Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainRural Cemetery with Church Ruins and Reported Shadow Presence
County Road 63, Scottown, OH
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Open rural cemetery; no admission fee.
Access
Limited Access
Uneven grassed cemetery ground; church ruins on site
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1865 · Rural Church History · Lawrence County Heritage
Lawrence Chapel Cemetery was established in 1865 in Windsor Township, Lawrence County, Ohio. County records place it in the NE quarter of Section 26, Township 3, Range 16, on County Road 63. The grounds cover approximately one acre and contain few surviving markers — under 30 tombstones are documented.
The associated chapel, which gave the cemetery its name, has deteriorated to ruins. The structure's collapse left stone and timber visible on the grounds, and its remaining footprint is what most accounts reference when describing 'the ruins of the church.'
Lawrence County was settled primarily in the early 19th century; the county was founded in 1816 and its rural townships contain numerous small church-associated burial grounds from the mid-1800s. The chapel and cemetery likely served a rural congregation that eventually dispersed or merged with a larger church, leaving the grounds unmaintained.
Sources
The Ohio Exploration Society's Lawrence County hauntings documentation records two distinct clusters of reports at Lawrence Chapel Graveyard.
The primary account is the shadow: described consistently as 'a black-looking thing that follows you from a distance at night.' The phenomenon is reported exclusively after dark, and the shadow maintains distance rather than approaching directly. No naturalistic explanation is offered in the sources, and no photographs or recordings of the phenomenon appear in available documentation.
The secondary cluster involves physical evidence reported at the site over the years: dead bodies of men and slaughtered animals found on the grounds. These accounts, combined with the presence of the ruined church, have given rise to a local belief that the site was used for occult or ritualistic purposes. No court records, news reports, or named investigations were found in available sources to corroborate the animal sacrifice accounts specifically.
The 'cult activity' attribution at rural Ohio cemeteries is a recurring pattern — particularly those with abandoned church ruins — and should be understood as a consistent folkloric response to unsettling physical environments rather than documented fact in this case.
Lawrence Chapel Cemetery, established 1865 on County Road 63 in Windsor Township, covers approximately one acre. The ruins of the associated church remain on the grounds. Funerals360 and county records confirm the location and date. No organized tours operate here.
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