Goodleburg Cemetery is a cemetery located in Wales, New York. It is an old, inactive village lot whose use has been discontinued. Many of the original settlers of Wales and the surrounding areas are buried here.[1]
| Goodleburg Cemetery | |
 Goodleburg Cemetery |
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| Cemetery Details | |
|---|---|
| Year established: | 1811 |
| Country: | United States |
| Location: | Wales, NY |
| Coordinates: | 42°42′50″N 78°32′16″W / 42.7139°N 78.5378°W |
| Type: | Private |
| Owned by: | Town of Wales |
| Size: | 1.5 |
| Find A Grave: | http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=64673&CScn=Goodleberg&CScntry=4&CSst=36& |
Contents |
The cemetery stood relatively peacefully until the late 1990s, when word spread about ghost stories and ghastly apparitions. Various paranormal research organizations, intent on capturing the paranormal activities at Goodleberg paraded carloads of investigators from neighboring counties, intent on capturing evidence of the paranormal. To date, there has been one death, which in part was blamed on the founder of a Western New York paranormal investigation team known as Paranormal and Ghost Society.
At 11:15PM on June 21st 2003, a member of that group was struck by an oncoming car. The cause was officially listed as DUI related, but in part was blamed on the group being on the road at that time of night,[2] which has many known blind curves.
Folklore has it that a Dr. Goodleberg had been performing illegal abortions then burying the unborn children and patients who did not survive the procedure behind his home located on a small hill overlooking the cemetery. A series of rain storms caused the pond behind the cemetery to flood, unearthing the remains of the unborn children and patients from their shallow graves. This was brought to the attention of the townspeople when neighborhood dogs began to feast on the exposed remains.
It was believed that Dr. Goodleberg hanged himself from the branch of one of the pine trees bordering the cemetery before he was brought to trial.
Ghost stories have been created over the years, including the appearance of apparitions of crawling infants and hell hounds, presumably both derived from the content of the lore. In recent years, it has been a site of frequent desecration.[3]
A well known paranormal author Mason Winfield, has
written about this cemetery and its purported activity several
times, but has also expressed regret to writing anything about it
due to the spike in vandalism since then[3]
The cemetery is a common place for vandalism. Since February 2008, the visitation laws for the cemetery have been made much stricter; with visitation hours 8am to dusk. Any persons caught on the property outside of those hours are being prosecuted due to the long history of vandalism and loitering.[4] Also, there is no parking on Goodleburg Road, extending 1/2 mile from the cemetery in either direction.
A feature film is currently in production based on the legends of Goodleburg Cemetery.
   | Town of Wales Cemeteries - Town of Wales, NY (Local Services » Cemeteries) |
| | Local Residents' Public Awareness MySpace Page - Invalid Friend ID |
| | Local newspaper article describing Town & Resident's frustration about trespassers and vandalism - East Aurora Advertiser - WALES SETS DEADLINE FOR NEW BOARD CANDIDATES |
| | - Retrieved 12 October 2008 - Goodleberg Cemetery, Town of Wales, Erie County, New York |
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