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| Della Barnes |
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| Complete Statue |
UPDATE AS OF MARCH 2007
We met with the plot owner where Della is buried this month and she informed us that she will
be having the remains of Della's statue moved to the un-used masoleum in the back of Oakgrove Cemetery out of respect for
the Barnes family. She didn't believe that her father would have appreciated all the vanalisim done to the statue that
he had so lovingly commisioned by an Italian scultor that had come over here from Italy to carve for the honor of his daughter.
The only thing that will remain will be the square stone with her name inscribed upon it.
Also, we recieved this email from a viewer...
Hi,
I read here: http://home.earthlink.net/~hannibalspecter/id25.html
that the Oak Grove Cemetery staff say that they had the torso of the statue of Della Barnes in storage in a building
that used to be in Noble Park, in the '70s. There are a few things wrong with this statement: I lived in Paducah
from 1976 to 1983, and the statue was intact the whole time (so the torso could not have been stored in the '70s). I
have a photo taken of Della in about 1980 where the statue is intact. Also, there is an entire neighborhood (my old
neighborhood, in fact) between Noble Park and Oak Grove cemetery, as you can see from this Google map: http://tinyurl.com/ynkfl8.
The house that I lived in was on 21st street, and my next
door neighbor's house was in Della's "path"--if one walked straight ahead from the statue, you would exit the back of the
cemetary and run into our neighbor's house. We had fun every Halloween anticipating Della's walk into the neighborhood.
Thanks for posting the Della stories; it's been a nice walk down memory lane. :) Cindi T.
Where you can view her photo of Della. I also noticed on this
link that she listed our site, TRAPS, and GUARDIAN TALES, As ' really crap sites'....hmmm, shall we forgive her???)
UPDATE UPDATE !!!
THIS IS AS OF OCTOBER 2006
WE DISCOVERED WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TORSO
OF DELLA BARNES !!!
According to the caretakers of Oakgrove Cemetery....
Her torso had been stored in the grounds office basement back in the 1970's after
it was vandalized. This office use to be inside what we know as Noble Park but has since been destroyed by demolition
to make room for park renovations and a new office for the park. The old building was knocked down and covered over...her
torso buried under all the rubble.
THE MYSTERY OF DELLA BARNES
By Hannibal Specter, May 2006
There
is what remains of a once beautiful statue, located close to the rear-center inside Oakgrove cemetery in Paducah that stands
today as a haunting memory of some twisted legends and lore of this Western Kentucky town. It was formerly a life size concrete
version of a beautiful young maiden whom lived in the late 1800’s fitted with a pleated and ruffled dress, along with
puffed long sleeves, that flowed downward to the base of the statue with one small, delicate soft-shoed foot peeking out from
under the hem. Her left arm had been bent at the waist with the left hand on her hip, fingers bent while holding a section
of the dress up, while her right arm was bent up across her chest delicately holding the stem of a rose. An innocent smile
decorated her gracefully chiseled features as her face was framed with a curly short coiffure that met with the edge of the
high lace collar of her dress. The statue had been created after the likeness
of a woman named Della Barnes that had died tragically at the early age of 23 in June of 1897. (Records indicate that she
had been born in the year 1874.) Somewhere between the late 1960’s
and the early 1970’s, the upper torso, from the waist up, was vandalized and stolen; all that remains now is her pleated
skirt from the waist down and just a diminutive partial part of her left hand resting on her hip where she was holding up
a part of her long dress.
We have run across several different versions of this woman’s death, all coming from a variety
of people, and all of which raised an eyebrow or two. The most repeated story
of her demise in this area is as follows: Della had been a very beautiful woman,
and had been engaged to be married to a wealthy older gentleman whom had presented her with an extraordinarily large diamond
engagement ring Somewhere close to their wedding date, her fiancé’
received rumors that Della had been stepping out on him with another man, one whom she truly loved but whose financial background
was less then satisfactory to her family. The older gentleman approached Della
in the family’s private gardens with this information, which she brashly denied, but in a fit of rage and still under
the impression that she was lying, her fiancé tried to yank the engagement ring off her finger. There was a brief scuffle and Della refused to remove the ring all the while still adamantly denying the
accusation of her cheating. This led her suitor to violently take matters into his own hands and he proceeded to cut her ring
finger with a knife to retrieve his property. At the same time during this violent
act he actually cut off several of her fingers on her left hand with a hastily revengeful anger, retrieved the ring and left
her screaming with not only pain, but a powerfully broken heart. It is said she
fell to the ground weeping with such heartache that she didn’t realize that she was bleeding to death and there she
was found hours later in a fetal position.
Some other stories are similar, but
a few of the details are changed in each one we have heard. Most agree that she
was engaged, and that her fingers or finger had been cut off by her fiancé to retrieve the engagement ring because he had
been told that she had been seeing another gentleman behind his back. Even one
storyteller informed us that the rumor of her cheating was actually started by another woman who was secretly in love with
Della’s fiancé and had wanted him all to herself so she devised the lie to cause the
breakup. Then there is the version that Della actually
committed suicide with poison after discovering that her fiancé was seeing another woman and that the fiancé actually demanded
the ring back at her wake and the town coroner had to cut the finger off due to rigor mortis to retrieve the piece of jewelry
for the inconsiderate man. Others said she was actually married and it was her husband who killed her either by poisoning
her, or cutting her fingers off to retrieve the wedding ring. And yet another
bizarre tale tells us that she turned to prostitution after being married because of her loneliness of being left alone so
frequently by her philandering husband, whom found her out and murdered her. Even
the family physician has been accused falsely of poisoning her because she had refused his advances to ask for her hand in
marriage. All these versions can leave one tremendously confused, no doubt,
but the most reliable account actually comes from a copy of the actual newspaper article that reported her death to the public. In reading the following editorial you will deduct that she was not a married woman
as she is referred to as ‘Miss’, and a surviving husband is not listed, nor is there any mention of a morning
fiancé, nor of her fingers being cut, sliced or injured. There is also no mention of anyone being arrested for her murder,
or that there was any fowl play involved at all.
The account of her death can be found at the local public library by researching past issues of the
towns newspaper ‘The Paducah Sun’. The article that appeared in the
issue dated Monday, June 28th, 1897 read as follows: (The article was titled “Accidental Poisoning carries off Miss Della Barnes of West Jefferson…she took Morphine believing it was Calomel…Funeral
this afternoon.) The rest of the article reads as…’A sad death occurred yesterday morning at 5 o’clock. Miss Della Barnes, youngest
daughter of Councilman George F. Barnes, died at the family residence on West Jefferson Street of morphine poisoning. The
young lady was found in lethargy about 11 o’clock, from which it was impossible to arouse her. Doctors Murrell and Elliott
were called and did everything possible to save her life but to no avail, and she died at 5 o’clock. According to the
statement of a young lady who is visiting her, and was her roommate, Miss Barnes took a glass of water, poured some powder
into it and said she intended to take five grains of calomel. She also drank a glass of sweet milk and became ill. She then
prepared another glass with more powder and swallowed that. Her companion was awakened about two hours later by groans and
upon attempting to awaken Miss Barnes she found that she was unconscious. The deceased had often taken calomel in capsules,
but stated several days before that they choked her, and she was going to take it in pulverized form. Her death is a sad blow
to her parents and sisters, as well as her friends. She was about 21 years of age and a pretty and attractive young lady.
The funeral took place at 3 o’clock this afternoon from the residence. Burial at Oak Grove.’
Was the above article that
was posted in the local paper over a century ago actually a cover up of what really happened?
Was the truth hidden away because her family had such a respected public image to uphold? If there was a fiancé, was he so rich and powerful that he swayed the witnesses, family members, doctors,
and/or law enforcement to adhere to a clandestine conspiracy concerning the factual events of this young woman’s melancholic
departure? Where and why did all these rumors start over her finger/fingers
being cut off to have a ring retrieved? And why is there such an assortment
of adaptations over her hand being violated in such a manner?
If there were such a scheme to cover up the accurate particulars of this woman’s death, the likelihood of finding out
are extremely low, as so much time has passed that any witnesses have found their own places inside cemetery grounds long
ago. We might hope that a very old family or friend’s diary might turn
up at an estate auction sometime in the future, that might draw out some more straightforward details of this legendary figure
of western Kentucky. As for now though me must accept the facts of the printed newspaper article and just keep all speculations
on the back burner and label them as myths, rumors, and folklore.
As to the story of how her statue came about, again, there
are as many probable myths as her death has. One is that her grieving father
had an Italian sculptor come over from Italy to create a statue in her likeness to stand over her grave. It is also wildly
rumored that her father committed suicide within a year after her death because of his tremendous sorrow over having lost
his daughter. Another is that the fiancé himself had the statue created to show
how deeply sorry he was for accidentally killing her. Yet one more says the fiancé
had it made only after he found out that the rumor of Della being unfaithful turned out to be a false accusation.
Legend
has it that only a few days after the statue was erected the fingers on her left hand fell off and every attempt to repair
them failed with them falling off every time. This also led to the rumor that
the missing fingers would actually bleed and leave bloody trail marks downward along the dress. Over the decades numerous other frightening stories evolved over this mystifying likeness of Della. Some swore that on the anniversary of her death, each year, the fingers would bleed
at night, and that the rose she held in her right hand would drop to the ground and she would bend over and pick it back up. Also, from the corners of her eyes, tears would fall and have actually caused erosion
over the years down her cheeks. All the people we interviewed agreed that her
ghost still walks the cemetery at night and that at times you can here her singing or weeping.
One standing legend is that she is not actually buried beneath her own likeness, that she is interned inside the family
mausoleum directly behind where the remaining part of her
statue stands.
Since the upper torso is missing, we cannot verify totally
that there was indeed erosion on her face beginning at the corners of the eyes. We do however, thanks to one of our members,
Sunshine, have a very rare photo of her upper torso and there does appear to be some slight erosions on both cheeks and part
of her nose, the tip, is actually missing. We can also verify that there are unidentified stains going down the length of
her dress, which begin at the point of where her left fingers were. We cannot of course, due to the missing upper half of
the statue, try to witness her drop her rose and retrieve it on the anniversary of her death. But, in the past few years,
of investigating this particular cemetery, have come up with some extraordinary photos that just might show Della actually
walking through the cemetery grounds during the daylight hours. You can view
these remarkable photos at the following link Della Barnes or you can go to www.guardiantales.com and look under 'Jan's Tales' and click on the 'Della Barnes' link.
Below are some photos we took last summer during the night
of her statue and the immediate surrounding grounds. You will notice some very
interesting orbs, all of different sizes and colors, hovering around this particular part of the graveyard. The anniversary of her death is coming up soon, next month actually, maybe we’ll make another trip
out there and do another investigation, and possibly receive some additional information from some of the more supernatural
residents that linger around the grounds …stay tuned.
The bottom line of any death is that there is always a story
behind the actual passing. Whether it be from natural causes, accidental occurrences,
illness or murder, all the deceased could tell a tale of their own I’m sure, that would entail sadness, tragedy, peacefulness,
or longing. Why has the colorful narrative of Della Barns been made into such
a local sensation while there are others, hundreds even, around her in the graveyard that could possibly have some tormenting
tale behind their own moments of death? One can only guess at to why she was
chosen to have such a haunting legacy that was started decades ago. To give you
a tidbit of another tale of involving one of the other Oakgrove residents, there is a man buried there whose stone says his
name was ‘Speedy’, a man who ‘resided’ as a petrified figure for years inside a funeral parlor…and
that my friends, will be another write up…coming soon.
| Della's Statue at night. |
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| Notice the orbs to right....no source of lights in cemetery. |
| Here are the stairs that lead to the statue. |
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| Notice the orbs and light ball in the distance. |
| An adaptation of Della as she may have looked. |
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UPDATE
!!!
JUNE 27TH
2006
ANNIVERSAY
OF DELLA BARNES DEATH
One hundred and nine years ago on this date, Miss
Della Barnes tragically died and left behind a mysterious legacy of rumors and tales.
One such legend is that on the anniversary of her death, the lower part of the statue that still remains will actually
bleed from where the fingers once were resting upon her left hip against her pleated gown.
Many swear they have seen it happen, many have sworn that the stains going down this particular side of the concrete
statuary are indeed caused from the mysterious dripping of a supernatural blood flow. Several members of our group decided
to investigate the site of the statue on June 27th of 2006 to see if any paranormal activity would occur.
We went in before dusk, not risking being locked
in the cemetery by heavy iron gates at closing time, so the photos you will see were taken while it was still daylight. A midnight scenario would have sounded more intriguing, I know, but again, we did
not want to risk getting caught or being accused of doing something illegal or trespassing after hours. We did however, try to seek permission to do so but were unable to get a hold of anyone at the office. (This position, as receptionist of the cemetery office, was terminated, not too long
before our plan to investigate on this date, for financial and budget reasons.)
Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to take place. All was peaceful and quiet.
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