In Episode 394 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger head to Sullivan, Maine, to explore the sad and tragic tale of Nelly Butler. She died young in 1797… but less than three years later her spirit returned in the basement of Captain Abner Blaisdell with a mysterious mission. Dozens of people witnessed the haunted over the span of eight months. Their testimony was captured by a preacher eager to share the miracle with others.
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Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Guest Voice: Marv Anderson and Tracey Cosgrove
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[DRIVING]
RAY: There isn’t much to see here in Sullivan, Maine.
JEFF: No there isn’t. The population is just over 1,200 people. It’s mostly forest, a few houses, and a few businesses. It’s a quiet town. We’re pretty far up here near the coast of Maine. Just a bit northeast of Acadia National Park.
RAY: What are we looking for?
JEFF: Ray, what we’re looking for is nothing but a cellar hole today.
RAY: Okay, what did it used to be?
JEFF: It used to be a house way back in the late 1700s. A house that got a lot of attention because of something that happened inside?
RAY: What happened inside?
JEFF: According to many written accounts, dozens of people came here and saw a ghost.
RAY: A ghost? Does anyone know who the ghost was?
JEFF: They do, because they recognized her. The ghost spoke and even identified itself. We’ve come to Sullivan, Maine, to witness not just New England’s, but America’s first documented haunted. We’re here to find the ghost of Nelly Butler.
[INTRO]
JEFF: I’m Jeff Belanger. Welcome to Episode 394 of the New England Legends podcast.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Thank you for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, so you don’t miss a minute of the wicked strange.
JEFF: We’ll go searching for the ghost of Nelly Butler right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
[WALKING IN THE WOODS]
RAY: So America’s first documented haunting happened right here in Sullivan, Maine?
JEFF: It did. And it happened right up there just off the side of the road.
RAY: Wow! Okay, there’s an obvious old rectangular foundation here in front of us. It’s maybe 20 feet wide and 40 feet long, give or take. There are stone blocks marking the sides. There are some large trees growing up through the middle of the rectangle, so obviously this building has been gone for a long time. But there’s no doubt this was a building.
JEFF: This was once the home of Abner Blaisdell. If you’ve watched the New England Legends television series on PBS and Amazon Prime, we actually covered this story years ago in part of Episode 7-Legendary Road Trip. You can go watch that on Amazon Prime right now and see what we’re seeing. But, just like in the television episode, we’re not going to give out the exact location because it’s on private property. You can still see some pictures of it on our website. Anyway… back to the story.
RAY: Right. There have been people living here for thousands of years. The indigenous people called this land Waukeag. European settlers came here in the 1700s, and the town of Sullivan incorporated in 1789. Those early settlers named the town after the Revolutionary War hero, Daniel Sullivan who lived in nearby Sorrento. He died in 1782. The early industries were lumbermills and sawmills.
JEFF: In those early days of Sullivan, this new country called the United States was still growing. They needed to build, and you need to remember, this was still Massachusetts Bay colony, Maine hadn’t become its own state yet. But no matter what you call it, the region has trees and lumber. It was an exciting time, but still a dangerous time. But it’s safe to say that something profound happened right where we’re standing, Ray, and it led to a frenzy. They call this America’s first documented haunting. To find out what happened, let’s head back to the year 1799.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s late December of 1799 here in Sullivan, Maine. The nation is still in mourning considering George Washington passed away on the 14th of this month. For the past two years, Washington’s former Vice President, John Adams has been running things. But here in Sullivan, winter is settling in.
[FIREPLACE CRACKLING]
JEFF: It sure is. It’s been cold. And it’s about to get colder. We’re standing inside the home of Captain Abner Blaisdell here in Sullivan. Though there’s a fire in the hearth, there’s a chill in the air.
[ECHO KNOCK]
JEFF: The Blaisdells have been hearing strange sounds from their basement for the last couple of days.
RAY: It’s got the family unnerved to say the least. They’ve checked the basement for any sign of animals or rats, but found nothing.
[MURMERING VOICE IN THE DISTANCE]
JEFF: Did you hear that?!
RAY: Yeah. It sounds like a voice, but I can’t make out a word of it.
JEFF: And it’s coming from the basement.
[WINTER WIND BUILDS UP]
RAY: It’s now Thursday. January 2nd, 1800. A new century. Over the past week, the sounds and murmurs have increased in the Blaisdell house. But now, the murmurs are sounding more like words. The voice sounds feminine. Captain Abner Blaisdell decides it’s time to confront this entity.
[WALKING DOWN WOODEN STAIRS]
RAY: Blaisdell is now standing alone in his empty basement.
CAPT BLAISDELL: Well… speak! Who are you then?
NELLY BUTLER: I am the dead wife of Captain George Butler, born Nelly Hooper.
RAY: And with that, the ghost has a name. Nelly Butler.
JEFF: The Blaisdell family is in shock. Blaisdell knew of Nelly because her father, Dennis Hooper lives a few miles down the road. Nelly was born in 1774. She was one of seven children. When she was 19 years old, she married George Butler. Less than a year later, Nelly gave birth to a child who died almost immediately after birth. Nelly died a few days later on June 13, 1797. It would appear, less than three years later, she’s somehow back.
RAY: Okay, that’s tragic she died so young as a result of childbirth. But why would her ghost manifest itself here at the Blaisdell house?
JEFF: That is a mystery. Still, Abner Blaisdell isn’t one to be questioned. He knows how crazy it must sound to imply that Nelly Butler’s spirit is haunting his basement. He’s going to need witnesses, even if to prove this is real to himself.
[MORE FOOTSTEPS DOWN THE WOODEN STAIRS]
RAY: Pretty soon, the entire Blaisdell family are gathered in the basement listening to the disembodied voice claiming to be the spirit of Nelly Butler.
JEFF: This is just eerie.
RAY: Yeah it is. I can’t figure out where the voice is coming from, but it’s definitely down here in the basement.
JEFF: In the coming days, the Blaisdells invite other neighbors to come over and witness this haunt. Sometimes there’s just the voice, sometimes it’s just knocks, and sometimes they see the wispy apparition of Nelly Butler. The oldest Blaisdell daughter, Hannah, soon reaches out to Nelly Butler’s sister, Sally. Sally is intrigued enough to come visit the haunted basement.
[KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK]
JEFF: Sally hears the disembodied knocks.
[MURMURING FEMALE VOICE]
JEFF: And soon she hears her dead sister’s voice. However, Sally is petrified. Though it sounds like her sister, she believes the voice more likely belongs to the devil who is trying some trickery for reasons no one understands.
RAY: Weeks turn to months. Winters turns to spring, and now dozens have experienced the haunting in the basement of the Blaisdell house. Eventually, the spirit of Nelly Butler requests an audience with her widower husband, George. When George Butler arrives to the Blaisdell basement, the motives of the spirit of Nelly Butler start to be a little clearer.
[WALKING DOWN WOODEN STAIRS]
RAY: George Butler is walking down into the basement now. Let’s give him some privacy.
[WALKING UP WOODEN STAIRS]
RAY: George, what happened?
GEORGE BUTLER: When I was called to talk with this voice, I asked, “Who are you?” It answered, “I was once your wife.” The voice asked me, “Do you not remember I told you I did not think I should live long with you. I told you that if you were to leave me, I should never wish to change my condition; but that if I was to leave you, I could not blame you, if you did.”
This passed between me and my first wife, while she was alive, and there was no living person within hearing, but she and myself, and I am sure that this was never revealed to any person, and no living person could have told it to me before the voice did.
JEFF: Suddenly it becomes clearer why Nelly Butler’s spirit is haunting the Blaisdell house and not her former house or anywhere else. Nelly has come to play matchmaker for her husband, and the Blaisdell’s 14 year old daughter, Lydia.
RAY: Lydia is shocked by the news that the ghost haunting their basement wants her to marry George Butler. But as more time passes, the family decides this marriage is literally the will of God.
JEFF: On May 28th, Lydia and George Butler make it official. The two are married on Butler Point.
RAY: However, the following day, the spirit of Nelly Butler has another message for George.
NELLY BUTLER: Be kind to your wife, for she will not be with you long. She will have but one child and then die.
RAY: Now everyone is spooked. Not just George Butler and young Lydia, but people in town too. Soon, the locals start to question if this was a prediction or some kind of curse. Was this really the spirit of Nelly Butler, or some demonic entity sent here to curse them?
JEFF: The spirit of Nelly Butler must sense the town’s trepidation too, because she’s turning up her religious intensity in her speeches.
RAY: Thomas Uran is considered one of the most pious, church-going men in town. He’s been a vocal critic that perhaps this apparition is coming from an evil place. But after his own encounter with the spirit of Nelly, he changes his mind. She quoted scripture, she told of the dangers sinners face, and said she would rise in the day of judgement. Uran is convinced, and soon spreads the word that this may be a true Godly miracle happening in their little town.
JEFF: It’s August 9th. There are a dozen people gathered in the Blaisdell basement including George Butler, his new wife Lydia, and Abner Blaisdell. You can almost feel like something is about to happen.
RAY: Look at that!
JEFF: I see it!
RAY: Nelly Butler is materializing in the basement right in front of us! It looks almost like she’s wrapped in a white sheet with her arms folded across her chest.
JEFF: George Butler is walking up to the ghostly figure. He’s raising up his left hand now.
RAY: His hand is passing right through her!
JEFF: This is incredible.
RAY: And now Nelly Butler is fading into nothing.
JEFF: Though there aren’t many skeptics left in town, the spirit of Nelly Butler insists that the Blaisdell’s should gather all doubters. It’s the middle of August when almost 50 people group outside the Blaisdell house.
[CROWD MURMURING]
JEFF: The spirit of Nelly Butler claims she will prove to the skeptics once and for all that she is real.
RAY: Look at that!
JEFF: I see it!
RAY: The spirit of Nelly is gliding out from the basement and slowly moving toward the road.
JEFF: Let’s follow her.
[WALKING ON DIRT]
JEFF: There are dozens of us following this specter toward a neighbor’s house down the street. Nelly aims to prove she can wander beyond the four walls of the Blaisdell basement.
RAY: Nelly’s spirit is now guiding us into a field.
JEFF: Huh. She stopped. And now she’s vanishing into nothing.
RAY: She’s gone.
JEFF: Days pass. Then weeks. Nelly Butler seems to be at rest. There are no more knocks or sightings of her.
RAY: It’s now March of 1801. Young Lydia Butler gave birth to the couple’s first child together. But tragically, Lydia didn’t survive childbirth. And sadly, her child died shortly after his mother. Lydia Butler and Nelly Butler had suffered the same fate. Nelly Butler’s eerie prophecy came to pass. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
JEFF: Nelly Butler became America’s first documented haunting years after the fact. A Reverend Abraham Cummings heard about the stories of Nelly Butler and came to Sullivan to interview everyone he could about the matter. For Rev. Cummings, this was evidence of the hereafter. A visible miracle, and proof of the hand of God. He published all of this testimony in a book titled: Immortality Proved by the Testimony of Sense: In Which Contemplated the Doctrine of Spectres, and the Existence of a Particular Spectre, Addressed to the Candor of the Enlightened Age.
RAY: That title just rolls off the tongue.
JEFF: Right?!
RAY: It’s important to point out that these Nelly Butler ghost sightings that occurred over the span of about eight months, took place in the year 1800. That’s almost half a century before the Spiritualist Movement launched in the United States.
JEFF: Good point. Had this ordeal occurred after 1848, I imagine it would have taken on a different tone. It would have been wedged into the realm of Spiritualism. Instead, it takes a religious tone, because when something happens and we can’t figure it out, we do our best to fit it into some kind of box.
RAY: One person’s ghost is another person’s miracle is another person’s overactive imagination.
JEFF: Today as we stand inside this former foundation, it’s an incredible feeling. This was ground zero for one of the most profound hauntings in American history. It happened right here. You can’t help but stare closely just a few feet away and wonder if maybe today is the day that Nelly Butler returns one more time.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: And we’ve returned to After the Legend where we take a deeper dive into this week’s story and sometimes veer off course.
JEFF: After the Legend is brought to you by our Patreon Patrons! You hear about them each week, because we’re so grateful for this group of insiders who help us out financially with all of the growing costs it takes to bring you the New England Legends podcast. It’s just $3 bucks per month, and for that you get to be a bigger part of our mission to chronicle every legend in New England. You’ll also get early ad-free access to new episodes, access to the entire archive of shows, discounts on merch and tickets, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear. Just click over to patreon.com/newenglandlegends to sign up.
To see some pictures from this week’s story, click on the link in our episodes description, or head to Amazon Prime and watch Episode 7: Legendary Road Trip, or go to our website and click on Episode 394.
If you’ve got a strange story you think we should check out, please reach out to us anytime through our website. We love hearing from you. Plus, most of our story leads come from you! You should also check out our super secret New England Legends Facebook group, and please do post a review for us, or tell a friend or two about our show. That’s how we grow together.
We’d like to thank Marv Anderson and Tracey Cosgrove for sharing their voice acting talents this week. Thank you to our sponsors, thanks to our patreon patrons, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.
