Russo - The Ghosts of Cape Cod

Ghosts of Cape Cod

2016

By Bill Russo

Also by Bill Russo

The Creature From The Bridgewater Triangle

(in paperback and on Amazon and Kindle)

Swamp Tales

Horrors from the Hockomock Swamp and the

Marshes of Cape Cod.

Jimmy Catfish The Beginning and The End

A prequel to a story in Swamp Tales.

Crossing the Musical Color Line

Stories of seminal musicians, known or

interviewed by the author.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: The Ghost of the 13 Churches

Chapter Two: The Upper Cape

Chapter Three: The Mid Cape

Chapter Four: The Lower Cape

Chapter Five: The Outer Cape

Photographs

There are more than two dozen photos included in the book. Many are the work of the author. The remainder of the pictures were gathered from research in old records and documents as well as public domain sources, such as Wikipedia.

The Pictures:

Chapter One:

Map of the four Parts of Cape Cod

Abner Hersey's outlandish buggy

Doctor James Thacher hero of the revolution, Cape physician

Chapter Two:

The Dimmick/Tripp House in Falmouth

The Joseph Boat Two views

Chapter Three:

Seven photos of the Nobscusset Burial Grounds and Scargo Lake

Scargo in the 1930s

Three views of Scargo Tower

The photo that proves the Legend of the Lake

The Barnstable House

The Old Yarmouth Inn

Chapter Four:

Tawasentha the elegant Crosby Mansion of Brewster

In the Yosemitie, a rare painting that led to the downfall

of the affluent Albert Crosby, the beer king from Cape Cod.

Chapter Five:

The Pilgrim Monument

Provincetown, as seen from the harbor

The three thousand mile sign that marks the start of Route Six

A shipwreck in the sands of the outer cape.

Note to readers: if you like this book please consider going to my Amazon Page and giving a review. It is very important especially in Kindle where a book sits on a single, infinite shelf of more than 20 million other volumes. If you click the link below, you'll be taken to the page for The Creature From the Bridgewater Triangle. From there you can visit the author's page to see all my books.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OEZK8IQ

Foreward

Vacationers in a small resort area like Cape Cod can easily visit Falmouth in the morning and be in Dennis Port for lunch at noon.

By dusk in the outer Cape, they can settle back in their cars for a double-feature at the historic Wellfleet Drive-In.

Locals and day trippers are the same. The horseshoe road called the Mid-Cape Highway that runs from Bourne to Provincetown is just 64 miles long. If traffic permits, you can go up and down the sandbar all day long.

Why should it be any different for ghosts? Beautiful Maria Hallett, sometimes called Goody is just as likely to be seen in Provincetown as Eastham.

Dr. Abner Hersey, a 300 year old spirit from Barnstable, races back and forth on the Old Kings Highway from Sandwich to Truro in an enclosed buggy pulled by a bay mare named Mehitable. In life, the doctors practice included all the towns of the Cape. In death, there are those who say he is searching every village for the scobberlochers who squandered his money.

Weaquaket and his bride, the gorgeous Princess Scargo, live in Dennis. But since the 1600s, they have been said to have journeyed the Cape and as far North as Plymouth, in their travels for the great Chief Massasoit.

There are of course, reports of ghosts who do not wander, but stay in the same place for centuries. Theres one like that in Dennis, another in Sandwich, and one in almost every town on the map.

In this book, you will read about each community and its most famous spectral residents. As shown on the map, the 15 towns of Cape Cod are divided into four quarters.

The green section on the left of the picture is the Upper Cape. The four towns included in the quadrant are Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, and Mashpee.

The blue section is the Mid Cape which has two towns and one city. The towns are Dennis and Yarmouth. Barnstable, a city of some 45,000 people is the County Seat of Barnstable County which covers all of Cape Cod. One of every five year round residents live in Barnstable, which contains a number of villages including Hyannis.

The orange section is the Lower Cape consisting of the three towns, Harwich, Brewster, and Chatham.

The fourth section is the Outer Cape Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown.

The grey section to the left is Southeastern Massachusetts, just beyond Cape Cod and the Canal. Included in Southeastern Massachusetts are the cities of Taunton, Fall River, New Bedford, Brockton, and Plymouth.

A small group of islands off the Coast of Cape Cod, most notably Nantucket and Marthas Vineyard, are often included in discussions of the Cape, though they are not part of Barnstable County. The islands, with a year round population of less than 20,000, comprise Dukes County.

Now, on to the haunts. The first story, in six chapters, is The Ghost of the 13 Churches. Its the tale of the most prominent doctor ever to practice on Cape Cod he was also perhaps the most eccentric person in an area noted for being the capital of eccentricity. Heres the sad yarn of Doctor Abner Hersey of Barnstable.

The Ghost of the 13 Churches

Part One The Eyewitness

Hotels, graveyards, hospitals, old homes, and battlefields are among the most likely places to find ghosts. But on Cape Cod, it is said that a snorting bay mare named Mehitable and her odd looking master dressed in an over sized great coat have haunted all 13 of the peninsulas original Congregational Meeting Houses.

As in most cases, the only proof we have is the eye witness accounts. Here for you to judge - the bizarre tale of The Ghost of the Thirteen Churches.

On January ninth I was walking to my house and passed near the old graveyard in Barnstable. I stopped short when I heard the clatter of hooves coming down The Old Kings Highway (Route 6A). I heard wagon wheels squeaking on the hard roadway where in colonial days, it was green with hay.

This testimony is from the first person to witness the spirit. He had finished his work for the day and was on his way home for dinner. A sober, hard working man, his sworn account was given credence by a number of important townsmen.

The report continues.

The buggy came into view. It was unlike any I had ever seen in books or in person. Completely enclosed, it had just a few small openings. A pair of letter sized, side slits were visible and a bigger one in the back.

In front was a still larger cut-out. From the frothy, snorting bay mares bridle snaps, the reins coursed up over the back of the horse and into the front opening where an overflowing stream of swearing was building like a symphonic crescendo.

Damnation and Thunder of Jehovah! the horseman screamed. Where is my money? Where is my land? Gadzooks Mehitable, I fear the scobberlochers have squandered everything.

He reined in the mare and got down from the buggy. I saw his face clearly and it was the same pale, icy color as that nights full moon. The visage was scary, but his clothing was worse. He was not a small man yet he nearly disappeared inside an overcoat that was many sizes too large for him. It appeared as if it were fashioned from cowhide; with a shiny green lining that might have been ripped from a billiard table and sewn in. The apparition screamed again.