New Jersey High School’s Football Field Was Once a Graveyard

You would think a cemetery on the grounds of your high school would be a strange enough detail that you and your fellow classmates would note existence.

Sadly, I spent four years at Middletown High School South and my navel-gazing, elder millennial self never thought twice about the historic cemetery I drove past everyday. I don't think many of my classmates did either.

Recently, a video from Ghosts on the Coast titled "This New Jersey High School Has a Cemetery on Campus" popped up on my Facebook feed.

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I knew instantly this was Middletown South. And I was embarrassed that my younger self never had any curiosity about the origin of this particular graveyard. I was aware of its existence, but the extent that I cared about the cemetery was in the iron fencing's suitability as a spot to plunk my backpack and rest against while waiting for my mom to pick me up after school.

I certainly didn't know the graves were once housed in the spot where the football field now sits. And I didn't know dead bodies were moved so that said field -- affectionately known as "the Swamp" for its water retention superpowers -- could be built in the 1970s. (Thank you, Ghosts on the Coast, for this creepy addendum to my high school memories.)

The cemetery houses the graves of the Patterson family who once owned the land that came to house the Middletown High School South campus, according to Ghosts on the Coast. One of the women whose grave is located in the cemetery if Rachel Patterson, whose maiden name was Stout. Ghosts on the Coast said was a descendent of Penelope Stout, who was famous for being one of the first settlers in Middletown.

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Ghosts on the Coast released a second video speculating about whether or not bodies still remain under the football field.

There's no indication any bodies were left behind when the gravesite was moved, but Ghosts on the Coast posed the question: is it possible the stones were moved and not the graves themselves?