Is it a tombstone? Or is it a portal to hell? Eerie rumors surround this solitary monument to what once was...

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The Witches Ball - Picture!
The Witches Ball - From Akron Beacon Journal
The Witches Ball - More Pics!


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Contributed by RatL316snK@aol.com

RatL316snK@aol.com

Hey i just got back from visiting the witches ball that we finally found and there's really nothing else to say but that it was a real big disappointment. All this talk about the ball either being hot or cold is not true, at least not this time, because it just felt like any normal "marble ball" would feel like... normal i guess you could say. And as far as nothing falls by it, like leaves etc... it's in the middle of a cemetery with other graves around it.. which means it has a about a foot of space to itself and it didn't look amazingly clean. So i dunno.. the stories about the person who's buried there is probably true but as far as the hauntedness of it might just be another crazy story people made up.

Contributed by Tiffany

t_witbeck@hotmail.com

I just came across your web site on a fluke while looking for stuff about my home town, Valley City Ohio. I have lived in "VC" for most of my life. I grew up hearing stories of the infamous witches ball at Myrtle Hill Cemetery. I read the passage about it on your web site. I have heard all of the rumors about the temperature of the ball and the leaves, etc. I myself have never experienced any of these things because I am too big of a chicken to personally investigate. A good friend of mine lives across the street from the cemetery and frequently has to call the police to remove "devil worshippers" from the site of the grave who are holding ritualistic ceremonies at the grave. There was an article a few years back in the Plain Dealer about murderous women in Ohio. One story was about the women buried at the witches ball. Her name was Stoskopf and she died in the 20's. According to the paper she was emotionally and physically abused by her husband and sons. She was made to work like their slave and the boys were allowed to beat and beride her. Eventually old lady Stoskopf got fed up and poisoned the well at the house. Her husband and sons were killed by the poison and she disposed of the bodies down the well. I believe the article said she admitted to the crime and spent her life in an asylum until her death, she was then buried at the witches ball. I lived next door to the house that the Stoskopf family was killed in my whole life. The people who resided in the house always claimed that there were evil spirits in the house and many unexplained phenomena occurring, including doors being slammed shut and things getting broken. The well where the family was dumped still stands on the property and was never used because of its history. Please see if you can locate the Plain Dealer article, it ran around Halloween 2 or 3 years ago in the Sunday paper. There was many stories about murderous women from Northeast Ohio in the story, and this was one of them.
Thanks, Tiffany

Webmaster Note: I will certainly be looking for this Plain Dealer article. If anyone can help us out - please let me know!

UPDATE! I received this blurb via email from PeterElwell@aol.com :

The article about murderous women in Northeast Ohio ran in the November 15, 1998 Plain Dealer p. 1J. The womans name who poisoned her family was actually Martha Wise.

Contributed by Amanda

AMH11131@aol.com

I really enjoyed your website... The thing about the Witches Ball really got to me because I have felt how cold it is in the summer and noticed how leaves never surround it. I visited the Witches Ball one evening in the summer of 2000... We had about 3 or 4 cars of people. My friend and I decided to be brave and go for a walk alone, we had a flashlight so we where looking at everything. We walked straight behind the ball... If you keep walking there is a little cliff type thing overlooking a few houses off in the distance. But if you look straight down, or in front of you all you is trees. So my friend started shining the flash light in the trees and I swear I saw something hanging in the trees. I have never ran so fast in my life... I have not been back there since...

Contributed by Steve

bossk@peoplepc.com

Everybody from the Cleveland area has at one time or another heard tales and stories about the "witches ball". I my self have been there a few times. My parents used to go there when they were kids and so did my grandparents when they were kids. Through all of the generations, the story behind the mysterious ball remain the same and true. The local legend about a witch being buried at the old cemetery on Myrtle Hill Rd.is in fact true according to vague documents at the town library. If I remember correctly the only markings on her grave is her last name "Kolthoff" -or- "kothloff". There are no dates or no other wording on the eerie tomb. The few times I visited, there was always a fresh black rose resting on the grave.
The story about the witch is a long one so I will try to trim it down a bit to make less reading. More than a 150 years ago lived a quiet widowed women on Myrtle Hill Rd. nobody bothered her and she bothered nobody. After her late husband died she was thought to practicing witch craft in the barn behind her home. Many neighbor's were losing their animals such as dogs, cats, chickens etc... People were starting to get suspicious about the old woman. One late night when she was asleep some neighbors gathered up and broke into her barn to find weird marking on the wall and on a small table there were several bones of animals stacked nice and neat. One of the neighbors turned toward a fire pit in the barn to find the collar of his dog inside.
The very next night they got together again and went to the barn, this time with the witch in it. Rumor has it before they broke in they could see her from an outside window standing by the fire and she was gazing into it while the fire changed colors from red to blue to green. The people were scared and they felt threatened so they decided to take her life right then and there. They busted the door down and ran in and grabbed the old women tied her up to a pole in the barn and piled wood beneath her legs. She started to scream and chanting words they never heard before. She looked right into the eyes of all the people and told them this would not be the last time they would see her. She said she would put a curse on her grave before she passed. The barn was burnt down to the ground and the next day her remains were gathered and placed at the old cemetery on Myrtle Hill Rd. She went many years without a tomb stone until her niece who also practices witch craft provided her with one. It is a huge ball that stands about three feet off of the ground.
The curse she put on her grave is a strange and spooky one. If you go to the cemetery and place one hand on her grave and feel that it is cold, she is resting in her grave. If you touch it and is warm or hot I recommend you leave then because she is out of her grave and running!! One of the times I was there with several friends in the middle of winter we were standing near the grave when a friend and I placed our hands on the ball to find that it was extremely warm!! Second after we removed our hand you could hear loud footprints and the sound of breaking branches coming from the small woods near her grave. It was then we all took off, not waiting around to see what was going to happen next!!

True story,
Steve in Cleveland

Contributed by Jennifer

glittergirl1970@hotmail.com

i love your website. after reading about the witch's ball, i decided to drag my friend rachel out there to investigate. we took the top off the jeep and set off from euclid around dusk. we found myrtle hill road and the cemetary with no problem (thanks to mapquest!) the cemetary is small, on a quiet country road, up on a hill. we pulled in a found the odd grave-marker right away. we left the jeep running (just incase!) and got out to investigate. i had been telling my friend the story of the witch, trying to make her nervous. she wasn't buying it. she did refuse to touch the ball, "just in case" there was a curse. the air felt electric and the hair on our arms stood up. i grabbed my camera to take a photo before the sun set. it was a new roll, only on the 3rd or 4th picture. i snapped the photo and immediatly the camera jammed up! i tried to shut it off and it automatically rewound the film and spit the roll onto the ground. my friend saw what happened and we both decided to leave. when we got back to the jeep, it was full of flies (although there were no flies anywhere else in the cemetary and nothing in the jeep but a bottle of water.) the whole thing was very strange, especially since we really weren't expecting anything more than a nice drive to the country.

jennifer

Contributed by Shawn

Pa5280@aol.com

I have visited the witches ball a few times since I only live a few miles from it. Nothing weird has ever happened to me but I have heard some good stories about it. One was that back in 1800's people would pass the hill the ball sits on at night and see a strange figure sitting on the hill watching people. One time a group of men actually went to see what it was and were surprised to see the figure of a man with horns on its head run down the side of the hill and disappear at the bottom. My older brothers friend lives across the street from the hill and he would often complain about weird noises at night. One night he heard a loud crash in his basement and went to investigate and found all of his family board games knocked down from a shelf. He went upstairs to answer the phone and when eh returned all the games were picked up like nothing had happened. Another story probably had nothing do with it but two girls were visiting the ball one night and when they were on the way home got in a minor car accident (minor as in no one was hurt) .

Contributed by KittyN219@aol.com

KittyN219@aol.com

My friend and I have gone to the witches ball several times and we have never seen a black rose, an eerie mist surrounding it or anything special like that. The reason no leaves fall around it is because the ball is in the middle of the graveyard, nowhere near the trees. The stories about it being warm are true though. One night we went there around 2 am, way after the sun set, so it couldn't have still been warm from the sun beating on it all day, and it was really really warm especially on the bottom. Also we put a penny on the very top of it and we just left it there. About 5-6 months later, no exaggeration, we went back and the penny was still there. I don't really know what that means but its very weird because there are so many people that go there and how could it have been sitting in the exact same place that much later, with the wind and snow and kids who are always going there? It probably means nothing but it just kinda creeps us out. My mom used to go there when she was younger with all of her friends and for those who have never been there, there is two entrances to the place, one is just a little road and the other is a hill, its kinda steep. Anyway my mom and her friends went one night they choose to go up the hill and the car was in perfect shape and they had plenty of gas but half way up the hill the car stalled. They got out to investigate under the hood and they heard screeching noises and someone saw some sort of white floating object in the trees. They couldn't get the car started and they wanted to get out of there so they decided to just push the car back down the hill and get away from there when they got the car down the hill it started right up. I don't know if that was true or not, I wasn't there but those are my stories

Contributed by Matt

Skateenv@aol.com

hey....love the site.... well i dunno all this about the witches ball..i've been there 3 times....the first was with 2 of my friends and it was around dusk.... the second time was with my friend and it was like 10 at night....the third was around 11 and i was alone.... i only touched it the first time we went..and it was warm... from the sun beating down on it all day.... of course no leaves are gonna touch it cause its not near any trees... it might rain tonight so i think i'm gonna go back ....i'll tell you if anything scary happens. oh and about helltown ...i live right by there and i've never seen/heard anything or seen any devil worshipers....but i do know the cops will hassle you if your just driving around. keep up the good work.

matt.

Contributed by REV. William R. Mayor

SithWolf999@aol.com

THERE IS NOTHING WITH THE WITCH'S BALL BUT THERE SOMETHING AROUND THE WOODS SURROUNDING THE GRAVEYARD. I MYSELF HAVE BEEN THERE AND HAD MY HANDS ON THE BALL NOTHING CAME FROM THE BALL BUT IF YOU ASK THERE IS SOMETHING THAT WILL COME OUT OF THE WOODS BEHIND THE WORKERS SHED. I ALSO THOUGHT THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO MAKE SOMETHING ABOUT THE CHURCH ON ABBEYVILLE RD ON THE BRUNSWICK/VALLEY CITY LINE NOW THAT IS SOMETHING THAT I'M STILL LOOKING INTO I HAVE HEAR REPORTS OF "SOMETHING" BEING THERE AND WHEN I HAVE BEEN THERE I HAVE FELT SOMETHING.

SIN.
REV. WILLIAM R. MAYOR WICCAN PRIEST

Contributed by Lindsey

FoxyLinny02@aol.com

Hi. People say it's a joke but my current boyfriend's brother is buried there and believe me it's no joke. As a child he was very interested in this and a friend of his family researched the name on the ball Stoskopf. It is the name of a woman who believed she was a witch. My boyfriend knew the family who rented out a house to the Stoskopf family. It was in Valley City where all this took place and the house still stands. He told me that the house was rented out to other families after the time she murdered her family but people would move out after being there a month. It was said that the basement wall would light up having something to do with the rituals she held in her back yard. He told me he will drive me by the house some day which is now a office building. The only thing he said that was different was that she killed her family with a ax. It's all scary to me because the first time me and my friends went their we got a flat tire on the way home.
-Lindsey, Brunswick Ohio

Contributed by Anna

AMcnutt885@aol.com

Hello,
I have been reading your stories about the witches ball and all the hype.... I just wanted to say that I am now the current owner of the house where all this supposed murdering occurred. Granted, this may have happened. But it would not be associated with the witches ball. The person who did the Murdering was a lady named Wise, who did not own the home until the 1950s, according to court records. The person buried under the witches ball is one of the original owners of the home...the Stoskopf family. And many of their relatives still reside in Valley City.
I have lived here for 8 years and haven't seen glowing walls, or bleeding ceilings, or slamming doors yet. Nor has it been turned into an office building...Geez! It just goes to show you that some people have extraordinary imaginations.
I have, however, been known to scare off teenagers who drive over here to look in my windows hoping to see a ghost, only to be met by a very unhappy ME! And they should know that they should be far more worried about the living then the dead.
We have had some "out of the ordinary" occurrences. But nothing life threatening, scary or anything to be concerned about. The house just needed someone to love it. And we do.
The reason the witches ball is cool during the hot sun of the morning is because Granite, which the ball is made of, is cooled down significantly with the cold of the evening, and it is warm at night, because it takes all day to heat it up, and stays warm most of the night. So people need to stop visiting, having rituals and most of all, need to stop knocking it off it's perch, which requires a crane to return it to it place, at an expense to the family when it happens.
Nothing magical, creepy or otherwise will happen when visiting the site. Only over active imaginations seeing things created by their own minds.
If you have any questions, I would be happy to give you answers, or perhaps find out for you. But people really do need to relax about this house. And stop peeking in my windows before someone really gets hurt!
Anna

Contributed by RunLolaRun SLC Punk

runlolarunpunk@hotmail.com

Just something i thought you might like to add to your site...

i have been to the witches ball.. both during the day, and 2 different times at night, and i have a feeling, since there is no birth/death date no first name, it's a family monument... there are many people with Stoskopf as their last name, burried in that cemetary. I touched the ball, and it was warm, because of the sun.. just a comment i'd like to add... marble retains heat, so if the sun set and it's cold outside, it's still going to be a bit warm. The reason there are no leaves etc. around it, is becaues there are no trees near by. I haven't encounted a black flower of any sort...and the ball didn't glow.. it's a normal monument for a family during the day, but with all the stories attached to it... it is scary at night..
The only things creepy is that i was the only one up in my house the other night, after i came back, and i kept hearing static of some sort (even though all the appliances were off.. in my basement ) yet the same thing happened in my bedroom.. i was awoken by a not so faint static noise.. and the other thing is that there are no lights surrounding the grave and it looked like eyes on the grave following us as we drove past, and we know it wasn't out lights, because when we turned off the headlights, there was still a faint light, and i looked back at the ball, the lights should have been red from the tail lights...but they weren't red they were white... which could not have been possible.. it just felt like the eyes were watching me....

Alliey
Medina, Ohio

Contributed by Asoulwatcher13@aol.com

Asoulwatcher13@aol.com

I myself, live about a mile from the Witches Ball. As a visitor of Myrtle Hill Cemetary almost everyday i can tell you my expeirences there. I have never seen a black rose or leaves surrounding the ball. However, I have many times layed my hands upon her grave and felt the cold or hot. My creepiest moment. A warm (and i mean warm) June day, My friend and I were walking among the dead, and freely speaking. I layed my hands upon the ball and it was freezing cold, I immediatly took them off the grave and a relatively calm breeze became extreme and this is broad day light. I went back that night and saw the eerie figure coming out of the woods. I have never been afraid of "ghosts", but this time i felt scared and defintely RAN!!!

Contributed by Jon

grafjon@hotmail.com

I just wanted to tell you that a couple people on the website for the witches ball are either lying or do not have their facts straight. The widow who killed her family has nothing to do with the woman buried under the witches ball. Martha Wise is the murdering widow from the Legend of the Widow Wise. The name on the ball is Stoskoph. Also one girl claims to live next to the home of Martha Wise. I know this to be false because I live next to the home and there are no neighbors on the other side. Another person claimed to currently live in the home of Martha Wise. I know the individual who lives there and she is not that person.

Contributed by Toni

Gamer6460@aol.com

In concern to the witches ball.
I myself have investigated a number of unusual local occurances, and looked most closely at this one, because it affects me most. I researched the arsenic killings, because the house of a good friend in VC of mine is where the second of the two arsenic killings took place. It was the thanksgiving killing, and its a 10 minutes walk across the street and through the woods from the cemetary. I never seen anything unsual at the house, and neither has the owner, or his family. I am not sure however that the arsenic killings and the witch are a related subject.
As for the cemetary itself? My father and some friends in an investment group recently bought the house directly across the street from the cemetary. I immediately heard the stories of the ball, and did some research. Due to the nature of the shape of the material of the ball (and others like it) it absorbs heat and light from the sun, and after particularly sunny days it radiates almost a glow, not to mention warmth. I walked over there, and I saw leaves on the grave, and scrapes in the ball from the last time it was knocked over (yes its been knocked over a few times).
I have witnessed quite a few paranormal occourances in my time, and I have to say that the ball was not even near one. I heard from a local land owner that the so called witch was buried in a smaller private cemetary on columbia road. I have not yet investigated this, but it seems to me that the ball is a family memorial.

-Tony

Contributed by Charlie

kitty123_44129@yahoo.com

hello my name is charlie, i have been to the witches ball. i heard of it from my teacher, she lives right down the street from it . anyways...my mom went to myrtle hill cemetary when she was in her teens which was in the seventies and she went there with three of her friends and they planned on scaring there friends. the plan was to scare 2 girls that were in the car with them. 5 of her other friends were behind gravestones and they would pop out and scare the shit out of them. they would go to myrtle hill about every other weekend. well any way they were driving through the cemetary and there friends popped out and scared the girls. while every one was laughing my mom had saw in the corner of her eye a man that was at least seven foot tall that was dressed in very old clothes staring at them. my mom yelled at her friend and as soon as he lokked the man had dissapearred and it was in the back towards the workers shed and at that time the trees were about 6feet high and the man was taller than them[ at least a foot . when my friends went there on october 25 2003 we had saw glowing in the woods[at ten at night] we freaked and ran but then we turned around and went back to admire the witches ball and nothing really had happened accep the glowing and some cracking in the woods
i plan on going back there in the winter to see if the myth is true about the whole warm/cold thing and i hope that we dont see no black rose!