©2006 by Fiona Broome and the Hollow Hill Staff
Haunted Vale End Cemetery sits, somewhat troubled, at the top of a hill in Wilton, New Hampshire.
(For a map to visit Vale End, see this link.)
The location is deceptively quiet. Few people visit this historic cemetery, often out of fear.
Wilton seems like a charming old New England town. Visitors may not realize that Wilton's history has been scarred with tragedy from its earliest
days.
The mysterious, repeating meetinghouse disasters
Charles E. Clark's book, The Meetinghouse Tragedy
,
describes the 1773 tragedy when, during construction, the roof beam of Wilton's new meetinghouse--and
53 workers--fell three stories in a tangle of bodies and tons of construction materials.
According to folklore, the meetinghouse was rebuilt, but collapsed again, perhaps two more times. Each
time, more people died.
In one version of the story, a new meetinghouse was constructed, but fire broke out during a dance in the hall,
trapping many people within its flame-engulfed walls.
Whether to avoid bad luck or for more 'sensible' reasons, the
townspeople chose a new spot for their next meetinghouse, and moved the middle of town to where Wilton center is today.
Wilton's quartz foundation may be the source of many hauntings. Quartz can be a magnet for
paranormal forces. We've had a steady
stream of reports from Wilton about haunted basements (hewn out of the quartz underneath each house) and possible ghost
'portals' throughout the town.
We know that there are many ghosts at Vale End Cemetery, and some entities that aren't ghosts
and were never human.
Vandalism--including the theft of headstones and markers such as the lovely
Mary Magdalene statue shown at right--have compounded the disturbing psychic energy at Vale End.
Ghosts at Vale End Cemetery
In addition to The Blue Lady that haunts Vale End Cemetery
in Wilton, NH, there are several other known ghosts.
A Native American ghost--perhaps several of them--lingers around the northeast side of the cemetery. When
you're in the middle of the cemetery with your back to the entrance, look to the far left wall. You'll see a wide
opening where maintenance trucks can come and go. If you walk just outside the wall, at that path, you'll start to
sense some slightly territorial spirits. There are also some who are simply curious about visitors.
A little boy, perhaps one who'd been abused, haunts the very back of the cemetery where the ground
begins to slope. He's timid and is looking for reassurances. He's the ghost most likely to 'cross over' if the right
person can reach him.
The ghost of a military man and perhaps his daughter have been sensed in many parts of the
cemetery. They seem fairly nice most of the time, and appear to be 'just visiting' their own graves.
Spirits just outside the cemetery walls are represented by gravestones several feet in back of
Mary Ritter's headstone. These graves are generally outside the walls because the deceased could not be buried
in hallowed ground. They may have been accused of a serious crime such as murder, or they may have committed suicide.
Vale End features a surprising number of these outside-the-walls graves, and we suspect that many of them
are haunted by the ostracized people buried there.
Real ghosts' stories - Notes from the other side
One of the ghosts is a young man from Colonial times. He was embarrassed by his friends, and felt that he
could never recover from it. The shame was too much, though he accepts that he brought the
charges--and some ridicule--upon himself.
He talks about giving up too soon. I believe that he committed suicide, or at least deliberately put
himself in harm's way. He did his best to
stage it so it would look like an accident. He was genuinely remorseful, and didn't want his family to suffer
further embarrassment because of him.
However, there's also a bitter edge to his grief, and he wanted his accusers to know that they caused his
death. (His logic seems a bit murky in this area. He wants his death to look like an accident to most
people, but he wants his former friends and acquaintances to feel guilty for embarrassing him.
He wants them to wonder, for the rest of their lives, if they caused his death.)
Until he is able to accept that there were--and still can be--good things in his existence, and
even true friends, he is not likely to cross over. At the present time, he is far from being able to
move forward. If his grave is outside the stone wall, he may be upset that his death wasn't determined as
'accidental.'
Read more about The Blue Lady, or
find out about Possible demons at
Vale End Cemetery.
