friend that saw the man looked back and the soldier was standing at the southern most edge of the cemetery just before the bridge, he slowly turn and took 2 steps back toward the cemetery and disappeared. I haven’t been back since. My friend and I went to the library a week later and did some research and found out that the haunted Decatur book, written by Troy Taylor had a very similar instance depicted in his book. That’s when I knew with out a doubt what we had seen was real.
My grandfather and his brother use to be caretakers of Greenwood many years ago and my mom also has a photo album of back then when they took care of it. My grandfather and his family use to live in the house just outside of the gates to the cemetery.
My friends and I just went there last night(April 8,2015). The caretaker did in fact let us in even though it was after dusk. Anyway, while we were walking around block 9, when we heard this bloodcurdling scream. There was nobody around besides us. The next thing we know, we start smelling fire. We could not compute where this smell came from as because there was no fire in sight. We kept walking and still smelled it, but again, no fire in sight. Definitely a little strange. And you do get a different and eerie vibe from the area of block 9 than you do anywhere else in the cemetery.
A couple of days before Halloween I went there with my family and a couple of friends, my dad called the caretaker and let us in, when he was going to scare my friend that was scared of clowns I heard a cannon go off, and I was standing right by the cannon, and my my friend saw a little girl wearing white.I will probably go back there when I have an ghost box and some equipment and go ghost hunting.
I’ve had two experiences at greenwood. Both occurred in fall of 2014. My class from the local university, Millikin, went to the cemetery to study the life spans of different eras by recording birth and death dates from tombstones.
I wanted away from my group into, what appeared to be, a very old section of the cemetery. Many of the headstones were unreadable. As I took my information, I heard a sound behind me. I turned, seeing no one. I kept moving, and heard it again, this time seeing a pebble coming to rest on the headstone plaque near my foot. I thought a classmate was messing with me. I soon realized I was very far from my group.
I felt a tug on three fingers of my left hand. I recoiled, horrified. It felt like a child had grabbed my hand. There was nothing. I started walking back the way I came. I felt it again. I stopped. This time I realized, it was like a child was pulling me toward something. I followed the feeling, and began looking around when it stopped. I heard a pebble hit stone behind me. I turned around and found the headstone of a boy who had died at age 5. I had chills, but spoke out loud, that the boy needed to cross over, that he didn’t need to stay here anymore. He didn’t leave. I felt him follow me around for the next hour. Before rejoining my group, I told him I had to leave and he couldn’t come with me. I told him he needed to go toward the light and that I would say a prayer for him to find peace.
I found my group, and still felt like he was following me. My friends were all joking about the “Devils chair”. I didn’t know what the meant but as we began to approach this wooden chair, I got goosebumps. I felt the boy pulling my hand back, away from the chair, urgently. I told my friends I wouldn’t go any closer. I took a few steps back and felt the boy let go of my hand.
I recently visited Greenwood again (2017). I didn’t realize I was walking in the same section, until I saw the boys headstone again. I took a moment to pay my respects, and felt nothing but peace. I believe he crossed over. I still will not go anywhere near the devils chair.
Wow, Nikki that was quite an experience. You were very brave to keep calm and talk to the spirit in an attempt to help him. My only experience in a cemetery at night was to hear a blood curdling scream like the story above from Shelbie. We saw no sign of anyone and we were too far from the city for the sound to have come from anywhere but the cemetery itself. Gotta believe that roaming these places esp. at night is not for the faint of heart.
I use to fish over by there on the spillway and I swear I was constantly checking my back. Felt like I was being watched the whole time. The woods were similarly creepy. Felt serene some moments, next I had this overwhelming urge to run. Never saw anything but what I felt, no doubt there’s some strong energy there.