The Lady in Glass

Hello, and welcome to Crimes and Witch Demeanors, the paranormal podcast where we go beyond the Wikipedia page and delve into historic and primary sources to find the truth behind your favorite ghostly tales.  I’m your host and loveable librarian – Joshua Spellman.

Welcome back, by the time this is airing it’s officially fall and I couldn’t be more excited to break out my layers!  But if I’m being honest – I think I’m a little bit more excited for today’s episode.  There are so many versions of this story it’s hard to find out which is the definitive one and the thing that’s crazy is that they’re all so different!  Like…so…different.  I did my best to include them all but I think you’re going to love today’s ghost story.  It’s the quintessential thing that local legends are made of but unique in such an oddly beautiful way.

Today we’re not straying far from where I am now and venturing down to the quaint hometown of Lucille Ball…Jamestown and no, we’re not talking Lucy’s ghost here, we’re talking about one she would have heard legends of growing up and one that she is buried with…the Lady in Glass.

Five young kids drove in the dark.  Their fear and anticipation had left them silent; unsure of what the night would bring.  They bumped and bounced along the ill maintained roads until the headlights of the old Chevy Malibu pierced the hazy night, highlighting the large stone sign declaring their destination: “Lakeview Cemetery”

“We’re here” Cyndi, the oldest, and the driver said in an almost whisper, parking the car a little down the road as to not raise suspicion. 

Jack, the youngest at only 8 years old, and Cyndi’s brother, let out a small whimper that he hoped the others didn’t hear. 

“Oh shut up, twerp” Cyndi said, turning off the lights, and climbing out of the car and lightly closing the door behind her.  The others followed: Jack’s two friends, Riley, the girl he had a crush on, Dane, his best friend, and Corey, Cyndi’s boyfriend.

“Thanks for driving us” Dane said.  The other muttered their thanks too before Corey motioned them to be quiet, and waving them to follow him.  The five kids walked a little ways through the woods before hopping over a low stone wall and into the cemetery.

Corey passed a flashlight to Jack and another to Dane before whispering “Well, we all know why we’re here, right?” he asked.

They looked at each other, nodding, some more assuredly than others.  “It’s the anniversary of her death” Corey continued “The Lady in Glass.  All the way back in in 1898 Grace Galloway was to be wed.  She was beautiful and came from a wealthy family.  She was an heiress like Paris Hilton or something and the man she was marrying was carefully chosen by her father.

But she was in love with someone else.  Grace had been having a secret affair with her chauffer and couldn’t bring herself to marry a man she didn’t love.  On the night of her wedding, as she was pleading with her lover who had decided to leave.  He had decided it was best she marry and live a happy life where she would be provided for.  She was heartbroken but decided to carry on.  But when it came time for the wedding…her fiancé never showed.  It turned out he had overheard her conversation with her chauffer and left Grace at the altar.

With her heart broken by not only one, but by two men that left her, Grace died of a broken heart.  This monument” Corey paused, shining the light dramatically behind the group, lighting up a beautifully eerie scene: behind them was a large stone pedestal, and atop it was an incredibly lifelike statue of a woman, encased completely in glass, “This monument” Corey continued “was made.  But something strange began to happen.  Some nights the statue would be missing from its stand and would wander the cemetery crying out for her lost love.  Because of this they had to put glass around it to keep it from wandering off, but her spirit can still be seen wandering the grounds…and if you see the monument without the statue in it…beware…”

“Wait wait wait” said Cyndi “that’s not how the story goes.  First of all, Grace died the night before her wedding when she fell of a party boat into lake Chautauqua and that’s not any old statue.  The reason it looks so lifelike is because her body is actually encased inside.”

“Well,” Riley started “I heard she actually made it to the altar but she was stung by a bee.  She was allergic and she dropped dead right there in her wedding dress – that’s why she’s wearing it!”

“Okay…you’re all wrong” Dane said defiantly, “she died on her prom night when her and her date crashed their car.”

“Well…” Jack started pointing at the stone “she was a little old for a prom date…”  He was right, the stone read October 5, 1871 – November 2, 1898. 

“Oh…maybe I am wrong” said Dane.

“Anyway…” Jack continued “I heard that after her fiancée left her at the altar that she was so heartbroken that she literally turned to stone and her body isn’t just inside the statue…it is the statue.”

They all stared at it in awe.  It really was so lifelike, down to the details in the lace of her dress, it did almost look alive.

“Well,” said Cyndi “I’m going to go over to Lucy’s grave with Corey” she said with what could only be the look of teenage love in her eyes “We’ll be back to get you”

As the older kids walked off, the three young ones sat there.  They could see their breath in the November air.  They shivered a little and decided to play a game of hide and seek.  They only had one flashlight with them and it was decided Jack would keep it since he was “it”.

They walked aways from the Lady in Glass before Riley and Dane spun Jack around a few times as he began to count “30, 29, 28” they thought it would be funny to hide back in the car and let Jack wander around for a bit “3, 2, 1!” Jack said, opening his eyes. 

He stumbled around a bit, still pretty dizzy.  He shone his flashlight around “Ready or not, here I come!” Jack began to look around the cemetery; peeking behind headstone and looking in bushes but he couldn’t find his friends.  He heard a laugh in the distance…his sister, clearly having some quality time with her boyfriend.  Jack kept searching. 

Eventually he circled back around to where they had begun.  His flashlight scanned the ground and he began to track the beam up the monument but a sound behind him startled him.  Thinking it was Dane or Riley…he followed.  But what he didn’t notice was that if he had shone his light just a touch higher…the glass case was empty.

“I hear you!” she shouted futilely into the night “You can come out now!” but there was nothing there.  He saw a shadow dart behind a large oak tree and what sounded like the giggle of a girl.  “Riley!  I know you’re there!” he shouted, nervously coming closer “you can come out!”

But as he approached the tree the laughing sounded more like crying.  But he could see that Riley was there, he could see part of her jacket from behind the trunk of the tree. Was she wearing white?  He couldn’t remember.  He stepped closer and closer, ready to tag her.  Her spun around the base of the tree but before he could shout “You’re it!” he choked on his words.  Standing there wasn’t Riley, but the pale ghostly figure of a woman, tears streaming down her face, sobbing.  The lady looked up at him, a flash in her eye and something changed within her.  Suddenly the cemetery was silent.  Not even the crickets were singing anymore.  But before Jack could run or scream, he felt a cold marble hand slide over his mouth and everything went black…

I love this story so much, oh it’s so rich.  I’m hoping to visit the Lady in Glass this fall and simultaneously pay respects to the queen of sitcoms.  It’s on my potential list for these drag-ified versions of the podcast I want to do for tiktok.  But I digress.  What.  A. Legend.

My favorite part of this story is all the different iterations – from falling from a boat, a fatal bee sting at the altar, dying of a broken heart on her wedding day, a prom night accident, the paranormal phenomena of turning to stone – to all the reasons why her statue is there and what  it is.  That her body is actually encased in the stone?  And what I love even more is that this legend was circulating around when Lucille Ball was growing up in Jamestown.  I would love to know what little Lucy thought of the Lady in Glass and if she ever snuck into the cemetery at night to see if she walked the grounds.  I just adore that image.

But we’re not here to fantasize we’re to fact…i…size?  We’re here to get to the facts.  And it turns out the real story…doesn’t share any common threads with the legend.  It’s wild.  They’re two completely different tales but I can see why some of the legends started but we’ll get to that later.

Who was the real Grace Laverne Galloway?  And why is her statue encased in glass?

Grace Galloway was born on the 5th of October 1871 to Sara and John Galloway, a wealthy man who earned a fortune in the oil fields of Titusville, PA.  She was the Galloway’s only daughter and had two brothers: Fred and…well…I’m not sure.  Other sources say that she had another brother but I wasn’t able to find record of him anywhere.  Not a grave, not a census record…nothing.  Even the family tree the Galloway’s put together doesn’t have him on it.  Not saying he didn’t exist…just that for the online records I have access to it doesn’t seem like he did.  But I digress.

Grace, or Gracie as she’s adorably listed in the 1880 Federal Census, grew up in a mansion which is now the Moose Club in Jamestown.  Grace was known to be an outgoing and friendly girl but despite this she was never known to be involved romantically with anyone.  Instead she focused intensely on her career and ambitions in music.  Grace had a gorgeous singing voice and it wasn’t long before she became an opera singer.  She would often perform at the Chautauqua institution.  Her talent was so immense that she was given the chance to perform with the New York City Metropolitan Opera--but her father forbade it claiming “it was an inappropriate thing for a lady to do”.  I have no verifiable source for this tidbit but it does sound decidedly Victorian.

Naturally, since she couldn’t perform in Opera she was sent to Boston to study music there.  Makes sense?  But maybe her father was onto something because while in Boston, Grace contracted tuberculosis.

Desperate to help their ailing daughter, the Galloways sent her to Asheville, North Carolina hoping that the warmer climate would improve her health.  Sadly, Grace showed no signs of improvement and it was decided that she should return home to Jamestown.  However, on this return journey her condition rapidly deteriorated while passing through Pittsburg – and it was here that she died on November 2, 1898.

I found her death listed in the Pittsburgh Press from November 3, the day after saying: “Wednesday evening, November 2, 1898 at 8:30 o’clock Grace L. daughter of John and Sarah Galloway, aged 27 years”

This wasn’t really an obituary but a death notice.  Grace did a lot of traveling with her father when she was younger – I saw a lot of travel notices for her – so it’s no surprise that I found a notice all the way in Ohio in the Crawford County Forum saying:

Word has been received by friends in this city that Miss Grace Galloway, of Pittsburg, is probably fatally ill with consumption.  Miss Galloway officiated as bridesmaid at the marriage of Mrs. James Cass, nee Lizzie Monnett, and while a visitor in the city not only made many personal friends, but became quite well known as a singer.  Very many Bucyrus people will be grieved to learn of her ill health”

And honestly they’d probably be grieved to know that she had died 9 days earlier.  But I do like this notice because it sheds light on her personality and how much of a light she was to those around her.

Her family was naturally devastated by her death and her father, inspired by a statue he saw in a cemetery in Buffalo (holla! We do have an incredibly famous cemetery where Rick James is buried…actually less than a mile from my apartment but I digress!)…he was inspired by a statue in Buffalo and wanted to create a monument for his daughter.

John Galloway commissioned an artist in Pittsburgh to model Grace’s figure in clay from her latest photograph.  She was made exactly to her size and figure – 5 foot 6 – and then the clay model and one of her dresses was sent to Italy to be sculpted from marble.  Now some sources say that the dress was one of her “lawn outfits”, some say it was picked out at random, and another, the Fenton History Center, says that it was said to be a graduation dress made by Mrs. Loyal Bushee who was a seamstress for wealthy families.  Regardless, it was a beautiful dress with intricate lace detailing which was sculpted expertly – probably giving rise to the notion that she was a bride, as the marble would make it white and it looks a lot like a wedding dress.

John Galloway and his own father were masons by trade and constructed the base of the monument.  Upon seeing the fine detailing of the sculpt, and fearing that the statue would be weathered by the harsh elements of Western New York winters, tit was decided it would be enclosed in glass.

This encasement has kept the remarkable detail of the statue, which you can peek on the podcast Instagram, and it’s so lifelike that it’s no wonder people may think her body is actually encased in the stone – which is not what happened though as mentioned briefly in the Niagara Falls episode that is a unique form of burial used only in Niagara Falls called cementation where that actually happens…but I digress.  If you want me to do an episode dedicated to that weirdness let me know!  But ANYWAY…yeah, just a really gorgeous statue.