Ghostly Lakes Region Tales

The tombstone of Esther 'Granny Hicks' Prescott Hyde, the 'Witch of New Hampton'.

By Kathi Caldwell-Hopper

The Lakes Region has many tales of olden-day witches and creatures that go bump in the night. Ghosts are said to roam the hills and valleys of the Lakes Region; many of the tales are not well known but are repeated more often as Halloween approaches.

Such is the tale of Granny Hicks of New Hampton, New Hampshire. Long ago – Granny was the unfortunate victim of a witch hunt. She was knitting one day and realized she needed more yarn to finish a project. She went to a neighbor’s home to ask to borrow some wool, but the woman slammed the door in her face. At a time when people could be labeled as a witch or sorcerer simply for being a bit different, Granny Hicks was known in the town for being an eccentric busybody. Her neighbor wanted nothing to do with Hicks. It was unfortunate that the next day, the neighbor’s child became ill and died, according to “Myths and Mysteries of New Hampshire” by Matthew P. Mayo. The townspeople believed Hicks had cast a spell on her neighbor’s family.

Hicks was shunned from that time onward and endured local children throwing rocks and taunting her. A group of men in a drunken stupor destroyed her home. In revenge, Granny Hicks predicted their deaths. Although she soon died (probably from old age) the men all met their demise as Granny had predicted.

In the Ossipee area, a frightening tale of murder tells of ghostly happenings. The story relates that a man named Archie killed everyone in a hamlet of the town. Once his terrible act was completed, he threw the bodies into a pond and then hanged himself outside his house. Archie’s ghost, unable to rest, is seen walking in the area to this day.

Another Ossipee tale tells of a little girl named Polly who was struck and killed by a train in the area. Her distressing cries can be heard in the nearby woods at night.

Many would be surprised to learn that the gentle Shakers of Canterbury Shaker Village believed in spiritual encounters. The village was the home of the believers in Mother Ann Lee’s religion, with members commonly called Shakers. Many men, women, and children lived and worked at Canterbury Shaker Village in the 1800s and into the 1900s. The peaceful religious group was known to show compassion to all.

It is less well known that the Shakers believed in ghosts, or “spirits,” as they called them. While many Christian beliefs find the idea of ghosts or a spirit world to be off-limits or downright absurd, to the Shakers, it all made sense.

There are many written accounts of Shakers being visited by spirits of departed fellow members and others. A Shaker member wrote, “We have frequently been visited by a tribe of Indians (spirits of Indians), who used to live in this country, and whose spirits still come back here occasionally.”

Séances, along with ghostly sightings, were common among the Shakers. In the 1800s and early 1900s, if the neighbors of the Canterbury Shakers had known about the practice of calling forth the spirits of the dead, they would likely have been quite distressed. Séances were looked upon as akin to witchcraft.

For the Shakers, however, ghost sightings and calling upon spirits were simply ways to communicate with those who had passed to heaven. If one believed in an afterlife, it stood to reason those in the afterworld might wish to speak with loved ones on Earth. If thought of in this way, ghosts seem to make perfect sense, and it is much less spirits.

None of the Halloween creatures and ghosts can frighten people as much as a witch. Tales of the powerful creatures said to be in collusion with the devil strike fear, especially at Halloween.

During the 1700s and 1800s, any woman who was a bit odd or eccentric could be labeled a witch. At the height of the witch-hunting hysteria, a woman had only to anger a neighbor for the cry of “witch!” to spread in a community.

New Hampshire had its own witch hunts and folk tales of evil women and men who frightened and did their terrible deeds to locals in the 1700s and 1800s.

One woman labeled a witch was said to live in Meredith Center and was known only as Mrs. T. Her main crime in the 1800s seemed to be her habit of borrowing things from her neighbors on a regular basis and never returning the favor.

One day, she asked to borrow butter from a neighboring woman who had none to lend. Mrs. T did not like to be refused in her borrowing and went away, muttering curses and threats to the woman.

Perhaps to oblige Mrs. T, the neighbor set about her usual butter churning because she had no butter herself. She worked at the butter churn for hours but could not achieve results. Finally, the butter churner, suspecting witchcraft, said, “If Mrs. T is in that churn, I will get her out.” She dropped a red-hot hook from the fireplace into the butter churn, and soon butter was produced.

Mrs. T’s children ran to the woman in the neighborhood and related that their mother was very ill. Mrs. T died soon after, and it was said she had a terrible burn on her neck in the shape of a hook, just like the one the butter-churning neighbor took from the fireplace.

According to Eva A. Speare, author of “NH Folk Tales,” a witch once lived in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Her tale was told by a local hermit named “Old Dr. Dearborn” who lived in a small cottage in a remote part of Plymouth. He was sick and asked for food and medicine from his nearest neighbors. Local girls were responsible for carrying food and supplies to Dr. Dearborn.

One day, as the children visited the hermit, he told them of his encounter with a witch. He said that when he was a teenager living in Campton, his father owned a fine horse, which the hermit often rode.

When riding the horse, the hermit passed the home of a woman, Dolly, who was said to be a witch. Suddenly, a black cat ran from Dolly’s porch and leaped to the horse’s neck.

The horse stopped in its tracks and refused to move, even when the rider used a whip. The black cat, also feeling the whip, clung to the horse’s neck. Eventually, the cat ran off, and the boy went home.

The next day, when the boy went to check on the horse, it didn’t have a mark on it, and it seemed like its usual healthy self. But as for Dolly, a neighbor soon arrived and related that she was nearly dead, “covered with welts and bruises and scarcely breathing from fatigue.”

The hermit finished his tale by saying, “You see, I almost killed the old witch when she turned into a black cat and bewitched my horse.”

If witches strike fear into our hearts, walking through a cemetery on a dark night can set the stage for a ghostly or bewitching visitation. A New England cemetery, with lichen-covered stones leaning this way and that in the ground, can cause even the bravest of people to become fearful.

Inspiration Point on Little Round Top in Bristol. (Tom Caldwell Photo)

In the Bristol area, on an autumn’s day, as a teenager took a walk in the woods, his destination Inspiration Point on a hill above the town. Hiking up a trail, he knew the path by heart, having taken it many times over the years. It was a blustery fall day, with leaves blowing from the trees, a bright blue sky, and brilliant sunshine. It was a perfect day for a fall hike.

Once he reached the top of the mountain, he sat quietly and gazed over the town of Bristol far below. Inspiration Point is an open-air, mountain-top area with wooden benches and a large wooden cross for outdoor ceremonies and services. He had the place to himself and became lost in meditation.

After a time, he felt he was not alone and glanced to one side to see a woman sitting quietly on a bench. He said her clothing looked odd, as if from another time, and she appeared lost in thought. They did not speak or make eye contact, but he felt uncomfortable and decided it was time to leave. Walking towards the footpath, he glanced back and realized the woman was gone. A chill ran through him because he knew she would have had no time to walk away, and there was but one path down the mountain; she had not passed him but seemed to disappear into thin air. Obviously, his hike down the mountain was taken at almost a run!

Fear of cemeteries was not always as intense because, in the early days of central New Hampshire settlement, people buried their loved ones on their own land. Towns were few and far between, and people made family graveyards near their homesteads. There was less fear of a cemetery where well-known loved ones were buried since those loved ones were a mother, father, grandparents, or a sibling.

Between the early 1800s and 1920s, three types of stones were most common: marble, used mostly around the mid-1800s, and soapstone and slate, used before marble became popular.

The 1600 and 1700 gravestone carvers in New Hampshire also worked as woodworkers or blacksmiths. One central New Hampshire gravestone carver of some fame was a man named “Hookster,” a religious revivalist. His method for passing judgment on the deceased was unusual. Those he considered in line for redemption had smiling faces carved on their gravestones, while the “unawakened” received a scowling face on their stone.

If you have lived in the Lakes Region for any amount of time, you may have heard about the supposed ghostly encounters at the Alton Town Hall in downtown Alton. There have been reports of heavy footsteps, furniture moving independently, doors opening, and voices talking when no one is in the building.