Inez Clarke ~ Ghost story of Graceland Cemetery

The story as told at prairieghosts.com is "According to local legend, Inez died in 1880 at the tender age of only six. Tradition has it that she was killed during a lightning storm while on a family picnic. Her parents, stunned by the tragic loss, commissioned a life-size statue of the girl to be placed on her grave. It was completed a year later, and like many Chicago area grave sculptures, was placed in a glass box to protect it from the elements. The image remains in nearly perfect condition today. Even in death, Inez still manages to charm cemetery visitors, who discover the little girl perched on a small stool. The likeness was cast so that Inez is seen wearing her favorite dress and carrying a tiny parasol. The perfectly formed face was created with just the hint of a smile. It is not uncommon to come to the cemetery and find gifts of flowers and toys at the foot of her grave. The site has become one of the most popular places in the cemetery, for graveyard buffs and curiosity seekers alike.
The stories say that the area around Inez Clarke's resting place is haunted. Not only are their stories of strange sounds heard nearby, but some claim the statue of Inez actually moves under its own power. The most disconcerting stories may be those of the disembodied weeping that is heard nearby but the most famous tales are those of the statue itself. It is said that Inez will sometimes vanish from inside of the glass box. This is said to take place during violent thunderstorms. Many years ago, a night watchman for the Pinkerton agency allegedly stated that he was making his rounds one night during a storm and discovered that the box that holds Inez was empty. He left the cemetery that night, never to return. Other guards have also reported it missing, only to find it back in place when they pass by again, or the following morning.

There are other tales that claim visitors to Graceland spot a little girl playing in the cemetery. In other cases, children who accompany their parents to the burial ground have stated that they have met a little girl wearing old-fashioned clothes playing near the monument.

Of course, there is only one problem with these stories and accounts --- no one named Inez Clarke is even buried in Graceland Cemetery! According to cemetery expert Al Walavich (as reported in the Chicago Sun-Times), there might have never been an Inez Clarke at all! One thing that he can state for sure: "Based on cemetery records there's no such person buried in that grave". He has also looked up U.S. Census records from the time and has found no indication that the child even existed."

The statue of Inez remains a mystery, but I did make a point to see it anyway, and get out of the warm car to photograph it. It was about 19 degrees that day.

Graceland Cemetery ~ Chicago

Graceland Cemetery is a large Victorian-era cemetery located in the north side community area of Uptown, in the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Established in 1860, its main entrance is at Clark and Irving Park. The Sheridan stop on the Red Line is the nearest CTA "L"(Short for Elevated Line) station.
In the 19th century a train to the north suburbs occupied the eastern edge of the cemetery where the "L" now rides. The line was also used to carry mourners to funerals, in specially rented funeral cars, requiring an entry on the east wall, now closed. At that point the cemetery would have been well outside the city limits of Chicago. After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, Lincoln Park which had been the city's cemetery, was deconsecrated and some of the bodies moved here. The edge of the pond around Daniel Burnham's burial island was once lined with broken headstones and coping transported from Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park then became a recreational area, with a single mausoleum remaining, the "Couch tomb".




The cemetery is typical of those that reflect Queen Victoria's reconception of the early 19th century "graveyard". Instead of poorly-maintained headstones, and bodies buried on top of each other, on an ungenerous parcel of land; the cemetery became a pastoral landscaped park dotted with memorial markers, with room left over for picnics, a common usage of cemeteries. The landscape architechture for Graceland was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed New York's Central park.
Many of the cemetery's tombs are of great architectural or artistic interest, including the Getty Tomb, the Martin Ryerson mausoleum (both designed by architect Louis Sullivan, who is also buried here), and the Schoenhofen Pyramid Mausoleum. The industrialist George Pullman was buried at night, in a lead-lined coffin within an elaborately reinforced steel-and-concrete vault, to prevent his body from being exhumed and desecrated by labor activists.
Along with its other famous burials the cemetery is notable for two statues by sculptor Lorado Taft, Eternal Silence for the Graves family plot and the Crusader that marks Victor Lawson's final resting place.


Graceland is one of three notable 19th century cemeteries which were previously well outside the city limits; the other two being Rosehill (further north), and Oak Woods (South of Hyde Park) which includes a major monument to Confederate civil war dead.
In addition to the larger ones noted above,directly south of Graceland is the German Protestant Wunder's Cemetery & Jewish Graceland Cemetery (divided by a fence), established in 1851. Also, Saint Boniface Cemetery is four blocks north of Graceland at the corner of Clark & Lawrence.
The cemetery's walls are topped off with barbed wire.

Cemetery Doors and Gates

Aside from grave markers themselves, I also enjoy the crypt doors and plot gates found in cemeteries. Here are a few that we have taken on our travels from Hollywood to Chicago.

Abandoned

House in Simi Valley



As we travel around, Jeff and I come across abandoned places from time to time. If we are able to we take a few images. We will be exploring ghost towns as we find 'em on our travels ( we usually look ahead and plan stops at all the cemeteries or ghost towns on our route) Here are a mixture of places that we found abandoned.


 House in Piru

House in Ventura

Old Refinery in Ventura

Refinery in Ventura

Refinery in Ventura

Refinery in Ventura

Building in Piru

Refinery in Ventura

Gas station in Ludlow

Store in Ludlow

Rancho Camulos

A few months ago Jeff and I took a drive along highway 126 which travels in part from the Castaic area to the city of Ventura at the coast. One of the things we found along the 126 is Rancho Camulos. It is said to be the inspiration for the much loved story 'Ramona'. On the day we went- the hacienda was actually closed, but since it remains a working ranch, we were able to walk around the 'working' parts of the property. As always I have included a little history of the Rancho among the photos.




Rancho Camulos, now known as Rancho Camulos Museum, is a ranch located 2.2 miles (3.5 km) east of Piru, California. It was the home of Ygnacio del Valle, an alcalde of Los Angeles and member of the California State Assembly. The ranch was known as the Home of Ramona because it was widely believed to have been the setting of the popular 1884 novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson. The novel helped in raising awareness about the Californio lifestyle and "romanticizing of the mission and rancho era of California history."
The 1,800-acre (7 km2) working ranch is a prime example of an early California rancho in its original rural setting. It was the source of the first commercially grown oranges in what is now Ventura County, and is one of the few remaining citrus growers in Southern California.





State Route 126 bisects the property, with most of the main buildings located south of the highway, and a few buildings on the north. The main adobe is one of the few extant Spanish Colonial buildings left in the state. Most of the other buildings are done in Mission Revival or Spanish Colonial Revival, both of which are derivatives of the former.
Rancho Camulos is designated a National Historic Landmark, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is also a California Historical Landmark. Many of the buildings and grounds are open to the public as a museum of this period in California history.



Originally a Tataviam village named Kamulus (meaning "juniper"), the area was used by Mission San Fernando Rey de España for growing crops and as a grazing area for livestock as early as 1804. The population of this relatively isolated area (only traversed by the El Camino Real), as recorded by William Edward Petty Hartnell during his inspection of the mission, was 416 in 1839. It was included in the 48,612-acre (197 km2) Rancho San Francisco granted to Del Valle's father, Antonio del Valle, administrator of Mission San Fernando, by Governor Juan B. Alvarado on January 22, 1839, after the secularization of the missions.




After Antonio's death in 1841, Ygnacio inherited Rancho San Francisco, but this was challenged in court by his father's second wife. Nevertheless, by 1853 he constructed a four-room adobe house and a corral at Camulos. By 1857, the land title dispute was settled, with Ygnacio getting the western portion and the remainder was split among Antonio's children and his second wife. He purchased back some of the other portions from his family as well as the neighboring Rancho Temescal to the north, and began livestock operations on the expanded area. However, Del Valle and his family did not live on the ranch initially, instead settling in house on what is now Olvera Street in Los Angeles. The Del Valle family did not move back to Camulos, which he had expanded, until 1861. During this time, the ranch was overseen by José Antonio Salazar, Ygnacio's majordomo. Thus, despite its close association with Ramona and Mexican California, the house was constructed after California statehood and the family never lived there under Mexican rule.



In the 1860s, a drought forced Del Valle to sell off much of his land, but Camulos not only survived, but thrived. By the time of his death in 1880, the house had expanded to twenty rooms and the compound had become a self-sustaining ranch, complete with a brick winery, chapel, barn and workers' housing. Records indicate that in 1870 the ranch was largest vintner in the area. A stagecoach line opened in 1874 and in 1887, Southern Pacific ran a rail line past the ranch, including a depot at Camulos, ending the ranch's isolation.