Weird Island

25. MINI EPISODE: Tombstone Tourism at Precious Blood

Episode Summary

Precious Blood Cemetery in Woonsocket is one of Rhode Island’s most haunted cemeteries, after a natural disaster left spirits searching for their loved ones--and even their own body parts! In addition to its paranormal activity, this cemetery features interesting graves, including that of Marie Rose Ferron, America’s first stigmatic. To Visit: Diamond Hill Road &, Rathbun St, Woonsocket, RI 02895

Episode Notes

Episode Source Material

Episode Transcription

Hi, I’m Sara. And you’re listening to Weird Island. Each week, I’ll be telling you about the strangest stories I can dig up from my tiny, little state of Rhode Island. And this is the third and final episode (for now, at least) of my Woonsocket Day Trip mini series--where I do my very best to convince you to spend a day exploring the weird and wonderful in Woonsocket, RI. This week, I’ll be telling you about one of Rhode Island’s most haunted cemeteries and some of its unique occupants. Stick around until the very end of the episode to hear about a couple of additional things to see or places to stop and eat in Woonsocket while you’re there.
Are you a taphophile? I just learned that that’s the word for someone who is interested in cemeteries and gravestones. Or maybe you’d prefer to be called a tombstone tourist? Or a cemetery enthusiast? Or a grave hunter, perhaps? Many people are. My mom visits cemeteries and photographs beautiful and old gravestones. She’ll be drawn to some in particular and research the person buried there to learn a little about their life. In that way, a person can continue to live on and have an impact on strangers, even after their death. But while some cemetery tourists are seeking a glimpse into another person’s life, others believe that spirits are actively reaching out to them. Yes, today I’m talking about ghosts.
Rhode Island has a ton of interesting cemeteries, so if you’re looking to encounter spirits, you couldn’t pick a better place. The state has somewhere around 3,500 historical cemeteries, which are those small family plots you drive by that are often tucked away in people’s yards. Early on in the state’s history, there was no central church and accompanying graveyard, so families would bury their loved ones on their property. This means that many of these tiny graveyards include founding members of the towns they’re located within. And then there’s the bigger cemeteries, like North Burial Ground and Swan Point cemetery, where you can visit the grave of Rhode Island’s beloved H. P. Lovecraft.
But Woonsocket is home to one of Rhode Island’s most haunted cemeteries, according to local paranormalists. Precious Blood Cemetery has been said to be a hotspot for ghosts who wander endlessly in search of their loved ones. CNN even featured the cemetery as the cover image for an article titled, “Haunted places around the world: Visit--if you dare!” placing the cemetery alongside international sites like Mexico City’s Island of the Dolls and the Catacombs in Paris.
Home to some 16K burials and maintained by the Roman Catholic Church of the Precious Blood, this cemetery has a pretty good reason for being haunted. The church itself is the oldest French-Canadian church in Woonsocket, and construction began in 1873 on a wooden building. In a somewhat ominous sign of what would be coming, the original church building was never completed. Construction halted in 1875 and soon afterwards, a severe storm destroyed the church’s progress. Rebuilding began in 1881, and this time, local architect Walter Fontaine chose brick instead of wood. But it would be another 74 years before another bout of storms rolled in and changed the fate of the Precious Blood Cemetery.
In 1955, the northeast was hit by one of the worst hurricane seasons to date. At the time, it was the costliest hurricane season ever recorded, breaking the record set just a year prior. August began with Hurricane Connie, which started as a tropical storm and hit North Carolina as a Category 2 hurricane. Bands of heavy rain and wind reached Rhode Island, dropping 4-6 inches of rainfall in two days. On its own, Connie wasn’t a big deal for the state, but the rain saturated the ground. And then just days later, Connie was followed by Diane, another category 2 hurricane that made landfall, this time in New England, and set a record that still holds as the wettest hurricane to hit Massachusetts - and the second wettest hurricane to hit Rhode Island. In some places, it brought 20 inches of water in two days. The Blackstone River, which was normally about 70ft wide, swelled to the width of a mile.
And just North of Woonsocket, upstream on the Mill River, a dam in Hopedale MA crumbled under the weight of the additional water, sending a raging flood downriver. When the gushing water reached Woonsocket, a massive section of Horseshoe Dam burst under the pressure, and a 20ft wall of water surged into a densely populated and active four square mile neighborhood called Social. Fortunately, most people had evacuated the area, but the occupants of the Precious Blood Cemetery weren’t as lucky.
The hurricane washed out parts of the cemetery, dislodging coffins that floated, like little ships, into town.
In the aftermath of the storm, eight states along the east coast were declared federal disaster areas, and the National Guard dropped food and supplies to victims stranded on roofs and plucked people out of trees. More than 100K people on the East Coast lost their jobs as flooded mills and factories closed their doors. In Woonsocket, 12% of the population was left jobless. And in the neighborhood of Social, residents picked up the pieces as best they could.
They collected 50 coffins which had been dislodged from the cemetery, many of which had collided with buildings or other floating objects and splintered, leaving bones scattered around the town. They carefully pieced skeletons back together and tried to return them to their original graves, but it was impossible to get it completely right. Probably there were Frankensteined skeletons, composed of the body parts of different people, placed back into graves. Some were reburied under their original headstones, some got new headstones. And because of this chaos, today, people believe the spirits in Precious Blood wander the cemetery, looking for their lost body parts or the loved ones they had wanted to spend eternity buried beside.
Paranormalists visit the cemetery, and some have reported seeing orbs and hearing voices and unexplained noises. Some people claim to feel the spirit of a woman following visitors throughout the graveyard. A few have recorded audio of their time in the graveyard and scoured the recordings in search of messages from ghosts - called electronic voice phenomena, or EVP. If you’re interested in trying to encounter a spirit, Precious Blood, with its 50 unearthed residents, would be a great place to start.
But even if this isn’t up your alley, Precious Blood is worth a visit. While many of the gravestones are fairly run-of-the-mill, there are a few standouts worth checking out. Some are beautiful monuments to the person buried there. Like a carved angel weeping as she embraces one headstone. Or a sculpture of a young woman clinging to a cross. There are also a couple of notable Woonsocket mill owners, who had massive graves built in their honor. But the most grand grave in the whole cemetery is unmistakable. There’s this impressive, Grecian structure with rows of steps that lead to a platform and a semicircle of columns. This is the family mausoleum of Aram Pothier, who was elected seven times as governor of Rhode Island. Pothier was the first French Canadian governor of the state, and was credited with bringing significant foreign investment and business to Woonsocket after serving as a representative of the state at the Paris Exhibitions in 1889 and 1899. He convinced several French textile firms to relocate to the largely french-speaking Woonsocket, and was thought to have created somewhat of a second industrial revolution in the city.
The Pothier family mausoleum is definitely the largest and grandest grave in the cemetery, but there’s another notable local figure buried in the cemetery that may have attracted more visitors over the years. Her name was Marie Rose Ferron, but people knew her as Little Rose, and she was a Roman Catholic mystic and stigmatic - meaning that throughout her life, she was thought to bear the wounds of stigmata - corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ. These included wounds on her hands and feet, on the sides of her body, and a crown of thorns on her forehead. Some consider her to be the first American stigmatic.
Little Rose was born in 1902 in Quebec, the 10th of 15 children who were each dedicated to one of the mysteries of the rosary. Rose was dedicated, prophetically, to the crucifixion. In 1905, her family moved to the United States, first to Fall River, MA where she spent much of her childhood and later, in 1925, to Woonsocket. From a very young age, Little Rose was said to have ecstatic visions. At age 13, she became seriously ill, and lost mobility in her right arm and left foot. By the time her family moved to Woonsocket, she was bedridden and unable to walk, and she lived in constant pain until her death in 1936 at the age of 33. While she lived, she dedicated her life to suffering for the sins of others, and many people would call on her and ask her for prayers. Some showed up in busloads to pray with her. When she died, nearly 15,000 people came to her home - and another 4,000 people attended her funeral. She has been recognized as a saint within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America, and was considered for Roman Catholic sainthood as well, though it was never recognized.
With this wide variety of stories, the Precious Blood Cemetery has something for everyone--whether you’re looking for a spiritual experience, a paranormal experience, or if you’re just looking to see some of the beautiful and unique graves. And if you do, there are a handful of other places that I didn’t cover in this miniseries that are worth mentioning, because they’ll round out your whole visit. There’s the Woonsocket Museum of Work and Culture, which, I’m going to be honest, sounded like the most boring name I could ever imagine for a museum, but actually tells the really interesting story of the French-Canadian immigrants who came to work in Woonsocket. I also highly recommend checking out Chan’s Chinese Restaurant and Jazz and Blues Music Club, home of egg rolls, Jazz and Blues. Who knows, I’ll probably be back with an episode on Chan’s one of these days. Just because I can’t seem to get out of Woonsocket. And finally, listener Melissa recommended Kay’s Steak Sandwiches, which she described as one of Woonsocket’s hidden gems. I think it goes without saying, but if you go, get the steak sandwich.

Thank you so much for sticking with me on this journey into Woonsocket, RI. If you end up checking out any of these places, let me know! I want to hear about your experience. You can email me or send me a recorded voice memo at weird rhode island @ gmail.com. See you next week as we dig up more stories about all things weird and wonderful in the little state of Rhode Island. Until next time!