Did a Salem tourist conjure second thoughts in Morgantown?
Stewart Williams started wondering that when he happened upon a certain footstone a few weeks back at Oak Grove Cemetery.
Williams, who lives in the neighborhood, often takes walks in the vicinity while stopping to gather trash from a homeless encampment nearby.
The marker of Dudley Woodbridge, who was just 7 when he passed in 1771, was propped along a wall by the cemetery along Dorsey Avenue.
“I was intrigued,” Williams said.
Especially since Dudley’s death occurred a year before the founding of Morgantown.
And the oldest grave in Oak Grove, according to local lore, dates to 1796 — which was a quarter-century after Dudley’s demise.
The marker, Williams determined, was clearly not of local origin.
“It didn’t take long to figure out that Dudley’s marker didn’t belong here,” he said.
Which, of course, begged the question: Where the heck did it belong? And, for the follow-up, how the heck did it get there?
The Find a Grave site online got him going on the former.
As it turns out, Dudley is buried in the Charter Street Cemetery in the aforementioned Salem.
The one in Massachusetts — the home of the infamous Witch Trials of the late 1600s.
Spellbound
Originally known as “The Old Burying Point,” the cemetery established in 1637 is the oldest in the New England town in greater Boston steeped in America’s colonial history, good and bad.
It’s the final resting place of John Hathorne, the notorious judge who presided over the witch trials, and Captain Richard More, who was among the passengers of the Mayflower.
Dudley was the first of 11 children born to Dorcas March Woodbridge and Dudley Woodbridge, the elder, a successful merchant in town.
“I started calling people,” Williams said.
Mike McClung of the Aull Center gave him some direction, in that regard.
So did David Jordan, a retired Morgantown police officer who still works with the city.
Queries to the Salem Cemetery Commission got local police involved.
Hello from Witchcraft Heights
Gravestone thefts, surprisingly, aren’t that common there, said Officer Sean Coughlin of Salem PD — who was surprised to be getting a call from The Dominion Post.
“West Virginia? Seriously?” he asked, when told of the wayward marker. “Well, that’s interesting.”
Coughlin is a Salem native — “Grew up in Witchcraft Heights,” he said, chuckling — and he has, he allows, investigated several history-inspired thefts there over the years, though the stolen items are usually on the smaller side.
Salem’s graveyards can’t help but be a mark sometimes, he said, just because.
Counting Charter Street, there are eight cemeteries in Salem, all of the same vintage.
“There’s a lot of wrought-iron work,” he said, of the ornate filigree often adorning the places of rest.
“People will steal something and take it to the pawn shop. That’s how we catch them.”
No stone left unturned?
The Charter Street Cemetery may have caught the attention of an opportunistic souvenir hunter looking for a slightly bigger score, said Coughlin’s fellow officer in the Mountain State, Sgt. Brandon Viola, who is a detective with Morgantown Police Department.
Viola knows the above cemetery went through an extensive renovation in 2021 that included the resetting of most of its gravestones.
He shares Williams’ theory that someone lifted Dudley’s marker — only to feel a spell of guilt afterward.
“It would make sense if you were on the witch tour up there when all that work was being done,” the detective surmised.
“This thing isn’t that tall,” Viola continued, as he described the marker that ended up in Morgantown.
It’s not that thick, either, he said.
“And it probably weighs 25-30 pounds. If you were up there when they were working with all those stones lying around, you could have slid it into your car when no one was looking.”
Home … in spirit
In coming days, the footstone of Master Woodbridge will be on the road again, in an official Salem vehicle on its way back to ye olde burying point.
Town officials didn’t want to take a chance on shipping the artifact.
Williams likes the way this spooky-ish story is wrapping up — “I’m glad it’s going back to its rightful place with Dudley Woodbridge,” he said.
Viola agreed.
“It’ll be good to reunite Salem with its history.”
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