Sidebar by Eleanor P. Harrington
Ghost story – October 1996 – Colorado Central Magazine
A cry from beyond
Can the spirit of a child cry out from her grave long after her death? At a little known cemetery in Chaffee County, we have just such a mystery.
Mr. White was working outside his home when he heard a small child crying. While he was searching nearby, Mrs. White and their children returned from a shopping trip. They too heard the child’s cry.
The family quickly checked with neighbors to see if someone had lost a child. No one had. They followed the sound of the crying to Mattie Pitt’s grave in the nearby cemetery. The crying stopped just as they reached the grave, but on the grave they found an etched cobalt blue glass paperweight broken in two.
Mr. White turned to his wife and said, “Look at the grave marker.” It read:
MATTIE E. DAU OF T.A. & S.C. PITTS
DIED AUG. 15, 1882
AGED 3 YR. 5 MOS.
“She died on this very day one hundred years ago.”
To add to the mystery from this grave, in June of 1992, another resident, Don, and his niece, Marcia, visited the cemetery.
At Mattie’s grave, Marcia pointed to a small white object on the grave.
“It’s just a bone,” Don said.
Marcia picked up the “bone” and on closer inspection found it was a two-inch porcelain finger that was once attached to a china doll. It even had the distinct outline of a tiny fingernail.
Where did it come from?
China or porcelain dolls were common toys in Mattie’s day, but they are not considered toys in the world of dolls today.