Editor’s note: WNCT’s Mekaela Muck will take a look at some of the haunted, spooky and just plain creepy places in Eastern North Carolina around the state now through the month of October. If you have some interesting places you’d like to see her do, let her know at mmuck@wnct.com.
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GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — The third oldest church resides in New Bern and next to it is a very old graveyard.
At the end of the 18th century, the original graveyard was overflowing. In 1799, the church bought a nearby field for the dead and built a new gravesite.
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Flowing with Spanish moss and crumbling graves, the cemetery also has a weeping arch nestled between the walls. The walls and arch were built in 1854 and were made with shell rock, mined seashells and fossilized sea creatures that were locally acquired.
As the arch has crevices, water will drip down from them on people visiting the graveyard. At first, it seemed that the water only dripped when a funeral party was entering. Many in New Bern remarked that it seemed like the arch was crying, the dripping water much like tears. Almost as if the stone itself was weeping for the dead.
The story grew as the years went by, becoming a superstition. If a group of people cross the arch, whoever gets “wept on” will be the next to die, the legend says.
Do you believe it?
Information was used from North Carolina Ghosts and Strange Carolinas.
