St. Omer Cemetery and the small, defunct village of the same name probably would have been forgotten a century ago had it not been for one unusual family monument and a misprinted date. As is often the case in Coles County, these peculiar circumstances gave birth to an obscure but enduring legend. According to local lore, Caroline Barnes, one of four people buried under the massive stone, was put to death for practicing witchcraft. It is said that no pictures can be taken of her monument, and that it glows on moonless nights.
The Barnes family monument is difficult to describe. Some say it looks like a crystal ball on top a pyre. Conventionally, orbs in cemetery art represent faith, and logs, or tree trunks, are fairly common imagery representing growth and enduring life. This particular gravestone is rare, but similar monuments can be found in several central Illinois cemeteries, including Union Cemetery in northeastern Coles County.
Why do some people believe a witch is buried here? The only evidence for the legend seems to be the gravestone’s dramatic design, the way local citizens grow nervous whenever the story is mentioned, and most strikingly, Caroline’s impossible date of death chiseled in the granite: February 31. The monument also faces north and south, while most headstones are oriented east-west.
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On a farm near the meandering banks of Hogwallow Branch in southwestern McDonough County, a man named James Spiva tossed and turned at night, felt tired during the day, and was afflicted with bad luck. First his cows gave bad milk, then his favorite dog died, and finally his oxen went missing. His brother William, a “rural physician,” suggested that James had been bewitched. Their suspicion fell on Elizabeth Friend, who was sick with typhoid fever. James drew an image of her, nailed it to a tree, and shot it with a silver bullet. Around the same time, she succumbed to her illness. James openly claimed that he had rid himself of this “witch,” and so he was tried and convicted of her death. Luckily for him, a skeptical lawyer passed by while his execution was being carried out and convinced the judge to let James free. Years later, the New York Times reported on this incident, but mixed up the names of the participants.
A witch named Beulah was rumored to have lived along Meridian Road west of Rockford, Illinois during the 1960s and ‘70s. It was said that she developed her powers as a young girl after being disfigured by shards from the lens of her glass speculum. She refashioned the shards into a divination mirror. She was also said to have two hounds, one black and one white. In 1965, it was alleged that Beulah caused the disappearance of several local teens who had gone looking for her. According to author 
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