The Grave Digger

A trip to the Willard Asylum often came with a one way ticket to a living hell, especially during its first 75 years. For most, the only way out as in a plain pine box. In fact, nearly half of the 58,000 patients treated at the asylum died there. The cause of those deaths were not always attributed to their illnesses, but rather from the inhumane/experimental treatments and horrific living conditions. Unfortunately, we will never know the true causes of their demise because the death records are missing or incomplete.
The stigma that families believed to be attached to them for having a relative with a mental illness led to their abandonment at the asylum’s doorstep. Aside from being admitted for bona fide mental illness, people were sent to Willard for other reasons ranging from the disturbing to the absurd, including; intemperance, masturbation, parents were cousins, desertion by husband, novel reading, time of life, superstition, grief and laziness. Most of the time the family was simply trying to avoid embarrassment for what were actually minor ailments. Because of this embarrassment, most patients were dropped off and never saw their families again. Even after death patients remained alone, their bodies unclaimed after they passed on. During the 19th century, the government saw this neglect as a way to further medical research. Willard and other state run institutions were required by law to turn over any unclaimed body to a medical school to be used as research cadavers. After the law was discontinued the bodies of the deceased were buried in the Willard Cemetery, they remained anonymous and forgotten, only known as an obscure number.
The cemetery for Willard is situated on a hill along the east shore of Seneca Lake. The view is picturesque, contradictory to its purpose. The only indication that a cemetery is there comes from a sign at the base of the road that reads; “Willard Cemetery - The cemetery was used from 1870-2000. Here laid to rest are 5.776 departed Willard residents.” Originally each grave was marked with a round, numbered metal disc. Over time nearly every marker became buried beneath dirt and grass or went missing completely, their identities lost forever to the elements. In a wooded area on the cemetery grounds, metal rectangular markers are strewn about the trees, rusted and marking no graves. There is a small fenced in area in the southwest corner of the cemetery with an arch that reads “Old Jewish Cemetery.” in front of the arch is a memorial stone inscribed with “In remembrance of the Jewish residents buried at the Willard Psychiatric Center 1870-1992.”
For five decades one man laid each of the deceased in their final resting place. Lawrence Mocha was an Eastern European immigrant without the ability to understand or speak English. Despite this, he was fortunate enough to find work as a window washer at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Lawrence was always a quiet but cheerful man. During the course of one work day. hospital workers saw him singing, shouting and saying his prayers, he claimed to have heard the voice of God. Because he spoke very little English, the hospital officials had a hard time understanding him. The more they questioned him, the more excitable he became. This bought him a first class, escorted ticket inside the hospital where he was admitted for being mentally unstable. This type of treatment towards immigrants at the time was more common than you would think. In 1917, Lawrence was transferred to Willard and the situation began to slowly break his spirit. His trademark cheerful personality turned dark and he just wanted to be left alone. His desire for solitude made him a perfect candidate for the position of grave digger. During the 52 years that he “lived” at Willard, he took special care of his fellow patients after they passed. He dug perfect graves and said prayers over the bodies after they were lowered into the hole. He showed them the respect and caring in death that they had had not received in life. When Lawrence died at the age of 90 in 1969, he was buried on the hill too.
After his death, the new gravediggers would report seeing his ghost pacing back and forth, watching disapprovingly as the new graves were being dug. Eventually the asylum had a hard time finding a new gravedigger for fear of running into Lawrence’s ghost. People are still warned to this day not to disturb any of the graves in the Willard Cemetery or they will suffer the wrath of his spirit.

(from Hidden History of the Finger Lakes)