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Area has ghost
stories aplenty dating back hundreds of years - 20081103
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By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff
Forget Salem or New Orleans. If you live in MetroWest, you
probably don't have to go any further than your local library,
town hall, or neighborhood for a good old-fashioned haunting.
Tales of the spirits of innkeepers, Native
Americans, accused witches, librarians and servants, even
a monster - the Dover Demon - abound right in your backyard.
The area's rich history, particularly its
entrenchment in King Philip's War, makes old homes, buildings
and entire sections of towns - such as South Natick - ripe
for ghostly activity, some say.
At least three authors Harriet Beecher Stowe,
Ida H. Morse and supernatural expert Hanz Holzer have published
accounts of haunted homes in South Natick, a.k.a. "Old
Town."
Jennifer Hance, executive director of the
Natick Historical Society, said there are times when she gets
a bit spooked working at the Bacon Free Library.
"It's built in the middle of an Indian
burial ground. One night, something fell off a display case
- I jumped a mile and nearly called the police," she
said, laughing. So far, however, she has found the human source
of each scare, she said.
Earlier this month, Framingham "demonologist"
Jim Correria, founder of DragonStar Paranormal, and Jennifer
O'Brien, a psychic medium from Medford, conducted an unofficial
investigation of supernatural activity in the vicinity of
the Bacon Free Library. They reported seeing the spirit of
a little girl in one of the library's windows, and an old
woman "set in her ways" at 6 Pleasant St., the Case
Management building. The property once belonged to the Eames
family, according to Hance.
The house about which Ida Morse wrote, which
was located on what is now the Community Organic Farm, was
destroyed by fire in the 1860s, said Hance.
The house was very similar to 185 Eliot St.,
which was owned by the Bacon family, but now belongs to Donald
Topham, who lists his occupation as "pirate" in
the Natick residents list, she said.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, in her stories about
South Natick, also told a ghost story about the house titled
"The Ghost in the Cap'n Brown House," Hance said.
In his book, "America's Haunted Houses,"
paranormal investigator Hanz Holzer devoted a chapter to "The
Ghosts at South Natick." He described the account of
"Mrs. Anne V., who is of part Indian descent."
Administrators at Dean College in Franklin
have also reported spirit encounters over a number of years.
Albert Silva, a Dean alum, says he will never
forget the night at the Chapman House in the spring of 1999
that made him a believer in the paranormal.
"It was a long weekend, and me and my
roommate were playing video games upstairs," he said.
"We had the stereo on the TV, and the radio dial, which
was manual, you had to turn it with your hand, started going
back and forth. At first, we were like, 'Whatever."'
"Then slowly, the volume started changing
- it started slow, then, Bam! the volume went right through
the roof, full tilt," said Silva, who lives on the North
Shore today.
They just kind of laughed and had fun with
it, he said, and that's when things got crazy.
"The speaker went flying - it just lifted
right off and hit me on the knee. We dropped our remotes and
ran down two flights of stairs, across the parking lot and
into the playground, which was about 60 yards away, and we
just kind of looked in the window and were like, 'We're not
going back in there!"' he recalled.
Standing there in the parking lot, they laughed
and screamed about it at the same time, he said.
A woman who worked in the admissions office
at Dean also wrote to the Daily News to talk about a meeting
with a spirit vistor one night.
"I remember the evening I saw a ghost,"
wrote Marsha Lambert. "I was so sure I was crazy I held
on to what I saw for a short time before even telling my family
about my encounter. I know for sure I saw a dark shadow on
the beautiful stairway along with a picture hanging on the
wall.
"I had left my front desk to change for
my evening class and I was completing my homework at my desk
prior to changing," she wrote. "When I was returning
to my desk I heard a noise and saw the shadow on the stairway,
with the hair on my neck standing, I grabbed my things and
left the building immediately and thought about this strange
feeling all the while at class, not saying anything about
it to anyone there."
The Bellingham Historical Museum is also said
to offer a special kind of glimpse into the past.
The museum, originally a library, is reportedly
home to spirits - polite ghosts who say, "Excuse me,"
according to several accounts.
People have also witnessed door handles turn
on their own, and a town history book went missing for a while,
then mysteriously turned up again, Bellingham Historical Commission
Chairman Ernie Taft has said.
At Milford Town Hall, which once served as
a jail where up to 38 prisoners allegedly hung themselves,
doors randomly slam, and loud, scary noises can be heard in
the building, custodian Bill Marolini has reported.
"There is a rumor there's a ghost in
(Mendon) Town Hall," built in 1844, said Mendon Town
Administrator Dale Pleau.
"This is the second oldest town in Worcester
County, settled in 1665," he said. "The original
settlers were driven out in King Philip's War. The Indians
burnt down their houses, everything.
"In that original raid, eight people
were killed, and after that, they abandoned the town. They
were exiled to Braintree, one of the original battlegrounds
for King Philip's War. I think they probably would have gone
back to England if there was a boat ready for them,"
Pleau said.
"Some employees mentioned it. I've heard
stuff happens here or there," Pleau said.
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