Editor's Note: Wendy Baker, a local history enthusiast and parish historian for St. Mary of the Bay Church, recently culled the archives of The Warren Times-Gazette and The Bristol Phoenix for "reports of ghostly and inexplicable activity" over the years in area. The following is excerpted from the second installment:

The Ghost Carriage on Poppasquash
Bristol Phenix, 28 Aug 1869
“It is reported around town that there has been repeatedly seen, at dead of night, a large, white, ghostly-looking carriage, without horses or other visible motive power, passing rapidly but noiselessly over the road on Poppasquash, both going from and coming towards the town.”
(The Warren Gazette enjoyed making fun of its neighbor to the south)

Warren Gazette, 10 Sep 1869
“They have been trying hard to get up a ghost on Pappasquaw [sic], but it does not work very well. The Bristol Phenix says that two or three hundred persons went round on the road to Poppasquaw Saturday night to see the phantom carriage and — didn’t see it.” 
The Ghost of North Cemetery, Warren

Warren Gazette, 27 Feb 1880
“A great number of sensational stories have been circulated about town of late concerning a ghost who has had the uncomfortable nocturnal habit of wandering about North Cemetery, and other unfrequented localities. Many of the credulous have been certain that they have witnessed the shade and have alarmed their listeners with their wonderful recitals. The story, when traced to its origin, proves to have been born of an escapade made by a citizen suffering from a fever, who, in his delirium, wandered from his home into the street clothed with a sheet. The story, after passing from tongue to tongue, magnified the unfortunate man into a hundred specters that haunted every street in town.”
[a man in a sheet is a handy excuse. On the other hand… maybe something does wander the streets of North Warren - WB]

The Haunted Schooner, Warren
Warren Gazette, 15 Feb 1884
“The story that a vessel lying at the wharf was frequented by supernatural visitors, which was circulated a few days ago since, caused the craft to become an object of considerable curiosity. Several young men screwed up their courage to pass the night on the craft to investigate the mystery, but it is said were rewarded by no other sounds about the vessel than that made by drift ice coming into collision. Thus endeth many another fond delusion.”

Warren Gazette, 22 Feb 1884
“A reputed ghost who was said to have taken up abode on a schooner lying at one of the wharves excited the wonder of a number of young men in town last week and steps were taken to investigate the identity of the alleged intruder. The first intimation of the presence of his ghostship was made by the watchman, whose slumbers were disturbed by nocturnal sounds both doleful and mysterious, and who could attribute the strange noises to no other source than a stalking spirit. The investigation developed no other result than the discovery of drifting ice which seemed to remove all ghostly features of the case from everybody’s mind except the watchman.” 
[drifting ice makes a handy excuse. On the other hand…. Surely an experienced watchman could tell if the sounds were “ice coming into collision” or something else. Does ice make doleful sounds? WB]

The Hessian Ghost, Warren
Warren Gazette, 17 Jan 1891
“The demolition of the old house, corner of Main and Washington streets, has evoked a veritable ghost. A late pedestrian, who saw the “late lamented” assured the reporter that he must have been the spook of a Hessian soldier who was ordered to watch His Excellency George Washington, who made the old hotel his headquarters when the army was in its entrenchments on Windmill Hill, as the spook was dressed in full British regimental costume. Our informant did not wait for an interview with the spook, he rather ‘stood not upon the order of his going’, but left at once.”
[the ‘old house’ was Burr’s Tavern, on the southwest corner of Main and Washington Streets, where General Washington was entertained in March 1781. Just a thought to ponder… do spirits leave when their domicile is demolished? Are you sure? – WB]

The Old Ark, Warren
Warren Gazette, 5 Aug 1893, “The Old Ark is Gone”
“… It was at one period said to be haunted and weird stories were told of the witches that infested its big chambers or laughed over its huge chimney top as they rode on brooms above the roof.”
A very thrilling tale was related of what happened there in the case of two young men who lived on Bristol Neck.
They were sailors, and on the last evening previous to their departure upon a voyage, they called at the Old Ark to take leave of the family living there. As they left the house, a great black bird like a crow came silently down from somewhere and alighted upon the shoulder of one of them. They were so awe-stricken that neither of them spoke a word, while the shape of ill-omen kept them company for a long distance, maintaining its position upon the man’s shoulder. Next morning they set sail for the West Indies, but the man on whom the crow had lighted never returned. The yellow fever did the rest.”
(The ‘Old Ark’ stood on South Main Street approximately where the driveway and front lawn of St. Mary of the Bay Church is today. The original part of the house was built in 1680 by Robert Jolls, and was added to in succeeding centuries. As it stood at the boundary between Warren and Bristol (before the boundary was moved in 1873), those using the turnpike paid their toll at "Jolls’ Gate." The house was demolished in 1893.)

The Ghost of Hampton, Touisset
Warren Gazette, 10 Mar 1900
“At the close of the Revolution, Hampton [a black servant of General Barton’s family] adopted a seafaring life. On the occasion of his last voyage… a neighbor of the Barton family returning at dusk one afternoon from a friendly call, heard footsteps behind her, and turning beheld in the road and almost at her side, the well-known figure of Hampton. “Why,” she exclaimed in great surprise, “I did not know that your vessel had got in, Hampton!” But scarcely had she uttered these words ere the figure faded from her sight.
Deeply impressed, she hastened home and related her singular adventure, expressing her belief that she had seen a spirit. In a few weeks, the vessel upon which Hampton had sailed arrived in Warren, when it transpired that the man had died upon the very day when the supposed apparition appeared upon Touisset Neck.”
(Those who enjoy a stroll along Long Lane, Barton Road, and Touisset Road at dusk, be on the look-out. Perhaps you’ll see Hampton making his way home from his last voyage.)

WITCHES AND WIZARDS
Warren Gazette, 26 Apr 1872
“The Witches in this section of the country in Cotton Mather’s times were a certain Mrs. Brown and Deborah Butterworth; Will Wood was the principle wizard. Will, like Dr. Faustus or Faust, sold himself to the Devil. The Devil came for him at the appointed time, but released him on condition of his throwing all of the oxen’s horns out of a certain old tannery in Swansea. The tannery was situated in a wood, and the region around for many years was seen to be covered with oxen’s horns.
These witches and wizards took to themselves various shapes. A certain lady by the name of Wood, deemed a witch, used to make her midnight journey among the stars… She rode a broomstick, and frequently was seen entering her house in the morning with her saddle. One of these witches or wizards used to take the form of a dog. This dog appeared one night to a party of young skylarkers. The party were quite alarmed, having heard of that dog before, but yet quite uncertain if this was the creature of evil repute. They deliberated, after which one - more bold than the rest – said he would touch the creature’s nose, and if it was hot, it would be a dog, but if cold, would be the Devil. He put his hand out carefully, but just as he was about making the certain test, the dog vanished. The men ran, and we came away.”

Warren Gazette, 29 Aug 1873
“… There was at Barrington an old Mrs. Kent, who was a witch, and who would sleep as comfortably with the small of her back resting across the topmost rail of a bar-way and her head and feet pointing straight out like two ends of a pivot gun, as on a bed of geese feathers.”

Warren Gazette, 21 Nov 1879
“…Yet once, how common were these local weird women. A witch was almost as natural an attachment of an old house as the moss on its roof. There were dwellings in various parts of this town, as also of Barrington and of Bristol, that were looked upon with much awe and much curiosity from the reputation they had acquired through the doings of mysterious old women.
In Barrington, about a hundred years ago, there was a Mrs. Kent, famous as a witch. It went hard, we assure the reader, with any who offended her. She would cause the salt-pork of such of her farmer neighbors as had won her ill-will to hop out of the barrels and distribute itself all about the floor. And then, too, she could make oxen stand on the ends of their horns, so that any husbandman who was disagreeable to her had good reason to apprehend trouble with his team whenever he went for a load of fuel into the dreary pine woods, or hitched his animals to the plow for a day’s work.
An old gentleman… was in the habit of relating many strange tales of this “wise woman” of Barrington, as connected with his own experience. She was the black shadow of his boyhood. He had given her offense by refusing to become her chore-boy, and hence she followed him without mercy in all his goings forth and his returnings.
Often in the deep midnight, she would appear at his bedside in the shape of a huge dog, and at such time he would dive beneath the bed-clothes where, sweating and half-smothered, he would remain until morning, listening to strange whisperings that seemed to go on between the mysterious four-footed creature and some invisible companion. What agony the poor little fellow suffered in his simplicity, with the old dog-woman in his chamber, and the devil at the head of his bed!
This Mrs. Kent was sometimes found by the neighbors lying apparently dead, stiff as a bar of iron, and exactly balanced across a fence-rail, upon which rested the small of her back. On such occasions, her dark spirit had gone forth on errands of mischief.
The Old Ark – that landmark of the past as well as of the present – had its witches in days gone by; and between these and the huge rats, the good Mr. Jolls, as well as now and then a later occupant, may have passed some unquiet nights. Probably a steel trap or a piece of poisoned cheese would have done just as much good as a silver bullet toward the abatement of some of the noises in the great, bleak rooms; but the dear, honest old people who from time to time came to dwell in the ghostly chambers that overlooked Jolls’ Gate were not of that opinion.”

AND OTHER THINGS…
The Monster Eel of the Kickemuit
Warren Gazette, 27 June 1873
“The Kickemuit River has a monster eel – he has on several occasions been struck by the spearmen, and once caught in a trap from which he escaped through being as slippery as an eel. He is supposed to be six feet long.”

The Mysterious Tiger Cat of Bristol County
Warren Gazette, 26 Nov 1898
“WHAT WAS IT?” The article describes a “four-footed visitant which during the fearfully cold winter of 1780 infested the country portions of Warren and Bristol, even venturing at times to invade one or the other of the two villages.
From the few and uncertain glimpses which were obtained of the strange intruder, it was thought to be larger than the largest mastiff, and it must certainly have been more powerful if we are to judge by the feats of strength which it is said to have performed in the killing of dogs, for to these it entertained an inveterate hostility, destroying them right and left, and always by a single blow to the neck… nor was there the least indication that the victim had in any case made the least show of resistance to its terrible captor after being once seized upon; but it seemed as if the poor creatures, one and all, must have submitted without a struggle or outcry.”
In the neighborhood of the Old Ark, a young man on his way home late, saw something that made him run; his dog running with him caused him to stumble and fall. A large gray creature rushed past him, grabbed the dog, and darted away into the night.
A noted marksman of Bristol sat up to watch for the prowler in an area a little north of the village. “At midnight, the creature made its appearance with a good-sized dog, which it seemed to be partly carrying and partly leading. It stopped in the roadway on the little stone bridge near the town, and then setting the dog up on its hind legs, finished him with one tremendous blow…” Meanwhile, the concealed man snapped his old-fashioned flintlock three times, but the gun would not go off. “The grim enemy, apparently startled by the slight sounds, stood for a few moments looking in the direction of its hidden foe, then suddenly disappeared with long cat-like leaps. He then once more tried his gun from curiosity and it was discharged as usual without a miss.”
“For how long the nameless and dreadful enemy of the dog family continued its persecutions I do not know, but it probably disappeared with the cold of that memorable winter…”

“Recipe for Ghosts"
Warren and Barrington Gazette, Friday, March 12th, 1915 p. 8:
“It is generally understood that “seeing ghosts” is the result of indigestion. The following notes may be useful to amateurs anxious to investigate psychological phenomena:
Lobster salad, eaten after midnight, one ordinary ghost, with chains.
Two Welsh rarebits and a mince pie, one mysterious gray lady, emitting groans.
Cold roast pork, mixed pickles, and strong tea, taken immediately before retiring, a genuine family specter, carrying his head under his arm.
A portion of cake, result of daughter’s first lesson at cookery school, a troupe of fearsome blood-stained hobgoblins, with blue light shining out of empty eye sockets.