How One Ghost Tore Apart An Entire Community.
We all know that Maine is a bit creepy-if not cursed, but did you know that Maine is home to the very first documented haunting?
This story takes place in the late 1700’s in the small town of Franklin-NOT Machiasport, as some folks seem to think. Franklin is a small seaside town overlooking Taunton Bay. The town was settled in part by a man named Moses Butler who was a veteran of the American Revolution, eventually owning his own saw mill in Franklin. This made quite a comfortable living for his family and things looked even better when his son George, a sea captain, fell in love with a beautiful girl named Nelly.
George and Nelly eventually married and moved onto Butler Point in Franklin. They had a massive plot of land and before you know it, the happy couple was expecting their first child. As often was the case back then, Nelly and the baby both struggled through a difficult child birth. Baby Butler died soon after coming into the world with Nelly following close behind a day later.
The grieving widower, George buried Nelly and their infant in unmarked graves overlooking Taunton Bay on Butlers Point. He managed to pick himself up and move on, only to be wrapped up in the middle of some crazy controversial shenanigans….
Enter Lydia.
Lydia Blaisdell was a fifteen year old girl who spent her days picking wool with her older sister in the basement of her home. Her parents Abner and Mary Blaisdell were strict religious folk who ran a tight ship. In 1799, Lydia fell ill and not long into her illness she began to hear knocking coming from the basement. This was blamed on fever dreams and the tricks your mind can play when not feeling well. Eventually a woman’s voice could be heard coming from the basement as well. No one could find the source after several investigations, until one day, a full body apparition of a woman wearing a flowing white gown (it’s always a white gown) appeared in the basement of the Blaisdell home.
The ghost introduced herself as Nelly Butler and demanded it be Lydia’s destiny to marry her lonely, wealthy, good looking, surviving husband, George. Now George was pushing thirty and Lydia was only half his age. Abner wasn’t having this-not no way, not no how. Nelly appeared so often-to the Blaisdells and only the Blaisdells, that Abner had no choice but to approach George’s father, Moses, and tell him it was God’s will for the children to wed.
Abner took his young daughter, who was pitching a fit about this whole thing, and left by horse and buggy to Moses’ house in a snowstorm to deliver this news. My guess is the trip was also up hill both ways. Lydia stood by her original story of “I don’t want to marry a man twice my age but the dead former wife says I have to so, what’s a gal to do?” Let it be known also that Lydia and George were on friendly terms-but they were only friends, as both swore up and down to.
Moses couldn’t believe the audacity of his late night visitors. Moses sent them away in such a huff you would have thought they were asking him to part the red sea. The Blaisdells made it back home only to be greeted by Nelly’s spirit once more. Nelly ordered the pair to retrieve her father and her former husband. You see, Nelly was a considerate ghost and said she would only show herself in the Blaisdell’s basement so not to scare others. She even knocked each time before appearing.
Off they went again in the snow storm, up hill both ways, Lydia demanding she just wanted to be a kid and NOT marry the wealthy and recently widowed George. Abner however, not wanting to disappoint God or go against his will, was doing everything he could to get these two crazy kids together.
Nelly’s father, likely desperate to see his deceased daughter one last time accepted the Blaisdells invitation as did George, the man of the hour.
Nelly appeared before them in the Blaisdell’s basement telling them her wishes to see young Lydia and George get married. Lydia and her father, Nelly’s father and George himself all decided this was not only Nelly’s wishes but God’s will. Moses (George’s father) had no choice but to throw in the towel and accept the fact that his wealthy son was going along with it.
Now, anyone who knows anything about a small town will tell you that gossip is a favorite past time. The town folk of Franklin had been hearing rumors about the ghost of Nelly demanding the marriage of Lydia and George. This is what led the Blaisdells to open their home to the cynical, skeptical and intrigued. Nelly would appear to audiences in the basement answering questions and from the sounds of it, tap dancing her way thru a session of show and tell. Some claimed to have seen her and believe every word of it, while others who were in the same basement at the same time claimed to have heard or seen nothing. Weird.
The most vicious of the tongue wagers claimed Lydia of witchcraft, a good hundred years after the Salem witch trials. Nelly’s sister soon caught wind of the exploitation of her deceased sister and demanded to be taken to the Blaisdell’s basement to see for herself. The spirit of Nelly appeared in such convincing force that her sister had no choice but to admit that although it definitely sounded like Nelly, it was likely the work of the devil. Angered, she left the Blaisdells in a huff.
The accusations and rumors soon got the better of young Lydia, and she voiced her need to run away. George wasn’t having it, for while he claimed in the beginning to not be romantically interested in the child, if his deceased wife said he should, than he would.
Once the rumors really got going, Nelly appeared again to the town folk, furious at having to prove herself. She rattled off information about herself that no one would know but her. She went on to give updates on audience members’ loved ones…some of which had passed unbeknownst to the living.
Not only did Nelly demand this marriage happen, but she also ordered George to dig up her deceased newborn and bury the baby with her body so they could rise to heaven together. George did so, clearly eager to do anything Nelly’s spirit wished. (I guess we know who wore the pants in that relationship.)
George and Lydia soon wed with a regretful Moses looking on. Lydia, no doubt was marrying into a set of shitty in laws as often times is the case, but kept on with Nelly’s wishes. After their marriage, Nelly appeared once more in the Blaisdells basement to tell Lydia she would die very soon in the very same manner as she. Turns out, she was right.
Less than a year later, Lydia died after a complicated child birth, shortly after her newborn child. George had no choice but to bury his second wife and second baby alongside his first wife and baby on the back of his property on Butlers Point in unmarked graves.
After Lydia’s death, George gathered all of Lydia’s belongings and set them afloat on a burning raft…well that seems a bit drastic. This inferno floated down the bay and past the Blaisdells home while they were mourning the death of their child. This caused Abner to fly into a fit of rage separating the town to the point where a new church had to be erected.
George eventually married again and had four children. However, Nelly only appeared once more to a traveling Evangelist named Abraham Cummings. Abe had heard the stories and thought he would do his own investigation. Although Nelly had only appeared in the Blaisdells basement, Abe caught site of the apparition of a lady in a white flowing dress floating across the field not too far away. With all of her wishes fulfilled Nelly didn’t appear to anyone again.
I am not sure what to think about this. There are several things that could have gone on here.
Lydia and George knew each other prior to Nelly’s ghost. Was it all a show put on to allow the marriage to happen? By Lydia, George or both? Was Abner in on it?
How did Nelly’s apparition show to some but not to others who were in the same basement at the same time?
Why was George so disrespectful to Lydia and her family after Lydia died?
Would Lydia dare put on such a show and risk being accused of devil worship or witchcraft? Especially after what happened in Salem a hundred years prior?
Nelly appeared to Lydia after Lydia’s serious illness. It’s been reported that after near death experiences one’s third eye comes into focus? Was this the case with Lydia?
If Lydia was putting on a show, how did she know so much about Nelly’s life or about other deceased people? And how did she know when and how she would die?
It seems Nelly would always show up at the most opportune times to defend Lydia when the heat was turned up on her.
There are so many questions, and only Lydia knows for sure.