Alma Cemetery and the Devil's Chair

Kansas · United States · Cemetery

A farmer refused to sell his land to the town of Alma, Kansas for a cemetery. He was pushed into his own well, and the town got the land anyway.

Alma Cemetery in Kansas is reported for two separate reasons, and only one of them is about the people buried there.

The first is straightforward: those interred here are said not to have left, and photographs taken at night are the evidence people offer, showing orbs and shapes in mist. Night is described as the only time worth going.

The second is the Devil's Chair, and it comes with a story about how the town got the ground. In the 1800s the land now occupied by the cemetery belonged to a hard tempered old farmer. Alma was being built at the time and the town officials wanted his land for the new burial ground. He refused to sell, repeatedly. One day, drawing water at his own well, someone came up behind him and pushed him in.

The chair itself is a stone seat in the cemetery, and the local rule about sitting in it is the sort that gets tested by teenagers on summer nights. What the story really preserves is a municipal land dispute that ended badly.

FAQ

Where is Alma Cemetery and the Devil's Chair located?

Alma Cemetery and the Devil's Chair is in Kansas, United States.