Bangor Ghost Hunters probe site of former tannery town
10/31/09 | 24 comments

Bangor Ghost Hunters probe site of former tannery town


By Dawn Gagnon
BDN Staff
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY JOHN CLARKE RUSS
While visiting the former Brown Farm site recently in the now-vacant Riceville (now called Township 39), Felicia Woodbury,18 of Bangor, a member of Bangor Ghost Hunters as well as a psychic, works to communicate with the energy she senses at the site. Buy Photo
TOWNSHIP 39, Maine — According to one local legend, a couple ventured into Riceville shortly after the turn of the 20th century after not hearing from anyone in the small Hancock County town for some time.

As the two drew near, they came upon a dead body in the street. Farther on, they found more bodies, some in the streets, some around the buildings, Bangor Ghost Hunters member Mike Marino noted in a post on a Web site found at www.ghosttowns.com.

Another legend has it that a trader who had visited Riceville before returned to find that everyone was gone, which he thought odd because when he was there a month earlier there was no mention of abandoning the town, Marino wrote. “One day a bustling community, the next nothing.”

Those were some of the stories that members of the Bangor Ghost Hunters had heard when the group launched an investigation into the Hancock County ghost town in 2000. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there actually was a town called Riceville, and it suffered a strange fate.

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Signs of the past

Located due east of Greenfield, what remains of

Riceville can be reached by way of an old dirt road that runs off the Stud Mill Road. After the narrow one-lane dirt road dead-ends, visitors must hike or ride an all-terrain vehicle to reach the part of the township that once was inhabited.

The former village now is largely overgrown. The buildings that once stood there were torn down decades ago. The few signs that Riceville ever existed include only a few foundations and debris, including parts of old wood stoves.

Murray said the town center is not easily accessible for much of the year, because of the boggy, swampy terrain, and the beaver dams that have been built there over the years.

“Actually it was the first case for Bangor Ghost Hunters,” Harold “Bubba” Murray, the group’s director and lead investigator, said in an interview earlier this month.

“We were told about a cholera epidemic, a plague that went through Riceville, but we were never able to confirm anything,” he said. “So we found Riceville. We found small bits and pieces, you know, some debris, foundations. We found the cemetery to Riceville.”

A major breakthrough in the group’s Riceville case came 8½ years ago, when a team member uncovered newspaper accounts of a major tannery fire that occurred on Dec. 30, 1906, including the following excerpts from an article in the Bangor Daily Commercial:

“The extensive plant at Riceville, consisting of a large tannery, sawmill, engine and boiler house and several outbuildings, owned and operated by the Hancock Leather Co., composed of James Rice, Francis X. and John Rice of Bangor, was entirely destroyed by fire Saturday forenoon, the result of the explosion of a lantern in the roll house,” the article stated.

“Riceville is in Hancock county, Plantation 39. It received its name in 1898 when the Hancock Leather Co. began to operate the tannery there.

“The Riceville plant was an extensive one, consisting of the tannery, roll house, saw mill, engine and boiler house, large bark yards and a general store and boarding house. The two latter were not burned. … The company is now considering the matter of rebuilding the plant but has reached no conclusion as yet. About 25 men were employed at the time of the fire, which gained such headway that with the apparatus at hand nothing could be done to save the buildings.”

The tannery never was rebuilt. Murray speculates that this is because of fears that chemicals from the tannery seeped into the water supply. The inhabitants of Riceville eventually moved on.

Though Murray believes most of the town’s records burned in the fire, the Bangor Ghost Hunters group has turned up a 1900 souvenir program from the Riceville School listing the names of 21 pupils with the surnames Priest, Peaterson, Willette, Buck and Cole.

They also found census records from the same year, showing a total population of 75 people, including 11 families with a total of 35 children as well as 18 boarders.

Through a confidential source, the group also acquired copies of photographs of the Brown Farm, including shots of a large, rambling white farmhouse and barn, a water tower and other buildings. Murray said the photographs probably date back to the 1920s or 1930s.

But just because the village’s demise turned out to have a somewhat mundane explanation doesn’t mean it isn’t haunted.

Strange occurrences

Murray is among those who say they’ve experienced some strange things in Riceville.

“It does mess with people. It has convinced me that there’s something out there,” Murray said. He said he and other team members experienced what he described as an optical illusion. They were following a narrow path through the woods leading to the Brown Farm site, located in the township’s southwest corner, when the path suddenly vanished from view. Murray said it was as though an empty corridor through the woods suddenly filled in with trees.

“It was like something was trying to keep us there,” he said.

Team member Felicia Woodbury, an 18-year-old psychic from Bucksport, agrees that something supernatural is lurking there. She encountered it on her first visit to the site in June.

“I sensed there was an accident there,” Woodbury said. “I kept getting this feeling that this little girl wanted me to follow her,” Woodbury said. She said she followed her a short way. “She was friendly. She actually kind of wanted us to play with her.”

Murray believes the girl was the Browns’ 11-year-old niece and that the girl died as the result of an accident.

“She was run over by a team of oxen,” Murray said. “Her uncle was out there plowing.”

Murray said that the presence of the girl’s spirit has been corroborated by others with psychic ability who have been to the old farmstead.

Three months ago, an ATV rider who is not psychic heard a woman’s voice calling, “Time to come in!” while riding through Riceville, Murray said.

“He said this voice was so close it was just like he rode by and almost ran her over,” Murray said. The ATV rider wished to remain anonymous, Murray said.

Murray said other members of the Bangor Ghost Hunters have encountered the voice and that some have seen the ghost of a man plowing a field — a field now overgrown with trees.

Murray called the phenomenon a “residual haunting.” He said the woman’s voice likely was the last thing the girl heard before her death.

According to Murray, members of the Brown family last lived in Riceville around 1910 or 1912.

“In 1914, loggers came in to talk to the last family in town and no one was around,” he said. “The town was found abandoned.”

The group also is investigating the possibility of a second ghost, believed to be that of an adult male, Murray said. He declined to comment on the male entity until the team can learn more about him and his connection to the site.

This month’s visit

During a visit to the site of the Brown Farm, earlier this month, Murray, Woodbury and another team member, Mike Marino, experienced more unexplained activity. Few traces of the farm remain. Part of the foundation of a handyman’s shack and parts of on old cast-iron wood stove are still visible. Trees and brush have overtaken much of what once were farm fields.

Armed with such tools as an electromagnetic field meter, a Gauss meter, a pendulum and dowsing rods, the ghost hunters picked up some readings they said defied explanation.

“Mostly I picked up on a magnetic field that was self-generating with no apparent easy explanation,” said Marino, who considers himself one the team’s most skeptical members. “Also we picked up on a very slight electrical reading, again with no apparent cause. Nothing to be able to analyze because it was so slight and it didn’t last long enough to get an accurate reading on it.”

Murray agreed: “We got some activity. We chased a magnetic field that is moving.” Jim Hall, a middle school science teacher and director of Haunted North Carolina, is a frequent presenter at Duke University’s Rhine Research Center in Durham, N.C. He also is vice president of the Paranormal Research Alliance and is regularly sought by the media for his expertise regarding the paranormal.

Asked Friday about the tools that Bangor Ghost Hunters and similar groups use in paranormal investigations, Hall said, “The devices work, and the concept is technically sound, but most investigators misuse them.

Essentially, we measure environmental factors to see what changes when a paranormal event happens. They are not meant to be taken as evidence in and of themselves, as EMF fields can have many sources.”

A former arson investigator, Marino also believes most fields have a logical explanation, though he and group members could not detect a source for the readings they picked up in Riceville this month.

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Comments
24 comments on this item
On 10/31/09 at 12:29 AM, matt29 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Are they certain that Riceville was in Township 39? I ask this because the Tannery Road is wholely contained in eastern Greenfield and because Greenfield used to be in Hancock County. I think it might be contained in Greenfield.

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On 10/31/09 at 12:45 AM, matt29 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

The Dead Stream has its source near the southwest corner of T 39 MD. Could this name be aasociated with the finding of the dead bodies?

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On 10/31/09 at 5:24 AM, outdoorman wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

talk about a ridicoulous way to spend your time.....more people that need help......

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On 10/31/09 at 6:26 AM, jakemulligan wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Interesting article. Outdoorman thought it silly, but read it.

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On 10/31/09 at 6:35 AM, garysavard wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

These people should check out Hangtown in Caratunk, just south of The Forks.

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On 10/31/09 at 9:54 AM, busymominmaine207 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I have always been fascinated with this town there is not too much out there on this town and I find it rather interesting that this group takes the time to

find more and more on it and give us more history on the town each time they do visit it! :)

So i don't think it is a ridiculous way to spend your time.. Maine has so much hidden history...Interesting article I hope more read it..

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On 10/31/09 at 12:06 PM, DouglasWatts wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Nice to see the BDN giving pseudo-science so much space. What's next, Apollo moon hoaxers?

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On 10/31/09 at 12:37 PM, bubbalouie wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I want to see the birth certificate..... are they sure these people were born in the US? Fun story though.... lots of old abandoned farms that had several homes and cemetarys around if you travel the woods enough to find them. I have never seen any ghosts or strange hapenings though... unless you count getting lost on the old overgrown roads. I guess with enough ignorance and imagination you can see anything you want.

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On 10/31/09 at 2:16 PM, NastyNate wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Just sayin' and I am not making accusations but it sounds weird when someone says, "There was an eleven year old girl who wanted us to play with her."

I'm not sure if the copy editor accidentally let that one slip in or if the BDN crew enjoys it when quotations can be given a subtext.

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On 10/31/09 at 2:20 PM, elliemae wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Awesome 'Zepp tee! Wow, man!!!!!!!!!!!

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On 10/31/09 at 3:56 PM, SantiniSpagoandSpike wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I have no idea about "ghosts" and psychic phenomena. None whatsoever, so I have no port to criticize or adulate this group for what they are doing. I will say this, though; We see on television stories, tales of haunting and ghosts which occupy certain homes or other areas. Theories have been examined by some which say "ghosts" are just "souls" of the dead who still have business to do on earth, or got caught in some vortex or refuse to go to their final resting places - whatever!

Being very religions of thought, I do not believe in ghosts at all. I think every soul goes 'somewhere', and I doubt any soul stays on earth. We call it "heaven", but who is to really know? None of the dead have told us, and we rely upon the writings of Bible to explain it. But has it been proven in theory? Only when Christ Himself rose from the dead and Ascended into Heaven, this we know...if the truth of it has been recorded the exact way this event happened. Then, many people have actually "seen" ghosts floating around at inconspicuous times and places, thus new television interest programs evolve.

As 'NastyNate' said above (((2:16PM))), how on earth can someone - even a clairvoyant - KNOW when some little girl "wanted us to play with her"? Did she actually see this little girl running around teasing the group...jumping or running around, and/or telling this person she wanted to be played with? This is beyond my imagination and interest...I have plenty to do in my life, and although this story is interesting, I will let the Ghost Buster's do their thing!

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On 10/31/09 at 4:14 PM, Damoma wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Oh man. I LOVE stuff like this. Hearing stories like this sure gets your imagination going. And at my age, getting ANYTHING going, is exciting for me. Keep the historical stories going.

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On 10/31/09 at 4:39 PM, Taxpayer wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Ok Garysavard...what is the story on Hangtown in Caratunk? I don't live too far from there and have never heard anything about ghosts.

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On 10/31/09 at 8:42 PM, dextah_bub wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Where can I get one of them "blessed gem stones"?????? I want to try and keep my mother-in-law away from me..............

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On 10/31/09 at 9:54 PM, Trapper wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

First, I don't believe a word of this article. My father, Amos W. Buck, was born in Riceville Plantation (Township 39) and his family lived there for many years. I personally knew many of the other former residents - The Priest family, who moved to Costigan and Milford, my parents' family, who moved to bradley, the Ouelletts, who lived in Great Works, and the Baker families who moved to Bradley. I personally visited 39 Tannery several times, and had seen the large Baker House, which was the last standing structure at 'The Tannery'.

I never knew of any dead bodies, nor did I ever hear of any. The residents simply moved away when there was no more work at the tannery - which existed solely for the tanning of hides, using the tannic acid process. Hemlock bark, which was plentiful in the area, was used to make the liquor in which the hides were soaked. When hemlock became scarce, and the oil tanning process came into use, the tannery was closed.

The large community spring still exists there, I believe. The large pasture on the hill behind the village has long ago grown into woods. At its height, nearly 200 people lived at Riceville. Only the stone foundations of the homes and the tannery's boiler exist today.

Chester C. Buck 99 Blueberry Hill Road, Hyannis, MA 02601

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On 11/1/09 at 2:12 AM, Whatajoke wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Nice information Trapper. Still, this article was a nice read pertaining to history in the area. I don't believe in ghosts but again, nice to read about the local history.

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On 11/1/09 at 5:17 AM, dogman wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Was there a tannery there or were there acres of marijuana fields I have to wonder?

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On 11/1/09 at 9:24 AM, sebec39 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Trapper, I hope the BDN prints your comments in the newspaper. I don't believe the "ghost" aspects of the story either. There are many abandoned towns in Maine (and maybe will be more if they keep closing the mills).

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On 11/1/09 at 2:07 PM, skullbones wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Lies all lies

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On 11/2/09 at 9:59 AM, hump007 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

trapper is correct.

as a frequent visitor of this site i can tell you the only things left are some old foundations to houses and the factory foundation as well as the community well. i think there may be a bear that hibernates under the factory foundation actually.

this town was only used for the tanning of hides. i did hear of a fire that destroyed the town but i dont know if that is true or not. i have visited this site a 100 times or so in my life many of them alone and have never had a gostly experiences. this was the place where my father taught me to hunt. i shot my first partridge as well as my first deer here. also i was witness to a hunting accident here back in 93. i still visit a couple times every hunting season. this place has a lot of histoical and sentimental value to me and i found the article fascinating true or not.

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On 11/2/09 at 6:32 PM, ellsworth23 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I find this article very interesting. But it kind of reminds me of the movie House of Wax....haha abandoned town. Creeeeeepy!

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On 11/2/09 at 7:39 PM, busymominmaine207 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Trapper thanks for posting that it is good to hear someone from that area and that had family that lived there at one time that is awesome! Thanks for posting the information! There is so little information on the town that I guess it has become one of the mysteries of Maine.. again thanks for posting it and I am glad that BDN posted it as well! :)

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On 11/3/09 at 9:53 AM, MariaBakerDesrosiers wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I, too, am a descendant of folks who lived at the 39 Tannery. Trapper's information confirms what I have been told about this community. My grandmother said there was also a roller skating rink there. My great-grandfather, Edward Baker was a cook at several logging camps. Was the picture in the BDN him or was it John? I have some pictures, and when I can dig them all out, would be glad to share them. My father reports, in the family (Belanger/Baker) genealogy that he compiled, that there was an Amos Baker who died at a young age of "dropsy". Could this have been the cholera epidemic? Trapper, (you are a cousin of mine) I will probably drop you a line. Though I am not particularly interested in the ghost aspect, I am quite interested in learning more about the Tannery. My family has had a camp for many years at Brandy Pond, and my husband, myself, and some friends hiked in to the Tannery from the pond a few years ago. My uncle had given us directions. This place holds sentimental value for me and my family. If anyone wants to talk further, please contact me. Maria Baker Desrosiers, PO Box 151, Bradley, ME 04411.

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On 11/5/09 at 12:34 AM, Marino wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

So glad to hear from other people with information on this town. We have been working on this for ten years.

We recently came into possession of official documentation of the information listed in the article. We also have copies of town records and have access to some more stuff that has been found.

We would like to talk to anyone with more information on this area. We thought we had talked to the last person to live in the town just before she died. Brown was her name. But it seems there may be a few more. The official town records end in 1912. This doesn't mean that people didn't live in the area any more, but it lost it's charter then.

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