History & local legend
Mary Johnson Black came from Ireland and settled in western Pennsylvania with her husband, Andrew. She died in 1888 and was buried in the Tindall family cemetery near Turkey Hill Road. Local stories called her a witch, and the grave eventually drew people searching for more than family history.
By 1977, vandals looking for jewelry had dug into the burial. The black marble family headstone was removed and later recovered from the West Pittsburgh Swamp. It came into the care of the Lawrence County Historical Society.
Society staff member Joyce Ross described making two unsuccessful searches for Mary’s grave. Before she could try a third time, she dreamed of Mary rising from a coffin, looking directly at her and asking to be left in peace. Ross wrote that she abandoned the search after the dream.
Sources
- Joyce Ross, Lawrence County Historical Society, Hauntings of the Area, her dream, the cemetery and the recovered stone
- Phyllis Gipson, Lawrence County/Scene, May 21–22, 1977, and the 1982 family record, transcribed on Genealogy Trails
- Shenango Township, historic settlement and Tindall cemetery
- EllwoodCity.org, 2018, location of the surviving stone
- North Hill Historic District, museum building and address
