Category: US – New Hampshire

Hollis, NH – Blood Cemetery ghosts

Blood cemetery graves, Hollis, NH“Blood Cemetery” is the local name for Pine Hill Cemetery in Hollis, near Nashua, NH. That nickname refers to the ghost of Abel Blood, who supposedly haunts the graveyard.

Urban legends claim occult connections to Abel Blood. However, history portrays him as a solid, very Christian and philanthropic member of the community. We have no reason to believe otherwise.

Whoever (or whatever) haunts Blood Cemetery… it’s probably not Abel Blood.

Pine Hill Cemetery (aka “Blood Cemetery”) is a lovely place to visit, but it doesn’t have a dramatically “haunted” feeling that we find at other ghostly sites.

However, our own experiences and reliable stories from others lead us to believe that it has some paranormal activity. We recommend this cemetery for daytime ghost hunting only.

Here are some of our reports. (Some links may not be available while we’re redesigning this website.)

To visit Blood Cemetery – Take Exit 6 (Rte. 130) from Rte. 3, go west to Nartoff Rd., and then travel north on Nartoff (which jogs right and then left) to reach this very haunted cemetery near the crest of the hill. The cemetery will be on your right. A low wooden sign suspended with chains says “Pine Hill Cemetery.” Park at the side of the road, but off the pavement to allow cars to pass easily.

Locals call this “Blood Cemetery” for its most famous ghost, Abel Blood. According to many visitors (and one of our most reliable Hollow Hill researchers, who’s seen this), Abel Blood’s headstone changes at night so the finger on the stone points down instead of heavenward.

However, the cemetery is closed dusk to dawn; the police patrol steadily, especially around Halloween. They’ve even approached us when we were photographing (legally) from the roadside.

Interested in ghost hunting in haunted cemeteries? Here's a quick way to get started.

Also, many Hollis residents don’t like the nickname “Blood Cemetery.” (We’ve had enough angry emails, thank you. We didn’t invent the nickname; we simply report the stories and folklore.) If you ask locally for directions, be sure to call it “Pine Hill Cemetery.”

There’s another reason to call the cemetery by its correct name: The Blood family name was large and widespread in New England. Many cemeteries, especially in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, include members of the Blood family.

So, if you use that name when asking for directions, you may be sent to a totally different cemetery… with its own ghost stories and Blood family graves. They all seem to be nicknamed “Blood Cemetery.”

If you’d like to visit a website dedicated to Blood Cemetery (alternately spelled “Blood Cemetary”), we recommend Blood Cemetery (Pine Hill Cemetery).

Gilson Road Cemetery, NH – Ghost Hunts 2000 – 2003

 

Gilson Road ghostly streak of light
Ghostly streak of light at Gilson Road Cemetery.

Starting in 1999, several of us continued to visit Gilson Road Cemetery regularly, sometimes several times a week during good weather. Though the site is more active sometimes than others, it’s been a consistently good place to train new investigators, and to test EMF meters and other equipment.

Gilson Road Cemetery investigtaions - 2000 - 2003These are a few notes from 2000 – 2003. After that, we stopped reporting our investigations at Gilson Road.

Frankly, very little changed during those years. We still encounter a wide range of phenomena, including strange lights, noises, and voices that only our clairaudient researchers hear. Our photos show unexplained orbs, weird streaks of light, and misty images on dry evenings.

30 Apr 00

Who: Several ghost hunters

When: Arrived before dusk Purpose: To more formally investigate Gilson while it’s still “haunted.”

Results: EMF activity. The energy at Gilson started dropping as soon as the construction work began across the street from the cemetery.

However, we did a more formal investigation of the site on Walpurgis, April 30th.

The results were inconclusive. There were no clear patterns to the experiments with pendulums. Our main EMF meter flared dramatically throughout the southern half of the cemetery for several minutes, the meter did not react the same way during our follow-up visit the next day.

(During EMF flares, we routinely check our meters against cell phone activity, cameras that use considerable electricity, and so on. In this case, we could not artificially create the flare.)

23 Oct 00

Who: Several reporters, casual investigators, photographers, and one ghost hunter from Hollow Hill.

When: Arrived at about 6 p.m., stayed until about 8 p.m. Purpose: Investigation and photographs, for October 27th Nashua Telegraph articles.

Results: Unsettled and inconclusive energy. We hiked into the Gilson area at dusk. The energy was very low. Compass readings by skeptics reached only a 10-degree shift, max. This is still anomalous, but not so exciting as Gilson used to be.

There was a brief and very minor “cold spot” next to one stone. The headstone glowed slightly more than it should have as night arrived, but it was mostly a big disappointment. If I hadn’t been actively looking for these usually-reliable manifestations, I wouldn’t have noticed them at all.

However, the gate glowed more than we’ve seen in the past, well past dark. Maybe they’ve painted it with a more reflective paint?

My “sparkles” camera showed inconsistent sparkles in the woods. Maybe one out of five flashes produced the silvery images. (A year ago, the ratio of successful flashes would have been nine out of ten, or better.) However, the newspaper staff commented about the sparkles in the beam of light from the flash, inside the cemetery walls.

We compared these with flash results from two other cameras and there were no sparkles with them. Even if we try to explain the sparkles as dust motes in the air, they should have appeared consistently with all cameras within, say, a two-minute period.

Listening intuitively, there was far more rustling in the woods. It sounded like people brushing against branches or evergreens. However, even on a psychic level, there were no corresponding sounds of footsteps.

Listening naturally, with one’s ears, the woods were (pardon the pun) dead quiet. Except for an unusually brief serenade by the frogs in the swampy area, there were no animal noises at all. No owls. No birds shifting weight as they slept. No scampering little animals, even at dusk. It was eerie. Usually, there are far more natural noises at Gilson.

Mostly, the visit was uneventful. The gate creaked and moaned once; it’s never made a sound in the past. Branches fell in the woods across the street from the cemetery. A couple of cars raced past the cemetery, illegally, and did not slow down even to look at our flashlights in the cemetery.

At about 7:30 p.m., something felt very wrong when the photographer was setting up his tripod, lights, etc. However, that energy subsided as the evening progressed. My impression in hindsight is, perhaps a spirit was nervous about what we were going to do, and then calmed down once it was obvious that we weren’t malicious.

2001 – 2002:

As Tanglewood Estates (the new subdivision) moved in across the street, accessibility to Gilson Road became an issue. In addition, the energy would surge one week and then drop the next. Sometimes it seemed more haunted than ever, and then we were convinced that the ghosts had left.However, during 2002, the energy seemed to stabilize. If anything, it seemed as if Gilson Road was more haunted than it had been before the construction.

As of late 2003:

Gilson is still a “sure thing” or as close as it gets, at least for anomalous activity with a compass, day or night. Any hiking-type compass will work. We’ve had success with an L.L.Bean zipper-pull compass (but not cheaper counterparts), and with the $8 Coleman compass available at Target and WalMart. What’s key is to make certain the needle doesn’t tend to “stick” as it floats. Also, be certain to pause if the needle swings, so it’s not a false reading from simply motion as you walk. Make certain you’re holding the compass level, too. Walk through the cemetery and watch north seem to shift directions, from ten degrees on a tame day, up to 90 degrees on a high-energy day.

You can do this at any time of day, but the later in the day, the better the results. You’re likely to get positive results anywhere in the cemetery. The “hot” compass regions seem to change from one day to the next.

We find the most consistent anomalies in the vicinity of the Walter Gilson stone (with the hole in it), near the break in the stone wall (back left corner of the cemetery, which people seem either repelled by, or drawn to), and towards the left front of the cemetery.

By contrast, the EMF meter reads most often at the headstones nearest the gate.

Reminder: When visiting any isolated spot — but particularly cemeteries frequented by teens who are drinking — it’s never wise to go ghost hunting alone.

We’ve said it often: The biggest risk for ghost hunters is not the dead, but the living. Gilson Road Cemetery is no exception.

Wilton, NH – Vale End’s ‘Blue Lady’ Ghost

vale end cemetery
The “Blue Lady” gravestone, Vale End Cemetery, Wilton, NH.

New Hampshire’s ghosts are among our specialties at Hollow Hill, but this is one ghost story that we removed from our website for several years. Now, we’ve decided to reveal everything that we know about the ghosts — and possibly demons — at Wilton’s beautiful Vale End Cemetery.

The ‘Blue Lady’ is one of Vale End’s most famous ghosts. We’ve never seen her, but we’ve sensed her many times. Her headstone, shown in the photo at the top of this article, is broken but still majestic. It bears her maiden name — Mary Ritter — as well as the married name of her widower’s second wife, Mary Spaulding. (The second Mary Spaulding was Mrs. Mary Flynn Colburn before her marriage to Isaac Spaulding.)

Mary Ritter Spaulding was the mother of seven children between her April 1795 marriage, and her April 1808 death. Her husband, Isaac Spaulding, was a tanner and a descendant of an early Jamestown settler.

According to folklore, Mary Ritter Spaulding was a good, church-going woman who healed with herbs and prayer. No one is certain why she haunts Vale End Cemetery (and possibly Langdell House, where she may have lived), but her appearance is dramatic.

Many Wilton, NH, residents have seen Mary Ritter Spaulding as ‘the Blue Lady’ over her grave. She appears on warm, foggy nights, especially in the spring and fall, especially around Halloween.

According to one witness, she manifests as a bright, pale blue column of light, similar to a transporter beam in the TV show, Star Trek.

The column of light is about three feet wide, and starts a foot or two over her grave. It is about six feet tall. It seems to vibrate with energy.

(However, when I asked the witness whether the light vanished abruptly or faded away, he looked at me with amusement and replied, “I don’t know. We were having an egg fight.”)

We’ve checked nearby roads, houses, and outbuildings, and there is no logical reason for this column of light to appear at all, much less as often as reported.

Real ghosts’ stories – Notes from the other side

Mary Ritter Spaulding remembers her life as a series of pregnancies, during which she was uneasy about something that she never defined. When her last child was born, it was a turning point for her. However, while genealogical records show Lyman (born 1806) as her youngest child, she insists that James was her last.

We have found no records of a son named James, and perhaps that has something to do with her haunting.

Since her death, there has been something — perhaps a lie — that she has not resolved. I’m not sure if it was her own deceit, or a lie that someone told to (or about) her. She seems to be more troubled than angry or upset.

Vale End landscape, Wilton, NH
Vale End Cemetery, around 2003.

However, Mary Ritter Spaulding is not alone at Vale End Cemetery, and she may remain there to defend her family — or perhaps the living — from less pleasant spirits at Vale End and nearby Wilton, NH.

One more note about the grave of ‘the Blue Lady’ is important to note: From time to time, people perform Vodun-style rituals at her headstone. Near it, you may see shiny coins or other evidence of this. Please do not remove anything from her grave; that would be disrespectful and… well, it’s inviting trouble.

Next, real-life ghost encounters, and a list of the other spirits at Vale End Cemetery: More ghosts at NH’s Vale End Cemetery.

Gilson Road Cemetery, NH – Ghost Orb (2002)

On the evening of 21 May 2002, I visited Gilson Road Cemetery, Nashua, NH, to experiment with photographs.

My goal was to take photos with normal, false anomalies (insects, pollen, etc.) to show students in an upcoming class.  Unfortunately, almost all of my orb photos from that night… they’re paranormal.

Using a digital camera, I took just two “regular” photos after dusk. One has no anomaly:

The next one has an orb-type anomaly:

Many people have asked me if that’s a “smiley face” in the second photo. It’s not. Enlarged, here’s how it looks:

I use this photo to illustrate the qualities that separate rain orbs, pollen orbs, etc., from the orbs that we consider anomalies, or “ghost orbs.”

When the Tanglewood Estate was first moving in, anomalies weren’t reliable at Gilson Road Cemetery.  Frankly, I expected all ghostly activity to stop, since the area had changed from being very rural to being very… well, suburban.

The good news is, after the biggest changes were over, Gilson’s orbs returned:

Remember: Always take two photos in a row.  If  you can, remain completely still and don’t even breathe between photos.

If there’s an identical orb in both photos, you can probably assume that it’s a reflection.

If orbs are in just one, and the orbs aren’t insects or pollen, and there was no explanation at the time,  I’d assume it’s an anomaly.

Dover, NH – Ghost of Richard ‘Salt Eye’ Storr

ocean waveDover (NH) can be an ideal location for off-the-beaten-path ghost hunting. Sometimes, Dover’s ghosts are overshadowed by the spirits of nearby Portsmouth.

One of Dover’s earliest ghosts provides great historical insights as well as some spectacular hauntings.

Richard ‘Salt Eye’ Storr haunts near downtown Dover, and perhaps along the water’s edge, too. He manifests as a floating ball of light — a glowing orb — up to a foot across, and between three and eight feet above the ground.

His Storr family history is a bit murky. It appears that Augustine Storr (or Storre) came from Lincolnshire, England with his sons William and Richard (or Robert), in 1636 and lived in Exeter, NH for some years.

RICHARD AND WILLIAM – A STUDY IN CONTRASTS

Richard — the much younger son — seems to have been the ‘black sheep’ of the family, and left home early. (The origin of his nickname — ‘Salt Eye’ — is unknown, but assumed to relate to his career at sea.) Richard Storr was very different from his Puritanical church-going brother William, but both of them moved to Dover.

William’s choice was odd because he was an avid fan of Puritanism. One of his prized possessions was a copy of a eulogy for the Puritan Rev. Hildersam of Leicester, England. However, in 1641, Dover — the town the brothers moved to — was named after Robert Dover, who’d resisted Puritanism.

Was that an early bone of contention between the brothers and their chosen home? Was that behind ghost stories related to the Storrs?

It’s difficult to be certain.

‘SALT EYE’ AND THE SEA

According to legend, young Richard Storr left home around age 12 aboard a ship where he was a ‘powder monkey’ or member of a gun crew.

By the time he was in his early 20s, he was Captain Richard ‘Salt Eye’ Storr, and master of his own schooner. However, by all accounts he was a generous captain. His crew liked and admired him.

In fact, he was one of the earliest known Colonial captains with a schooner; that style of ship didn’t become popular in America until around the Revolution.

But, this was typical of Captain Storr. He was forward-thinking and independent. Schooners required a much smaller crew than other ships of his day. That may be why he chose it. He seemed to prefer a sense of privacy.

By 1670, ‘Old Salt Eye’ had retired from the sea. He built a sturdy log home overlooking the water, near Dover Point where Back Road meets Middle Road. That was his only known home, after his retirement.

THE COCHECO MASSACRE

When the center of Dover town moved from Dover Point further inland to ‘Cocheco’, where Major Richard Waldron build a sawmill and gristmill, Salt Eye refused to budge from his home.

Around this time, his brother William started spelling his surname name ‘Storer’, perhaps to differentiate from his eccentric brother. (Their father, Augustine, had died years earlier in Wells, Maine.)

Waldron secured favor with the British government by inviting Native Americans to a celebration. He told them that he was staging a ‘sham’ Indian war against his own soldiers, as a display for visiting officials. About 400 members of the Abenaki Nation showed up, and were promptly put in chains. Half escaped or — as the Waldron told the story — were set free. Some of the captured Indians were executed. About 200 were sent to Boston and sold as slaves in ‘foreign parts’.

Waldron was rewarded by being named Chief Justice for New Hampshire.

Salt Eye Storr was almost put in the chains himself for walking brazenly through town in Indian garb, protesting Waldron’s duplicity. But, Salt Eye avoided charges and the matter seems to have been forgotten, except in a few historical records.

ABENAKI REVENGE AND SALT EYE’S ROLE IN HISTORY

Some years later, the Abenaki had their revenge. Before dawn on June 28th, 1689, the Indians attacked Cocheco village. Waldron was killed with his own sword. Several houses were burned, and about a quarter of the colonists were killed.

Old Salt Eye lived far from the scene of the Cocheco Massacre, as it was later called. He didn’t know what had happened until he arrived in town the next day, to pick up supplies. Because of his years as a sea captain, he had rudimentary medical skills. So, he went from house to house in Cocheco, treating the wounded.

He stayed for several days, and perhaps weeks.

When he’d done all that he could, he returned to his isolated cabin where — according to local records — he lived for the rest of his days.

Today, no one knows where Richard ‘Salt Eye’ Storr’s grave is. He might have been buried near his cabin. More likely, he was buried in Dover Burial Ground, at Dover Point Road and Royer Lane. [map]

THE GHOST OF SALT EYE STORR

According to legend, Richard ‘Salt Eye’ Storr’s ghost still visits Cocheco village — today, the downtown area of Dover — to be sure that the villagers remains safe.

Watch for his glowing orb on warm, foggy nights, especially around the anniversary of the Massacre, at the end of June.

He’s most often spotted near the intersection of Central Ave. and Washington Street, in the vicinity of the historic marker and has also been seen near the Post Office.

Others report him closer to the water’s edge.

References:

Related reports:

  • X-Zone Radio – Raven Duclos’ insights into the ghost of Richard Storr, “A trained medium, Duclos says that Storr is trying to communicate with Dover residents because his death has not yet been validated and his story remains untold.” (Reprint of Jim Haddadin’s article in Foster’s Daily Democrat newspaper.)

This article (originally at HollowHill.com) was the first to report this ghost story. Though I’ve listed historical records supporting it, I don’t claim it’s a “real ghost.”

Gilson Road Cemetery, NH – Weird ‘Vampire’ Mist (2005)

If you’re looking for a real, scary ghost photo, this may be it.

When you’re studying ghosts and hauntings, and have taken thousands of cemetery pictures, orbs become routine.

Rising mist at Gilson Road Cemetery
I also know what my (film) camera’s limits are, in dark, damp, and misty conditions. So, I discount photos that might be caused by the weather or my own breath.

(The latter is why I recommend holding your breath when you’re taking a photo: Make sure your own exhales aren’t putting moisture in front of the lens.)

So, when I see something like the eerie mist in this photograph, I get very excited about it.

Forget about the bell-shaped orbs; they were just the fog when I took this photo. (That’s one reason I like this Canon camera. Its internal lenses refract light bouncing off moist air in a bell-shape that can be used to distinguish “fake anomalies” from the real ones.)

However, the mist coming up from this grave fascinates me. It reminds me of vampire movies. (Later note: This article was written long before the Twilight series was even written.)

I like the contrast between the rising mist -whatever it is – and the larger water droplets in the air, which photographed as “bells.”

I’m not claiming that this mist is an anomaly. I don’t know what it is, but it’s definitely rising up from one of the haunted graves where we get our strangest “ghost photos.”

This was taken at Gilson Road Cemetery, Nashua, NH, on 26 Nov 1999, at about 6 p.m. The grave belongs to Rufus Lawrence.

When we charted the non-orb anomalies we’ve captured on film at this cemetery, his grave is Ground Zero for many of them. For example, the purple-streaked photo (featured elsewhere at this site) was take just to the right of Mr. Lawrence’s headstone.

Camera: Canon Snappy LXII, point-and-shoot
Film: Kodak Max 800 ASA

(Yes, this is a color photo, and no, I didn’t edit it with PhotoShop or any other program.)

Read more about Haunted Gilson Road Cemetery.