Dudleytown: a ghost town abandoned by all residents due to a curse (7 photos)

There are many places on Earth that, for one reason or another, considered cursed. And almost always their stories sink into the mists of time, which makes them look more like legends.





But, as they say, every legend is not based on an empty place, there must be facts. This is what happened with the curse. the American city of Dudleytown, which I am going to talk about in this once.

"A Place Where Owls Hide"

In the northwestern part of the state of Connecticut among the hills and dense forests rest what is left of a small town, lost in time. It was once called Dudleytown. From the buildings there almost nothing is left. However, people continue to remember dark stories about these places.

According to the chronicles, Dudleytown was founded in 1738 a farmer named Thomas Griffis. He chose this place because of his seclusion and beautiful forested hills.



The valley where the city of Dudleytown stood. Photo from the 1930s

Soon several other families arrived and also looking for peace and quiet. Because of the abundance of owls, whose hooting every now and then spread over the wooded hills and valley, at first the settlement received the name "Owlsbury" can be translated as "The place where owls are hiding.

The Dudley Brothers

The first Dudleys arrived in these places only in 1747. This were Abiel and Barzillai - veterans of the French and Indian wars. Later to he was joined by Gideon, Martin and Obiya, and they all wore the same surname.

Moreover, it is not known for certain whether they were all relatives. But because of the size and industriousness of the family, it was the surname Dudley gave the town its name. Since the 1750s, it has been called none other than Dudleytown.



Newspaper article about Dudlytown

As the rumor goes, the Dudleys brought to these places not only their relatives, but also the old family curse that followed them from England. The curse that killed Dudleytown...

A curse

It all started with the fact that their ancestor, Edmund Dudley, was executed by order of Henry VII for treason in 1510. Just before death Edmund Dudley fell into a semi-mad state when he began to speak in unknown languages and shouting, which led those present to believe that he and his family were cursed.

Later, Edmund's son, John, Duke of Northumberland, conceived overthrow Edward VI by marrying his son, Lord Guildford Dudley, to Lady Jane Grey. After the death of the king, she ruled for only 9 days before the plot was uncovered. Whereby Lady Jane and both Dudleys were beheaded.



Execution of John Dudley

A little later, Guilford's brother, who was in the military, returned to England from France, where there was a plague, and brought the disease with him. Because of this, in An epidemic broke out in the country, causing the death of thousands of people.

Because of superstition, people believed that from the remaining son of John Dudley, Roberta, you should expect trouble too, so he prudently left England for the New World. Robert's descendants settled in Cornwall is only 5 kilometers from where it was founded city of Dudleytown.

misfortune

In the early years of the city's existence, the inhabitants of Dudleytown in were mainly engaged in agriculture, growing flax, wheat and corn. At the same time, they were highly dependent on Cornwall, because in the new There was no church or cemetery in the settlement.

Pretty soon, the people of Dudleytown began to notice that with them every now and then various misfortunes occur: now a crop failure, then the death of livestock, then mysterious deaths.



Old map of Dudleytown

Take the same Abiel Dudley, who died in his prime in 1759, and his wife died a week later. She settled in their house Nathaniel Carter's family, who went to visit four years later relatives in Binghamton and became a victim of robbers.

And these are just a couple of examples from a series of mysterious incidents, many of which ended in the death of Dudleytowners.

rock of fate

One of the most famous stories tells how Mary Cheney Greeley, wife of presidential candidate Horace Greeley, arrived in Dudleytown in 1872, committed suicide soon after.

A year later, the hero of the Revolutionary War who lived here - General Herman Swift, lost his mind after hitting his wife lightning when she stood on the porch of their house.



Abandoned city of Oradour-sur-Glane in France

And in 1874, a whole family of 7 people died, and no one was able to explain the cause of their death. 3 years later, 2 disappeared in the city boy, and when the parents went to look for them, their house burned down.

If we add here the many other troubles that happened to residents of Dudleytown almost every day, even skeptics were already ready to believe that the city is cursed. People began to leave who goes where, and by 1900 the city was completely abandoned.

Between legend and reality

Historians, of course, do not believe in the existence of a curse and explain everything more prosaically: people succumbed to mass panic, arose due to several random coincidences, and simply dispersed. Still, the city could not be called large, according to various estimates, there lived from 200 to 300 people.

Another explanation for the town's disappearance could be barren land in the hills, which was ill-suited for farming, and poor water quality. It turns out that the water of the local stream is very high lead content, which is significantly higher than the norm. This, by the way, could well have caused a number of deaths or insanity.



Path leading to the forest where Dudleytown used to be

In 1924, the New York investment company "Dark Entry Forest" bought the land where the city once was located, and banned enter its territory.

Of course, this does not stop the crowds of fans of legends and ghost hunters who come here from all over America. At this, there is absolutely nothing to look at: there is nothing left of Dudleytown in literally nothing. By the way, here are its coordinates - 41°48'21.7"N 73°21'09.5"W.

However, people who have visited these places claim that there you can see strange shadows among the trees, and if listen, sometimes it is possible to distinguish barely audible voices, coming from somewhere out of the ground...