“Each year of your life was a new song more delightful than all before.”
Violin Annie in Centralia, IL is a local legend but a girl who passed away too young. Her memorial is located at Elmwood Cemetery in the small Southern Illinois town of Centralia, just off of Gragg St and Sycamore St. This local cemetery has been in use since the 1860s, and is still in use today, giving it all the time to become host to plenty of lore.
Harriet Annie Marshall, Annie, was born on September 7, 1879, and passed away on September 30, 1890. Stories surrounding Annie, say that at the age of 11 she was already an accomplished violinist and loved to play for anyone who would listen, friends, family, townsfolk. Her parents, Dr. W. Scott Winfield, a wealthy doctor, and Eoline Marshall, could not have been prouder of their young prodigy. At 11 years old, just 23 days after her birthday, Annie succumbed to diphtheria (a serious upper respiratory tract infection caused by strains of bacteria that create a toxin) and died. Distraught and grieved of their loss, her parents had a monument in her image placed, with her holding her loved violin. I have read that the bow from her violin has been broken off by vandals, but it seemed to still be in place when I visited in June of 2022.
A more horrifying version of Annie is out there, where her father, or mother, became angered and actually killed her with her own violin. Folks who knew the family have debunked this rumor as she was beloved by her family. To the left of the monument, a companion stone was placed reading "Each year of your life was a new song more delightful than all before," cementing the love of her parents. However, Annie's beloved violin did go missing after her death, all that was ever found was the case for the antique violin which was purchased from an estate sale. Did Annie succumb to illness, or was her fault more gruesome? The truth is for you to decide.
As Annie's legend goes, visitors have claimed to see greenish tears stream from her eyes, which appear to be a creepy blue tint during this phenomenon, as well as the proposed glowing of the statue on the night of Halloween. While I was not greeted by it, there are reports of sweet sounds of Annie's violin being played at night. Some of said that this is a false report as a "music box" was found that would be triggered by motion, others have stated that the music has been heard since shortly after her death.
To this day, many still visit the site of Annie's final resting place, leaving behind toys and gifts for the young spirit. Traffic was heavy in the cemetery on the day that I visited, but I was able to get out and walk around a short while. I can, personally, confirm that there were several stuffed animals, flowers, wreaths, a now weather and destroyed book, as well as other toys and trinkets. The vegetation around the monument has been a bit overgrown, whereas the rest of the cemetery is neatly manicured, leading me to believe someone has avoided being near the plot as much as they can be.
I have attached a couple of pictures and videos below to share my experience. While nothing extremely crazy happened to me, I was testing out a new mic for my video and got a bit of weird feedback. In the first video, as soon as I focus on the camera on Annie, some feedback comes through the mic, nothing too strange. There is one part where there is a loud "thudding" sound, but that's just me being clumsy and walking into a branch of the overgrowth mic first. Now, I have performed several different tests to try to replicate the feedback I heard her, with no results, I have unplugged and plugged it back in, shook it, even went to other parts of the cemetery and walked around while recorded just to see if it would happen again...no such luck. The part that I found oddest was when I walked up to the statue and asked Annie if she was present, followed by another bit of feedback (which I did not hear until watching my footage), then I asked if she could play me a song. It was about then that I stopped recording and moved on around the gravesite just to check things out.
This is the first video where I run into some brush, the beeping of a construction type vehicle can also be heard in the background.
Now this is the video where I try to talk to Annie. If it were not for this one, I would not have second guessed the feedback on the first one. I have yet to mess with the video to slowdown playback or adjust settings to see if I can make out any voices, when I do, I will be sure to post an update. Let me know what you guys think in the comment box, just a random feedback spike, or was she trying to say hi?
If you plan on visiting Annie, the following website helped me to locate her monument with ease:
Submitted and Researched by Phreak
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