Collected from Yaël Ksander[Text Wrapping Break]October 22, 2007[Text Wrapping Break]Performed for the WFIU Public Radio program “Moment of Indiana History”
[Text Wrapping Break]Transcription: While ghost-trackers in Evansville keep on the lookout for the Lady in Grey, an apparition in different attire haunts the imagination of paranormal investigators in central Indiana. A spectral Lady in Black is said to lurk in the Stepp Cemetery, located deep within the Morgan Monroe State Forest, south of Martinsville.
The grave markers that remain indicate that the site is the final resting place for at least 32 people—mostly young women and children—the oldest of whom passed away in the early nineteenth century. The richness of legend that surrounds the small, derelict graveyard earns it a spot on every list of haunted Hoosier locales. Starting in the 1950s, visitors to the burial ground began reporting sightings of a lady shrouded in black, hovering on a chair-like tree stump above a stone simply marked “Baby Lester.” Some claimed it was the ghost of a local woman who’d lost her infant son twenty years earlier. Other stories circulated about a spirit in a black gown, sometimes called Anna, who would weave among the headstones mourning the accidental deaths of her husband and teenage daughter. A different branch of the Stepp Cemetery mythology leads to a tale of two brothers who dueled to the death in the graveyard for their inheritance.
Perhaps because of the Stepp’s notoriety, it has become a destination of sorts for those seeking dark thrills. Over the years, claims have surfaced of ritualistic gatherings in the cemetery, especially those linked with an obscure religious cult. The graveyard has been strewn with debris; its headstones vandalized and removed. One of 300 burial grounds in Monroe County alone, the Stepp Cemetery has come under the purview of the Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration Project. The grassroots effort was started in 1997 to identify and preserve just such neglected historic sites.
Full audio available at https://indianapublicmedia.org/momentofindianahistory/stepp-cemetary/
This artifact comes from a broadcasted radio program, so it is an audio recording with a written transcript provided by the archive it was collected from. The audio features a male voice describing the location, a couple of legends associated with the cemetery, and the current state of the cemetery. The recording is two minutes long with the majority of the time being spent of the “Lady in Black” legend most commonly associated with Stepp Cemetery.
This artifact first appeared on a bi-weekly show about historical sites in Indiana. It appears to have been preceded by the discussion of another haunted location in or around the Evansville area that features a “Lady in Grey.” The initial program first aired on October 22, right around Halloween. This artifact seems more likely to appear in discussions around periods associated with ghosts and hauntings as well as in discussions where other spectral figures are in the spotlight.
The sense of community runs strong through this particular artifact. It is mentioned that this cemetery is a point of pride amongst supernaturally-inclined Hoosiers. The tales of the Lady in Black begin here in the 1950s, being predated by sightings in other areas nearby (IU’s campus, for example), but this artifact gives the Lady a purpose in returning, visiting the grave of an infant and watching over it. Additionally, the woman is named, giving her a stronger connection to those that see her and know her story than she might receive if she were left an unnamed spirit.
Additionally, the focus at the end of the radio segment on the state of the cemetery when the program was originally run shows the community dedication to maintaining its haunted cemetery. On top of the Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration Project taking an interest in the cemetery for its value to the surrounding area, Stepp Cemetery has also become a springboard for other legends to begin, such as those of cults located within Monroe County gathering together for ritual purposes.