Kitley King Cemetery Investigation
This blog post was written by Whitney Dankemeyer, one half of Two Halves of a Soul.
In the early 1800s, John and Francis Kitley owned two adjacent family farms. John owned his 80-acre farm back in December of 1825, the 16th of the month to be exact. He was born on April 15, 1793 and he died on February 25, 1865. Between his and Francis’ farms was a family cemetery that still stands to this day. Although you cannot see what’s left of his headstone, you can find his brother Francis’ marker and John King’s headstone, rumored to be John’s son who was killed in an accident involving a train nearby. It was known for farmers to bury themselves with family on their property, so together they all lay to rest in the Kitley King Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Where Francis Kitley’s farm sat is now a soccer field complex. Where John Kitley’s farm was is now known to the public as Paul Ruster Park, established some time in the 1920s. The park wasn’t called Paul Ruster Park though until after Paul Ruster passed away and the city petitioned to have the park named in his honor. Ruster was a 1964 Warren High School graduate and former Warren Central Baseball player. He was a giver to the community, but died from Hodgkin’s disease in 1978. The park was officially named Paul Ruster Park on June 28, 1979.
Many rumors circulated over the years about paranormal activity at the park. Young adults playing dungeons and dragons in the park used to get chased out by noises they heard and shadows they saw alongside the perimeter of where they were playing. Others say they have seen the spirit of young John King, the boy who was killed by a train back in April of 1864. You can see him walking along the paths of the park that lead to his gravesite, which is a path that is, in total, 1.2 miles long in length. You can even sometimes hear little John playing the harmonica.
Although there are no more Kitley farms and no more train tracks to be explored, we still wanted to investigate the cemetery and remaining headstones that are still at this location. On our second day in Indianapolis on September 4, 2022, Nicole, Swan, and I drove over to 11000 East Prospect St to check it out. The cemetery wasn’t easy to spot right away, as it’s found off of the road. We had to park our vehicle at the edge of Paul Ruster Park and walk alongside the road to find it. When you locate the six steps, the cemetery sits right at the top of them. There you will find a small square plot of graves, with only a few eligible to read.
We began our investigation first by looking around. We wanted to get a feel for the land before we started talking to anybody, so we began by looking at the headstones that were there. We then hopped over a small broken fence and onto the path to get a feel for the woods. No negative vibes were present that entire time. We had the ovilus on to ask questions, but we weren’t getting any impressive responses. To make things quicker for us, we resorted straight to the Estes Method. Swan put the headphones on, and we finally started to get answers..
It wasn’t a long conversation we had with the spirits present, and soon you will find out why. We first talked to who we believed to be either John or Francis, as I had stated, “got a couple Kitley men we could be communicating with” and Swan responded with “Yeah.” Whichever Kitley man we were speaking with (they never clarified) kept mentioning "The end." Whenever we asked what happened at the end, we would get various responses such as “Big buck,” “gold digger,” “Fortune” and so forth. At one point they even said “Whole side,” which we took as referring to one of their farms, given that they were right next to each other. They then mentioned buffalo and that they had a successful farm running. When I looked into the buffalo research, I didn’t find much about them owning buffalo, but I did find a paper about The Buffalo Trace, which was a national migration route for American Bison or “Buffalo” from Kentucky, through Indiana, to Illinois. It was used as a Native American Trail, used to move livestock by American Settlers, and used by Lewis and Clark, Abraham Lincoln, and Benjamin Harrison. The dates I’ve collected go all the way back to the early 1700s and through 1819. This would mean the Kitley farms were up and operating around this time period. Connection? Possibly.
We only had a brief session with little John King. We uploaded an EVP recording of Swan shouting out words that sound like an older Kitley explaining to John how to use the device to talk. He even at one point asked “Are they?-” like he wasn’t so sure at first if he could trust us. Once we gained his trust, though, we even captured what sounds like people talking over the EVP. At some times, I can hear it, other times, I am not listening hard enough. If you are able to hear the EVP in our recording, please share what it is you think you might hear him saying. The EVP can be found in our album for the Kitley King Cemetery.
This is where the investigation was cut short. We noticed a drastic change in responses we were getting once we started talking to John. A few minutes had gone by with little to no responses before Swan finally said “Explore” and “Kids.” We thought they were referring to us, so we brushed it off. Moments later, Swan said “Out.” Questioning now whether or not we might’ve upset somebody, we reassured the spirits that we were there with all respect and kindness. That was when Swan said “Leave.” I believe we even got another “Leave” or “Now” before we actually said our goodbyes and left. At first we were sad because we thought they were shooing us out. It was when we were walking back to our cars that we actually saw a group of young kids going onto the path and into the woods. The spirits were kindly ending our session with them, and not because they didn’t want to talk, but because there were others coming onto the trail.
We have yet to get our film camera photos back from this investigation as I am publishing this, so if there are any apparitions from this location, we will be sure to add it to the investigations album later. Until then, we do believe John’s spirit is out and walking about in the woods of this park. He seems harmless and smart about who he chooses to speak to. We are still unaware of which Kitley man we were speaking with, but it was still enough for us to confidently say he is a guy who’s willing to chat with the interested. We didn’t find any remnants of the remaining foundation of one of the homes, but we still gained a lot of insight from walking the property ourselves. If you want to check it out yourself, I definitely recommend going during the day where you can see the cemetery and walk the trails. Who knows, if you’re lucky, you might even find yourself running into little John King.
Nicole's take of this Investigation:
"At our second location, it was almost as if we were on a quest. A quest to find 6 stone steps that would lead us to a small plot of land where the remains of a family were laid to rest. Although the peaceful sounds of cicadas echoed in our ears and the slight breeze danced through the trees and our hair, I still couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. Not so much in a bad way, however, knowing that the souls of the Kitley family were curious as to why we were so eager to get to know them more still gave me chills on that summery day."
Swan's take of this investigation:
"Our second investigation took us on a mini adventure to find a small cemetery. Once we located the 6 small, stone steps, we began to look around at the headstones, as well as the surrounding woods and trails. While it was peaceful, we couldn't help but feel eyes on us at all times. It did not feel threatening, but more so seeing what we were up to. At the end of the Estes Method session there, the spirits even warned us of people approaching on the trails through the woods."
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