Halloween and ghost folklore in October are a favorite among the local residents who live along the Erie Canal towns in our area and whose legends are handed down from past generations.

In our “mist,” we have a well-known “ghost writer” who has written two books and is working on her third of more haunting legends for readers who enjoy the supernatural happenings in the area.

“Spooky,” the famous ghost writer, grew up in this Erie Canal town, and when she writes a tale of a haunted house or specific places, she does not always reveal the names or the exact location of her stories in respect for the people's privacy.

In Spooky's book, “Ghosts Along the Erie,” written in 1995, the story of “No Name Cemetery” became of great interest to me. In doing “family ties” for families from Virginia and Florida, I found this cemetery had some of their distant relatives buried there. After searching, I located the cemetery listing off the Internet.

This is a rural cemetery that lies on the boundary lines of Mentz and Montezuma and is on private property.

My ghost writer friend, Spooky, does investigate and study each story that she hears about, but it is up to the readers and their imaginations to believe or not to believe in the supernatural.

I have been given permission to print the story of “No Name Cemetery” by the author.

If anyone is interested in learning more historical facts and other locations of “ghostly spirits,” please feel free to contact me or buy one of the two books that are available at my store on Main Street in Port Byron.

Some of the ghostly locations have been printed along with a history of our famous ghost writer.

Thank you, “Spooky,” for letting me print this story. I did some history of the people buried there and was so pleased to learn the history connection to the families I did research for.

It is a thrill for a historian to be able to connect the “dots” for other people looking for their family ties in this area.

Penny Helzer is historian for the village of Port Byron. She can be reached at 776-5300 or e-mail CraftyPenny@tds.net

The tale

The death of John Jetty is a main part of local folklore. Many residents swear to have seen the ghost of Jetty in the No Name Cemetery.

No Name Cemetery

In this wild and romantic countryside, where you can still walk a mile without meeting a living soul, there is a small cemetery that bears mentioning here since ghostly figures have been seen floating above the headstones, and sometimes standing in the middle of the road.

This cemetery looked harmless; a bare, lowland quadrangle forgotten for years. It is now covered with weeds and brush in which, hidden underneath tall pine trees, the few graves with their sunken headstones seem lost and lonely in the expanse of the moonlight. But at the stroke of midnight, on certain unspecified nights, there appeared an apparition which is claimed to be that of a local farmer, who died in the early 1900s.

Years ago a curious tale was told:

One damp foggy night, a young woman and her male companion stopped their fancy sportscar at this out-of-the-way farmhouse to ask for help. The farmhouse, which is approached by a narrow winding lane from the main road, stands hidden in a kind of shallow basin of land; a few acres ploughed but mostly marshes. They told the farmer that they were waiting for money from her parents. Living alone in the big house for several years after his wife's death, the farmer was finally persuaded to let them stay on until their traveling money arrived.

The couple's car was seen parked in the farm's driveway for three days.

The farmer was found murdered.

Some say he was robbed and killed by these two strangers, but no one really knows what happened there.

Many of the neighbors were worried and fearful. This was the beginning of the greatest mystery ever in this area.

I made a few inquiries to our local historians, Carner and Marie, and learned that a John Jetty was murdered in 1908. The interesting thing is that we may be talking about the same farmer.

At the No Name Cemetery an inscription on one of the old headstones reads:

JETTY, JOHN 1840-1908

MARY 1841-1888

The Jetty murder is unsolved to this day.

One morning not long afterwards, an unexplained figure was seen riding a black horse over the marshes. They say it was an unobtrusive piece of marsh ground that had a beauty and mystery all its own, especially at dusk when a mist often hovered there.

Ghostly whispers and half-interpreted sounds had been reported and some unexplained figures had been seen at the place called “Murder Swamp.”

Occasionally as darkness gathered about the marshes, this phantom form was seen by dozens of people. Scores more heard about it, but no one had the courage to approach it.

Bizarre tales of this spirit continued to circulate in the surrounding neighborhood all through the century. Some of these stories were eerie and frightening. But despite the ghost talk and sightings, the local constable said he did not believe there was any such thing as a ghost spirit and he would not investigate any more reports of them. However, he and his assistant searched some of the places where the spirit had been seen and found absolutely nothing. But for a time, several all-night vigils were kept by the two officers.

I was told that the apparition was seen so often, some years ago that the singular appearances ceased to attract attention and came to be accepted by the townspeople. All except Marie, Mentz's historian, who was 10 years old at the time. She told me of this inexplicable happening.

Marie and the family maid, Grace, always picked thimbleberries in the marshes behind Jetty's house. One day when they were busy filling their baskets, Grace saw something moving in the shadows of the berry bushes. Then a dark patch of air formed around her. Quickly it disappeared, leaving her mesmerized. She couldn't say anything to little Marie, but somehow she lifted her up and made a bungling rush for the towpath road and home. Still not much was to be made of the momentary vision, but it was the end of their berry picking in the marshes.

It is still possible to trace people who remember the Jetty murder but are reluctant to admit having seen his ghost.

This ghost seems to have disappeared for years until recently when an employee from the nearby sugar beet plant had a frightening experience. He told me that driving home from work late one night, he saw, standing in the middle of the road, a “spirited form.” He couldn't stop his truck in time and drove through the translucent body. After a horrified moment, he saw the spirit speed, magically swift, to the far side of the road and into the open field.

Did the ghostly figure come from the ancient cemetery? Some of the old timers believe that it was John searching for his murderers.

For that reason, over the years, the road that leads past this No Name Cemetery was avoided - especially during the full moon season.

Believe me, even in the daylight, this road is spooky, but on a dark night, it can give you the creeps.