 popular folklore states that there are seven gateways or portals to hell on our planet. And it is believed that one of these portals is in a very small town in Kansas. But before we go any further, you know what to do. Please hit that subscribe button and give us a like. Also a very, very, very special thank you to all of our patrons. Without you, this channel would not be possible. If you would like to join our Patreon community, there is a link down in the description box below. Welcome to Esoteric Atlanta. My name is Bryce, and today on Mystery Monday, we are going to be talking about Stoll Cemetery. Cemetery is located in the sleepy little town of Stoll, Kansas. To this day, Stoll, Kansas remains an unincorporated community. This means that the community is not governed by a corporation of its own, but rather is part of a larger division of government within the state or the county. The county is Douglas County, and Douglas County's county seat is Lawrence, Kansas. Now, for those who are not from the United States, a county seat would be the city or the town that would be considered the capital of that particular county. So within each state, you'll have a state capital, and then within each county in the state, you'll have a county seat or city or town that is the capital of that specific county, if that makes sense. Lawrence, Kansas is about 12 miles away from Stoll, Kansas, as the fifth most populous county in Kansas. In 2010, it had a population around 110,000 people, although Stoll itself has never seen to break 50 people within its little community. Stoll's history is very, very interesting, and probably is part of the reason why the legend of its cemetery is so vast and so wild. It was founded in 1857. Its original name was that of Deer Creek, but in 1899 it changed to Stoll after the mailman whose name was Sylvester Stoll. The original language of Stoll, Kansas, was German, because the people who settled in this area were pretty much German people escaping religious persecution from the Protestant Reformation as well as escaping newly found German confederation in the 19th century. They basically wanted freedom from the military and they wanted religious freedom. Now these Germans who settled in the area were what we call Anabaptist. We've spoken a little bit about Anabaptist in some of our other videos, and I am planning on doing a huge deep dive into the roots of the Anabaptist movement, but for this video, basically the word Anabaptist means one who is baptized again. One of the biggest differences between like a Baptist church and a Presbyterian church that I grew up in is when baptism takes place. In my church, the Presbyterian church, one is typically baptized as a baby. This is very cultural because for most of our history we didn't know if children were going to live that long after being born, and so parents wanted to get their babies baptized as soon as possible in case the worst thing in the world were to happen and the baby wouldn't survive. There was a lot of superstition around baptism being a key anointment to be able to get into the kingdom of heaven. The Anabaptist believed that baptizing your babies was basically bunk, that a person needed to be able to make that decision to be baptized, that they would be able to make the decision to confess their sins, take the baptism, and then move on with their new life with Christ. We see this now as people being dunked into pools at the Baptist church or like John the Baptist in Jesus' time where he was dumping people in the river. Well, the Anabaptists were very, very, very heavily persecuted in Europe, not just from the Catholics, but also from the other Protestants as well. In our modern times, a good example of a German Anabaptist would be like the Mennonites or the Amish. Up until 1867, the citizens of Stoll, Kansas would meet at somebody in the community's house to have a church service. But then the community decided that it was time to build a church. This is when they decided to build the Evangelical Emanuel Church. Around the same year that this church was built, they also decided to build a cemetery with the church, which is pretty common, especially with older churches. It was very common in Europe that if someone were to die, they would need to be buried on hollowed ground. And hollowed ground was considered ground adjacent to a church. Now, the Church of Stoll, Kansas only spoke German up until about 1908. By 1912, the little town of Stoll, Kansas was starting to thrive with 31 residents. And it was around this time that we saw our first incident that would lead to this legend of Stoll Cemetery being a portal or gateway to hell. This was the story of Little Oliver. In the early 1900s, Little Oliver, who lived on a farm with his parents, ended up dying in a fire that his father was managing in their field. Needless to say, Little Oliver died a pretty gruesome death and was promptly buried in the cemetery. Legend has it today that if you step on Oliver's grave, you will go directly to hell. Well, soon after Little Oliver died, they found a man hanging from one of the trees in the cemetery. By 1922, the citizens of Stoll, Kansas decided to raise enough money to now build a new church and build a new church they did. This church was called the Stoll Evangelical Church and was right across the street from the old church and the old graveyard. By 1968, the church had a new name. This was now called the Stoll United Methodist Church. Seeing that it was now called the United Methodist Church makes me believe that the community of Stoll started to move away from its Anabaptist heritage. Around the middle of the 20th century, rumors started that the original settlers of Stoll were not Anabaptists, but were actually Satanists. This piques my interest because when I study groups like the IBLP or Steve Anderson with his new fundamentalist Baptist Church, I tend to get more demonic energy with their teaching versus the love and acceptance of God. And because the Anabaptist teachings are so, so strict, I can definitely see how one would think that this might actually be a Satanist group. In November of 1975, a student newspaper from the University of Kansas wrote about the legends surrounding Stoll Cemetery. This article claimed that the cemetery was the cemetery of the damned and that Satan himself came to visit the cemetery twice a year, once on Halloween and again at the spring equinox. According to the legend, there was a tree that stood by the old church, the original church built in 1867 that had the word which inscribed on it. And underneath this tree was a tiny grave that locals believed was the grave of Satan's son. It is said by locals that the baby, Satan's baby, was kept in the basement of the old church and was basically fed table scraps every day where this baby would guzzle down these table scraps like a wild animal. The legend continues that after 10 years of being kept in this basement, Satan's child broke out and went on a year's killing spree in the community of Stoll. It is also believed that the tree above the grave that has the word which on it was a tree that was used to hang the mother of this baby. It seems a witch within the Stoll community made it with Satan and had the baby and therefore after her baby was caught and put down, the community then hanged her right above the grave of her son. It is also believed that there could have been more witch trials within this community that perhaps were not recorded like they were in Salem. Perhaps these witch trials were of a more vigilante nature or perhaps these witch trials were a cover story for actual satanic sacrifices because it's no secret in the town that the original church became a notorious hotspot for satanic black masses. By the 20th century, the old church had lost its roof and became a bit rundown. However, whenever it would rain outside, the inside of the church seemed to stay dry. And it is said that if you walk down the stairs in this old church on the winter equinox at the stroke of midnight, you will walk yourself right into hell without any way of getting back. There was also a legend about an eighth window. You see, the old church had seven windows, but apparently before bad things happened, an eighth window would appear at the back side of the church. By the 1960s, the residents of Stoll, Kansas decided to put a fence up around the old church. This was because security guards, police officers and residents would find mutilated bodies of animals due to satanic worship that had been happening in the cemetery. Eventually, the residents of this small town decided enough was enough and took the old church down. But one thing I know for sure is that sometimes the building itself isn't what is cursed, but perhaps the land. Now, it seems that trespassing has become such an ordeal at this church that they now tend to ticket people who try to break into the cemetery. Now, down in the description box, I have listed a video from Mystery Archives regarding Stoll Cemetery. They did a really good job talking about these legends and go into more detail regarding some of the stories like the eighth window and Satan's Child. But as far as I could tell, they're generally the same stories that are circulating around. There's no real concrete evidence or proof that this is a portal to hell because it seems, according to the residents of the area, that the tales of this place being satanic went on from generation to generation to generation. Grandparent would tell parent, parent would tell child, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth. So this is my question. If this was a known secret in the town of Stoll, Kansas, then what else do they know that they're not telling us? Who were the original settlers really of Stoll, Kansas, and what was their true purpose of building that church? All right, guys, thank you so much for sitting through another video. Please let me know your thoughts and your opinions down in the comment section below. And if you've been to Stoll, Kansas, if you've seen the cemetery, I would love to hear from you. I tend to believe that there is something nefarious going on here because where there's smoke, there is typically a fire. If you watch Mystery Archives video down in the description box below, you can also see some actual photographs people have taken of the cemetery that are pretty wild. But with that being said, I hope that you all have a wonderful Monday and a wonderful week ahead. If you would like to purchase the opening song, there is a link down in the description box below. Thank you so much to Josh McKay for doing this song for us, and thank you to Todd Roderick for helping me get this video out to you guys. Again, I hope you have a wonderful day and a wonderful week ahead, and I will talk to you soon. Bye.