Story By: Chad Alan

 

"Nine Men's Misery"

 

Cumberland Library and Cumberland Monastery, Cumberland, Rhode Island

 

Before eventually becoming a library, and after serving as a monastery, the buildings and the grounds of this historic land hold a terrible past.  In 1676 a bloody battle between European settlers and a local Indian tribe broke out.  Nine men were eventually led into the woods and were skinned alive, beheaded, their heads put on stakes, and their bodies hung from the trees.  What was left of them was thrown throughout the grounds.  Eventually they were laid to rest in a mass grave and the "Nine Men's Misery" monument became their headstone.  Unfortunately grave robbers and vandals disturbed their resting site and some believe these unrested souls now haunt the grounds.  Around this monument people hear disembodied moaning, voices, and footsteps and see shadow figures while noticing strange fluctuations in the temperature of the rocks surrounding the monument.  Some believe the souls of these nine are trapped in the rocks.  In 1888 the Catholic Church bought the land and Canadian monks built an Abby and another building that would eventually become the library.  Many of these monks died while living in the Abby and were buried on the grounds. A fire in 1950 caused the monastery to be rebuilt and relocated and many of these monks bodies were dug up and moved to another spot, which makes a nice case for paranormal activity.  People see ghostly Monks in the library and the elevator seems to have a mind of its own, along with people hearing voices coming from areas where nobody was at.  Doors are also heard slamming even when the windows are closed so there couldn't be any cross windows to cause the draft.

 

TAPS co-founder Jason Hawes and Steve Gonsalves had a very interesting situation with their motion detecting device, which they put on a table about five feet from them.  A simple tape on the table causes the device to beep.  As they were asking questions, the device continued to beep almost on queue to their questions.  It turned sporadic and then stopped so they moved on to the third floor where a slamming door grabbed their attention. Nobody else but the two of them was in that area so they could not explain why it would just slam shut.  A loud giggle also came out of nowhere but no other activity occurred.  Jason's daughter Samantha joined him in the library and they heard what they believed to be the sound of pages flipping.  Possibly a residual haunting?

 

Amy Bruni and Adam Berry started their investigation on the second floor of the library and more than a few noises got their attention but what really freaked them out was the sound of the faucets in the women's bathroom running.  When they went into the bathroom, the faucets were off, but while they were there, they turned on again...all three of them! Adam told them to stop and all three turned off.  They left a camera in the bathroom pointed at the faucets. The faucets did not go on again the rest of the night.  They could not tie it to a any type of malfunction with the faucet sensors.  They headed out to the "Nine Men's Monument" to see if they could verify all the paranormal activity being reported in that area.  There were some faint sounds but they couldn't really define if they were coming from animals or spiritual figures.

 

Britt Griffith joined Adam in the basement of the library and noticed a door that leads to the back of the building and faces the monk's cemetery so they decided to head out to that area.  They started to call out names and as they did their instruments went from silent to registering readings after each name was called out.  When they went silent, so did their instruments. 

 

During the night, there was a loud noise that sounded like somebody dropping a bucket down the stairs that the entire team heard, but this could not be tracked to any particular spot in the library.  It was very audible during the taping.  The team had plenty of experiences and did believe the haunting was more of a residual haunting and not one to fear. 

 

Ghost Hunters airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Syfy. 

 

Check out the archive of past show recaps here!

 

(Image courtesy of Syfy)

 

Contact Chad Alan at [email protected]