MimZWay Profile picture
20 Oct, 15 tweets, 4 min read
In #Roc NY - we have this FANTASTIC park called Highland Park. In 1854 George Ellwanger & Patrick Barry owned the largest nursery in the world!
They donated 150 acres of their nursery to the City of Rochester to create a park all could enjoy. They donated lots of plants too!
They donated funds for a Children’s Pavilion - because they believed children needed fresh air to be healthy!
Although the Pavilion was demolished in 1963 - Highland Park thrives today with an annual Lilac Festival - and thousands of visitors each year wandering the grounds to smell the Lilacs, visit Warner Castle and traipse through the Sunken Garden. But what these visitors don’t know
Is that something sad & sinister lies mere inches underneath their festival going feet.

Because - on the site where there are now lilacs, food vendors and musicians lie the unmarked graves of between 400 and 900 men, women and children. (Photo credit to Dick Halsey 1984).
In the early 1800’s - the City of Rochester established an Asylum, Almshouse and Penitentiary for the City’s poor people, mentally ill people, developmentally disabled people and criminals (both non-violent and violent).
When these people died, they were buried in unmarked graves in the “Bone Yard” - which is located on the corner of South Ave. & Highland in the park! On bad days when fever swept through the houses - they were buried one on top of the other - mere inches from the earth’s surface.
In 1984 a landscaper was bulldozing the earth at the corner of South Ave. & Highland Ave. - he uncovered six bodies. Authorities were called in - but the rain that evening, revealed six more bodies. Archeologists were called in to exhume the skeletons. (Photo credit Dick Halsey)
Ten of the bodies were of adults & two were children. One skeleton was missing both his legs. Reviewing the records of the Asylum - it was suspected that the legless skeleton belonged to Adoniram Perkins who did not survive the amputation of his limbs.
A total of 305 bodies were exhumed from the Bone Yard - but it was too expensive - time consuming & inconvenient to exhume all the bodies.
It’s estimated that between 400 - 900 bodies remain.
Buried.
Unmarked.
In Highland Park.
They are the bodies of children.
Mothers who died in childbirth.
Developmentally disabled people.
The criminally insane.
Desperate people.
People who were not valued.
Piled together - in a “Bone Yard.”
Hastily buried with a few inches of dirt shoveled over their plain, pine coffins.
Is it any wonder that many of them don’t rest easily?
The hills of Highland Park seem to gather foggy patches in an eerie manner. They skitter across the paths.
Strange noises emanate from the beautiful, tree-lined hills.
Is it a fox calling for a mate?
A screech owl?

Or is it Adoniram Perkins crying out for his missing legs?
The only way to find out is to spend a night in the park. Sitting on the site where the bodies are laid. If you dare.
If you want to donate to help keep a Remembrance Park open for those buried in the mass grave. Here is a link!

depaul.org/donate/remembe…

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More from @MimZWay

18 Oct
Time for the 4th #Roc based #Ghost story.
And this time it’s personal.
Nowadays, everyone knows what a Medium does.
A Medium is someone who communicates with the dead directly.
But back in the 1800’s direct communication with the dead had been largely unheard of.

That is, until the Fox Sisters - Leah, Kate and Maggie.
The youngest of six children - both Kate and Maggie still lived at home with their alcoholic father and nervous mother in a farmhouse in Hydesville, New York.

Shortly after moving into the house, Kate (11 years) and Maggie (14 years) began to communicate with a spirit.
Read 23 tweets
17 Oct
By popular demand folks have requested that my 3rd #Roc based #Ghost story be about Corn Hill hauntings.

For those who don’t know about Corn Hill. It is one of Rochester’s first neighborhoods. Home to some of Rochester’s most notable & affluent people.
The first homes in Corn Hill were built in the early 1800’s.
Large, palatial & well appointed these were the homes of Nathaniel Rochester, Jonathan Child (the first Mayor), the Fox Sisters (noted spiritualists) and the Selden family, developers of Western Union & other inventions
In 1990 I moved to Corn Hill.
I lived in The Wilmot which was home to the Selden family.
My apartment faced the rear - you can see my 2 balconies on the 2nd & 3rd floor in the photo on the left.
I loved to walk through the neighborhood & admire the mansions. ImageImage
Read 18 tweets
16 Oct
Since it is October & 2020 sucks.
I will try to provide #Roc based #GhostStories to entertain y’all.

In #BrightonNY on Friday September 21, 1951 a terrible tragedy struck two of our most beautiful neighborhoods, which resulted in the current ghost story I will tell.

Buckle up.
Friday September 21, 1951 was a beautiful warm day.
As such - many people were outside.
Mowing lawns.
Tending to gardens.
Housewives decided to get their shopping done.
Most children were in school.
A crew was working to repair a sidewalk near 12 corners (a crossroads of three streets - Elmwood, Winton & Monroe Avenues).
There was an undetected gas leak there - and the flares of the work crew accidentally lit the leak on fire and caused a tragic chain reaction.
Read 17 tweets
16 Jun
When people say “Slavery was hundreds of years ago. Why are we still talking about it?”

They are technically correct.

But I am 56 years old, and my Great-Grandmother was born a slave.

Let me tell you about Lucinda Christmas Fitts Lynch - and how slavery DID NOT end in 1863.
In 1863 the Civil War “ended” and Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves via the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution.
There was no social media at the time & so slaves in Texas did not know they were free until over 2 years later. Some say, the messenger to Texas was murdered. Some say Lincoln gave some states the ability to have one last cotton harvest. Those who know the truth are long dead.
Read 13 tweets
16 Feb
This is a picture of the home my Mom & Dad bought in 1967 with money my dad earned working in Alaska.
Banks wouldn’t lend my parents money because they were black.
They couldn’t buy an existing house because of deed restrictions.
So they had this home built in Liverpool, NY.
This photo was taken during the first Easter in our home.
I’m on the far left in the green coat. From left to right is me, my Mom, my Aunt Stephanie, my sister Suzette, my Uncle Roland, my cousin Jimmy, my cousin Johnny and my cousin David.
The house was originally painted white. My Mom and Dad had to paint it brown because someone spray painted “Niggers” on the back of the house. My parents scraped the paint off the sliding glass doors and my dad quietly painted over the slur on the siding.
Read 17 tweets
10 Jun 19
Why am I, a devout Catholic woman - who goes to church every Sunday - Pro-Choice?

I love life.
I believe life starts at conception.
I would never have an abortion - even if I sacrificed my own life for the baby.
Rape.
Incest.
Death.

I would choose to have the child.
So - why don’t I support the “Pro-Life” political stance????!!

Because - it is not pro-life.
When it comes to universal health care - the GOP largely does not support the Affordable Care Act - which would provide health care for everyone and would save hundreds of thousands of lives.
Read 11 tweets

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