In 1853, pioneers began to settle in what is now present day Coppell, Texas.
These first settlers built makeshift homes and community buildings.
But one necessity they needed that wasn’t temporarily built was a cemetery.
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The Oldest Memorial Park in Coppell
Updated 2/11/2020 – The cemetery first began on privately owned land.
However, by the 1870s, the family allowed those who made up the community to be buried there as well.
Most tombs were marked in some fashion; however, some were not.
The actual city of Coppell was not developed until 1955.
The economy boomed, and developers flocked in to build in the two decades that followed.
It became clear that the developers were not sure of where the cemetery officially ended.
As a result, a community of houses were built right on top of gravesites.
Today, those houses remain on the tombs and occupied.
Bethel Cemetery had been abandoned for the most part, until its revival during the 90s.
Amber had been a little girl when she and her parents temporarily moved in with her mother’s best friend, in the neighborhood by the cemetery.
“Our house was being fumigated and we couldn’t afford to stay in a hotel for two weeks,” Amber remembered.
“My mom’s best friend said all three of us could stay with her.
In the Houses…
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“I didn’t like being so near the graveyard, but my mom told me that I needed to be grateful and brave, and I tried to be.
But something felt wrong from the moment I crossed the threshold of the front door,” Amber said, looking certain.
“The whole time we were there it felt as if someone was watching me.
Like I was a fish in a fish tank, being constantly observed.
But that’s nothing compared to how it was at night,” she added quietly.
“At night it felt like the house came alive.
“During my first couple of nights there, I could hear something moving things around in the kitchen.
It was alarming to speak with my mom’s friend about it, as she said that it was the house fluctuating.
But I had heard it from the top of the stairs and I believed It was actually somebody walking around, touching things,” she grimaced.
“The next couple of nights were worse.
It seemed that the moment I was on the brink of falling asleep, somebody would start to pull the blankets off me in the guest room,” Amber said.
“My mom kept telling me they were probably just falling off the bed due to gravity.
I just kept quiet, knowing that things would get worse and she would experience something herself soon.
“Sure enough, a few days later, she had come to tuck me into bed for the night.
As she leaned over to kiss me, we both heard her name being called out from the closet of the room.
We searched that closet top to bottom, but nobody was there.
“Then and only then, did my mother agree her friend’s house was haunted,” Amber smiled.
“I wound up doing research about Coppell and that’s when I discovered the houses had been built on part of Bethel Cemetery.
Now I believe these homes will be forever haunted by the spirits of the dead buried underneath them.”
