Sin and Flesh Brook...and other Rhode Island haunts (Providence: houses, school)

[Ice_Wolf]

First off, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, and I apologize for my absence on this here forum (work, college, and caring for a 4 year old is awesome but time consuming as hell!). Okay, I am a resident of the rural and partly suburban town of Tiverton. I live towards the more southern/central part of the town near Nanaquaket pond. On ocassion, when the weather permits, I love to go for walks and jogs around the pond in the wee morning hours, and delight in the sight of the sun rising over a field of grazing cows. Sometimes my fiance will accompany me. If I feel the need to go for a walk, however, at night following the same route, he NEEDS to come with me. Months ago, during the pleasant summer nights, him and I would stroll down highland road and watch what looked like hundreds of fireflies light up the same field with the grazing cows. But when we walk a little bit past that field, for whatever reason, I would always get the heebie jeebies for some reason and always felt like I was being watched when we walked near the brook, hence the reason why I needed another person to come with me, especially a sturdily built young man, like my fiance. Up until yesterday I had no idea why this particular spot and surrounding area (adjacent to the brook is part of Fort Barton forest, and for whatever reason always seems too quiet, even in the middle of summer when it should be teeming with life) gave me such the creeps. Yesterday I purchased the book "Haunted Rhode Island," and to my astonishment, found out why I can't walk here at night alone or drive by it without having to look in my rear view mirror. Turns out a man in the 1600s on his way to attend a Quaker meeting was brutally murdered and his remains dumped into the brook originally called "Sinning Flesh River." As soon as I found this out, I had a small amount of closure knowing that I wasn't crazy for thinking something was up around that area. I found a nice little article on quahog.org about it:
Quahog.org: Sin and Flesh Brook
I'm sure some of you have heard of this story already, and perhaps had the same feelings I have had if visiting that area, especially at night. Now, my question to everyone is: Has anyone else been to another RI haunt, such as the Ladd school, Mercy Brown's grave site (I drove by it at night and saw a glowing orange light...and no, I have never done a drug in my life) the Ramtail Factory in Foster, etc. I was reading the book and a couple things in Glocester piqued my interest, about the Stagecoach Tavern and most notable the Dark Swamp and the creature called "IT." What does everyone think of those stories? Is there something out in that swamp? I'm sure some of you are skeptics and think it's all baloney, and that's okay too. I like to hear everyone's input, and to be quite honest, I don't always believe every little thing I hear about the paranormal, either. But some things related to the ghost world in Rhode Island I'm sure must be true, at least to some extent. My point being is that I just don't hold an extreme view on the subject matter in general. I basically just like to see what other people think-and it'd be interesting to hear about experiences as well!

[sue64]

..about the paranormal. I have watched things about it since I was a kid, but I haven't had any experiences - yet! My mom has, when I was a kid we lived in PA for a little while and a couple times she would feel a hand on her shoulder, she called him Herman. I can't wait to get to RI, New England seems to be full of the paranormal.

[LanceS133]

I've been trying to find the exact location of the Ram Tail Factory in Foster. I've found and been on Ram Tail Rd. but I wasn't able to venture down any of the small dirt roads.
Does anybody know which path way off of Ramtail Rd. leads to the ruined factory?

[mr2448]

Originally Posted by Ice_Wolf

I was reading the book and a couple things in Glocester piqued my interest, about the Stagecoach Tavern and most notable the Dark Swamp and the creature called "IT." What does everyone think of those stories? Is there something out in that swamp? I'm sure some of you are skeptics and think it's all baloney, and that's okay too. I like to hear everyone's input, and to be quite honest, I don't always believe every little thing I hear about the paranormal, either. But some things related to the ghost world in Rhode Island I'm sure must be true, at least to some extent. My point being is that I just don't hold an extreme view on the subject matter in general. I basically just like to see what other people think-and it'd be interesting to hear about experiences as well!

The Stagecoach Tavern, now the Tavern on Main, is haunted. All of the owners in the last 20 years(and probably before) and some of the wait staff have experienced movement of articles within the building. Most events take place on the second floor. The floor was closed off for about 15 years and just recently reopened. I don't know if ghosts have been seen, but I know something laid in one place can go missing and show up somewhere else and chairs can mysteriously move across the room.

The Dark Swamp, off of Route 94 in West Glocester, was a favorite haunt of H.P. Lovecraft. These bogs spread out over many, many acres and I would not venture there in the dark. They are even spooky during the day.

[mphockey]

This is in responce to the young woman who would like to know if anyone has visited haunted places in RI. My friends and I who were all freshmen at URI this year would go to places like the Ladd school, Benefit street, Mercy Brown's grave, and the school street cemetary. we also wanted to visit the great swamp, and ram tail factory but never had the time or money for gas when we felt motivated. i can tell you one thing though and that is that all the places we did visit had paranormal activity of some degree or another and nobody that ventured out with us came back a skeptic. i would say of all the places we visited Mercy brown and school street were the most active. At Mercy brown it is hit or miss some nights we would go and things were generally calm but other nights the activity was soo high we had to leave and come back shortly after to make sure we weren't all just imagining things. At mercy's cemetary we saw several lights that were either white or red that moved on their own accord and had no discernable source, and a thick fog that would appear over the entire cemetary within the space of a minute. Another interesting thing about that cemetary is the cript that Mercy's body was held it is rumored that if you knock on it's door three times she will make her presence known in some form, and I have had one of my friends report being struck by an unseen force shortly after knocking. i myself was not harmed or spooked after knocking but I found it interesting that in the middle of winter there was a rock next to the cript were Mercy's heart was reputedly burned. after knocking we touched the rock and found one spot on it to be warm to the touch while the rest was freezing cold. at school street cemetary in the early hours of the morning we heard a child's voice saw fleeting movement in the corners of our vision, heard the voice of a woman and i was startled by what looked to be a small head peeking out at me from the side of a tomb stone near a path i was on. The wind chimes also seem to go off in very distinct paterns of melody which the wind alone cannot be attributed to. We also visited Ladd school three times, which i do not recommend because the area is heavily patrolled and our band was luck to not get caught. We have several photographs from in and around the main building and in one you can see a shadowy outline roughly the size and shape of a person when no person is visible anywhere in the picture. we later analyzed this photograph and the level of exposure in that part of the picture is off the scale even though there is seemly nothing their to expose. the inside of Ladd school is a complete mess. The walls are torn apart the ceiling is collapsing in several spots and it is obvious that the building has been the scene of several drunkin rampages by partiers who have no respect for a haunted dwellings. the building is always much colder inside than the outside temp. and several electrical devices die within moments of entry. if you smoke inside you will also be unnerved by your ciggarrette constantly putting itself out for no apparent reason no matter how often you relight it. Our final and favorite place to visit is Benefit street in providence. this was the place we spent a majority of our time ghost hunting in the hopes of getting a glimpse of the ghost of edgar allen poe who's fiance lived in one of the houses on that street. Benefit and the surrounding hill streets of colonial providence are haunted but not in an extreme or scary way. You have a feeling of being watched and sometimes being followed, but other than that it is just a nice place to walk at night. I would advise anyone interested in a good scare to visit the cemetary behind the church on benefit. This pareticular area cannot be seen from the street and is highly active. The moment you set foot in the cemetary until the moment you leave you feel a constant presence around you and it is not always friendly. i have been over every inch of the small old cemetary and the most foreboding part is by far the back corner near the cript were some of the oldest tombstones are. A close friend and myself actually witnessed a ghost in glowing form move swiftly by a window in the church as I read the inscription on a tombstone aloud "I would not recommend doing this". I find ghost hunting to be a very fun and rewarding hobby and i would incourage you and your friends to try it for yourselves as long as you stick together and respect whome evers property you are on. Remember that a large number of haunted places are illegal to visit so use caution and good judgement when and if you decide to visit a haunted place. if your group ever feels threatened or unwanted then i would advise you to leave because very little is known about the dead and it would be very unwise to stay among them if you can sence that they DON'T want you their. I hope that this has been of some value to you and i wish you happy haunting.

[riseup08]

I'm part of a paranormal group from Tiverton R.I.S.E.U.P (The Rhode Island Society for the Examination of Unusual Phenomena) We just did an instigation at Fort Barton woods and experienced allot of visual and audio phenomenon (we have at lest 2 EVPS so far). We are currently going through the evidence and will post a case report on are web site once we are finished. Feel free to take a look at are other case files (some are in Tiverton) and call or email use with questions or just to say hi. Rhode Island Society for the Examination of Unusual Phenomena

RISEUP

are web site did load on that post so its riseupparanormal .com

RISEUP

[riseup08]

We have finally reviewed all are audio and video and threw out most of what we thought could be paranormal except for at lest one piece it is an evp from Fort Barton and it can be viewed here RISEUP's Evidence Page

this link will bring you right to the sound wav EVP WAV File (broken link)

take a look let me know what you think

the evp is right after one of are members says scared and before the question is given by a second investigator it is a female voice (at lest we have came to that conclusion)

RISEUP

[butafli13]

this is in reguards to the cemetery behind the church on benefit st in providence. me and my group when there because we had been hearing a bunch of stories. when we got there i did not feel anything uneasy. we went to the "back corner" and read out scripts on the graves and nothing happened. we stayed for a couple of hours just looking and "getting a feel" for the place, we decided to leave and as we were leaving we turned to take a final look at the church and seen somthing moving inside the chruch! we were so excited that we stood their and waited. it happened again, so we decided to "debunk" it. come to find out the shadows are just headlights from passing cars on the other side of the road. it took sometime to find this out, but we were pretty disapointed when we seen what it was.

[terrasurf]

This site has some stuff:

Strange New England

[Misha2009]

Regarding the original message here, it's funny, but I grew up off Highland Road in Tiverton. I still live in Tiverton but in a different area. The house I grew up in was the original in the area, the "homestead". It is still there. I am a major skeptic when it comes to spirits/ghosts, etc., but if there is such a thing, the third floor of that house was haunted. Everyone could feel a "presence" up there. I think it was the former inhabitants of the house which was built in the early 1800's. Also, I'm an archeologist, and FYI the land across from Grinnell's Beach at the bottom of Fort Barton Rd was a Native American burial area. I used to work with the items found there in a museum in Providence. Fascinating stuff!
P.S. RISE-UP sounds awesome!