'Dowsing' for Graves in Wildwood

George Gaehle is not an ordained minister, but he has a wonderful ministry all the same. Known as “G” to family and friends, the retired military man ministers to many people who have some reason to come to the peaceful , which is largest. He knows a lot of the families buried there, and he and his wife Arlene have placed their own stone there, next to the 2-year-old son they lost in 1955. They both grew up in the area and are longtime members of the historic old church.  

“Curtee Eatherton was the caretaker of our cemetery, but back in 1989 he had to have his knee operated on. So he asked me to take care of the cemetery records for him and I said I’d be happy to do that. I told him when he got back on his feet I’d bring the records back, but he looked me right in the eye and said, ‘George, I don’t WANT them back.’”

Over the years, the ministry has grown and Gaehle is known for his Bible stories, gentle ways and caring attitude. A man setting a gravestone taught Gaehle the art of divining, or dowsing for graves, and it has turned out to be a handy thing around the cemetery.

“We know that there are about 30 unmarked graves here by the Garden of Remembrance,” said Gaehle. This area of the garden is a special place to Gaehle. He raised money to have it built in 2000 and every Easter, he re-creates the Garden of Gethsemane there.

“There is a cross and an open tomb that Bill Kesselring and his son Bill built. There’s also a bag with 30 pieces of silver, and a crown of thorns. This is to remind people of the meaning behind Easter,” said Gaehle.

Not long ago, Gaehle gave a dowsing lesson to member Joyce Mercer, who has been helping to locate and preserve area cemeteries for years. Gaehle's dowsing method uses the divining rods much like a “stud finder” would find joists behind drywall. Holding the 20-inch-long metal rods in front of him, he walked forward. At the edge of the grave, the rods came together. He placed a stick to mark that edge, then repeated the process until he had the outline of a grave. After several tries, the rods didn't react when Mercer walked over the grave. Two other people tried it. One failed to get a response also. "Some people can do it and with others, the rods don't react," said Gaehle.

The rods will pick up even part of a body, but only human ones. “I buried a dog and a cat and knew exactly where I had buried them,” said Gaehle. “When I used the rods to find them, it didn’t pick it up.” 

“On Old State Road, the highway department needed to move a grave and I was called in to find out where the grave actually was so it could be moved," said Gaehle. "I found it with no problem and when we got it all exhumed, there was nothing much there except about a third of the body, the hardware and a piece of glass from the casket lid. There are more cremations today than there never has been. My dowsing rods also find cremated remains."

Gaehle was listening to a country song one day while driving to the cemetery in his pickup. Just as he arrived at the cemetery, the singer said “I’ll see you in the Rapture,” and I was looking at all of those headstones. In my mind’s eye I could just see the bodies coming up. I said to myself, ‘George, you don’t have a cemetery here. This is a missile program, and each of these gravestones is a launchpad to Heaven!” The upbeat Gaehle often says “Keep looking up. As a Christian I don’t think we should say goodbye, but instead we should say ‘See you later.’ “

Not long after his revelation about the Rapture, Gaehle was selling a plot to a woman who had lost her 17-year-old son. “She was crying so hard. I decided to tell her the story of the launching pads to comfort her, and her tears stopped." Gaehle’s story and his caring ways have helped a lot of other people since then. Gaehle smiled as he looked over the churchyard with all those launchpads spreading out behind it. “You know, the Bible says ‘you must comfort one another with these words.’’’

Editor’s note: A generous thanks for some of this information goes to the Wildwood Historical Society for their publication “At Rest in Wildwood,” which was published in 2005.