Barnstable Village Ghost Hunter's Tour

True, Halloween has once again passed us by. However, I still needed to create a seasonally appropriate post, as All Hallows Eve has always been one of my favorite holidays. That being said, the wife and I were happy to take a Friday night to explore the haunted history of Barnstable, Ma in the name of Yankee research.

Our adventure was provided by the Cape and Islands Paranormal Research Society (CAIPRS), which conducts nightly walking tours in Barnstable Village, as well as Ghost Hunting walking tours on Mondays and Fridays. These tours take place between April 16 and November 15. All tours begin at 7PM in the small parking lot of the Old Jail and the US Coast Guard Heritage Museum on 3353 Main Street (rt. 6a).

Our tour guide, who led our small group of six, was very knowledgeable about Cape Cod history, focusing obviously on the supernatural stories of the area. Although we began our tour at the Old Jail, we actually started by walking on Old King’s Highway (6a), headed toward Barnstable Village.

Our first stop was a property on the corner of Hyannis-Barnstable rd, at which a man was allegedly hanged sometime in the late 1700’s. Although no one knows exactly when the man was executed or where on the property he lost his life, witnesses have claimed to see a tall dark figure walking the property or along 6a itself. However, he did not make an appearance for our tour that night.

Our next stop was at another eighteenth century property along Main Street. Although this property was once part of a large farm, it is now a law office. Our tour guide explained that the previous lawyer who had rented this property was surprised when one day the apparition of a woman materialized from the closet of his office. Not only was the woman wearing clothing reminiscent of the 1700’s, but she was also carrying an axe or hatchet.

The spirit of a hatchet bearing woman was seen in the lower office

Our CAIPRS guide informed us that this could have been an example of a residual haunt, which is something like a recording of an event or a person. She said that this woman may never materialize again or it could happen at random, no one is sure what might trigger it. However, she said that the current lawyer renting this space has his desk facing away from the closet just in case.

Our group next walked only a short distance to the Barnstable County Court House. Here, our guide shared several stories about the variety of specters who visit. Two of the most frequently seen are the figures of two unknown men. At times these men appear as dark clouds of smoke, which move about the inside of the building. Employees have sometimes mistaken these men for intruders and have attempted to follow them. However, as ghosts tend to do, they both disappeared without a trace.

Barnstable County Court House

The second spirit attached to the Barnstable court haunts the outside of the building. This spirit is sometimes seen as a shadow or a man walking the grounds. It is often reported that he will disappear from one spot only to appear in another.

Our tour continued a little way down 6a to the Barnstable Comedy Club, where we were again treated to several ghost stories related to the building. On the stage of the comedy club a woman in a gown is known to appear and disappear. Our tour guide again labeled this as a residual haunt. However, our guide informed the group that the spirit of an unknown man who appears in the small kitchenette to neatly pull out the silverware and plates is an example of an intelligent haunt. Unlike the previous ghost, this spirit is said to interact with objects in the physical world.

The Haunted Comedy Club

I thought a ghost like this, who constantly leaves dishes, cups, and silverware littering the counter, would be a real pain to have in the house. However, my wife suggested that if he could be trained to empty the dishwasher he might not be so bad.

Our next stop on the ghost hunting tour was the Crocker Tavern House. This house has several ghost stories attributed to it. Perhaps the most often repeated story was that of Aunt Lydia, who haunts the upstairs bedroom. Several people have reported waking in the middle of the night only to see the spirit of Lydia leaning over them in bed.

The Crocker Tavern House
Lydia appears in the upper left bedroom

From the Crocker House we retraced our steps to the Barnstable Restaurant and Tavern. Our guide explained that the current tavern had been rebuilt on the spot where the previous building had burned down. Inside, the ghost of a young girl in a blue dress is supposed to haunt the second floor. Sometimes she is seen running up the stairs and may even grab the hand of a visitor. When asked, I volunteered to walk up the stairs and down the hallway. My wife declined to accompany me.

I didn't see the spirit of the girl, but this poster of
this video seemed to have experience something

Although I took many pictures, I did not see any sign of the young girl. I did hear a lot of banging and thumping however. When I returned to the tour the guide asked me if I had heard any strange noises above me. I recalled all the thumping and banging. The tour guide then informed us that a recluse woman had died in the tavern attic. In all honesty the tavern was very busy that night and it was hard to tell where the noise was coming from. Still, it was fun to volunteer.

From the Barnstable tavern, the group walked back to Cobbs Hill Cemetery, where we really began our ghost hunting. Our guide pointed out the areas of the cemetery with the most reported activity. She described an entity called the Shadow that appears near a monolith-like grave stone. She also described the sounds of young girls laughing and talking. The guide then instructed us on the use of digital recorders, which we were to use while attempting to record disembodied electronic voices often called EVPs.

Cobb's Hill Cemetery
a beautiful Cape cemetery

In pairs, the group took 30 minutes to walk around the cemetery asking questions and hoping for spectral answers from beyond. To the horror of the wife, I hastily claimed the area where the Shadow sometimes makes an appearance. Although I saw many great examples of Puritan gravestones, we did not record a single anomalous sound.

Our last stop was back at the Old Jail, which we now entered. The guide asked for volunteers to sit on two stools in one of the old jail cells. Again, I stepped up, to the wife’s dismay. As I and another tour member sat, the guide explained how awful conditions were in these old prisons. Each prison cell was filled with many prisoners, who could only eat if they could afford it. Of course many prisoners starved or froze to death during New England winters.

The tour guide explained that strange noises are often heard in the Old Jail. Sometimes the spirits knock on the walls or drop objects to get attention. Occasionally the spirits even touch people on tour. The guide then warned that she was going to turn off all the lights and ask the spirits to let us know they were there.

Instantly it became very dark. Our CAIPRS guide explained that dark shadows of two unknown doomed prisoners have been seen walking between the two stools now occupied by myself and a young mother. In complete darkness one looses all sense of spatial dimension, so for an instant I could have been convinced that spectral shadows were closing in around me. However, our tour of the Old Jail ended without any unexplained noises or visions.

A cell in the Old Jail
The spirits of two prisoners appear in this cell

Although nothing unusual was seen on our tour of Barnstable Village, I, my wife, and my tour group did have a great time. I enjoyed hearing some of the historic ghost stories of the area and was happy to participate in exploring haunted hallways and jail cells. In addition, I would be happy to participate in another CAIPRS even in the future. The haunted tours unfortunately end next Friday, however they start again in the April. If anyone is interested in exploring the paranormal in an interesting and informative way, definitely check out one of the tours conducted by the Cape and Islands Paranormals Research Society. However, remember, just because I didn’t see anything doesn’t mean you won’t.

Robert the Scot- Barnstable, Ma

I often tell my history students when they begin to struggle, “Sometimes history is hard.” Often information is difficult to find or has been lost to time, and very often things remain unsolved. I experienced this first hand in my attempt to locate the grave of Robert Marshall in West Barnstable. What I found was some fantastic history about his life and the odd circumstances surrounding his death. However, the man known as Robert the Scotsman remains a true Cape Cod mystery. Unfortunately it’s a mystery I have so far failed to solve.

According to Elizabeth Reynard, in The Narrow Land, Robert Marshall was the Scottish manservant, protector, and sometimes apothecary for Dr. Mathew Fuller, the first full time physician in Barnstable County. Reynard does not give a whole lot of historical information about Robert’s background; in fact very little background information on Robert seems to exist. She simply describes him as very large (also hairy) and extremely loyal to his master. He also seemed to have been marked as somewhat of an outsider in 17th century Barnstable. According to Reynard he was:

“A man who mocked the Lord by wearing a folded petticoat, and shattered the mind by music drawn from an instrument resembling a giant snail bloated by rigor mortis.”

What made Robert’s position even more tenuous, other than his bagpipes and highland garb, was the relationship his master had with Thomas Hinckley, the Governor of Plymouth Colony.

Unlike Robert, Mathew Fuller’s life is fairly well documented. Dr. Fuller is credited with being the first full time physician in Barnstable County, which now contains all towns on Cape Cod. According to the Mayflower Society’s Five Generations Project, Mathew Fuller was born in England sometime between 1602 and 1605. His parents and brother were members of the original passengers aboard the Mayflower in 1620. His father even signed the Mayflower Compact.

Mathew did not accompany his family on the Mayflower. It is guessed that he remained in England to complete his education. He arrived in Plymouth Colony around 1640. Although his parents did not survive their first winter in New England, his brother remained in Plymouth in the care of an uncle.

Matthew Fuller seemed to very quickly make a name for himself in Plymouth Colony, in both positive and negative ways. He was appointed sergeant in the military company under the command of Myles Standish. Although, he moved to Barnstable in 1650, he continued to serve Plymouth and Massachusetts by becoming the Surgeon General of the colonial troops.  He even served as Captain of the Plymouth troops during the King Philip’s War. His medical training is said to have saved the lives of hundreds of colonial soldiers, as he had taken to the practice of baking linens before wrapping wounds. The disinfected linens prevented wounds from festering in a time when the understanding of bacterial infection was pretty limited.

Dr. Fuller owned land in many towns in the developing New England area, but eventually he settled in the area of West Barnstable called Scorton Neck. This area now runs between the towns of Sandwich and Barnstable along Route 6A, very close to Sandy Neck Beach.

Although Dr. Fuller seems to have led a praiseworthy life, he was also well known for being an outspoken Quaker. Often, his willingness to say what was on his mind got him reprimanded by Governor Hinckley. In one specific event, he was even fined fifty shillings for speaking out against a mandatory tax created to support colonial clergy. Obviously, separation of church and state was not an important concept in the Plymouth Colony.

However, he and Robert really stepped wrong with Hinckley when the Governor got sick from eating snails. According to Reynard, the Governor asked for assistance from Dr. Fuller, who arrived with his faithful servant, Robert. Fuller examined Governor Hinckley and asked Robert to mix something that would help Hinckley vomit out the poisonous snails. The concoction served its purpose, Hinckley and the snails parted ways. However, the Governor was rather displeased with both Fuller and Robert. He believed that the two had conspired to poison him.

Hinckley was carried off to bed, insisting that he was dying from Robert’s supposed poison, and that Fuller had allowed it to happen and had done nothing to save him. This one, somewhat silly event, seems to have led to lasting enmity between the three men.

However, the real Yankee mystery begins after the death of Dr. Fuller in 1678. At the time of the illness which would eventually claim his life, Dr. Fuller’s estate was inventoried so he could prepare his last will and testament. In Plymouth Colony Wills and Inventories Vol. III, his estate is recorded to have contained a box of precious stones, pearls, and diamonds. These items would have been very rare and valuable in seventeenth century New England.

According to Mathew’s last will and testament, he did not necessarily leave these particular items to anyone in his family. However, many resources state that after Fuller’s death, his box of precious stones was found to be missing.

Governor Hinckley summoned Robert Marshall to court and accused him of the theft. Hinckley pointed out that Robert alone had sole access to Dr. Fuller’s belongings. Robert, who had not slept since the death of his master, could not explain what had happened to the missing jewels. Although Hinckley had no proof with which to convict Robert, the accusation and suspicion stuck.

As the story goes, Robert became inconsolable after the death of Fuller and the accusation of Hinckley. Apparently, his grief caused him to stop eating. He began to visibly waste away the winter after his master’s death. Very quickly Robert seemed to lose both his health and his mind. People reported seeing him searching feverishly for his master’s lost jewels, sometimes in strange, remote, places. Eventually, Robert simply died alone in the middle of a cold New England night.

His body was found lying in the snow on Scorton Hill, near his master’s land. As Robert was quite heavy and the snow was very deep, it was almost impossible to carry his remains to the cemetery for burial. It was decided that he would be buried near where he had died, on the northeastern slope of Scorton Hill.

Some sources even give very specific directions to his grave. For instance, according to a letter written by Mary Wing, which was reprinted Cape Cod Library of Local History Genealogy:

“The grave may be found by ascending Scorton Hill on the east side about two-thirds of its height, when you come to a stone wall that runs northeasterly in the direction of Francis Jones’ barn. Southeasterly from that wall 67 feet and northeast by north 133 feet from the wall by the county road is poor Robert’s grave.”

These directions read like a treasure map. Unfortunately, this land has changed a lot since 1863, when Mary’s letter was originally written. By ascending Scorton Hill on its east side, I would be walking through many back yards and private property. Thus, I was unfortunately unable to locate Robert’s grave.

However, I believe his grave is most likely still there, probably sitting unnoticed in someone’s backyard. In fact, all sources indicate that the spot of Robert’s burial was well known for nearly two hundred years after his death. Sometime in the late 19^th century, a Barnstable sea captain by the name of Oliver Chase even marked Robert’s grave with two stones. He placed one at the head and one at the foot of the burial mound. He even brought Mary Wing, the author of the “treasure map” letter to the exact spot.

Not only was the spot of Robert’s grave known and marked, it was even avoided by Cape Codders for hundreds of years. According to The Narrow Land, it is said that Robert’s spirit refuses to rest. Instead, he continues to search for his master’s lost jewels. In fact, the story says if you are in the area of Scorton Hill on a moonlit night, you may hear Roberts bagpipes and the sound of his mournful sobs.

As far as I know, Dr. Fuller’s precious stones were never found. I don’t know if Robert stole them, but I do wonder. When Fuller died, he mentioned his Scottish servant in his will. When leaving his property and his wealth to his family, he bequeathed to faithful Robert “a peece of Cloth Intended to make mee a suite.” Not only does this seem like a little motive, but the unlikable Governor Hinckley was correct in stating that Robert had sole access to his master’s body and full knowledge of the whereabouts of his master’s jewels. I don’t want to accuse poor Robert all over again, but it does make me curious.

I was rather frustrated at being unable to find the grave of poor Robert the Scot. In order to find it, I believe it would take access to 19^th century property records and permission to tramp around private property. Sadly, I don’t have either. Or, since Robert seems to be a noisy spirit, maybe I should just follow the sound of bagpipes and sobbing to the right spot. I would absolutely love to find this spot in the future if at all possible. Until that time, I have learned my own lesson well, sometimes history is hard.

Mercy Brown- Exeter, RI

The Grave of Mercy Lena Brown
Last of the New England Vampires

Anyone who has looked into odd pieces of New England history has come across the now famous case of Mercy Lena Brown. From the perspective of most outsiders to New England, she might just seem like a late nineteenth century victim of a tuberculosis outbreak in Rhode Island. However, to many Yankees and others in the know, she has unwillingly earned the title of the last of the New England Vampires.

The strange case of Mercy Brown begins in Exeter, Rhode Island with the family of George T. Brown. George was born about 1842 in Rhode Island. According to the 1880 Federal Census, George had a growing family of six children with his wife Mary E. Brown in rural Exeter, Rhode Island.

However, as it often does, tragedy began to target the family. In 1883 George’s wife Mary died of consumption. Today, consumption is known as pulmonary tuberculosis, a serious bacterial infection.



Grvestone of Mary E. Brown
The first of the Browns to contract consuption

In the late nineteenth century, the understanding of bacterial infections and antibiotics was just beginning to develop. For instance, Alexander Fleming did not even discover the antibiotic properties of penicillin until 1928. Therefore, in 1883, the cause of consumption was still unknown. Victims of consumption would develop a cough which would produce blood. They would begin to lose weight, run a fever, become lethargic and sickly, and more than likely they would eventually die.

The name consumption is understandable in retrospect, as the disease seemed to consume the host. In many places, especially in New England, the cause of consumption was rooted in a folk belief associated with the visitation of undead spirits upon living victims. In The Animistic Vampire in New England , an article by George R. Stetson, published in an 1896 issue of The American Anthropologist, Stetson states:

“In New England, the vampire superstition is unknown by its proper name. It is believed that consumption is not a physical but a spiritual disease, obsession, or visitation; that as long as the body of a dead consumptive relative has blood in its heart it is proof that an occult influence steals from it for death and is at work draining the blood of the living into the heart of the dead and causing a rapid decline.”

Today, we would call these spirits vampires, but in the late nineteenth century the concepts which defined vampires, spirits, and ghosts were not as clear cut as our Hollywood and pop culture inspired margins of the supernatural. According to Stetson, sometimes these creatures were believed to literally walk out of their grave and prey on the living, and sometimes they only did so in spirit, floating through the cracks and keyholes of the homes of the living to cause sickness and death. Either way, these were not the type of vampire that sparkled in the daylight or romanced teenage girls.

These beliefs occurred all throughout New England. Stetson mentions that there are cases in Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as several in Rhode Island.

Of course, this folklore is not specific to rural New England. It came to the New World from Europe. In fact, according to Discovery News, two corpses have recently been unearthed in Ireland which demonstrate that as far back as the AD 700s Europeans were burying societal outcasts with stones shoved in their mouths to prevent them from rising from the dead. Although, the article makes it clear that archeologists do not believe these particular burials reflect vampire slaying rituals, because there was no vampire related folklore in the first century AD, this type of belief and ritual was certainly a predecessor to later vampire related beliefs in Europe and nineteenth century New England.

Stetson goes on to explain that in the New England vampire tradition, the undead were believed to begin with one family member, then work its way through the entire clan. Such was the case in the Brown family.

In 1884 George’s oldest daughter Mary O. Brown contracted consumption and died. According to an article published in the Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner, George’s only son Edwin began to show signs of consumption sometime in 1890. Edwin Brown and his wife left Rhode Island for Colorado Springs, seeking the rumored healing properties of the area. Edwin stayed in Colorado for 18 months, but ultimately found that a change of scenery did not help his condition.



The gravestone of Mary Olive Brown
The second victim of consumption in the Brown family

While Edwin was away, his younger sister Mercy Lena Brown also began to show signs of the disease. The article in the Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner indicates that Mercy had been sick for only about a year before she too passed away in January of 1892.

Although, not reflected in any of the contemporary newspaper articles written about the case, many modern sources indicate that Mercy’s body would have been placed in the local crypt in Exeter’s Chestnut Hill Cemetery, rather than buried in the frozen New England ground in the family plot with her mother and sister.

The crypt that supposedly held the body of Mercy Brown

In the winter of 1892 Edwin returned to Exeter Rhode Island. Newspaper accounts indicate that he stayed with his in-laws rather than return home. While in Exeter, Edwin’s health continued to decline. Ultimately George Brown and the remaining members of Edwin’s family must have felt very desperate. In a final effort to save his son, George agreed to have the bodies of his deceased family members exhumed in an attempt to end what was perceived by some to be a vampiric curse on the Browns.

In Animistic Vampires of New England, Stetson explains that New Englanders would have been well versed on how to deal with vampires. He mentions several cases in which the bodies of consumptives were exhumed and the hearts of the corpses burned. In the folklore of the area, there were several cases where such a treatment was supposed to have worked.

This story was heavily covered by the newspapers of the time. Articles from New York to Massachusetts picked up the story and wrote about the event. Although the stories have some variability, most tell a very similar tale.

According to these accounts, George Brown called a doctor named Harold Metcalf from nearby Wickford to oversee the exhumations, which occurred on March 17. When the bodies of George’s wife and oldest daughter were unearthed, it was found that there was little left but bones. This makes sense, as both had been dead for many years.

However, when Mercy’s body was removed from her coffin, at least to the onlookers, it looked like it had not decomposed much at all. Her cheeks still had color and a couple articles even indicate that her body seemed to have changed position since its burial.

To some this was proof that Mercy was indeed a vampire. However, most of the articles also state that Dr. Harold Metcalf observed that the seemingly unchanged condition of Mercy’s remains reflected a natural state of decomposition for a body that had only been buried for nine weeks. In addition, as we all know, the freezing New England temperatures in January would have also preserved the body.

When Mercy’s body was opened, it was found that her heart and lungs still contained blood. These organs (some sources indicate her liver as well) were removed and burned on a nearby rock. The ashes were mixed with water and fed to the ailing Edwin Brown in an attempt to cure his consumption. Unfortunately, Edwin’s condition quickly worsened and he died roughly two months later.

The Brown family plot
See the rock- top right
This is the rock on which Mercy's heart was burned

The gravestone of Edwin Brown
The last of the Browns to contract consumption

Although Edwin was not saved by this folk remedy, it seems as though none of the remaining three Browns contracted the disease. In an attempt to further trace the family, I was able to find George Brown living with his second to youngest daughter Hattie in the 1900 and 1910 Federal Census records.

According to the census information George never remarried. I hardly blame him, after losing the majority of his family he must have been heartbroken. In addition, the articles printed in the Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner mention that George did not even believe in the vampire folklore. I’m sure he was simply desperate and would have tried anything to save the rest of his family. George himself died in 1922, unlike the graves of his family members, his shows no inscription.



The gravestone of George T. Brown

When examining this history, I was continually surprised that a vampire slaying ritual like this one would have occurred as late as 1892, so close to the twentieth century. When reading the articles like the one entitled Vampires in New England, which was printed by the New York World in 1896, I find that the authors were just as surprised as I was.

Most of the authors were shocked that this type of superstition would still exist in a modern country at the dawn of industry, scientific advancement, urbanism, and modern technology.

Anthropologist, George R. Stetson, believed that this modernization was part of the problem that explained the continuation of the vampire folklore. Stetson explains that even though Rhode Island was one of the most populated states per square mile in the nineteenth century, the villages and hamlets were actually quite isolated. In addition, much like today, many families were moving from very rural areas like Exeter to more urban areas. This left behind the aging population of the previous generations, acres of abandoned farms and farmland, and social isolation in villages like Exeter. Stetson states:

"Here Cotton Mather, Justice Sewell, and the host of medical, clerical, and lay believers in the uncanny superstitions of bygone centuries could still hold carnival."

In his notes Stetson mentions Exeter as being a part of Rhode Island that was specifically afflicted with this movement toward urbanism. He records that the town of Exeter had only 17 persons per square mile in 1890 and in 1893 had 63 abandoned farms, which equaled one fifth of its total number.

Lastly, Stetson also mentions the fact that it does not matter how educated and cultured a population becomes, because superstition and folklore will always exist to one degree or another. People hang horseshoes, pick four leaf clovers, hunt ghosts, participate in séances, and have their palms read even in the twenty-first century. In reality, maybe we haven’t really come too far.

Some researchers have ventured that the case of Mercy Brown might have actually been highly influential to Bram Stoker, the author the Dracula, which was published in 1897. Among the research papers Bram Stoker had in his notes for Dracula was the New York World article, Vampires of New England. Stoker clipped this article during his trip to the US in 1896.

However, Michael Bell, author of Food For the Dead, a book about the New England vampire folklore, discounts this belief. He states that by 1896, when the article was printed in New York, Stoker would have been nearly completely done with his novel.

So Mercy Brown may not have completely influenced the development of Dracula, but Stoker at least looked at the article in the final months of writing his novel. In addition, its hard not to see the similarities between Mercy’s case and the characters and plot line of Dracula. Perhaps the other pieces of folklore collected in Europe were just very similar to the New England tradition.

In conclusion, I was so excited to finally be able to make time to visit this great (though odd) piece of New England history. Yankees have always been an interesting bunch. This enduring belief in vampires having survived so late into the nineteenth century certainly proves the point.

As my fiancé and I walked through Chestnut Hill cemetery last week, I jokingly asked her if she was afraid because we were going to be seeing the grave of a supposed vampire. Having been recently told the story, she responded, “no, I think she was just a really sick girl.” As usual, she gets right to the point. The Brown family suffered a series of real tragedies, among them the death of Mercy.  I certainly feel lucky to live in a time period where antibiotics are available and things like cavities and colds are no longer life threatening, never mind that tuberculosis is now treatable.

However, even in 2011, we Yankees remain somewhat peculiar. As we left Exeter and visited with friends who live close by, the topic of conversation was fitting and instructive of just how little we New Englanders have changed between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. That’s right, with our friends we spent a good portion of the night discussing stories of the undead.

Chamber Rock- Bournedale, Ma

I guess I am doing a short series on historic Massachusetts rocks. Maybe I’ll try to catch another for next week.

Chamber Rock, or as it has historically been called, Sacrifice Rock, was a somewhat frustrating historical study. I have never run across an object with so many honorable mentions in historical texts which still remains more or less anomalous. I still have a lot of questions about the rock, even after a week’s worth of research.

Chamber Rock lies right at the entrance of Chamber Rock Rd in Bournedale, Ma. Although, the boulder is called Chamber Rock now, because of the cave like formations its split created, it was once known as Sacrifice Rock, because of the legends of Native American ritual human sacrifice attributed to it. In fact, it still sits on the edge of Sacrifice Rock Woods in Bournedale.

Although the site has a definite lack of historical evidence to support even its original name, it is connected to an abundance of legends. These legends are interesting in that the two main versions reflect both a Christian and pre-Christian perspective on the origins of the shape of the rock.

In addition, the second version of legend surrounding Chamber Rock seems to actually be an origin story regarding why and how so many of the native tribes of the Cape area became Christianized during the early colonial period.

The first legend about this giant rock is actually not the most popular version, but it seems to have Wampanoag origins, so it might actually be the older of the two. This particular take on the story comes from a bulletin of the Massachusetts Archeological Society entitled Indian Rocks of Cape Cod, written by Howard Torrey.

As the legend states, in Ancient times, the people of Comassakumkanet (modern Herring Pond) were troubled. Their squash and beans would not grow and even their corn was dying. No rain had come in a month and their shaman’s prayers and incantations were unable to help. The people feared the coming of winter because they had not been able to store any food.

Because of the drought, they believed that the Thunder People were angry with them. So the Sachem of the tribe called together his councilors and his shaman. Among the leaders of the tribe it was decided that a great sacrifice must be made. It had to be a very important sacrifice. In fact, it had to be human sacrifice.

A victim was chosen from among captives taken from a raid on a distant village. There was a huge flat boulder in the village which had been used as a natural stage during traditional ceremonies and important tribal rites. This boulder was chosen as the site for the sacrifice.

The victim was brought to the top of the boulder and tied in place. Dry kindling was piled up beneath him. Great storm clouds began to gather in the sky, so the people believed the ceremony was already working.

The entire tribe, including the Sachem and the shaman, gathered around the boulder in prayer. The shaman held a torch, ready to light the dry wood beneath victim. As the shaman stepped forward the storm suddenly broke in a blinding flash of lightening and a deafening roar. The ground shook around the people and dust and debris filled the air.

When the dust cleared, the tribe saw that the great boulder had been split in half. All the village leaders lay dead, scattered around the boulder. Amazingly, the victim remained unharmed.

A split in Chamber Rock- Was it caused by lightning?

The people interpreted this as a sign from the Thunder People that human sacrifice was unacceptable. This news spread throughout the Wampanoag region and the practice of human sacrifice was ended. The boulder remains as a testament to those who would doubt this.

In this version, the story seems to be used to explain why the Wampanoag tribe did not perform religious human sacrifice. However, I could not find another resource that even indicated that the local tribes had ever done so.

The second version of this story has more of a Christian influence, but ultimately has the same moral lesson. I obtained this version from Scott Corbett’s An Informal History of Cape Cod: Cape Cod's Way.

In this version, an early colonist of Sandwich by the name of Richard Bourne was traveling through the village of Bournedale when he accidently came upon a group of Wampanoag in the midst of sacrificing one of their own on top of a large boulder.

Bourne was familiar with the native language so he screamed to the natives to stop what they were doing in the name of God. He explained to them that there was no need to sacrifice because he believed Jesus had made the ultimate sacrifice for mankind already. When natives refused to end the ceremony, he called upon God to stop them. The Almighty apparently answered his prayer. In a flash, a bolt of lightening crashed down into the middle of the natives.

The bolt of lightening split the rock in half and killed a number of the local tribe members. However, the intended sacrifice victim remained unharmed. After seeing such an awesome display of power from the Christian God of the Englishmen, many of the local Wampanoag converted to Christianity and became Praying Indians. From among these converts Richard Bourne was able to open the First Indian Meeting House in Plymouth colony.

Both of these legends left me with more questions than I actually began with. Each story states that Chamber Rock had once been a site used for human sacrifice. However, these stories don’t seem to match historical evidence. Certainly the local tribes of this area had a tradition of sacrifice to their deities, but what this actually meant is a little unclear.

Luckily, there are other sites close by which were used for a similar purpose. According to Native Plymouth Tours, there are at least two other rocks currently called “Sacrifice Rock” in the town of Plymouth, only a few miles north of Bournedale.

Early colonists knew about these sites and wrote about them. Human sacrifice, though, did not seem to be part of the tradition. According to Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth:

"Sacrifice Rocks- Of these there are two, and both on the easterly side of the Sandwich Road . . . These rocks, still covered with small branches, remain as monuments of aboriginal religious rites. Like the Manittoo Asseinah, or Spirit Rocks of the western Indians, they have always received the homage of branches from the natives."

So, it seems as though a traditional Wampanoag sacrifice was made by placing a branch upon the rock, not by opening the throat of a human victim. These sacrifices were made to appease or make a connection with the native concept of the Manitou, which in Algonquian culture sometimes represented the balance of life and death in the universe, but could also represent the spirit within any given object. These Sacrifice Rocks were areas where this connection with Manitou was particularly strong.

There are other sources which seem to mention Chamber Rock (when it was called Sacrifice Rock) specifically. In his book In Olde Massachusetts: Sketches of Old Times and Places During the Early Days of the Commonwealth Charles Todd seems to refer to chamber Rock, though not in name. Todd quotes a missionary from Mashpee named Gideon Hawley:

"We have a sacrifice rock, as it is termed, between Sandwich and Plymouth, to which stones and sticks are always cast by Indians who pass by it. This custom or rite seems to be an acknowledgment of an invisible being, we may style him the unknown God, whom the people worship. This heap is his alter. The stone that is collected is the oblation of the traveler, which if offered with a good mind, may be as acceptable as a consecrated animal."

Hence, it seems even in Bournedale the site was not historically used for human sacrifice. Rather, it was an alter for sticks and stones to be laid upon. Other historical sources only mention its existence as a landmark, but say nothing of its history.

In at least the second version of the legend, Richard Bourne plays a star role. Of him, there is no lack of history and supporting evidence. According to the History of Richard Bourne and Some of His Descendants, Richard was an Englishman who first immigrated to Lynn, Ma between 1625 and 1630.

Of course, the town of Bourne would eventually bear his name when it separated from Sandwich in 1884. However, in 1637 Bourne came from Lynn to the new settlement of Sandwich with the first few settlers. He became a distinguished citizen and served as representative to the General Court of Massachusetts from Sandwich for 15 years.

Bourne was most well known for his work among the local tribes of the Wampanoag Confederacy. With his own funds, he purchased land for the tribe he called the South Sea Indians. He provided that this land could not be taken from the natives unless all tribal members consented. This land ultimately became part of the town of Mashpee. Richard Bourne also learned to speak the local dialect of Wampanoag. It was through this mastery of the native language that he once saved the town of Sandwich from an angry group of local native warriors. When no one else could, Bourne was able to talk the group out of attacking.

Bourne also acted as a missionary to the native people. He was able to translate a written copy of the Lord’s Payer into the Wampanoag language. Along with Thomas Tupper, he also opened the first Indian Meeting House in the Plymouth colony, of which he became the pastor in 1670. The site where the meetinghouse originally stood is now called Burrying Hill and still bears a plaque dedicated to the original native church and burial ground.

Burrying Hill- Bourndale Ma

In fact, it was partially this connection which Richard Bourne built with the native groups of Sandwich and Mashpee which allowed these towns to be a safe haven for the colonists during the King Philip’s War and prevented the native groups of these areas from joining Metacom’s warriors.  

An additional amazing tale is told of Richard Bourne and his work as a native missionary. This legend comes from Massachusetts: A Guide to its Places and People.

According to this legend Richard Bourne got into an argument with a Wampanoag Pow-wow, which is similar to a shaman or religious leader. The Pow-wow lost his temper in the argument and cast a spell on Bourne, which caused his feet to sink into the ground and become stuck. The two agreed that neither would move from that spot until one had beaten the other in a contest of wits and endurance. The contest lasted for 15 days, during which time a white dove descended daily from the sky to deliver a cherry to the mouth of Richard Bourne. Apparently the Pow-wow had no such help. Unable to cast a spell on the dove and weak with thirst and hunger, the shaman dropped to the ground with exhaustion and Richard Bourne was once again a free man.

The tale goes on to say that one of the cherries from the dove fell into a local bog during the contest of wits. This cherry turned into the cranberry, which is still widely grown on Cape Cod.

So, not only can Richard Bourne be credited with shattering Chamber Rock and Christianizing the Cape’s Wampanoag population, but he can also claim credit for bringing the cranberry to the Cape (at least in myth). However, it seems in both legend and history, Bourne was a pretty influential person in early Massachusetts.

As I said, I still have questions about Chamber Rock. Did tribes within the Wampanoag Confederacy once perform human sacrifice? Was Chamber Rock really an area used for this sacrifice? Two separate questions for which I have no definite answer.

Considering all the legends surrounding this site, it seems like it deserves at least a closer look. However, according to the Massachusetts Archeological Society in Indian Rocks of Cape Cod, there is really no archeological evidence to support that native tribes used this area at all.

In addition, this source states that Chamber Rock was probably not split by a lightening strike (sadly). Rather, it was split when it was deposited by the last glacier to pass through this area, and then widened by further freezing and thawing action. Not quite as exciting.

So, perhaps Chamber Rock was once an important religious site for tribes in the Wampanoag Confederacy. Maybe natives even performed or attempted to perform human sacrifice at this site. But, it seems also quite possible that natives and early Yankees just liked to have a story for every large strange shaped rock they saw. They're kinda like me in that way I guess.

One of the dark chambers within Chamber Rock