Warning. This episode contains details that some listeners may find disturbing. In 1799, in a small seaside town in Maine. What began as a chilling knocking sound coming from a cellar. Soon turned into a spectral voice. Tonight we explore the first documented American haunting, the ghost of Nellie Butler. A tale of apparitions, love, grief and tragic death.
This is not merely the first documented case of a ghost haunting in the USA, but one that may have influenced the spiritualist movement of the 19th century. This is a study of strange. Welcome to the show. I'm Michael May, your host, your guide, whatever you want to call me into. All sorts of strange and mysterious stories tonight. It is the Halloween season, and I thought it fitting to bring you a ghost story. And this is one I've been interested in in a while, and I'm excited to share it.
It's also a mini sode, meaning it's just you and me. Listener. No guest. This week in the story we're talking about, I probably said in the intro, but it's that of Nelly Butler. Ghost stories aren't new. They seem to go back to the beginning of civilization. The belief in life after death or angels, demons, evil spirits has always been part of the human existence. In fact, in 2021, it was reported that a 3500 year old tablet had been discovered with the oldest known depiction of a ghost.
This is a quote from the Smithsonian Magazine. A tablet made in ancient Babylon in around 1500 BCE, maybe the earliest known depiction of a ghost. The clay tablet is part of a guide to Exorcizing ghosts held in the collections of the British Museum. The object still holds carefully detailed instructions on getting rid of pesky ghosts.
The directions call for the Exorcist to make figurines of a man and woman, prepare two vessels of beer and at sunrise speak ritual words calling in the Mesopotamian god Shamash, who was responsible for bringing ghost to the underworld. The inscription also includes the phrase do not look behind you, so you know humans. Our desire to develop good jumpscares, I guess, has always been with us. Additionally, ancient Roman and Greek writers wrote of ghost stories.
Shakespeare, Thomas Kidd were also influenced by those writings and had their own famous ghosts in their work. The modern view of spirits has been influenced by all of this history, of course, and you can see the idea of a ghost evolving into the modern age. When you look at all these past stories and accounts Long story short, ghost stories have always been around. But what do we know about ghost stories in the quote unquote New World in America? And that brings us back to Sullivan, Maine.
Quick point here. Some people claim that this account of Nellie Butler happened in McKeesport or Franklin, Maine. But what I can gather, the location of the account is most likely Sullivan, Maine. But all those towns are relatively close together, so that may account for some confusion. And also the borders have shifted since 1799. the story goes that in or around 1797, a Captain George Butler had just suffered a terrible loss.
His wife, Eleanor Hooper Butler, known as Nellie, passed away in childbirth, Bonelli wasn't about to be forgotten. Two years later, in 1799, Abner Blaisdell was concerned because his daughter heard something strange from the cellar. Now, depending on which account you read, the sounds coming from the cellar began. Has just that strange sounds. Other accounts suggest it began as a disembodied voice. The voice, unlike a lot of ghostly accounts, was very specific.
The ghost was a woman, and she claimed to be the wife of Captain George Butler. The play styles asked if she was Nellie because they knew the family, and the ghost replied, you betcha, or at least something like that. Then the ghost asked for her father. She wanted to see him. His name was David Hooper. So Abner sent for David Hooper. Now, Abner Blaisdell was a respected person in the community. He was God fearing. He fought in the War of Independence.
This naturally made people believe that this was a true story going on, because Abner gave credibility to the situation. There's also fear in the community as the story spread because, well, it's a ghost. And that could be demonic. And then Nellie's father came by. Mr.. Mr. Hooper himself arrived and he confirmed that the spirit voice was indeed his daughter, Nellie. And over time, the voice didn't stay a voice.
People said that this thing, this presence in the house began appearing as a white floating specter. The story of Nellie's ghost, as you can imagine, spread like wildfire through the town. Yet even some of the most hardened nonbelievers couldn't dismiss what they were experiencing. Local townspeople began gathering outside the Blaze Dells home, and in one of the most compelling moments of the case, Nellie's ghostly voice was heard by multiple witnesses at once.
Among them, some of the town's most prominent figures. You know, apparently the ghost of Nellie would preach about the Gospels. and one time she even led a group of people on a hike through the area, preaching along the way. The spirit allegedly could transform into a child sized figure at time, and then it would sort of grow and morph into a full sized adult apparition. It was frightening and magical all at the same time.
Nellie's ghost soon delivered a cryptic message George Butler, her widowed husband, was to marry Lydia Blaisdell. At first the idea seemed ludicrous, especially considering the difference in age. Lydia was 15. George, I believe, was 29 at the time. But Nellie's spirit would not be silenced. She appeared again and again, repeating the same message. Lydia should marry George. George marry Lydia and live happily ever after.
Faced with the mounting pressure from a ghost, George Butler and Lydia Blaisdell were married in 1800. It was a controversial union, but one that seemed to satisfy the demands of the Inspector of Nellie Butler, because after the marriage, Nellie's ghost reportedly appeared one final time, blessing the couple and expressing peace. Before she left, though, Nellie made some predictions. One was that Lydia would die during childbirth and some years later that indeed happened.
She also predicted the death of her father And one of the members of the Blaisdell family. But that's not the end of the story. There is some speculation that George Butler may have killed Nellie, and the whole ghost story was this weird ruse, one in which George hoped to convince Lydia to marry him and the rumors at the time suggest that George had been trying to court Lydia for quite a long time before this ghost appeared.
But no evidence exists to conclude this one way or the other, especially now, you know, hundreds of years later. So what's the truth of the Nellie Butler haunting? like any older supernatural tale, it's difficult to piece together the real from the fiction, the truth from the rumors, even though there are accounts from a time, there's still debate about even exactly where this whole story took place.
But it is a true account, insomuch as that something happened that intrigued the residents of the area that made them believe a ghost was there at the blaze Dale house, and it forced them to question their own beliefs about the afterlife. Lastly, I find it very interesting that the blaze Dale cellar was the location of Nellie's Ghost and was basically, you know, the home for like ghost. From what I can tell, she had no connection to that home.
Besides the later marriage of Lydia Blaisdell to Nellie's widowed husband, there's no connection to the families at all. There's really no reason for her to haunt that house. as someone that loves investigating these stories with a skeptic side, I think this is an important piece of the story. And so the question remains, was Nellie Butler's ghost merely a collective delusion, born out of grief and superstition and desire? Or was Nellie's ghost a genuine phenomena?
And one final thought for those that love to explore how everything in history is connected. You can see similarities in the Nellie Butler haunting stories to those beliefs and accounts from the spiritualist movement, which began about a half a century after this event. and that movement had a profound impact on how Western society thinks about ghosts, the afterlife spirits. You can see that in our fiction and our writing and our entertainment and movies still through this day.
Thank you for listening to a study of strange. I hope you enjoyed this mini sode of the Nellie Butler ghost hunting. We will be back soon with our normal programing with guests and more strange stories and mysteries. If you like this kind of content, please take a quick second hit that subscribe button and please leave a rating and review on Spotify or Apple. It goes a really long way to helping others find the show.
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