Union Cemetery
Easton, Connecticut, United States
Cemetery · local-legend
The Story
At Easton’s Union Cemetery, the White Lady moves through stories of glowing figures and roadside encounters. This Connecticut burial ground also preserves generations of local family history. Its celebrated nighttime lore should be explored on a daylight visit: the cemetery closes after sunset.
The Hauntings
Stone walls and iron fencing enclose one of Easton’s oldest burial grounds. The figure most closely associated with it is not a historical resident with an established identity, but a woman in white whose appearance changes from one account to another. A veil in one telling becomes a bonnet in another. The setting is a real community cemetery, with family names and weathered inscriptions that carry a quieter history alongside the haunting. Local historian Elizabeth Boyce describes a luminous young woman in a long white dress, sometimes seen near the graves and sometimes appearing before passing motorists. Dark hair and a shimmering outline recur in the tradition; descriptions of her clothing vary. These are collected accounts of the White Lady, rather than one continuous encounter with a known witness. The Warrens helped bring the cemetery’s reputation to a wider audience through their book Graveyard, which Boyce discusses in her account of Easton folklore. Neither that connection nor the presence of nineteenth-century women’s graves settles the apparition’s identity. Boyce found that a name sometimes attached to the story did not correspond neatly to a single burial. Her identity remains one of the cemetery’s enduring mysteries.
The History
Bruce Nelson’s local history places the cemetery’s surviving burial record at least as far back as 1761. Earlier names included the Old Cemetery and Baptist Cemetery. The latter reflected its proximity to the church rather than a simple history as one congregation’s exclusive burial ground. Families connected with several Easton churches were interred here. A cemetery association formed in 1902 to address deterioration of the grounds. More than a century later, volunteers again became central to its care. Nelson’s 2022 reporting describes mowing, damaged memorials and efforts to rebuild an effective maintenance organization. That preservation history matters: Union is not an abandoned backdrop, and damaged or displaced stones are not invitations to handle the memorials.
A sense of place.
Visitor Experiences
Have you experienced something here?
This future chapter will bring together stories from the PHASM community. An unexpected encounter, a lingering feeling, or a quiet visit—your experience will be welcome.
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Sources & further reading.
Plan Your Visit
Visit only during daylight and observe signs on arrival. Easton’s official guidance identifies Union Cemetery at the Sport Hill Road and Stepney Road intersection and explicitly prohibits access after sunset. No authorized nighttime investigation or interior-event booking was established in this research. Keep to appropriate walking areas, leave memorials untouched and give families attending graves priority.