Fitch Bits: Dudleytown - New England's Village of the Damned
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Fitch Bits: Dudleytown - New England's Village of the Damned!
DID YOU KNOW that Dudleytown, Connecticut might just be the real Village of the Damned?
Despite its name, Dudleytown was never an actual town. It was just a part of Cornwall, Connecticut that was settled in the early 1740s by Thomas Griffis, followed by Gideon Dudley and, by 1753, Barzillai Dudley and Abiel Dudley; Martin Dudley joined them a few years later. More families came afterward and it turned into its own settlement. It's also in a valley known as Dark Forest Entry, so... you know. Things were never going to work out for it.
Anyway, the legend goes that the founders of Dudleytown were descended from Edmund Dudley, an English nobleman who was beheaded for treason during the reign of Henry VIII. From that moment on, the Dudley family was placed under a curse which followed them across the Atlantic to America.
That can easily be dismissed as folklore, but what can't be dismissed are the instances of massive crop failure, mental illness, and even violent deaths that rocked the area. It certainly had more than its fair share of hardships and the settlement was slowly abandoned in the mid to late 19th century.
Oh, and before those cursed settlers got there, the land was inhabited by the Mohawk. They viewed it as sacred ground, so maybe there's a little more to it than the simple lack of clean water that most historians blame for its demise.
It was also investigate by Ed and Lorraine Warren in the 1970s. They said that it was demonically possessed, but they said that about pretty much everything.
Before you get any ideas about visiting, don't. It's been held as a private land trust since 1924 and it's not open to the public. They claim it's due to vandalism, but maybe they're just protecting you from the demons!
Anyway, what do you think about it? Let me know in the comments! You can also check out all of the previous DID YOU KNOW posts right here on SlightlyOddFitchburg.com! as well as full length posts about the odd and haunted history of New England!
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