The following is a brief history surrounding what is arguably the most haunted place in El Cajon, the Grouse Street Graveyard. Information for this story was gathered from several sources, including the UCSD library, historical editions of the San Diego Union and Tribune, the San Diego public libraries, and the memoirs of A.P. Freese himself, who wrote of the happenings firsthand.

Our story begins on January 24, 1848 with the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in Northern California. Many upstart prospectors from across the country gathered their mining gear and headed West, intent on finding their fortune. At this time, San Diego was still under Mexican rule, so most Yankee prospecting took place in the North. One of these prospectors was A.P. Freese, the son of a Chicago German newspaper editor. An associate of his, Dean Rochester, convinced him that there was gold to be found in the hills of California, and in 1858 they made the journey West together.

In 1861, Freese and Rochester made a claim outside of Sacramento, closer to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. After only a few short months of prospecting, they struck a pure vein and found close to $10,000 worth of gold. They took their new found fortune to the city and squandered some of it on booze and women. I was during this time that A.P. Freese found his future wife, Amy. She was a described as a beautiful young lumberer's daughter with a sparkling personality and a sharp wit. The two fell in love and after a short courtship, they were married. Mr. Freese was looking to buy a house and begin to settle down, and began writing articles for the local newspapers.

Time passed, and in 1870, Freese and Dean met Eric C. Bush, a young business man and engineer. A friend of his in San Diego, Thomas Molina, had found copper East of New Town (now Downtown San Diego), and Bush had an idea. He would mine the copper Molina had found, and sell it for building materials; but in order to get the funds necessary to begin such a venture, he needed the financial backing from Freese and Rochester. After a short negotiation, the trio agreed, and the San Diego Copper & Lumber company was born. Freese and Rochester packed up and moved to San Diego, arriving in 1872. They met with Thomas Molina, who had already begun excavation of the mine.

The night they arrived, the trio inquired on how the mining was going. Molina said that it had been slow, not only because of limited funds, but also because the hired labor had recently been refusing to dig. He then began to tell a rather ominous story, most of which was repeated in A.P. Freese's diary.

It seems that on the second night of digging, the workers came across a series of boxes in the ground. The finding was strange, since no settlers were known to be in the area previously (although it is possible that Native Americans had occupied the area earlier). One of the boxes was exhumed and opened, and inside was a full male skeleton. The workers were horrified, but Molina ordered them to replace the box, and continue digging. That night many stange things began to happen. The laborer who had opened the box suddenly became ill, and within a couple of days, was dead. Workers began to report strange happenings, such as shadows moving along walls, disembodied voices, and even the feeling of being pushed or poked. The workers began to leave the site as mutterings of a curse were heard among them. Molina scoffed at the idea initally, and offered to pay more to those who stayed to complete the work.

The complaints kept coming, however. Thomas attributed the sightings to dehydration and imagination, and quietly admitted he considered the laborers just plain lazy. However, Molina had his own encounter with a ghostly apparition. One night as he left his house to go to the well, he saw a man standing on the roof of one of the workers' quarters. Thinking it was a laborer, Molina approached him and demanded to know his business up there. The man looked up to him, and to his horror, he saw that the man had no eyes! At first Thomas though it might have been a trick of light, the man on the roof began a sinister laugh that chilled Molina to the bone. And to make matters worse, a raven flew down and landed on the man's shoulder. Terrified, Molina tried to run, but was unable to move. The raven man raised his arm and pointed to Thomas, then proceeded to disappear.

That happened two nights prior to Freese, Rochester, and Bush's arrival in San Diego. Molina was still shaken from the experience, which became more evident as he progressed in the story, according to Freese's diary. The foursome discussed the matters further that evening, and eventually decided that it was most likely a prank being played on them by someone who wanted claim to the copper mine. They decided to begin posting a constant watch. Freese and Bush offered to go out the next day and purchase rifles from the shops in New Town, and Freese decided to erect his house right near the mine, to offer more protection from the would-be pranksters.

Initally, the plan seemed to work. The ghostly happening ceased almost immediately, and the workers were more eager to work. Freese built his house as planned, and a lookout tower was put up to house the guards. For weeks all went well, and everyone's spirits were up. Then one night Freese was awakened from his sleep by a horrible scream that cut through the air. Freese ran outside with his rifle, and saw that Bush was being choked by someone right near his house. The guards were already getting down from the tower as well. Freese had a clear shot, though, and fired twice at the attacker, who turned and dropped to the ground. Suddenly everyone was outside. Bush was checked on and found to be okay, and the attention turned toward the attacker. As he was rolled over and identified, Molina shot Freese a sickened look. Molina asked if Freese was sure this was the man he shot. Freese answered yes, and asked why. Molina somberly noted that the man Freese shot was the same man who had died from sickness several weeks ago.

The body was burned, and the incident was hushed. Since most of the workers were unaware of the discovery, Freese decided it was best not to alarm them (Freese also admits in his diary that he was certain that Molina was mistaken, given that fact that it was dark, and Molina had been working so hard to get the copper from the mine). However, this was just the first of a series of happenings Freese recorded.

It seems the voices returned, people began seeing apparitions, and workers disappeared (whom Freese believed abandoned the job an just left the area). Molina told his friends that the raven man had appeared to him again and again, and he was unable to sleep most nights. His appearance was becoming disheveled, he was no longer concentrating on his work, and he seemed to be watching over his shoulder at every moment. Although Freese pooh-poohed the idea of ghosts in the area, he couldn't deny how widespread the accounts were, and incidentally, he had been hearing footsteps in dark rooms of his house as well as voices that he describes as only being able to hear "right in between sleeping and waking".

And they were becoming worse. There were signs of workers being dragged from their beds and being buried alive. More of them were becoming sick, and dying from some unknown illness. Bush himself seemed to contracting it, before finally perishing a week later. Freese noted that all the people who died from the illness reported seeing a dead coworker beforehand. Molina was losing his mind; the raven man appeared to him almost nightly now, and he was never seen without his rifle in his hand. In fact, shots were becoming more common throughout the night as Molina attempted to ward off his tormentor.

The only ones seemingly left alone were Freese and Rochester. Rochester had told his good friend about a wolf he had seen lurking around the outside of his house, but no one found this unusual. Wild animals were often around camp (although none would come into the camp proper). One night however, Freese and Rochester were discussing matters in Rochester's' house when a scratching sound was heard outside the window. Dean walked to the window and noticed that the same wolf was looking back at him. They had a brief laugh about it, and continued their discussion. The scratching continued, however, and Rochester finally had enough. After making a comment about having a new wolf rug, he hoisted his rifle and made his way around the side of the house. Freese heard a shot, then another, and finally a third before Rochester let out a blood-curdling scream. Freese ran outside just in time to see his longtime friend being dragged away screaming by a pack of wolves. Freese ran to get his rifle, but when he and a few other men went looking, there was no trace of the man, just some torn clothes and streaks of blood.

After this incident, Freese's notes begin to get garbled. His writing is hasty and sentences go unfinished. It seems that the ghostly happenings increase even more, being capped off by a horrible black apparition that began to appear nightly. This apparition would take whatever unlucky soul was nearby, and simply fade away with his horrified victim. Even Freese's lovely wife Amy was taken by the evil... it seems that one night Freese heard a scream from their room as he sat writing in his diary. Rushing in, he saw his friend, Eric Bush choking his wife, even though Bush had been dead for weeks! Freese unloaded his rifle into the man, and dropped him on the spot. As was usual in these circumstances, Amy fell ill the next day and died shortly thereafter. Freese, deciding he didn't want any more part of this, ordered the mine collapsed and made into a makeshift crypt, where he would bury the remains of those who had died during the horrible months.

Freese, however, never made it from the area. The last entries of his journal indicate that he was indeed going mad. In fact, in his last entry, the terrified man indicates that the spirits are "coming for him", and there is "no escape now". His last line suggests that the black apparition had entered his house, along with his old friend Dean Rochester, who was pale and soulless. Freese then indicates that he his burning the house to the ground to avoid being taken by the "demons" as he calls them.

Thus ends the dramatic and chilling story as recounted in Freese's diary. Recently, the current owners of the property where the graveyard and mine originally were have unearthed some interesting articles apparently from the story Freese told. His diary, some old planks, some tools, and finally some tombstones were discovered in the yard. Interestingly, some of the tombstones bear names of those in the story... one even bears the name of A.P. Freese! Also discovered was the opening to the mine, which as the diary indicates, was turned into a crude crypt.

The current owners have said that unusual things have begun to happen since they found the items. Although they still own the property, they have since been staying in another house owned by the family. Perhaps some of the story is true, and perhaps it is best to avoid the infamous Graveyard on Grouse St.

Disclaimer: This website is for entertainment purposes only. The characters mentioned are completely fictional, and any real resemblance in persons, history or place, is purely coincidental. The idea of the website came as a project to create a fake history for the "Crypt" which is this year's Halloween theme, to enhance the experience for those who visit the website to get backgrounds on the "characters" portrayed at this year's "Haunted House" project. This is an annual event, in which every Halloween we do a "theme" for the Haunted House. Thank you for your interest, any questions, as always, feel free to ask.