Back when I was on the road selling lawn and garden equipment for the manufacturer, I called on a lawnmower shop in Aberdeen, Miss.. The owner and I shared a common interest in Mississippi history. Especially the off-beat type stuff. Our conversation soon turned to cemeteries as they related to local history of any community. He told me about a gentleman who lived about eight miles out in the boondocks from Aberdeen. He called the man and told him he was going to have a visitor in a few minutes. He then gave me the directions and I headed his way.
His name was Emery Alex Morgan. When I arrived at what appeared to be an old Southern mansion, at first glance, I knew I was at the right place from what the man at the lawnmower shop had told me. The mansion turned out to be more of a junk yard than a splendid manor. Not trashy junk, good junk. Old mule pulled hay mowers, plows, and an assortment of other antique tools. I rang the doorbell but soon heard a man’s friendly voice behind me. “Howdy do?” It was Mr. Morgan. “You must be the fellow, Raymond called me about.”
Mr. Morgan and I hit it off from the start. He was a nationally know authority on the Civil War History and a real Southern gentleman. The not too tall, balding and elderly gentleman was not some recluse who had lived in the woods all his life. He was a retired FBI agent. A real-life CSI guy. He was a criminologist at the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia. He had visited hundreds of crime scenes in his life in forty nine of fifty states. He had never been called to Idaho. He had even investigated crime scenes in Guam and Europe. Of all his incredible talents and abilities, finding lost graves was his specialty. To his credit he found over three thousand graves in his lifetime. The bodies who had been victims of foul play had been exhumed. Of all the graves he had located and exhumed, he had never been proved wrong.
He was glad to give me a demonstration. Two pieces of wire were his only tools. Fashioned in a ninety-degree angle, he held one wire loosely in each hand and walked toward the grave in his yard, which he had located years ago. As he walked slowly over the grave, the rods began to react. As they reacted in one way, they would indicate a male was buried there. As the rods reacted in another way, they would indicate that a female was under the ground. He could also determine the depth of the grave.
He asked me if I would like to try my hand at dowsing. He warned me ahead of time that not everyone can do it. You must have the “touch.” I was totally amazed at what happened. The rods reacted the same way for me as they did for Mr. Morgan. Thus, giving birth to my grave dowsing career. Mr. Morgan explained that it could be physical, or spiritual and then elaborated on the two theories. Actually, there is a third theory.
Mr. Morgan has visited the Newton County Historical Society twice and taken groups on grave dousing tours in the county. Yours truly has found around three hundred lost graves since Emory Alex Morgan shared his talent with me. I had a family contact me from Lumberton, Miss., wanting me to help find their long-lost ancestor. I found two lost graves. They were excited, but I was obligated to tell them, there was no doubt about there being two graves where I dowsed, but I could not tell them who they were.
There is a third theory on grave dousing, is that it is BS. If one does not believe in the phenomenon, that is perfectly fine with me. I probably would not believe it either if I had not seen it work. The funnies thing that ever happened was when a spectator saw the reaction of the rods I was using, he turned and could not get out of the cemetery soon enough. Evidently, he was a believer whether he wanted to be or not. I gladly offer my services at no charge for those who have a legitimate suspicion that they know of a lost grave and want to find it.
