Otterbein didn’t own the Otterbein Cemetery until 1856; however, the area had been used as a cemetery decades before.
The story takes place in the 1840s. For context, this local community wasn’t officially called Westerville until 1840, and the area had roughly a population of 900 people. The few and far-between houses were connected by dirt roads that picked up dust from horses passing.
There have been many versions of the story, the earliest known written account was published in Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum back in 1928, yet the core of the story still stays relatively the same.
James Henry, a young farmer in Westerville, fell in love with a woman named Miss Mary Angle. The couple was quickly married, Henry purchased a horse for his wife as a wedding gift and they lived a lovely life. The townspeople often gossiped about how devoted the couple was.
Sadly, this was short-lived when Angle abruptly died only a year after their marriage. Some say she died in childbirth or because of an illness, nevertheless, Henry was distraught. Angle was eventually buried in what is now called the Otterbein Cemetery.
Eventually, Henry got past his grief and fell in love with a new woman who went by the name of Miss Rachel Hodge. While Angle was close in age to Henry, Miss Hodge was about a decade younger than her new partner.
A few years after his first wife passed, Henry remarried.
Days after the wedding, a strange mark in the shape of a horseshoe appeared on Angle’s headstone. After this mark was found, townspeople started hearing strange noises around the graveyard and many got so spooked after sunset that people would dash past the cemetery as quickly as possible.
One day, the story reached its climax when Henry was found dead in a barn with a horseshoe print on his forehead.
It was assumed that the very horse Henry bought as a wedding gift for his first wife had kicked him in the head, causing his untimely death.
Many parts of this historical story are true. Henry did have a short marriage with Angle, and after her death, he remarried to a woman named Hodge. Angle’s gravestone also has the outline of a horseshoe that can still be seen today.
Some parts of the story aren’t false but are surrounded by a mystery. The death of Henry was never officially documented so there are many interpretations around the circumstance. Many saw his death as an accident, so the story still fits into history.
The ghost story is brought up time and time again throughout history in citing the only question that seems to matter:
Did Angle’s ghost leave after her revenge was fulfilled, or does she still roam the cemetery looking for a new victim to haunt?
