Slightly Odd Fitchburg

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. We share them weekly and you can get in on the fun by liking us at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following us at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the odd story!   Fitch Bits: Boston's First Recorded UFO DID YOU KNOW that the first recorded (by the Western world) UFO sighting in the Americas happened in what would become Boston?   It happened all the way back in 1639 when, on March 1st, John Winthrop (yes, of the Winthrop Winthrops) wrote: "earlier in the year James Everell, 'a sober, discreet man,' and two others had been rowing a boat in the Muddy River, which flowed through swampland and emptied into a tidal basin in the Charles River, when they saw a great light in the night sky. When it stood still, it flamed up, and was about three yards square,” the governor reported, “when it ran, it was contracted into the figure of a swine.”   That's not

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. We share them weekly and you can get in on the fun by liking us at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following us at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the haunting story! Fitch Bits: The Angry Old Ghost of The Old Powder House DID YOU KNOW that The Old Powder House in Somerville, MA. is haunted by a very angry ghost? The building was constructed as a windmill around 1703 for the Mallet family farm. It was subsequently sold to Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1747, and turned into a powder magazine. That's where it got its name and it actually featured somewhat heavily in the Revolution. It was seized by the British because it held gunpowder and munitions for the colonies. One thing led to another and there was a battle fought over it. That's later than our story, though. Back when it was still a windmill, it was the scene of a grisly murder! At least that's the fo

"For we must Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our god in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world, we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of god and all professors for Gods sake" - John Winthrop, Puritan lawyer and former governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Easter in New England and Other Non-Existent Things - Patreon Preview! Allow me to introduce you to John Winthrop:  "Ladies."   This fine fellow served as the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1630-1634, 1637-1640, 1642-1644, and finally from 1646-1679. In that time, he would work, along with his people, to create a "city upon a hill" that would have the eyes of the world on it. That high city was Massachusetts Bay and the people creating it were the Puritans. This is the