The Ghost of the Meramec – The Lynching of John Buckner

In January 1894, in Valley Park, Missouri, A black resident named John Buckner was taken by the authorities and hanged from the “Old Wagon Bridge” over the Meramec River. The story goes that he had sexually assaulted two black women and one white woman in the area. After a crime wave in the County of St. Louis, 150 citizens from the surrounding areas removed Buckner from the custody of local authorities, took him in the middle of the night to the main bridge in Valley Park, and lynched him.

The town was becoming a boom-town on its way “to rivaling its better-known neighbor of St. Louis –until a flood in 1915 pulled down the three-span steel bridge from its foundation. Nearby businesses burned to the ground after the electric plants were flooded, and they never reopened. Two thousand people were left homeless and unemployed, and several drowned in the disaster. A new bridge was built and was pummeled again and again until it, too, was destroyed. Many locals say that a ghost haunts the Meramec River, and some have speculated that the spirit of the lynched John Buckner roams the Meramec where a new bridge (Highway 141) crosses over the spot of the lynching. They say his ghost longs for revenge on the town and continues to cause the bad luck their town has endured.

Submitted by Joseph Wood, June 2005. Mr. Wood wrote The Shadow of the Bride. To learn more about this incident, please read his book.

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Ghostly Girls at the Edgewood Children’s Center

The historic Edgewood Children’s Center sits in the southwest St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves. Today, the center serves as a treatment center for abused and abandoned children; however, the center has a long history dating back almost 175 years. In 1834, the St. Louis Association of Ladies for the Relief of Orphan Children was created to care for the many children orphaned by the 1832 cholera epidemic. After expanding its facilities and services in 1848, the group changed its name to the St. Louis Protestant Orphans’ Asylum.

In 1869, the group merged with the Western Sanitary Commission, a volunteer organization that provided relief for Civil War veterans. After the merger, the group moved from its North St. Louis location to the Rock House in Webster Groves, initially the site of Webster College School for Boys, which the Western Sanitary Commission purchased in 1861.

The Rock House, sitting in the middle of the new 23-acre site, already had its history. Reverend Artemus Bullard built the Rock House in 1850 and ran a seminary for young men there until his untimely death in a train wreck in 1855. It is known that Reverend Bullard was a strong abolitionist, and it is believed that he used the Rock House as a way station in the Underground Railroad, helping to move slaves into safety in the North.   A tunnel, several blocks long, was believed to run beneath the Rock House, acting as a hiding place for slaves escaping to the North. The exit was sealed off in the 1890s after two children became lost in it and died.

In 1910, a devastating fire gutted the old Rock House, and at least one child perished in the fire. Though the fire destroyed the interior, the lovely stone exterior was undamaged.

When it changed its name from St. Louis Protestant Orphan’s Asylum to Edgewood Children’s Center in 1944, the agency successfully transitioned from caring for homeless children to meeting the needs of emotionally disturbed children. Today, the 155-year-old Rock house is listed as a National Historic Landmark and houses the Edgewood Center’s offices.

It comes as no surprise, with the center’s long history and the numerous children who have lived and died on these premises, that it is reportedly haunted. Many have claimed that they have seen the ghost of the little girl who perished at the Rock House fire in 1910. Said to be a friendly little spirit, the staff have fondly named her Rach l. Often, footsteps are heard in the Rock House hallways when no one is present. Furthermore, people report hearing footsteps continue up a staircase that stood almost a Century ago but no longer exists today. Adults who have lived on the second floor report moving objects, more phantom footfalls, and feelings of oppressive uneasiness.

Many have reported hearing children playing on the grounds under an old cottonwood tree outside in the early evening hours. Some have even stated that they have seen a little girl under the tree, sometimes floating.

The historic Rock House and Edgewood Children’s Center are located at 330 North Gore Street, between North Rock Hill Road and West Kirkham Avenue, in Webster Groves.

 

©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated October 2026.

Also See:

Haunted Lemp Mansion

St. Louis Area Legends & Folklore

Ghosts of the Bethlehem Cemetery, St. Louis

Haunted Bissell Mansion in St. Louis

See Sources.