A valley through which the Mine Swamp Brook flowed was located behind land that Thomas K. Cunningham owned. This valley also contained one or two houses. During the early 19th century, locals believed this area to be haunted and extremely unlucky. Many events contributed towards the formation of this belief.1
One such event begins with two young women, Mary and Charlotte Sawyer, who were visiting friends in Boylston when a violent storm struck. The storm turned the brook into a great deluge and when the girls, traveling together on one horse, attempted to cross the stream their horse slipped. They both fell off the horse into the rushing water and were drowned.2
Another time, a stranger suffering from smallpox was found on the side of the road on Burditt Hill in Clinton. He was taken to a house at Mine Swamp Brook where he passed away and was buried.
Due to a belief in haunting, children avoided the area at all costs after dark. Adults who went into the house swore that they could hear the hoofbeats of a galloping horse that seemed to stop at the door. Yet, when they opened the door there was no horse and no sound except the wind. Explore the Mine Swamp Brook at your own risk; it may still be haunted to this day.3
This historical non-fiction story was adopted from “The Haunted Stream” in the Boylston Historical Series by Bruce Filgate.
