New City Cemetery

Galveston's location and role as a major port made it particularly vulnerable to yellow fever. Ships arriving from tropical ports often carried infected mosquitoes, and the disease would spread rapidly through the densely populated city. The hot, humid climate provided perfect breeding conditions for the mosquitoes that transmitted the virus.

The first major yellow fever epidemic hit Galveston in 1839, killing 250 people. But it was far from the last. Epidemics recurred throughout the 19th century: 1844, 1847, 1853, 1858, 1859, 1864, and most devastatingly, 1867. Each outbreak sent the city into panic. Those who could afford to fled to the mainland. Those who remained lived in terror, watching their neighbors, friends, and family members sicken and die.

The 1867 epidemic was particularly catastrophic. In just a few months, 725 Galvestonians died—in a city of only about 7,000 residents. Nearly every family was affected. The death toll was so high that the existing cemeteries couldn't handle the volume of burials. Old Cahill Cemetery was hastily established to accommodate the dead.

Yellow fever was a death sentence that came with unspeakable suffering. The disease progressed in stages, each more horrifying than the last. It began with sudden high fever, severe headache, and back pain. Within days, victims' skin and eyes turned yellow from liver failure—the hallmark sign that gave the disease its name.

As the disease progressed, victims suffered internal bleeding. They vomited blood that had been partially digested by stomach acid, giving it a black, coffee-ground appearance—the dreaded 'black vomit' that meant death was imminent. The final stages brought delirium, seizures, and organ failure. Death, when it came, was often a mercy.

What made yellow fever particularly terrifying was its unpredictability. Some victims died within three days. Others lingered for a week or more in agony. There was no cure, no effective treatment. Doctors could only watch helplessly as their patients suffered. Many physicians themselves fell victim to the disease while treating others.

Families were devastated not just by death, but by the manner of death. Watching loved ones turn yellow, vomit blood, and die in delirium left psychological scars on survivors. The dead had to be buried quickly to prevent further contagion, often with minimal ceremony. Many families never recovered from the trauma.

Within New City Cemetery (Old Cahill Cemetery) lies a section known grimly as the 'Yellow Fever Yard.' During the 1867 epidemic, deaths occurred so rapidly that proper burials became impossible. Bodies were brought to the cemetery by the wagon-load and buried in mass graves with little ceremony.

Workers, terrified of contracting the disease themselves, worked as quickly as possible. Many victims were never identified before burial—families were too sick to claim their dead, or entire households had perished. Grave markers, if they existed at all, were often simple wooden crosses that rotted away within years.

The Yellow Fever Yard became a place of mass interment without dignity, without identification, without the proper rites that the dead deserved. Hundreds of bodies lie in unmarked graves, their identities lost to history. No one knows exactly how many are buried there, or precisely where each grave is located.

After the Great Storm of 1900, the cemetery was renamed New City Cemetery as part of Galveston's effort to project renewal and optimism. But changing the name couldn't change what lay beneath the ground—hundreds of victims of a terrible plague, most without names, many without proper burial rites.

Visitors to New City Cemetery report encountering spirits that appear to be suffering from illness. Witnesses describe seeing apparitions of people with yellowish, jaundiced skin, looking feverish and disoriented. These figures stumble among the graves, often holding their heads or stomachs as if in pain.

Some witnesses report seeing spectral figures vomiting or coughing, bent over in agony. These manifestations are particularly disturbing because they seem to be reliving their final moments of suffering. The spirits appear unaware of the living, trapped in a loop of torment from which they cannot escape.

Particularly haunting are reports of entire groups of spirits appearing together—families who died within days of each other during the epidemic, buried together in the Yellow Fever Yard. Witnesses describe seeing mothers cradling children, all with the characteristic yellow tinge of the disease, wandering the cemetery as if searching for help that will never come.

One of the most frequently reported spirits at New City Cemetery is that of a man in 19th-century medical attire—a long dark coat and a physician's bag. He's often seen walking among the graves in the Yellow Fever Yard section, appearing to examine invisible patients, taking phantom pulses, shaking his head in apparent despair.

Local legend suggests he was one of the many doctors who died while treating yellow fever patients during the epidemics. Many physicians stayed in Galveston during outbreaks, treating the sick even knowing they would likely contract the disease themselves. This dedication cost many their lives.

Those who have encountered the phantom doctor report feeling overwhelming sadness and frustration. Some witnesses claim to have heard him muttering phrases like 'I can't save them' or 'too many, too many.' He appears particularly active during summer months, when yellow fever epidemics typically peaked.

One of the most disturbing paranormal phenomena at New City Cemetery is the sound of a woman screaming. Witnesses report hearing blood-curdling shrieks coming from the Yellow Fever Yard section, particularly at night. The screams sound like someone in unbearable agony, crying out for help or mercy.

Some researchers believe this is the residual haunting of a yellow fever victim in the final, delirious stages of the disease. Others think it might be a mother who watched her children die from the fever before succumbing herself. The screams are often followed by the sound of sobbing or the word 'please' repeated over and over.

Those who have heard the screaming woman describe it as one of the most horrifying sounds they've ever experienced—raw terror and pain given voice. The phenomenon has been reported for over a century, suggesting a powerful imprint of suffering that refuses to fade.

The hundreds of unmarked graves in the Yellow Fever Yard create what paranormal researchers call a 'vortex of spiritual energy.' So many people buried without proper rites, without identification, separated from their families even in death—this concentration of unrest creates intense paranormal activity.

Visitors to this section of the cemetery report:

• Sudden overwhelming feelings of fever and nausea
• The sensation of being watched by dozens of unseen eyes
• Phantom smells of sickness and decay
• The sound of earth being shoveled, as if graves are being dug
• Whispered voices speaking in multiple languages (English, German, Spanish—all common in 1867 Galveston)
• Apparitions of people emerging from the ground, as if climbing out of graves
• Cold spots that move and swirl like living entities

Some witnesses report being touched by invisible hands—fever-hot hands that leave them feeling ill for hours afterward. Others describe a crushing sensation of despair and abandonment when standing near the unmarked graves.

Paranormal investigators who have studied New City Cemetery report some of the highest levels of spiritual activity in Galveston:

• EVP recordings have captured hundreds of voices, including:

  • Groans of pain and suffering
  • Pleas for water and help
  • Prayers in multiple languages
  • Names being called out repeatedly
  • The phrase 'yellow fever' whispered over and over

• Thermal imaging shows unexplained heat signatures moving through the cemetery, particularly around the Yellow Fever Yard

• EMF meters spike dramatically and erratically in areas of mass burial

• Investigators report feeling physically ill when spending time in certain sections, experiencing symptoms similar to fever—nausea, dizziness, chills despite heat

• Full-body apparitions have been photographed and filmed

• Spirit boxes receive coherent responses to questions about the yellow fever epidemic

The cemetery is considered by many paranormal researchers to be one of the most actively haunted locations in Texas, with activity occurring year-round but intensifying during summer months, when the yellow fever epidemics historically peaked.

New City Cemetery is open to respectful visitors during daylight hours. The cemetery stands as a memorial to one of Galveston's darkest periods—the yellow fever epidemics that devastated the population and filled mass graves with the unidentified dead.

The Yellow Fever Yard section is marked by its notably sparse grave markers and the sense of unease that pervades the area. Many visitors report feeling uncomfortable or watched when in this section. The spirits here are not malevolent—they are suffering. They died in agony, were buried without dignity, and remain unidentified and unmourned.

If you visit New City Cemetery, particularly the Yellow Fever Yard, approach with respect and compassion. The dead here were victims of a disease they didn't understand and couldn't fight. They deserve to be remembered, even if their names are lost to history. And if you encounter the spirits—the jaundiced figures stumbling among the graves, the phantom doctor trying to save patients who died over a century ago, or hear the screams of the tormented—remember that you're witnessing echoes of one of Galveston's greatest tragedies, when the Saffron Scourge claimed hundreds of lives and left the city forever changed.