WATERBURY -- If you believe in ghosts, you may want to steer clear of Library Park.
A Westport-based paranormal investigation society, the Smoking Gun Research Agency, said it has received several reports of ghostly activity in the park on Grand Street.
The group plans to "spook" around the area this afternoon at 3 if the weather cooperates, said the agency's director, Jon Nowinski.
The city's first burial ground, known as the Grand Street Cemetery, was on the site of what is now Library Park. It was the only burial ground in the city from 1686 well into the 1800s. As many as 2,000 graves reportedly remain in the park.
The agency has received seven "experience reports" from people who say they've had contact with the great beyond, Nowinski said.
"What we've had is information from people who have been walking in the park and had strange feelings, or driven by the park and thought they saw a figure within the park,'' he said. "One person who was walking outside of the park wall claimed they saw a figure kneeling at a headstone. It was one of those things where they looked back and the figure was gone, but they were certain of what they saw."
Sometimes called "Burying Hill Yard," the cemetery was divided into sections for Episcopalians and Catholics. More than 30 years after the cemetery was established, a section was known as the "Colored Burial Plot," where people of color were buried.
The oldest known grave is that of Benjamin Barnes, the cemetery's first gravedigger, who died at age 25 in 1709. Caesar Rose, who died Jan. 31, 1868, at age 77, is the last known person to have been buried there.
The cemetery was also the burial place of the Rev. John Southmayd and the Rev. Mark Leavenworth, the second and third ministers in Waterbury.
On April 24, 1891, preliminary work on Silas Bronson Library began. A group of men began moving headstones, and some caskets and remains were moved to Riverside Cemetery, which is off Riverside Street.
Many residents called the day "Black Friday," most notably resident Sarah Pritchard. In an April 26, 1891, editorial for the Waterbury Republican, she wrote: "For alas! Strangers and aliens have turned under the sod the beloved memorials of Waterbury's noblest, bravest, oldest dead."
During the excavating, many of the stones were removed. Many others scattered around the grounds were crushed under the wheels of carts. The stones that were left were reset, but not always over the graves to which they belonged.
And this, Nowinski said, may be what's contributing to the unexplained phenomena.
"When someone or something seems to disturb a cemetery, there seems to be a lot of activity there," he said. "That's something we've found in a lot of our investigations."
The agency, formed in 1997, does around 200 paranormal investigations a year, Nowinski said. It has 12 investigators and more than 300 members.
Usually, four to six investigators and what Nowinski called a "lot of sophisticated camera equipment," visit sites to determine if, in their opinion, there is ghostly activity. The investigators use video, digital and still cameras attempting to capture spiritual images. Digital thermometers, electromagnetic thermometers and audio equipment are also used.
"We'll do a walk-through of the area first," Nowinski said. "It's best if we have experienced reports from people in a certain area so we can center in that area.
But we'll walk the whole site. Then we'll go back (to Westport) and spend a lot of time reviewing everything we have. It could take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days, and if we do seem to have activity at the site we'll go back and do a more specific investigation."
The agency does not go into any private sites, such as a cemetery or home, without permission, Nowinski said. It also does not support trespassing or vandalism in any way, he said.
Investigations can take anywhere from one to six hours. Nowinski said he tells his investigators, or those aspiring to be investigators, to have an open mind.
"What we always tell people is that in order to be an investigator, you have to be open to the possibilities that there are other things out there. But you also have to be skeptical," he said. "You can't go into an investigation 100 percent believing you're going to find something. We say go in with an open mind, but accept there may be a logical explanation."
Some Waterburians have already made up their minds.
Ken Killer, a local historian who taught biology at Wilby High School in Waterbury for 33 years, said he hasn't heard of any ghostly activity in Library Park.
"I don't believe in things like that -- I'm a biologist, I'm more science-oriented," he said. "I don't see any scientific evidence in paranormal investigation."
Renaldo Betts, who lives in the city, was walking his dog Max in the park on Friday. He said he was undaunted by the fact he was walking over graves.
"Look at this place -- the grass is green, the sky is blue, the sun is shining," he said. "You think some ghost is gonna show up here? Baby, I believe in taxes, God and death. Ghosts? Nah. I don't believe in that."
http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=10431&p=1
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
