St. David's Episcopal Church Cemetery Ghosts

Radnor, PA

The origin of this story is a rather macabre event that took place in 1809. The ghost that appears in this cemetery is none other than General "Mad Anthony" Wayne. Before his death in 1796, he requested that he be buried in a plain oak coffin near Erie, PA. His wishes were carried out.
For some reason, 13 years later, his son, Isaac, decided to move his father's remains to the family plot in Radnor, PA. Although this was clearly against the wishes of this remarkable patriot, for some reason his son was permitted to exhume his father's body. Isaac's plan had been to reduce the body to smaller parcels that would fit in his carriage. When the body was exhumed, however, it was found to be in an unusually good state of preservation. The original plan was abandoned, and a new one was born. Isaac had his father's body boiled in an iron kettle to remove the flesh from the bones.
This plan was carried out, and Isaac returned to Radnor with his father's bones. The flesh that had been removed from the bones as well as the knives used in the operation were reburied in the original grave near Erie.