Highland Lawn Cemetery, Terre Haute, Indiana: Stiffy Green, the Crypt Telephone and the Record

Midwest Haunted Cemeteries

Highland Lawn Cemetery in Terre Haute, Indiana, is known for two stories: a green-eyed ghost bulldog named Stiffy Green and a dead man’s telephone. It is also a city-owned cemetery on the National Register of Historic Places, laid out in 1884, and the burial place of labor leader Eugene V. Debs. This post keeps the legends and the record apart. The history comes from city, federal and library sources. The stories are labeled as folklore, and where sources disagree, the post says so.

What the record shows

Highland Lawn is the second cemetery owned by the City of Terre Haute. According to the National Register registration form, the city adopted an ordinance governing its cemeteries on March 11, 1884, and bought about 138 acres east of town along the Old National Road (US 40) two days later. The city says Highland Lawn opened that year, with the first burial on October 29, 1884. The acreage is given as 139 by the city and about 137 by the federal form.

Joseph Earnshaw, a Cincinnati surveyor and civil engineer, designed it in the “lawn plan” style, which lets the natural landscape take priority over large monuments. Several of its buildings date from the early years:

  • The chapel, designed by Terre Haute architect Jesse A. Vrydaugh in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, was built in 1893. The city says it cost $10,000, and a major renovation was completed in March 1988.
  • The entrance gate and bell tower date to 1894, with plans by Chicago architect Paul S. Lietz.
  • A waiting room beside the gate, built for funeral parties and interurban passengers, now serves as the cemetery office. The city says 1909. The National Register form says 1910.

The cemetery is listed on the National Register under reference number 90001790. The federal database shows November 29, 1990, while the city says 1991.

Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist Party’s candidate for president, died in 1926, and according to the Eugene V. Debs Foundation his ashes were interred here.

The legends

Stiffy Green

In the best-known version, a Terre Haute man had a devoted bulldog. After the man died, the dog waited at the family mausoleum until it died of grief, was stuffed and was placed inside, where its green eyes glow when a flashlight shines through the door. Cemetery Travel adds a man and dog walking the grounds at twilight, with a trace of pipe smoke. Versions appear on Roadside America, in a 2016 Cemetery Travel article and on the Visit Terre Haute site.

This is folklore, and it is not new. Roadside America says dating teenagers visited the mausoleum for decades to shine flashlights through its barred doors. A 1981 local television series on Wabash Valley legends, summarized by the Indiana Broadcast History Archive, included Stiffy Green as one of two folklore stories from Highland Lawn and featured an interview with an Indiana State University folklore professor.

The telephone in the Sheets crypt

The second legend concerns Martin Sheets, a Terre Haute man who died in 1926. He is said to have feared being buried alive, so a telephone was installed in his family mausoleum. Cemetery Travel says his will called for a line from the crypt to the cemetery office, where it was to be monitored. It adds that when his wife was later placed in the crypt, the receiver was found off the hook. The 1981 broadcast summary words the legend differently: that Sheets thought he would come back from the dead, so he had a phone installed. Cemetery Travel says the line was disconnected about 80 years after his death, and that it was never known to have been used.

The story is also decades old. The same 1981 television series covered the Sheets telephone.

What the record does not support

Stiffy Green was a statue, according to the historical society

The Vigo County Historical Society’s executive director told Roadside America that Stiffy “never was a real dog” and was “a cement fellow who adorned the front porch” of the owner’s household. She added that the legend is a fun story of loyalty and that visitors can decide for themselves. The 1981 broadcast summary calls the figure a “stone dog,” so the two sources use different words, stone and cement, for the same figure. Cemetery Travel, by contrast, tells the story as if the dog were real, so the sources do not agree on whether there was ever a dog.

The statue’s later history is partly documented, and the sources vary on details. Roadside America says teenagers in the 1980s fired a shotgun into the crypt and blew out one of the figure’s eyes, and that it was removed for safekeeping in the mid-1980s. Cemetery Travel dates the shooting to 1985 and says sightseers and vandals also damaged the mausoleum’s doors and windows. Roadside America says the Terre Haute Lions Club built a replica of the mausoleum inside the county museum and that the statue moved in during 1989. The Vigo County Public Library’s archive lists a November 20, 1989, newspaper clipping titled “Stiffy [Green] now haunting museum.”

The correction has not displaced the story. The city’s visitor site still describes the museum figure as “the original stuffed Stiffy Green,” and local businesses use the dog as a mascot.

The telephone has no primary source

No will, telephone company record or newspaper report from the time was found for this post. The Tribune-Star ran a column about Sheets on October 23, 2022. A photo caption in it says the mausoleum “had, at one time, a working telephone inside,” but the article text could not be read, so what it cites is unknown. Cemetery Travel’s version names a will clause and a telephone account but cites no document for either. The Vigo County Public Library lists a folder of research material on the Sheets mausoleum in its special collections, and its contents were not reviewed.

Until a primary document surfaces, the will, the line to the office and the off-hook receiver are best read as folklore. The National Register form for the cemetery mentions neither legend, and no documentation of glowing eyes or a ghostly man and dog exists beyond the storytellers’ own reports.

Visiting

Highland Lawn Cemetery is at 4420 E. Wabash Ave. (US 40), Terre Haute, Indiana 47803.

The City of Terre Haute Department of Cemeteries lists office hours of Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the office phone is 812-244-5800. Gate hours, photography rules and drone rules could not be confirmed online. Roadside America says the grounds are gated after hours, but that is an unofficial listing. Call the office before a visit to confirm when the cemetery is open and what rules apply.

A few points of courtesy apply:

  • The cemetery is active, and its mausoleums are individually owned. Do not touch, open or look into them.
  • After-hours visits are not a good plan. Vandalism and gunfire damaged the Stiffy Green mausoleum, and Cemetery Travel and Roadside America describe that as the reason the statue was moved. Entering closed grounds can also count as trespassing.
  • Stay on the paths, keep voices low and give way to funerals.

The Stiffy Green statue is kept at the Vigo County History Center, 929 Wabash Ave., Terre Haute (812-235-9717), which lists hours of Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Tribune-Star reported in October 2024 that the museum has a statue of the original Stiffy Green, but call ahead to confirm that it is on view.

FAQ

Was Stiffy Green a real dog?

Not according to the Vigo County Historical Society’s executive director, who says Stiffy was a cement bulldog statue from a family’s front porch. A 1981 broadcast summary calls him a stone dog. Some retellings, such as Cemetery Travel’s, present the dog as real.

Is the crypt telephone story true?

It is unconfirmed. A local newspaper caption says the Sheets mausoleum once had a working telephone, but no will, phone record or report from the time was found, and the detailed parts of the story appear only in retellings.

Can visitors see Stiffy Green or the mausoleum?

The statue is at the Vigo County History Center in downtown Terre Haute, not in the cemetery. The mausoleum is privately owned and should be left alone. Call the cemetery office at 812-244-5800 about hours and rules.

More haunted cemeteries: For other Indiana entries, see Park Cemetery in Fairmount and Stepp Cemetery in Monroe County. Another Midwest burial ground with a long ghost-story reputation is Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery in Midlothian, Illinois.

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