The Walking Weekend - October 2003
by The Cranky Yankee
The month of October is the time to
participate in the
Quinebaug And Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor's Walking
WeekendS. On a fair Saturday morning, I assisted CT Gravestone Network's
director, Ruthie Brown, with a cemetery walk in Voluntown, CT. Also present
were another CGN member, Irma, and a woman who is one of the selectwomen of the
town (whose name I forgot…sorry!). The cemeteries involved included the Robbins
Cemetery on Rt. 49 and the Kennedy Cemetery a couple miles down a side road.
The weather turned out just fine! Perfect for a walk in the graveyard!
It was a good turnout; about three
dozen people showed up. Ruthie lead most of the tour, Irma gave background
history on various people in Voluntown's history. I even told a brief folk
story about prominent Voluntown resident,
Elmer Bitgood
(buried in Robbins), a famous strongman noted for his amazing strength (and
appetite!) who lived around the turn of the century.
But the best part was after the tour!
When it ended, a few people gathered around and started swapping local
folklore. Someone first told me about the "barbells" that Elmer Bitgood used to
lift weights. They are basically two huge boulders with an iron bar connecting
them. Almost impossible to lift unless you are a legendary strong man.
These barbells are now in the possession of one of the members of the Voluntown
Historical Society. They sit in the front yard of her greenhouse business on
Browns Rd. in Voluntown. The barbells are on private property...so ask
permission before wandering around. However, you can see them from the road.
The other stories were about "Witch
Maude" and "Screaming Maude," both of
Hell Hollow Rd. right on the Voluntown/Sterling
line. To find Hell Hollow Rd., take Rt. 49 from Voluntown Center (on Rt. 138)
and follow it about 5 miles until you cross over the Sterling town line. Hell
Hollow Rd. is the first left. Incidentally, Browns Rd. is also off of Rt. 49,
about 3 miles down from Rt. 138.
Witch Maude was a hanged witch who is
buried right off
Hell Hollow Rd. Her supposed "grave" is on the right, at about where the
Pachaug Forest marker post is located (just before the pond). The locals said
that spot was known since they were kids (and they were now in their 40s and
50s). We had a fellow named Moose lift a massive rock looking for the grave
(didn't find anything unusual though...oh well).
Screaming Maude (never found out why
the names were interchangeable) referred to a little Native American girl who
was lost in the woods. The story goes, her family were Pequots slaughtered by
John Winthrop Jr.'s men. Little Maude (why she has a white person's name, I
don't know), wandered into the woods crying. The soldiers heard her, found her
and then murdered her. Hunters and hikers in the area swear to this day you can
hear her screams in the woods.
The selectwoman told me a story of a
hunter she knew very well, who had a weird thing happen to him. While driving
through Hell Hollow late on a summer night with his dog (windows in his truck
cab were rolled down), the dog started acting nervous. Suddenly, an arm reached
through the darkness and into the cab of the truck, trying to grab the dog. The
dog freaked and tried to cower under the driver's legs, almost forcing him to
drive off the road! He drove out of Hell Hollow quicker than lightning and will
not drive there at night ever again!
One of the other women with us, used
to be a UPS driver for the area and just refused to drive through Hell Hollow at
night based on all the stories she heard from the locals. (I can also see a
safety reason why....the road is very winding and narrow going through the
Hollow and near the pond. Trying to navigate a large UPS truck at night would
be stupid.)
Other talk among us (while standing
on Witch Maude's "grave") included the infamous Gravity Hill of Sterling. The
people there explained how to get there, but not knowing Sterling at all, the
directions went over my head and I didn't write them down. Oh well.
A
fun time was had by all (at least I had fun!) YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!
Share your New England adventures with us at the New
England Anomaly’s email list.