Post by Graveyardbride on Apr 18, 2017 16:22:37 GMT -5
The ‘Ouija Board’ Tombstone
Elijah Bond was best known for filing the first United States patent for the Ouija board. Born January 23, 1847, in Harford County, Maryland, he became a successful lawyer in Baltimore City, starting his own practice in the 1870s. He filed the Ouija patent on behalf of the Kennard Novelty Company in 1891. Bond died April 14, 1921, and was buried in an unmarked grave in his family’s plot at Baltimore’s Green Mount Cemetery. After searching 15 years, Robert Murch, America’s foremost Ouija historian, located the ambiguous grave, and erected the Ouija-themed headstone in 2008.
The concept of the Ouija Board is fairly simple: create a “haunted” atmosphere, place your hands on the planchette, ask a question, then wait for the planchette to move and reveal the answer. The creepy notion of not being fully aware of where your own hands are going to point, nor why, has fascinated paranormal enthusiasts and psychologists alike for years, and it’s all thanks to Bond. His talking board captured people’s imaginations with his claims that it could help one speak to those beyond the grave. One can only imagine how well the Ouija board on his own gravestone works – being so close to the deceased, as it were.
Volunteers and donations combined to create Bond’s truly memorable headstone, which bears the traditional name, birth and death dates on one side, and a replication of the Ouija Board on the other. The grave is now a popular destination for nostalgia fans and those interested in the supernatural. Accordingly, after years of resting in obscurity, Elijah Bond is now free to communicate with the living, should he choose to do so.
Sources: Atlas Obscura, RoadTrippers, Monument City and Cult of Weird.
