HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Colonial graveyard in York Village holding the 1774 grave of Mary Nasson
York Street, York, ME 03909
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to visit. The Old Burying Yard sits beside the First Parish Church in York Village and is open to the public; treat it as an active historic cemetery.
Access
Limited Access
Open colonial graveyard with grass, uneven ground, and old headstones
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1774 · One of Maine's oldest graveyards · Grave of Mary Nasson (d. 1774) · Colonial York Village · 18th-century table-stone grave marker
The Old Burying Yard sits beside the First Parish Church in the center of York Village, one of the earliest English settlements on the Maine coast. It is among the oldest graveyards in the state, with headstones reaching back to the colonial period, and it is maintained as a historic cemetery.
Its best-known marker belongs to Mary Nasson, who died in 1774. Local tradition came to call her 'the witch,' a label tied to her reputation as an herbalist and healer rather than to any documented trial or accusation. Her grave is distinguished by a large flat stone slab laid horizontally over it, with separate head and foot stones. This table-stone form was a recognized 18th-century grave treatment, and historians attribute the slab to ordinary period practice rather than to any effort to confine the dead.
The graveyard, and Mary Nasson's grave in particular, is a fixture on guided walks of York Village, which pair the documented colonial record with the folklore that has accumulated around the site over more than two centuries.
Sources
The folklore around Mary Nasson's grave is the most widely told ghost story in York Village. Tradition gave her the name 'the Witch of York,' and the large flat stone over her grave became the focus of a legend that it was placed there to keep her from rising. Folklorists note that the slab is a conventional 18th-century table stone and that the witch label appears to stem from her work as a healer, but the story has persisted in local tradition for generations.
Visitors to the Old Burying Yard describe a sense of presence near the grave, and some accounts report warmth radiating from the slab or unease while standing over it. The reports are atmospheric rather than dramatic, and the grave is treated as a place of folklore and respect rather than fright.
York Village ghost walks make Mary Nasson's grave a central stop, recounting the witch tradition alongside the documented facts of her life and burial. The site connects to the village's deeper colonial lore, including other accused women and the area's witchcraft-era history.
Notable Entities
Walk the Old York Burial Ground beside the First Parish Church and find the 1774 grave of Mary Nasson, marked by a large flat table stone. The graveyard is one of Maine's oldest and is a regular stop on guided York Village walks.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Los Angeles, CA
Hollywood Forever Cemetery is a 62-acre cemetery at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, California, founded in 1899 as Hollywood Cemetery on a 100-acre tract of former farmland. Paramount Pictures' studios occupy 40 acres of the original cemetery property. The cemetery was renamed Hollywood Memorial Park in 1939 and Hollywood Forever in 1998 after a 1990s bankruptcy and revival. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Terlingua, TX
Howard E. Perry established the Chisos Mining Company on May 8, 1903, beginning commercial mercury extraction from the cinnabar-rich rock around Terlingua Creek. At its peak in 1917, the mine produced 7,200 flasks of quicksilver and employed 125 workers around the clock. The company became insolvent on October 1, 1942, and the site was abandoned. The cemetery on the slope below the company town holds burials from 1903 through the mid-twentieth century, including those who died from mercury exposure and the 1918–19 influenza epidemic.
Norwich, CT
The Old Norwichtown Colonial Burying Ground was established in 1700 on land tied to Norwich's first minister, Rev. James Fitch, to serve the growing colonial town. Several thousand burials are recorded; roughly 1,300 headstones survive. Those interred include Connecticut governor Samuel Huntington, French soldiers who served as Revolutionary allies, and Hannah Waterman Arnold, mother of Benedict Arnold.