Tammy and I enjoy visiting old cemeteries. A lot of history can be learned through reading of the gravestones. We also visit cemeteries that are presumably haunted.
One recent trip was to the Oolenoy Baptist Church cemetery close to Pumpkintown SC. We had read about this cemetery in "More Ghosts of Upstate South Carolina" by John Boyanoski. However this cemetery is referenced as "Illinois" cemetery in the book. The stories in the book are good but there are many errors such as this. The author has done a poor job of proofing and verifying. The location information is also very vague, as it is with the majority of the stories in the book. Attempting to do an internet search for "Illinois Church" in Pickens county SC yields very poor results. Luckily we were familiar with "Oolenoy".
We found the cemetery to be very interesting. It is very well kept. Many of the graves are early 19th century. There are graves of revolutionary and civil war veterans. A couple of the civil war veterans gravestones have their service history engraved. There are numerous graves marked only with simple stones and may actually be from the late 18th century. The church was established in 1795. There are two markers honoring slaves and Cherokee indians that are buried here. The church and cemetery are listed in the National Record of Historic Places.
The ghost story here is that a little girls voice can be recorded in the center of the graveyard during bright sunny days. The voice supposedly says "go away". Tammy used the voice recorder on her phone and nothing strange was heard. There no cold spots or any of the other common phenomena normally associated with haunted places.
Location:
201 Miracle Hill Road
Pickens SC, 29671
34.9943641N
82.6419121W
