Union Cemetery sits at the intersection of Sport Hill Road (Route 59) and Stepney Road (near Route 136) in Easton, Connecticut, next to the Easton Baptist Church. It covers about 5.2 acres and is the town’s oldest burial ground. The earliest surviving headstone dates to 1761 (Ebenezer Hubbell), the year before the Parish of North Fairfield was recognized by the Connecticut Colony. The area was known earlier as the “Old Cemetery” and later as the Baptist Cemetery because of its proximity to the church. In 1902, families of those buried there incorporated the Union Cemetery Association of Easton to improve the neglected grounds; the name “Union” reflects the shared use by members of the Congregational, Methodist, and Baptist societies. The cemetery remains active and contains graves of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 veterans along with many early Easton family names. It has faced periods of neglect and vandalism; local volunteers and the Historical Society of Easton have worked on restoration in recent years.
The cemetery is best known outside Easton for the legend of the White Lady. It is also the burial place of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the paranormal investigators who wrote about the site in their 1992 book Graveyard: True Hauntings from an Old New England Cemetery.
Reported Hauntings and Folklore
The dominant story is the White Lady (also called the Lady in White). Witnesses describe a woman with long dark hair wearing a white nightgown, wedding dress, or Victorian-style gown and sometimes a bonnet or veil. She is most often reported on Route 59 beside the cemetery, standing in or drifting across the road. Drivers say they have swerved to avoid her or felt they struck her, only to find no one present; one 1993 account involves an off-duty firefighter whose car was dented. She has also been reported inside the cemetery. Ed Warren claimed to have filmed her on September 1, 1990, around 2:40 a.m. during a multi-night vigil. Lorraine Warren later called the cemetery one of the most haunted places she had investigated. Sightings are said to date back at least to the mid-20th century.
No single historical person has been confirmed as the White Lady. Proposed identities include:
- Women who died in childbirth in the 19th century, such as Harriet R. Seeley (died 1853 shortly after her infant son) or Harriet Seeley Bryan (died 1836).
- A woman murdered and dumped in a sinkhole near the Baptist Church.
- Ruby Wells Edwards, a 19-year-old reportedly shot by her estranged husband in 1923 (no burial record places her in Union Cemetery).
- Other local women whose graves fit the broad description of a young woman who died tragically.
A second figure sometimes mentioned is Red Eyes, a pair of glowing red eyes in the woods behind the cemetery, occasionally linked to a man named Earle (or Earlie) Kellogg said to have been burned to death nearby in 1935. Contemporary documentation for that specific incident is lacking, and some accounts note that bicycle reflectors placed by locals have been mistaken for the phenomenon.
Other reports include orbs, mists, and a sense of being watched in photographs or during night visits. These remain anecdotal. The cemetery’s age, rural setting, and proximity to a busy road have sustained the stories, but primary historical records do not identify a specific unquiet spirit matching the descriptions.
What is documented is an 18th-century burial ground with stones from 1761, formal association status in 1902, graves of early settlers and veterans, and a long-running local legend of a woman in white on Route 59 that gained wider attention through the Warrens’ book and later paranormal coverage. The identities attached to the figure are the ones later storytelling supplies.
Relevant links
NESPR / Warrens site on Union Cemetery — the investigators’ account of the White Lady and Red Eyes
Wikipedia: Union Cemetery (Easton, Connecticut) — basic location and the White Lady legend
Easton Courier: Easton’s Ladies in White — local history of the cemetery and possible 19th-century candidates
CT Insider: CT’s legend of the White Lady and ‘haunted’ Union Cemetery — overview of the legend and Warren connection
Easton Courier: The Sad State of the Union — history of the grounds, 1761 stone, and 1902 association