In Episode 393 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger investigate Vale End Cemetery in Wilton, New Hampshire, searching for a ghost known as the Blue Lady. But who is she? Or rather… who WAS she? We dig in (not literally).
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Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Guest Voice: Dave Schrader
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.
[FUNERAL ORGAN MUSIC]
RAY: (WHISPERING) So we’re standing a short distance away from a burial happening at Vale End Cemetery in Wilton, New Hampshire.
JEFF: (WHISPERING) It’s a somber ceremony. There’s maybe a dozen people gathered around the grave as the priest says a few words.
RAY: (WHISPERING) Even though neither of us knew the person in the casket, this is still a sad thing to witness, don’t you think?
JEFF: (WHISPERING) I do. Selfishly, it reminds us of our own mortality. And the mortality of the people we care about. We know that this is the final destination for all of us.
RAY: (WHISPERING) I get that.
JEFF: (WHISPERING) So this group of mourners may want to check over their shoulders here at Vale End Cemetery.
RAY: (WHISPERING) Why’s that?
JEFF: (WHISPERING) Because they say this place is haunted.
RAY: Haunted!?
[SHHHHHHHHH]
RAY: (WHISPERING) Sorry… haunted?
JEFF: We’ve come to Wilton, New Hampshire, to search for a ghost known as the Blue Lady of Vale End Cemetery.
[INTRO]
RAY: I’m Ray Auger, welcome to episode 393 of the New England Legends podcast.
JEFF: And I’m Jeff Belanger, we’re glad you’re joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. We’re always searching for ghosts, monsters, aliens, UFOs, and anything else that bumps in the night. Contact us anytime through our website with your story leads and we’ll check them out.
RAY: We’ll go searching for the Blue Lady of Vale End Cemetery right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
RAY: Jeff, do you think every cemetery is haunted?
JEFF: Maybe not every, but it sure seems like most of them.
RAY: Like you said earlier, funerals, and by default, cemeteries, remind us of our own mortality and the mortality of our loved ones.
JEFF: Right, and that little bit of fear maybe opens us up to subtle things that may be around us all the time, but we don’t think about it when we’re grocery shopping.
RAY: But we think about it here.
JEFF: Exactly.
RAY: But this cemetery has a specific ghost. The Blue Lady.
JEFF: That’s what they say.
RAY: I remember way back in the earliest days of our podcast we covered the White Lady of Union Cemetery in Easton, Connecticut.
JEFF: We did! I grew up not too far from there.
RAY: And we covered Green Lady Cemetery in Burlington, Connecticut.
JEFF: That’s right!
RAY: We covered a Grey Lady in Westford Massachusetts, but I think this is our first blue lady. Do you think we’ll eventually cover all of the crayon colors before we’re done?
JEFF: I’m not sure.
RAY: So Wilton, New Hampshire is located in the southern part of the state. Just a bit east of the town of Milford. And this sign at the cemetery gives us a few more details about Vale End. It looks like the earliest burial here was the year 1752. Then in 1778 the town purchased an additional half-acre of land next to the old burial ground and turned it into a proper cemetery for the community. It was originally called the North Yard Cemetery, but renamed Vale End in 1871. And then it mentions some notable people buried here. One that stands out to me says, quote “John Stiles, an honest, kind, and obliging neighbor killed trying to stop a run away colt.”
JEFF: What a way to go. And as we witnessed earlier, there are still modern burials happening here too. Plus, Vale End sounds more… ominous?
RAY: It kinda does.
JEFF: A vale is a valley. And this is… the end.
RAY: Vale End does have a horror-movie ring to it.
JEFF: It does.
RAY: What do you think is the meaning behind the different colors? White ladies, green ladies, gray ladies, and now blue ladies.
JEFF: And I can already see the emails we’ll get about Red Ladies or Purple Ladies, or any other colors…
RAY: And please DO send those emails! That could be a cool future podcast.
JEFF: Definitely. So people have assigned meanings to colors for as long as there have been colors…
RAY: Which was 1953, of course, when RCA introduced the first color television.
JEFF: Right. Before that the world was obviously black and white.
RAY: Obviously.
JEFF: So when it comes to people who study auras, blue represents communication, calmness, and inner peace.
RAY: Well that sounds nice if you’re a ghost.
JEFF: Across the esoteric spectrum blue usually means tranquility and peace, though it can also mean sadness.
RAY: Like feeling blue.
JEFF: Right. The White Lady meaning may be more practical. There was a time when women were buried in their finest dresses, which quite often was their wedding dress if they were grown or married, or their first communion dress if the girl tragically died young.
RAY: So the white we’re seeing has more to do with the dress than anything else.
JEFF: That’s the idea, but we need to remember that white wedding dresses didn’t come en vouge until about the 1840s.
RAY: So more modern ghosts.
JEFF: Potentially. But who can be certain how any of this works. Once we find a trend or pattern, there’s always exceptions to those rules.
RAY: But here in Vale End, we’re looking for a Blue Lady.
JEFF: That’s right. And if you believe the Internet…
RAY: Which we DO…
JEFF: Right, most people seem to agree that the Blue Lady of Vale End Cemetery is connected to a single grave here.
RAY: Which one?
JEFF: It’s a grave that’s broken into an arrow-shape pointing upward. A jagged sort of knife blade that’s hard to miss.
RAY: Let’s look around.
[WALKING IN WOODS]
RAY: Given how old this boneyard is, it’s no surprise there are hundreds of graves here.
JEFF: Yes, almost 800 of them to be exact.
RAY: Many of the headstones are the traditional headstone shape, though I see plenty of rectangles. There are tombs flat on the ground, some family monuments, and a few obelisks.
JEFF: Yeah, this place looks like countless other historic New England cemeteries.
RAY: Is that… no… just a rounded top on that grave marker.
JEFF: Let’s head over this way to some of the older burials.
[WALKING]
RAY: What about that one?
JEFF: I think that could be it! Yeah, this is who we’re looking for.
RAY: So this looks like it used to be a rectangle headstone, and the top left and right corners have been broken off to form a point near the middle. Almost like an arrowhead. Some words at the top of the epitaph are lost because they broke off, and some of it is hard to read, but it says Mary Ritter, Born 12 January 1773, Died 27 April , 1808, Age 35. Her serenity of temper and gentleness of manners were a charm of a short and peaceful life. Married 9 April, 1795. Erected by her children in veneration of their moral – something I can’t make out – and in gratitude for their parental worth 1831.
JEFF: So I guess this stone was erect in 1831.
RAY: Right. And below that it says: Mary, second wife of Isaac Spaulding, Died February 24, 1855, Age 75. (BEAT) Wait… so Isaac Spaulding married TWO women, both named Mary?
JEFF: It looks that way.
RAY: And both are buried with this headstone?!
JEFF: Yup. Considering Isaac Spaulding died in 1830, his second wife Mary outlived him and still wound up buried with his first wife and then Mary Two was obviously added after the stone was erected.
RAY: Why do people think Mary Ritter — the first wife — is the Blue Lady of Vale End Cemetery?
JEFF: That is the mystery. Here’s a little more background. Mary Ritter was born in Lunenburg, Massachusetts. We believe she often went by the name Polly because that was written on her marriage record. There’s a brief mention of her in the 1888 book titled Livermore History of Wilton. It says Mary Ritter was quote, “regarded as a woman of superior intellect, a great worker and skilled tailoress” As to why the ghost is her, I would guess has mostly to do with her broken headstone and young age of death.
RAY: I could see that. There are dozens of other headstones nearby, but this one sticks out because it’s got this jagged and broken top. It commands your attention. When you add in that Mary died young, and then was forced to share her eternal resting place with her replacement, I guess maybe that’s enough?
JEFF: But her epitaph isn’t dark or ominous.
RAY: No, not at all. We’ve seen some spooky ones over the years. Like: I’m watching and waiting for you.
JEFF: Clearly THAT grave contains a ghost.
RAY: Right?!
JEFF: But you’re right. Mary Ritter’s epitaph is kind and sweet.
RAY: Which still begs the question, why is she the Blue Lady, and when did that start?
JEFF: According to some members of the local Historical Society who grew up in the area, they didn’t begin to hear about the Blue Lady until the 1970s.
RAY: Could that have been near the time her headstone cracked into the shape it’s in now?
JEFF: Maybe. Perhaps people saw a blue light in the cemetery, then this particular headstone broke, and the connection was made even though there may be no connection at all. Plus, without a lot of details other than two wives, both named Mary are buried in the same spot under a headstone broken in two places to form a broken arrow, we’re left to speculate on the back story of this haunting. Could Mary One be sad because she never got to see her children grow, could this accomplished tailor have been buried in some regal blue dress, or is there something else haunting the Wilton, New Hampshire, cemetery known as Vale End.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: And that takes us to After the Legend where we dig a little deeper into this week’s story and sometimes veer off course.
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