Wikimedia Commons1880s curse; 1904 fulfillment; ongoingCursed PlaceFolktale
The Witch's GraveAmerican Folklore Mythology
A chained grave in a Mississippi cemetery — and the fire that burned the town exactly when the dying woman said it would
The Myth
The story as told in Yazoo City goes like this: in the 1880s, an old woman lived alone in the swamps along the Yazoo River. She was rumored to lure fishermen to their deaths. When the sheriff came to arrest her, she fled into the swamp and was caught in quicksand. As she sank, she swore that she would return and burn Yazoo City to the ground. She died, and they buried her in Glenwood Cemetery, wrapping the grave in heavy chains to keep her in.
On May 25, 1904 — roughly twenty years later — a fire started in a house on Main Street. It spread through the entire business district and much of the residential area, destroying 324 buildings and leaving most of the town homeless. It was the worst fire in Mississippi history at the time.
When townspeople went to Glenwood Cemetery after the fire, they found the chains on the witch's grave broken.
The chains have been repaired and broken multiple times since. The current chains are intact. The grave is the most visited site in the cemetery.
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Themes
The Place
Glenwood Cemetery sits on a hill overlooking Yazoo City, a town of roughly 11,000 in the Mississippi Delta, 40 miles north of Jackson. The cemetery is a well-maintained public space with graves dating to the early 19th century. The witch's grave is in the older section, marked by a simple headstone surrounded by the distinctive chain.
Yazoo City itself retains a small-town Delta character. The town was the childhood home of writer Willie Morris, whose memoir Good Old Boy includes a chapter on the witch's grave. The Yazoo Historical Society maintains records of the 1904 fire.
The History
The 1904 fire is a documented historical event. It began on May 25 in a house on Main Street and, driven by wind and the wooden construction of the commercial district, consumed most of downtown Yazoo City within hours. The fire's origin was never conclusively determined.
The witch's identity is uncertain. No death records from the 1880s confirm the swamp-woman story. The grave itself is real — it exists in Glenwood Cemetery with chains around it — but the headstone inscription does not name a witch. Local tradition has maintained the identification for over a century.
Willie Morris (1934-1999), who grew up in Yazoo City and later became editor of Harper's Magazine, wrote extensively about the witch's grave and its place in the town's identity. His account in Good Old Boy (1971) and the children's book My Dog Skip helped nationalize the story.
The chain on the grave was reported broken after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It has since been repaired.
Frequently Asked
A chained grave in a Mississippi cemetery. A dying woman's curse. A fire that destroyed 324 buildings on the date she predicted. And the chains found broken afterward.
Sources
Morris, Willie. Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood (1971). Harper & Row, New York. Morris's memoir of growing up in Yazoo City contains the canonical literary telling of the Witch of Yazoo and the 1904 fire. Primary source for the modern form of the legend.
Tier 1Brown, Alan. Haunted Places in the American South (2002). University Press of Mississippi. University of West Alabama folklorist's regional survey, with peer-reviewed treatment of the Yazoo City tradition alongside other Southern legend sites. Published by a university press.
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