This story has been transcribed in it's entirety from a booklet sold by the Southborough Historical Society. It includes many such stories about the early families of Southborough and is worth while having for those of you who may have ancestors there.
Historical
Sketches
Concerning
the
Town
of Southboro, Mass.,
and
Other
Papers,
written
by
Dea.
Peter Fay
Reprinted
Edition
Sold
by
The
Southborough Historical Society
P.O.
Box 364
Southborough,
Ma. 01772
The
reason this story is included….. it all started at the Williams Tavern
in Marlborough, and now on with the…..
The Southboro Legend
In the year 1783, at the close of the Revolutionary war, there was a man
who started from -Williams Tavern," in Marlboro, in the evening of a certain
day, to go to Grafton, and was never seen or heard of afterwards. There
was great excitement in Marlboro and Southboro at that time. A thorough
search was made in the highways, woods and swamps adjacent, but the body
could not be found, and if he was murdered the man was never found out
who did the deed. This information I received from my father, who was then
a young man of twenty-four years of age. The remainder of this narrative
I am personally knowing to.
The
great blow of 1814 (which prostrated about one-third of the wood standing
in Southboro) blew over a tree in the woods then owned by Daniel Walker
of Southboro, the said woodland lying on the west side of the road leading
by the house of Jonas Fay to Marlboro, not far distant from the line which
divides Marlboro from Southboro, and very near where the labor strikers,
not many rears ago, fired upon the Westboro stage going from Westboro to
Marlboro. The tree was a white oak two feet or more in diameter, and it
turned up a large quantity of earth. Mr. Walker and his boys, three
years after the blow, were peeling bark from trees in the month of June,
and passing by the roots of this tree one of the boys saw a bone sticking
up in the dirt. He stooped down and pulled it 
up.
His father immediately exclaimed, "That's a human bone !" It was the shin
bone of a man. Search was made and in a few days all the bones of a man
were found except the small bones. This revived the old excitement of the
murdered man thirty-three years before. It would he safe to say more than
five hundred people visited the bones. The writer of this narrative was
there on three days after they were found, and helped dig up the last of
them. The skull was about three feet below the surface and the feet about
two, and they were directly under the roots of this white oak tree that
had probably been growing more than one hundred years. The physicians then
could not tell whether it was the skull of an Indian or a white man. I
think the only definite conclusion we can come to was that the person,
whether white or red, had been buried more than one hundred years. Two
or three widows, whose husbands had disappeared a number of years before,
came to look at these bones. One of them was sure she should know her husband
because he had a broken limb, but the limbs of this man were all right.
In less than six months these human bones were all carried away by, various relic hunters. Edmund Aloore, who went by the nick-name of "Old Sock," a noted character in his way, carried away the lower. jaw, and after keeping it a week returned it to the woods, declaring that he was haunted night and day by the owner of the jaw, so that he could not sleep. "When I get to hades," he said, "the owner will be running round .shouting, ,Old Sock has got my jaw.".
One more excitement, then I will let the curtain drop.
In the month of September following (after the finding of the bones) a young, man by the name of Appleton Fay said he saw light which moved about over the bones which had been found. This statement produced great excitement. Many men and boys went to see the light. I went with other boys (for I dared not go alone). Some saw the light, and others did not. I saw the light from my standpoint, which was south with face to the north. Looking at it steadily it would appear to move up and down a number of feet, but still there was a great mystery about it, for it could not he seen in a cloudy night. The excitement increased in intensity till it came to fever heat, and one night about forty men and boys went with a determination to find out whether it was a ghost, ignis-fatuss, or anything else. We took different stand-points, to look at the light, and they all came to one conclusion, that it was a star, low in the horizon, which was seen through the tops of trees, and when the wind blew it had the appearance of moving up and down. We gave three cheers for the ghost, and bid him good-night, and came home. How few people there are living; in Marlboro or Southhoro today that remember this event!
So ends his story.
Back to List