Not Everyone Happy with Legend of Green Lady Ghost

It is folklore that the ghost of the Green Lady is that of a woman named Elisabeth Palmiter who died at the age of 30 in the year 1800.

However, not all people believe this legend to be true. Town Historian Len Alderman remains a skeptic and firmly believes that the rumors of the ghost have caused much damage to the Seventh Day Baptist cemetery located on Upson Road.

"I consider myself to be an open minded person when it comes to ghosts, but I think the legend of the Green Lady is just a ghost story, nothing more," Alderman said. "Sadly, this is a case of a ghost story that has caused harm in a different way."

Alderman stated that many of the rumors about the origin of the ghost are untrue. For example, one legend states that Elisabeth Palmiter, the alleged ghost drowned in a swamp that was located near the graveyard while trying to find her husband. According to Alderman, there is no swamp that is nearby where she had lived. There is also a myth that she may have been killed by her husband. Alderman believes that if it were true, there would have been some written documentation about it.

Alderman states that ghost stories similar to the "Green Lady" were told at evening campfire settings through out the world. He believes that the legend may have started at the old New Britain Fresh Air Camp that was located on Upson Road near the cemetery. He believes that some of the children in attendance at these campfire tales could be the ones responsible for the birth of the legend of "Green Lady of Burlington."

Still there are some that claim they have evidence that supports the existence of the "Green Lady." Barry A. A. Dillinger is the founder and an investigator of the website CreepyConnecticut.net. According to Dillinger, his group has done investigations of over 50 hauntings in six and a half years. Only once in all of their investigations have they ever recorded electronic voice phenomenon. They have a link to the daytime video at the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery on their website.

"While running video around the [Seventh Day Baptist] cemetery, we inadvertently captured a female voice humming four notes of a song," Dillinger said. "While this normally wouldn't be that big a deal, this site was, in fact, emphatically pronounced to be "not haunted" by the infamous Warrens [ghost hunters] in the 1980s."

Dillinger also pointed out that in several of his investigations they have come across areas that they do not consider to have paranormal activity. However, they concluded that the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery is definitely haunted.

When questioned about the death of Palmiter, Dillinger replied, "The true account of Elisabeth's death is really up to interpretation. Because the records are so old and so sparse, we can only make assumptions on much of what is implied and recorded."

Dillinger also points out that there are other mysteries involving the cemetery. He cited that after Palmiter's death, several of the church members died from strange accidental deaths.
"After nearly 20 years, the Seventh Day Baptists abandoned Burlington for Armenia in upstate New York and never returned. They left behind everything, Dillinger said. "One of the few remaining structures of the Sabbatarians [What the Seventh Day Baptists were called] is the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery and the mystery of the Green Lady.

Alderman disputes this and states that the Sabbatarians left for religious reasons. Regarding the strange noises that Dillinger and other people claim to have heard at the cemetery, "I say the woods have all sorts of sounds anytime, mostly at night."

He is far from convinced that the Green Lady haunts the cemetery and feels that the living is actually haunting the dead.

"The real tragedy with the ghost of the Green Lady is the amount of damage that has occurred to the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery," Alderman said. "The real mystery about the cemetery is not the alleged ghost, but what happened to at least 35 gravestones. A few years ago, they were all smashed and or ripped from the ground including one that was 10 feet high!"

The only gravestone still standing without any real damage is that of Elisabeth Palmiter and it was one that was refurnished in the 1980s. The other stones are either all gone or damaged beyond readability. Alderman wonders what became of many of the gravestones and why people would do this to an old burial ground.

"Someone probably took a truck, loaded up the gravestones and dumped them somewhere," Alderman said. "The real horror story regarding the Green Lady and other ghosts like it are that many of these alleged haunted cemeteries are being vandalized and the deceased are not being allowed to rest in peace."

The one thing that Dillinger and Alderman do agree on is that graveyard vandalism is a nationwide epidemic.

State Police stationed in Burlington have taken notice of this problem and have made it no secret that they will arrest people caught trespassing on the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery grounds.

Sadly, other cemeteries in Burlington have fallen victim to vandalism. On July 13, 2002, there was a serious act of vandalism at the Lamson Corner Cemetery, which is located off Route 69. The cemetery, like the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery, has a reputation of being haunted. The Burlington Cemetery Association has a $1,000 dollar reward for information leading to the arrests of the persons responsible for the damage.

In regards to the vandalism of the town's cemeteries, Alderman refers to the gravestone of one Burlington's founders, Jared Covey. The gravestone had been stolen from its gravesite and eventually returned and is now in the basement of the Burlington library. It reads:
"Stop; look at me as you pass by
As you are now so once was I
As I am now so you will be
Prepare for death & follow me"

"Maybe the next time someone comes into a cemetery with the intent to vandalize it, they should heed what Covey says."