The Haunted Odd Fellows Cemetery in Granite City, Illinois

Nearly forgotten about in Granite City, Illinois is the Haunted Odd Fellows Cemetery. For decades this cemetery laid abandoned and in ruin. Many of its beautiful monuments were left toppled and overgrown. My first visit to the Odd Fellows Cemetery was over ten years ago. Then the area was so overgrown that the only way we could find the cemetery was by the wrought iron arch that marks the entrance. Over the past few years a concerted effort has been made to clear the overgrowth and maintain the cemetery, but unfortunately many of the beautiful monuments still lay on the ground. During my last visit I was shocked to see that many of the smaller headstones were broken and thrown behind a tree, meaning that many of the graves are left unmarked.

The grave yard is supposedly haunted by the spirit of Lucinda Irish; her grave is the first monument you see as you approach the cemetery. In the late 1940’s a subdivision was going to be built in the area of the Odd Fellows Cemetery. The old dirt road that once lead to the cemetery was paved over with asphalt. The builders planning to build houses on the other side of the cemetery moved the headstones out of the way, and continued the new road through the cemetery. The wrought iron arch was moved from the original entry point where the old dirt road stopped to its current place next to the Irish Family monument. The new asphalt road split the cemetery into two halves. The paved road was laid over top of the Irish Family cemetery plots and their head stones were also discarded. Once the cemetery was desecrated, plans for the new subdivision fell through and the houses were never built. The desecration of her family’s graves was said to have awakened the spirit of Lucinda Irish. Lucinda now she roams the cemetery at night screaming at anyone who dares to enter. After the road was paved and the houses were never built, it’s out of the way location made it easy for vandals, grave robbers, and adventure seekers to drive down this seldom traveled road, and right into the middle of the abandoned Odd Fellows Cemetery. Remnants of the abandoned asphalt road can still be seen, but Mother Nature is slowly reclaiming it.

Since the cemetery is now being maintained, sightings of Lucinda Irish have started to dissipate. Maybe her spirit agrees with the recent attempts to clean up the cemetery, or maybe her spirit just grows weary of her failed attempts to protect her family’s final resting place.