Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainAn active Adams County burial ground dating to the 1820s where a weeping memorial statue, a circle of children's graves with a baby at the center, and voices calling visitors' names have generated enduring local legend.
Winchester Union Cemetery, Winchester Township, Winchester, OH 45697
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
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Free and open to the public during daylight hours.
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Maintained lawn; flat to gently rolling terrain.
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Est. 1820 · Active Adams County cemetery since the early 1820s · Approximately 200 military graves from six American conflicts · Features an 1850s burial crypt · Ongoing volunteer restoration effort documented by local press (2015–present) · Serves as the primary historical burial ground for Winchester Township
Winchester Cemetery, officially the Winchester Union Cemetery, has served Winchester Township in Adams County, Ohio since the early 1820s. The earliest documented burials date to approximately 1820, with William Harper holding the first marked grave, dated 1833. George Harper, noted as the first soldier interred, was buried in 1825.
The cemetery grew considerably over the nineteenth century, eventually holding approximately 200 documented military graves representing soldiers from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. An 1879 federal initiative provided official grave markers for veterans on the site.
Among the cemetery's notable features is an 1850s crypt, built in the traditional manner for storing bodies during warm months or when frozen ground prevented burial. Local legend holds that some occupants were 'forgotten' inside and never properly interred—the crypt was welded shut following trespassing incidents.
In 2015, during Winchester's Bicentennial celebrations, Patsy Roberts and her grandsons Zachary and Zane Roberts began systematic restoration of the cemetery's deteriorated and vandalized headstones, working twice weekly for years. Their efforts were documented by the People's Defender, the local Adams County newspaper, in July 2023.
Sources
Winchester Cemetery's most enduring paranormal tradition centers on a memorial statue that locals claim produces real tears. According to accounts documented by the Ohio Exploration Society's Adams County Hauntings & Legends page and corroborated by local reports, the statue stands at a section of the cemetery where children's graves are arranged in a conspicuous circle around the figure, with the grave of an infant at the very center.
The People's Defender's 2023 restoration article independently confirmed the presence of this statue and the circular grave arrangement as part of the cemetery's noted features, though framing it in the context of community heritage rather than paranormal tradition. Local lore holds that visitors who approach the statue at night hear voices calling their names—attributed to the children whose graves surround it.
The cemetery's 1850s crypt adds to the atmosphere: after the crypt was welded shut following break-ins, stories circulated that some bodies had never been removed from storage and 'were still trying to get out.' These accounts are typical of rural Ohio cemetery folklore but reflect genuine community anxiety about the site's history of trespassing and vandalism.
Explore over two centuries of Adams County history: approximately 200 military graves from the Revolutionary War through the Korean War, an 1850s crypt, and the statue associated with the crying-eyes legend and circle of children's graves.
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