Ghostly Caching with the Whole Family 8/16/2008

Saturday Tyler & Alexis wanted to go caching so we found a series of ghost caches in eastern CT and off we went about 9:00 as we all piled into the van, including Muffy & Raggs. All the caches that we are going to do are based on ghostly sitings or hauntings which are listed on many different websites. The first cache we went to was an easy one here in Colchester at a bagel shop just to get us started on the right foot so once we found then it was off to Southington, CT and the first cache in the ghost series. It was located in St. Thomas Cemetery in a tree near the edge of the cemetery and Tyler found it quickly. The story behind this cache is one of the scariest. The actual (alleged) haunted site is just down the street from the cache at 208 Meriden Avenue which was a former funeral home. This story was made into a TV documentary called “A Haunting in Connecticut”. The TV program has aired a number of times and may very likely be shown again in the future. A family had moved into the house and extraordinary and hostile supernatural events transpired after. The famous Warren’s, who are paranormal investigators, came in with an investigative team and one of the team members was so terrified he exited during the middle of the investigation. After watching the documentary it scared the BEEJEEZUS out of us too. After finding the cache we did visit the house but to us it looked like every other home along the street.
Then we drove to Brookfield, CT and part 2 of the series. The cache was located in Williams Park along a trail in the woods way up the top of a steep hill. I didn't make the walk all the way as I had to get back to take Muffy and Raggs out of the car as it was warm today and I don't like leaving them in the car for a long period of time. But the rest of the family made the trudge and found the cache without any problem and walked back to where we were parked. The story behind this one is also quite interesting. In the very early 1980s Brookfield and Danbury became very famous over this case. A man from the area committed a murder and attempted to use “DEMONIC POSSESION” as a defense. Yes the old “Devil made me do it” defense. The core of the plot begins in Brookfield where a boy was allegedly possessed by the devil. The boyfriend of the boy’s sister challenged the Devil to take him on instead and leave the boy alone. Shortly thereafter the man committed a murder. (As a side note – A person familiar with the family priest personally told me that the priest had witnessed the boy during one of his incidents and that the boy took on the form and behavior of an animal) hmmm – We have a nephew like that too. The case was to be tried in Danbury Superior Court and the eyes of the world (Media, Tabloids and the like) were all on Danbury and Brookfield. The Warrens were involved and media coverage was whipped up into a frenzy. The hype eventually fizzled out when the Judge ruled out such a defense could be used and everybody went home. The man was convicted of manslaughter and the tabloids and cameras all went away, the Devil has since moved on and currently is possessing our nephew. The story received so much attention however that a TV Movie was made based on the actual events and was entitled “The Demon Murder Case” starring Kevin Bacon as the killer. The movie was shot on location in Newport Rhode Island but we all knew that it all happened here in Brookfield and Danbury. We did drive by the house and it is still vacant. Supposedly a lot of weird stuff is going on there. The neighbors are seeing lights move around the house at night. Some neighbors have seen the ghost in a window. Real Estate agents are pointing fingers at each other for leaving the lights on - lights are going on and off by themselves.
Next stop was at the Woodbury Episcopal Cemetery for a 2 stage cache where we had to locate the grave stone of the First Minister of Ancient Woodbury, Zechariah Walker who died in 1699. We then figured out the coords from his date of death for the second stage which was also located in the cemetery and Tyler & Alexis found it right away. Supposedly the Woodbury Episcopal Church and the cemetery behind the church harbors an unwanted spirit that doesn't want people to enter the cemetery. It chased several students doing research for a paper out on Halloween night. It is a very strong spirit and projects a feeling of depression along with aggression.
Then it was on to Naugatuck, CT for a multi stage cache, and the fourth cache in the series. We first had to visit Gunntown Cemetery Circa 1790. Many of Naugatuck's citizens who supported independence from British rule during the Revolutionary War are buried in the cemetery. The cemetery is also considered by many to be haunted. Connecticut demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren have declared the cemetery "officially haunted". The most frequently reported phenomenon there is the sound of children's laughter and music that begins in the surrounding woods, then closes in on the listener until it seems to be inside the cemetery. Some people have also seen a solid black dog near the cemetery. Some feel that this is a foreboding sign of death. Sometimes a person clearly sees the black dog in the cemetery but his or her companions see nothing. Many photographs that have been taken at the cemetery depict spirit energy in the form of orbs, globules, and ectoplasmic mist. On rare occasions, orbs of every color have been seen flitting about the grounds with the naked eye. We needed to find the grave site of Jobamah Gunn and look for the date he died and figure the coords for the second stage of the cache from that date. It turned out the second stage was located along the Larkin Bridle Trail, not far from the cemetery, in the woods. We walked to the cache and after searching for about 5 minutes we found 2 ammo cans which contained what we needed to complete the cache. We signed the log in the first ammo can and got our instruction sheet for the third and final stage of the cache out of the second ammo can. We now had to drive 35 miles north to Cornwall/Dudleytown for the last part of this cache which would then JUSTIFY OUR ADMISSION INTO THE HIGH PRIESTHOOD STATUS OF “GHOSTBUSTERS”. This part was a virtual cache where we had to walk up a steep hill along a trail and identify what is left of part of old Dudleytown, NJ. The story which will follow later regarding Dudleytown we think will curl your hair after you read it. We got to the suggested parking for the hike up the hill to the old town but saw it was well over a mile hike so on the instruction sheet that we had it did suggest that someone could drive up the old abandoned road to the blue hiking trail and drop people off so the hike wouldn't be quite as far. So that's what we did as I drove up the road and dropped everybody else off as the hike was now only a 1/2 mile. Seeing as your not supposed to park anywhere on the road or else you will be arrested or be given a ticket I had to drive back down the road and wait in the parking area for awhile till I thought they would back. Well to make a long story short it was terrible, rocky, slippery hike up the hill and it took them almost an hour to make it up and back. I made 3 trips up the hill to the head of the trail to see if they had made it back. We were able to call each other on our cell phones but not from the parking lot at the bottom of the hill as there was no reception at the bottom only after you got toward the top of the hill. Well we finally connected and they did get the information we needed to email the cache owner so we could get ghostbuster status and the kids especially were happy. The following is part of the Dudleytown story and if you would like to read more I am including the web site address so if you wish you can read the rest of the story. Note from the Connecticut State Police: Those who go, or attempt to go to Dudleytown will be arrested for trespassing and/or parking. The fines start at $75.00 per person and rapidly increase. In northwestern Connecticut within the town of Cornwall, in the shadow of three mountains, lies the remains of Dudleytown. The small hamlet holds accounts of ghostly tales, demons, unexplained events, and curses coupled with over 400 years of British and American history -- including ties to King Henry VIII, Horace Greeley, General Heman Swift, and General George Washington. Today, only the cellar holes and a few foundations remain. The roads have become forest trails that hikers and ghost hunters still traverse, regardless of warnings of evils spirits, and many claim the woods become strangely silent -- the birds and bugs that sing and call during a hike up to Dudleytown don’t follow into the hamlet. Dudleytown was founded by Thomas Griffis, who was the first to settle in the area, but it was three Dudley brothers who moved there a few years later for whom the land would be named. It was these brothers who also allegedly brought over a curse from England that has plagued the land ever since. All Dudleys can trace their heritage back to a Saxon named Dudd, who was titled Duke of Mercia and died in 725 A.D. It was Dudd’s land that would eventually become the site of the Dudley castle. An old English word for land was “leigh,” so the area was called Dudd’s leigh. Many centuries later, when the taking of a surname became necessary, some people took a name based on their occupation (such as Smith or Baker) and others took their surname based on the land they came from, i.e., Dudley. The story and curse of Dudleytown actually begins in England in the year 1510. Edmund Dudley was beheaded for plotting to overthrow King Henry VIII. At the time of the beheading, a curse was allegedly placed on the Dudleys for their treason. The curse states all Dudleys from Edmund Dudley’s lineage would find themselves surrounded by horrors. Edmund Dudley’s son, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, followed in his father’s footsteps and also tried to overthrow the crown by marrying his son, Guilford Dudley, to Lady Jane Grey (the original “queen for a day”). John Dudley’s third son, Robert, Earl of Leicester, left England to avoid losing his own head. The Dudleys who would eventually settle in Dudleytown can trace their roots to William Dudley, who was born in Richmond, Surrey, England on September 11, 1608. His son, also named William, was born aboard a ship headed for America on June 8, 1639. William II’s son, Joseph, was born in Saybrook, Connecticut on September 14, 1674. Joseph Dudley of Saybrook had 12 children, three of which would eventually settle in Dudleytown: Gideon (born 1706), Abiel (born 1710), and Barzillai (born 1725). In October of 1737, the Connecticut General Assembly ordered the Act for the Ordering and Directing the Sale and Settlement of all the Townships in the Western Lands. The Act stated that 50 private parcels of land from many western Connecticut towns would be divided and auctioned off. The Cornwall auction began at 50 pounds per parcel. In February of 1745, Thomas Griffis bought half a parcel of Cornwall land from Eleazer Whittlesey of Wethersfield, Connecticut. Today, Dudleytown looks much like it did when Thomas Griffis first walked into the land some 250 years ago. A very thick forest, incredibly rocky terrain, and in the shadow of three mountains: Bald Mountain, Woodbury Mountain, and The Coltsfoot Triplets. Because of the location and the dense, tall woods, the forest was given the ominous name of “Dark Entry Forest." Lying in the shadow of three mountains also meant the town received little sunlight. During winters there are times when snow will be falling on Dudleytown and nothing will touch the ground just 1000 feet lower in the valley of Cornwall. The land was hard, and living there was even harder. In 1748 Gideon Dudley moved from Saybrook, Connecticut and bought some land from Griffis to start a small farm. By 1753 Gideon's two brothers, Barzillai and Abiel Dudley, from Guilford, Connecticut, also purchased land nearby as the area was starting to blossom into a hollow. A few years later, a Martin Dudley from Massachusetts also joined the clan. Contrary to what some believe, Dudleytown was never actually a town. It was always part of Cornwall township. Dudleytown used the Cornwall church, town hall, and cemetery to conduct its spiritual and business affairs. The area was called Dudleytown because of the number of Dudleys who came to live in the area. Cornwall township was a hard area to farm in. Isaac Stiles, who was an early resident of the area eloquently put it best: “Nature out of her boundless Store, Threw Rocks together and did no more.” To make fields suitable for farming, early Dudleytown pioneers had to contend with the rocky soil. Each stone had to be picked up and moved. The stone walls that were created by clearing the woods and fields are still standing in Dudleytown today. Living in Dudleytown was never easy. Many things went wrong for the people and for the land. Were all of the events unexplainable? Was there a high lead content in the drinking water? Did Native Americans sneak into the hollow and wreak havoc? Or did the Dudleys carry a centuries-old curse into the village? The rocks in and around Dudleytown do contain a high level of iron and other metals. It is possible there was some lead in the drinking water on the hillside. This theory could explain some of the dementia that area residents experienced, but continued lead poisoning is always fatal and for more than a century people lived in Dudleytown. If the water was bad, residents would have moved away sooner. It is also true that there were many Native American tribes who lived in the general vicinity of Dudleytown, including the Mohawk nation. Some battles of the French Indian War (1755 – 1763) also took place within 100 miles of Dudleytown. There was fallout from the Native Americans for several years after the war, and one set of Dudleytown residents met their fate at the hands of angered Indians. In August of 1774, an unidentified epidemic struck the Adoniram Carter household in Dudleytown and killed the entire family. A second Dudleytown Carter family, The Nathaniel Carters, distraught from the loss, moved near Binghamton, New York where Indians took the life of Nathaniel, his wife, and their infant by tomahawk. The Carters’ other three children were kidnapped to Canada where two daughters were ransomed. The son, David Carter, remained with his captors, married an Indian girl, and eventually returned to the United States for formal education. David escaped the curse of Dudleytown and eventually went on to become a Supreme Court judge. One of the more bizarre tragedies occurred to one of Cornwall's more famous residents, General Heman Swift. General Swift served in the Revolutionary War under General George Washington. In April of 1804 his wife, Sarah Faye, was struck by lightning on their front porch and killed instantly. Shortly after his wife’s death, General Swift was reported to have gone "slightly demented." Horace Greeley, editor and founder of the New York Tribune and most famous for his quote, "Go West, young man," married Mary Cheney, who was born in Dudleytown. The two met in a vegetarian boarding house, and their union ended when Mary Cheney took her own life in 1872, one week before Horace Greeley lost his bid for the presidency of the United States. The next tragedy occurred near the very end of the 1800s to one of Dudleytown's last residents, John Patrick Brophy. John Brophy's wife died of consumption, and shortly after his two children mysteriously disappeared in the woods. The children vanishing could have been attributed to the fact that they were accused of stealing sleigh robes and wanted to run from the law. After losing his entire family, the Brophy home burned to the ground. Some have speculated that it was John Brophy who set the blaze. Regardless of how the fire started, John Brophy walked away from Dudleytown never to be seen again. By 1899 Dudleytown was completely deserted. Children who grew up there married and moved away. The forest began to reclaim the land. In 1920 Dr. William Clark, a cancer specialist from New York City, came to Cornwall for the quiet that the woods could provide. Dr. Clark fell in love with the surroundings and built a summer house there. In 1924, together with some of his friends and colleagues, Dr. Clark formed the Dark Entry Forest Association (DEF). “The Dark Entry Forest Association was formed as a nature preserve,” explains Dr. John F. Leich, former president and current shareholder of the DEF. “Dr. Clark wanted a place where he could bring his children and grandchildren in the summers.” The original charter stated the land would remain "forever wild," a nature preserve for its members to enjoy. During a summer in the mid-1920s, Dr. William Clark was called away to an emergency in New York City. His wife stayed behind and when he returned a few days later, she was alleged to have gone mad. Sources said something from the forest attacked her and left her completely insane. She lived out the remainder of her days in a mental hospital.
It is quite a story and you really should read the other parts of it and a Google search of Dudleytown also turns up many more eerie spooky tales about the town. The web site that I got this information from is http://www.ghostvillage.com/legends/dudleytown.shtml. If you also want to look at the cache pages, which contain many links to haunted sites that we visited, the cache numbers are: GCV1ZH, GCXC72, GCQF3J and GCQEEQ. I know that when they reached the top of the hill they said that there was no noise at all in the forest, no animals no birds singing or anything just eerie and spooky silence. Well as I said they found what we needed and it was an old stone wall that made a right angle which at one time might have been part of the town boundary. On the way up the hill they saw an old stone dam, which must have been part of the town and also many old bones laying along the trail. This seemed strange to us as there wasn't supposed to be any kind of animal life back up there but once we read further into this story we found that there was alleged satanic ritual sacrifices being performed way up in the woods, which would explain the bones they saw. I did get everybody picked up and we got back down the mountain and on our way home before we ran into any police so there were no tickets. We drove home and got here about 7:00 after a long long day on the road. We figured we had driven approximately 150-170 miles during the day but it was a lot of fun and Tyler and Alexis had a good time. We ordered a couple of pizzas for dinner and everybody hit the hay early tonight. Well time to say good night and until tomorrow we love you all.


Picture List:Mom, Chris, Corinna, Tyler & Alexis after they walked back down the hill from Dudleytown and they are even still smiling, 2-Tyler & Alexis at Rev. Zechariah Walker's Grave site, 3-Rev. Zechariah Walker's original grave marker, died in 1699, 4,5-Rev. Walker's new grave marker, 6-Gunntown Cemetery Circa 1790, 7,8,9-Some of the old grave markers in the cemetery dating back to 1805 and 1808, 10-Jobamah Gunn Died 1879, 11,12-More of the old markers in Gunntown Cemetery, 13,14,15,16,17,18,19-St Thomas Cemetery grave markers dating back to 1860's 70's and 80's, 20,21,22,23,24,25-Woodbury Cemetery grave markers dating back to 1770, 1804 and 1825...note the one marker in the tree that had grown up around it.