Real Haunted New Orleans

This is the time of year for pretend ghosts graveyards, things eerie and not understood. Halloween and November bring darker, rainier and colder days to most cities in the U.S. It puts us in the mood for the pretend horror of Halloween. But in earlier times in my former home of New Orleans, the land of Voodoo and more haunted things than any other city in the U.S., the macabre was the normal.

Here are a few excerpts from the local papers of the day that show you the everyday struggle with hardship and the unexplained. Notice how much better written and more elevated the newspapers were in the days of an educated readership, TV-less, and far more literate than our technologically addicted world.

The first, an excerpt from the New Orleans Courier is a segment describing the difficulty of burial in a traditional graveyard in a city that is six feet below sea level and that flooded with regularity. Caskets bodies frequently popped up out of their recess and bodies fell on the grounds after a rainstorm, giving credence to stories of zombies and the undead walking about and in the city of New Orleans.New Orleans CourierJune 18, 1833A Walk Among the Graves

This afternoon (April 23) I walked under a hot sun - the day was as warm as our 4th of July - among the tombs and graves in the Catholic burying ground. I strolled into a Catholic chapel near by. The priests in the Church were performing ceremonies over a dead body. Colored persons sat there or kneeled there with tapers in their hands.

A sexton with a cross or a spear and a military band over his shoulders, stood back of the cross and the coffin. Two priests and a little boy were making loud noises in Latin and in French, and one was sprinkling the coffin with incense and holy water. The hearse was at the door. The coffin was soon brought out. The priests preceded the hearse. Men and Women with veils, or bare-headed, some under an umbrella and some without, followed the hearse on foot to the grave yard.

The grave yard is all a dead level, and in rainy days inundated with water. It is a morass, a swamp partly rescued from its wilderness. I followed the procession to the grave. The coffin was taken from the hearse.

I now watched the process of interment. The body was that of a colored person who had died of the cholera (which is not an epidemic now). The mourners were fine looking mulattos. They tarried to see the last of their friend. The grave was not two feet and a half deep.
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New Orleans had frequent and deadly yellow fever epidemics in the 19th century. It was so bad that many of the wealthier citizens packed and move to the "north shore' above Lake Pontchartrain were swamps and yellow fever mosquitoes were much less common. The excerpt below describes the frustration with the city government in fighting one such yellow fever ravage. Incidently...I have a great grandfather and his second wife and some children buried in the same Lafayette cemetery focused on in the article below.


This writer excoriated the politicians of the day far worse than even the ugliness we see in the 21st century. There was far less concern with being sued for liable or for any retribution taken when blasting the authorities.


Gross AbusesNew Orleans BeeAug. 9, 1853


Upon inquiry in the proper quarter, we ascertained that the festering and decaying bodies which had been deposited in the Lafayette cemetery, and at length been consigned to mother earth. The eye will no longer be pained and the nostrils offended by the further continuance of this horrible neglect. The Mayor of our city, though absolutely destitute of all direct authority, upon learning the facts on Sunday secured the labors of the chain gang, and set them to work immediately. After many hours of incessant labor, the task was completely yesterday.


The papers speak warmly of misgovernment of our city. Their complaints are just and well founded. A more disgraceful administration of our municipal affairs has never been witnessed. It is unworthy of civilized people. The Council are alone invested with plenary powers for the guardianship, protection and security of New Orleans, and at the very moment when their enlightened and careful deliberations are needed, do they prove utterly recreant to their duty.


Instead of assembling frequently and being ready to meet any emergency that may arise in these disastrous times, they quietly shirk responsibility and adjourning over to October next, abandon the city of the ravages of the Epidemic.


The Fever may extend, may decuple in virulence and mortality or may be flowed by the Cholera, while our worthy Aldermen and exemplary Assistant Aldermen, having adjourned for nearly three months, are unable to provide the slightest means off alleviating public disease and can do nothing except perhaps, take a trip across the lake and enjoy a purer and more healthful atmosphere. Truly our citizens are blessed in their authorities! What paternal solicitude - what undeviating and disinterested attention do the suffering poor receive from them!
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The two most famous Voodoo priestesses of New Orleans were the Madam Marie Laveau and her equally effective Voodoo priestess daughter. This account is of the burial of Mom Laveau after she was supposedly beheaded after her death at age 98. Today her tomb is the most visited in New Orleans . Frequently, the grave is the sight of secret night voodoo rituals, sacrifices of animals and tributes with pictures, flowers, even written requests for Marie to intercede and grant the written wish of the distressed soul who asks for her not so divine intervention.

DEATH OF MARIE LAVEAU- The Daily Picayune June 17, 1881

A WOMAN WITH A WONDERFUL HISTORY, ALMOST A CENTURY OLD, CARRIED TO THE TOMB YESTERDAY EVENING

Those of you who have passed by the quaint old house on St. Ann, between Rampart and Burgundy streets, with the high, frail looking fence in front over which a tree or two is visible, have till within the last few years, noticed through the open gateway a decrepid old lady with snow white hair, and a smile of peace and contentment lighting up her golden features. For a few years past, she has been missed from her accustomed place. The feeble old lady lay upon her bed with the daughter and grandchildren around her ministering to her wants.

On Wednesday the invalid sank into the sleep which knows no waking. Those whom she had befriended crowded into the little room where she was exposed, in order to obtain a last look at the features, smiling even in death , of her who had been so kind to them.

At 5 o'clock yesterday evening, Marie Laveau was buried in her family tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Her remains were followed to the grave by a large concourse of people, the most prominent and the most humble joining in paying their last respects to the dead. Father Mignot conducted the funeral services.

Not alone to the sick was Marie Laveau a blessing. To help a fellow creature in distress she considered a priceless privilege She as very successful as a nurse, wonderful stories being told of her exploits at the sick bed. In yellow fever and cholera epidemics she was always called upon to nurse the sick and always responded promptly. Her skill and knowledge earned her the friendship and approbation of those sufficiently cultivated but the ignorant attributed her success of unnatural means and held her in constant dread.

Her days were spent surrounded by sacred pictures and other evidence of religion, and she died with a firm trust in heaven. While God plays around the little tomb where her remains are buried, by the side of her second husband and her sons and daughters, Marie Laveau's name will not be forgotten in New Orleans.

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One more cemetery story, this one from more modern time. It shows the fascination New Orleanians have with their burial sites and rituals consistent with them.Petrified Body Is Visible in Old TombNew Orleans StatesMay 7, 1933The body of a man, apparently petrified, is attracting person to the old Catholic cemetery in Carrollton, some of them having come from St. Bernard parish.

Apparently the tomb was broken open by vandals. The iron casket is exposed and, by turning the iron cover over, the small glass window set in the coffin top, one can get a good view of the man. The insertion of the tomb shows he died in 1876. He has red hair but is bald on top. He had a mustache. His eyes, which are blue, are open and his mouth is open. He wore a turn-down caller at that period.

Someone ventured the opinion that perhaps he died in a yellow fever epidemic, which demands on undertakers were so may all could not be met. Another opinion was that he was thought to be dead and, in the terror of the epidemic, was buried while in a coma.
This is one of many low tombs in this cemetery, which is bounded by Adams, Cohn, Hilary and Spruce streets. There is room for only one coffin in each of the tombs, which are about 4 feet high.

Tombs in the Protestant cemetery in Carrollton also have been broken into but none of the bodies is exposed.