Cheri Farnsworth - Haunted Massachusetts: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Bay State

Copyright 2005 by Stackpole Books

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FIRST EDITION

Design by Beth Oberholtzer

Cover design by Caroline Stover

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Revai, Cheri, 1963

Haunted Massachusetts : ghosts and strange phenomena of the Bay State / Cheri Revai1st ed.

p.cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-8117-3221-5 (pbk.)

1. Haunted PlacesMassachusetts. 2. GhostsMassachusetts. I. Title.

BF1472.U6R475 2005

133.1'09744dc22 2004025254

ISBN 978-0-8117-3221-5

C ontents

I ntroduction

fearn.1. a. A feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by present or imminent danger. b. A state marked by this feeling. A feeling of disquiet or apprehension. Syns:fear, fright, dread, terror, horror, panic, alarm, dismay, consternation, trepidation. These nouns all denote the agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger.

American Heritage College Dictionary, 3rd ed.

Fear. Its been around since the beginning of mankind. Neither evolutionists nor creationists could argue that point. Neanderthals certainly feared what they didnt understand, and at least from a Hollywood perspective, that was probably quite a lot. This was a wild, uncivilized world in those days. (Heck, it still is in many ways.) When the cavemen werent oohing and aahing and pointing out the wonders around them, they were grunting and groaning about the horrors they encountered.

Adam and Eve understood the concept of fear the moment they disobeyed God and suffered the consequencesimmediate expulsion from their impossibly safe haven, the Garden of Eden. Suddenly they were cast ill prepared into the real world, having no clue as to what dangers were ahead or what evil lurked behind in the shadows. They were completely alone in a strange, new world, and the unknown must indeed have been very frightening to them.

Fast-forward to the first Native Americans carving their way through the primitive land that would be called Massachusetts. Their early experiences of inexplicable phenomena spawned a myriad of legends and folktales for future generations to ponder. They saw colossal faces on mountainsides, butterflies escorting departing souls to the Great Spirit beyond, vindictive phantoms rowing swiftly across pristine lakes to settle old scores, and more. Much more. But if they could invent stories to explain the seemingly supernatural events that inspired both awe and fear in their peopleexplain it as only they could, with a combination of fact, fantasy, and pure conjecturethen the unknown would make sense. And when something makes sense, it can be accepted and dealt with fearlessly. It was a brilliant coping mechanism. And thanks to the resultant legends, the early history of our land is painted with, as they say, all the colors of the wind.

Like Adam and Eve and the Native Americans before them, the first Pilgrims to arrive on Massachusetts shores boldly forged ahead into a strange, new world (to them, anyway). Out of necessity, they faced hostilities and obstacles head-on, but this unfamiliar land held much for them to fear. They found hideous creatures, and dreadful diseases befell their people. Bloodthirsty pirates and sea monsters lurked just offshore, and ghosts and demons lay around practically every corner, it seemed. But worst of all, were the witches. Perhaps these were the most misunderstoodand therefore the most fearedof all beings. Before long, diseases werent the only epidemics. There was an epidemic of feara mass hysteria of never-before-seen proportions. It was fear of the unknown; fear of the witches. Paranoia set in. The majority of people under Puritan rule believed that witches wielded horrific powers bestowed on them by Satan himself. What to do, what to do? They had to be eliminated, of courseand in most unpleasant ways. So the regrettable time of the Salem witch trials began, and yet more unfortunate victims were added to the increasingly volatile pot of restless souls in the newly settled land. Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble

The course of the next several centuries set Massachusetts up to become what is likely the most spirit-laden region in the entire country. The state saw maritime disasters, wars, massacres, intentional flooding of entire townships, the shameless disruption of ancient burial grounds, mining disasters, and countless other calamitiesoften in the name of progress. If the so-called witches of Salem had been responsible (which they werent), they could not have cast a finer spell to summon the dead. Today the Bay State is teeming with spirits.

For an author of my particular genreregional ghost storiesMassachusetts is a dream. This book was truly a pleasure to write. I found hundreds of stories to research and consider, and yet I barely scratched the surface. Here I offer you a humble smattering of the endless stories of hauntings and strange phenomena that have taken place in Massachusetts in the past several hundred years or more. Many of these stories are still ongoing, and some, I dare say, may not even have reached their climax yet. Many others have been resurrected here to ensure their survival.

Native Bay Staters may wonder why this book does not include some places that everyone knows are haunted. The answer is simple: There just wasnt enough roomnot for merely one volume of Haunted Massachusetts. But I hope this book whets the readers appetite for more. I think it will.

W estern M assachusetts

Western Massachusetts consists of Franklin County, the Berkshires, and the greater Springfield area. Its a vast land of primeval forests, isolated hill towns, farmlands that seem locked in turn-of-the-century time, and ancient routes such as the Mohawk Trail, which traverses Franklin County and the Berkshires. Urban areas of culture, entertainment, and family adventure dot the landscape, but its the simple, unhurried atmosphere permeating the rest of this region that makes it one of New Englands favorite vacation spots for those hoping to get away from the hustle and bustle of metropolitan life. While the charming inns, traditional roadside diners, and old-fashioned country stores certainly are nostalgia-inducing, nothing makes the past seem more palpable than, say, a genuine ghost train from the pastor a covered bridge haunted by a woman murdered in 1704. Suffice it to say, thars ghosts in them thar hills, and I intend to tell you about them!

T he B loody P it

The five-mile-long railroad tunnel through Hoosac Mountain near North Adams has been called many things, including the Bloody Pit and the Tunnel from Hell, but its proper name is Hoosac Tunnel. It was built in the 1850s through the 1870s to provide a direct rail route between Boston and Troy, New York. As with many early engineering feats of this magnitude, countless lives were lost during constructionand some estimates put the number on the Hoosac Tunnel project as high as two hundred.

Two of the tunnels victims died during an explosion when a man named Ringo Kelley detonated the blast prematurelybefore the pair had made it to a safe spot. Kelley, though not officially accused of any crime, disappeared shortly after a hearing on the disaster and wasnt seen for a full year. This, of course, caused even more speculation about the role he must have played in the tragedy. Had he skipped town, afraid of being found out? To this day, nobody knows where he went that year, but on the anniversary of the tragedy the following year, his body was found strangled to death in a hole in the tunnelright in the very spot where the two victims had lost their lives, presumably because of his careless handling of the explosives. Kelleys murderer was never found. Some say it was probably an angry relative of one of the victims, but others believe it was the vengeful ghosts of the two men. The slaying marked the beginning of paranormal incidents inside the tunnel.