The Ghosts of Cape Cod Read online

  Ghosts of Cape Cod

  ©2016

  By Bill Russo

  Also by Bill Russo

  The Creature From The Bridgewater Triangle

  (in paperback and on Amazon and Kindle)

  Swamp Tales

  Horrors from the Hockomock Swamp and the

  Marshes of Cape Cod.

  Jimmy Catfish – The Beginning and The End

  A prequel to a story in Swamp Tales.

  Crossing the Musical Color Line

  Stories of seminal musicians, known or

  interviewed by the author.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One: The Ghost of the 13 Churches

  Chapter Two: The Upper Cape

  Chapter Three: The Mid Cape

  Chapter Four: The Lower Cape

  Chapter Five: The Outer Cape

  Photographs

  There are more than two dozen photos included in the book. Many are the work of the author. The remainder of the pictures were gathered from research in old records and documents as well as public domain sources, such as Wikipedia.

  The Pictures:

  Chapter One:

  Map of the four Parts of Cape Cod

  Abner Hersey's outlandish buggy

  Doctor James Thacher – hero of the revolution, Cape physician

  Chapter Two:

  The Dimmick/Tripp House in Falmouth

  The Joseph Boat – Two views

  Chapter Three:

  Seven photos of the Nobscusset Burial Grounds and Scargo Lake

  Scargo in the 1930s

  Three views of Scargo Tower

  The photo that proves the Legend of the Lake

  The Barnstable House

  The Old Yarmouth Inn

  Chapter Four:

  Tawasentha – the elegant Crosby Mansion of Brewster

  “In the Yosemitie”, a rare painting that led to the downfall

  of the affluent Albert Crosby, the beer king from Cape Cod.

  Chapter Five:

  The Pilgrim Monument

  Provincetown, as seen from the harbor

  The three thousand mile sign that marks the start of Route Six

  A shipwreck in the sands of the outer cape.

  Note to readers: if you like this book please consider going to my Amazon Page and giving a review. It is very important especially in Kindle where a book sits on a single, infinite shelf of more than 20 million other volumes. If you click the link below, you'll be taken to the page for The Creature From the Bridgewater Triangle. From there you can visit the author's page to see all my books.

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OEZK8IQ

  Foreward

  Vacationers in a small resort area like Cape Cod can easily visit Falmouth in the morning and be in Dennis Port for lunch at noon.

  By dusk in the outer Cape, they can settle back in their cars for a double-feature at the historic Wellfleet Drive-In.

  Locals and day trippers are the same. The horseshoe road called the Mid-Cape Highway that runs from Bourne to Provincetown is just 64 miles long. If traffic permits, you can go up and down the ‘sandbar’ all day long.

  Why should it be any different for ghosts? Beautiful Maria Hallett, sometimes called ‘Goody’ is just as likely to be seen in Provincetown as Eastham.

  Dr. Abner Hersey, a 300 year old spirit from Barnstable, races back and forth on the Old Kings Highway from Sandwich to Truro in an enclosed buggy pulled by a bay mare named Mehitable. In life, the doctor’s practice included all the towns of the Cape. In death, there are those who say he is searching every village for the ‘scobberlochers’ who squandered his money.

  Weaquaket and his bride, the gorgeous Princess Scargo, live in Dennis. But since the 1600s, they have been said to have journeyed the Cape and as far North as Plymouth, in their travels for the great Chief Massasoit.

  There are of course, reports of ghosts who do not wander, but stay in the same place for centuries. There’s one like that in Dennis, another in Sandwich, and one in almost every town on the map.

  In this book, you will read about each community and its most famous spectral residents. As shown on the map, the 15 towns of Cape Cod are divided into four quarters.

  The green section on the left of the picture is the Upper Cape. The four towns included in the quadrant are Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, and Mashpee.

  The blue section is the Mid Cape which has two towns and one city. The towns are Dennis and Yarmouth. Barnstable, a city of some 45,000 people is the County Seat of Barnstable County which covers all of Cape Cod. One of every five year round residents live in Barnstable, which contains a number of villages including Hyannis.

  The orange section is the Lower Cape consisting of the three towns, Harwich, Brewster, and Chatham.

  The fourth section is the Outer Cape – Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown.

  The grey section to the left is Southeastern Massachusetts, just beyond Cape Cod and the Canal. Included in Southeastern Massachusetts are the cities of Taunton, Fall River, New Bedford, Brockton, and Plymouth.

  A small group of islands off the Coast of Cape Cod, most notably Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, are often included in discussions of the Cape, though they are not part of Barnstable County. The islands, with a year round population of less than 20,000, comprise Dukes County.

  Now, on to the haunts. The first story, in six chapters, is ‘The Ghost of the 13 Churches’. It’s the tale of the most prominent doctor ever to practice on Cape Cod – he was also perhaps the most eccentric person in an area noted for being the capital of eccentricity. Here’s the sad yarn of Doctor Abner Hersey of Barnstable.

  The Ghost of the 13 Churches

  Part One – The Eyewitness

  Hotels, graveyards, hospitals, old homes, and battlefields are among the most likely places to find ghosts. But on Cape Cod, it is said that a snorting bay mare named Mehitable and her odd looking master dressed in an over sized ‘great coat’ have haunted all 13 of the peninsula’s original Congregational Meeting Houses.

  As in most cases, the only proof we have is the eye witness accounts. Here for you to judge - the bizarre tale of The Ghost of the Thirteen Churches.

  “On January ninth I was walking to my house and passed near the old graveyard in Barnstable. I stopped short when I heard the clatter of hooves coming down The Old Kings Highway (Route 6A). I heard wagon wheels squeaking on the hard roadway where in colonial days, it was green with hay.”

  This testimony is from the first person to witness the spirit. He had finished his work for the day and was on his way home for dinner. A sober, hard working man, his sworn account was given credence by a number of important townsmen.

  The report continues…….

  “The buggy came into view. It was unlike any I had ever seen in books or in person. Completely enclosed, it had just a few small openings. A pair of letter sized, side slits were visible and a bigger one in the back.

  In front was a still larger cut-out. From the frothy, snorting bay mare’s bridle snaps, the reins coursed up over the back of the horse and into the front opening where an overflowing stream of swearing was building like a symphonic crescendo.

  “Damnation and Thunder of Jehovah!” the horseman screamed. “Where is my money? Where is my land? Gadzooks Mehitable, I fear the scobberlochers have squandered everything.”

  “He reined in the mare and got down from the buggy. I saw his face clearly and it was the same pale, icy color as that night’s full moon. The visage was scary, but his clothing was worse. He was not a small man yet he nearly disappeared inside an overcoat that was many sizes too large for him. It appeared as if it were fashioned from cowhide; with a shiny green lining that might have been ripped
from a billiard table and sewn in. The apparition screamed again….”

  “Mehitable,” it called to the mare. “You will run tonight like you never have run. We will go to the meeting house to find the money and if it is not there, then we will go to the next church. We will visit all thirteen parishes until we have an answer. And they will all answer to Doctor Abner Hersey or I will know the reason why.”

  “The man in the great coat rose from the ground.” the witness account continues, “as if being lifted by invisible hands, and passed through the buggy door without opening it. I had suspected it, but then I knew for certain that I was seeing a real, live ghost.”

  When the witness told the town clerk what he had seen, an immediate investigation of municipal and church records was begun.

  The results of that investigation, along with corroboration from one of America’s leading physicians, have given us a detailed image of the life of Doctor Abner Hersey. Whether the facts prove his ghostliness in the after-life, is for the reader to decide.

  Part Two – The Thacher Interview

  Abner’s story starts, of course, on the day of his birth in October of 1721 in the town of Hingham near Boston. His father, James Jr. was a farmer and a Plymouth County Constable, who died shortly after the age of 40, as had his father before him.

  Abner, the youngest of three boys, was just two years old when his father passed away. His mother would live to 85, a hefty lifespan for the 1700s.

  Although the author of this biography has unearthed a substantial amount of information from church and town records, the most credible account of Hersey’s life comes from his former student, Dr. James Thacher of Barnstable.

  When he passed away at the age of 90 in 1844, Dr. Thacher left behind a number of important medical texts – authored over his long career.

  He was also a well known figure in the American revolution, being a highly placed surgeon, known even to General Washington. After retirement from the military following eight years of service he began his successful medical practice.

  Born in 1754, Thacher was just 16 years old when he was entrusted to Dr. Hersey in Barnstable, to begin the study of medicine.

  During a medical conference in Boston in the early 1800s, he spoke of his mentor in an interview for the ‘Boston Glove’, a weekly newspaper that advertised itself as covering the Bay State like a glove.

  (Doctor Thacher)“What can I tell you about Abner Hersey. He was at once the most eccentric man I have ever met and the best doctor.

  (Reporter) “You are saying that Dr. Hersey was the greatest physician you’ve ever met, yet isn’t it true that he had virtually no actual medical training?”

  (Dr. Thacher)“Yes and Yes. His is a sad story. At just 17, he was sent to study medicine with his older brother, James the Third, in Barnstable. James had built a good practice and had a fine reputation.

  Abner took to medicine quickly and was a gifted pupil. Sadly, James inherited the curse of both his father and grandfather - a brief life. He died less than two years after young Abner began his studies.

  What with their last names being the same, the ill prepared Abner became by default, the town’s new Dr. Hersey and simply took over the practice.”

  (Reporter) “Did he get away with it? Was he able to pull it off?”

  (Dr. Thacher) “He not only got away with it, he expanded the practice. What he lacked in expertise he compensated for in compassion, observation, and hard work. Soon he began to journey the entire 64 mile length of Cape Cod to aid his patients from Sandwich to Provincetown. Within a few years he had gained the respect and confidence of the entire region.

  He did all this in a time when it took a full day to get from one end of the peninsula to the other. He was considered the preeminent surgeon of Cape Cod by the area’s 7,000 residents.

  (Reporter) “You said he was a bit odd. What was different about him?

  (Dr. Thacher) “Not a ‘bit odd’ was old Doc Hersey. By far, that’s putting it too mildly. He was madder than a hatter! He was the strangest man I ever met, but I find it hard to speak of this because he was a father figure to me. He never had children. His wife died young and he never remarried. I was only 16 when I came to work for him.

  (Reporter) “Tell me about the first time you met him.”

  (Dr. Thacher) “I got off the stage in Barnstable with one pair of pants, two shirts, a couple pairs of stockings and a few ounces of silver. Abner had come to get me with the enclosed buggy that he had made himself. All four sides and the roof were covered with stiff sheets of leather, nailed to wooden poles. There was not another like it anywhere in the world. It was pulled by a striking bay mare. Mehitable had a reddish body, which contrasted with her solid black ears, mane, and tail.

  The oddity of his conveyance paled in comparison to his attire. When he alighted from the buggy, I failed to see any trace of a human being for a moment due to the overlapping folds of cowhide. He wore a ‘great coat’ fashioned from seven cows! An over sized hood masked his face and his body seemed to have been washed away by the overlapping waves of leather.

  At length he managed to shrug off his headgear and I saw a calm, dignified face that seemed fully at odds with the rest of him.

  He spoke softly and welcomed me to his practice.

  We went to his home where I had a room of my own but little in the way of comforts.

  The doctor did not drink spirits and he did not consume animals. Raw fruit, hard nuts, and vegetables were his staples, washed down only with water from his well.

  For five years I ate in the same manner as my instructor and though I despised it, my good health to this day may be due to that abstemious diet.

  The strangest thing about Dr. Hersey was his hypochondria. Always certain that he would catch whatever disease his patients had, he nonetheless dove into every case and gave one hundred per cent of himself until a cure was effected.

  Each time a crisis was passed and his charge recovered, he would lament to me, “I’ve done it again James, I have cured my patient but have signed my own death warrant for I certainly have caught the illness myself.”

  After each dramatic cure, Dr. Hersey would take to his bed for a few days, unrolling all 12 of his blankets. He would remain in this state until he felt that he had sufficiently sweated out his terminal disease. Then he would get up and resume his rigorous work schedule.”

  -0-

  Doctor Thacher’s oral biography of Abner Hersey offers the broadest history of the most remarkable physician on Cape Cod. Though space for this brief story does not permit further exploration, the full texts are available in several physical locations.

  As the 21 year old Dr. Thacher completed his five years of apprenticeship in 1775, the battle at Bunker Hill had just been fought. The young physician was eager to aid the cause of independence. Due to the fine training he received from the quirky country medical savant, Dr. Thacher, was embraced as an army surgeon.

  He rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming well known even to the Generals Gates, Washington, Clinton and others. Thacher was highly regarded as a medical man and served in important positions throughout the revolution. He left the armed forces in 1783 to begin private practice.

  Part Three – The physician on His Rounds

  As for Doctor Abner Hersey, he became, if this were possible, even more eccentric while at the same time singlehandedly doing the work of half a dozen healers.

  For many years after his death in 1787, people still spoke of him. In exchange for drinks Seth Hyllier Jr., an old timer who survived well into the 1800s, told stories in taverns of the quaint Cape Cod general practitioner………….

  “My father was a farmer and Abner Hersey was a farmer, as well as a medical man, so I knew him. He was entertainment for us - my brothers and sisters and me. When we knew he was coming for a consultation, we’d walk five miles down to the Swan River just so we could follow him back to our house.”

  “Hiding in bushes and behind trees, we eagerly awa
ited crazy old ‘Doc’ Hersey. Not that we would call him a loony to his face. He was a serious, stern man whose hawk-like features did not invite such comments. Coming off the King’s highway and turning onto Nobscusset Way, we heard him before we saw him. We could hear him cursing from a hundred yards away!”

  “Damnation and hellfire,” bellowed the doctor. “I would give 400 bales of hay right now for a cot to lay in, beside this horrible roadway. Giddap Mehitable! Faster old girl or the pox is going to get both of us before we ever get to that Hyllier place. I’m only alive now by the grace of god and the green ‘baize’ lining in my shirt.”

  “The doctor prodded his mare along, all the while cursing Josiah Spant, from whose dwelling he had just departed after treating him for small pox,” said Hyllier.

  Tipping his glass up high, Seth Hyllier drained the last of his ale and stopped talking. Dragging a soiled sleeve across his soggy mouth and beard, he looked around. Taking the cue, one of the patrons tossed a coin to the innkeeper. After a moment, when his glass was refreshed, Hyllier began anew.

  “So there we were, hiding in the brush while the aged physician was moaning his tale of woe to the poor old bay mare……..”

  “It’s ill luck Mehitable. Ill luck and ill fate!” Dr. Hersey whined. “This year 1786, it seems likely that the pox might kill off haIf of Cape Cod. I found Spant dotted with more spots on him than fleas on a rat. I cured the old sailor and he will probably live forever, but I’m half certain that he’s given the ‘Red Plague’ to me. I might not last the night.”

  “Mehitable turned her head and looked at her erratic master,” Hyllier said. “Her swishing black tail and matching ears which stood straight up, contrasted beautifully with her reddish brown body. She shrugged her thick black mane while nickering gently, as though to say ‘you are an unbalanced and daffy old coot, but I like the hay and your barn is okay; so I will take you home and put up with you to boot.’