University Daily Kansan / Thursday, October 31, 1991
HALLOWEEN
11
Tales of Satanism, murder still haunt Stull church
By Svala Jonsdottir
Special to the Kansan
The devil will visit the abandoned shell of a church a few miles west of Lawrence at midnight tonight.
The church walls will bleed, and Satan will try to recruit the souls of murder victims by plundering their bodies.
Or so the legend goes. The little church on the hillside in Stull has been the source of endless myths. The most common is of the devil's appearance on Halloween, but there also are tales of witchcraft, murders, Satanism and strange happenings.
"Everyone has a different version of the legend," said Tim Miller, assistant professor of religious studies. "It is supposed to be a place where the devil is active and where witches meet."
Miller said he had visited Stull on Halloween 10 years ago.
He saw nothing more exciting than other cars and Douglas County Sheriff's deputies
Many KU students have visited Stull and even spent nights there waiting for strange things to happen.
"It was two o'clock in the morning and one of our friends dared us to go," Dieboll said. "A group of four people went up to the church and two of us brew beer bottles against the church wall. They bounced back without breaking, so we got scared and ran away."
Lydia Diebott, Atchison junior, went to Stuil in October 1898, when she was a freshman.
Debitolt they went back to Stull the day after to face their fears, only to be chased off with threats of arrest from sheriff's deputies. The land that the church sits on is private prop-
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She said she knew many students who had gone to Stull.
Curiosity is what draws people to the abandoned church, she said.
Visitors attempting to meet the devil at Stull tonight are more likely to run into one of the sheriff's denalties.
Judy Osburn, operations coordinator for the sheriff's department, said patrol cars would be in place at the airport.
"We are aware that people go there and we just respond, "Obsurn said. "People have been driving out there on Halloween for years, but we take care of it."
In broad daylight, nothing about the dilapidated church overlooked the fading communal ties.
Inside, the church walls are filled with graffiti, mostly names of heavy metal bands. A black
crucifix is spray-painted on the north wall, but there are no other signs of Satanism.
A gnarled Scotch tree tree presides over the graveyard. It is the oldest of its kind in Kansas, according to "The History of Stull" by Catherine Nichols and Maud Sauceen.
The cemetery still is used. Fresh flowers are on many of the graves, although beer can and styrofoam cups are telltale of visitors with intentions other than remembering loved ones.
The cemetery can be seen from the living room window of their house, one of the few left behind.
Russell and Maude Spencer have lived in Stull for more than 57 years.
His uncle is buried in the cemetery, where many tombsites have been vandalized in past
"I've lived around here for a long time, and I
have never seen any spirits," Maude Spencer said. "There are many stories, but the people that live here in Stull don't believe any of it."
Russell Spencer grew up near Stull and played basketball with other area boys in the abandoned building in the late 1920s.
"If that old building was torn down, people wouldn't come here so much." he said.
He said that he never heard any rumors about the church until the 1940s. He has no idea how the rumors started.
But the legend of Stull continues.
Miller said that he presumed that it was simply the ruined building that had inspired people's stories.
"Every college town has interesting things and places in the vicinity," Miller said. "Stull is one of ours."
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