Haunted Cemeteries of New England: Stories, Stones, & Superstitions

by Roxie J. Zwicker

The old graveyards of New England offer a fascinating glimpse into the region's history and haunted past. Join author Roxie Zwicker as she invites the curious into some of the most fascinating burial grounds of New England. Cross through the iron gates and overgrown fields to discover the mysterious stories and dramatic stone carvings. In this book you will visit the forgotten burial ground in the Connecticut woods that is quite alive with spirits. Discover the legends of Old Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where chilling stories set the scene of this final resting place. Read about the wizard of Marblehead, who would use the burying ground to cast spells and enchant the weather. The collection of photographs shows remarkable gravestones and scenic cemeteries that will enrich the journey. Also unearth some of the unusual superstitions, epitaphs, and burial customs of Old New England. Step into the outdoor museums of stone and visit with the dead. You may find that you won't want to leave.

Genres: Nonfiction

225 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[MKF · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really need to stop reading "true" ghost stories. Legends stated as facts is what I dislike the most in these books and this author does it as well. The rest is the usual ongoing they saw orbs or photographed strange shapes. I did enjoy the poetry at the beginning of each cemetery that was written about and the epitaphs she included as well.

[William Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I've been to some of the cemeteries listed in this book, and I've been on several ghost walks with Roxie in Portsmouth N. H. I was born and raised in Newburyport and have walked in just about all of the cemeteries there.

I love walking in cemeteries as they are peaceful places, and I do believe in ghost.

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was attracted to this book for the subject matter because I'm fascinated by the paranormal. I was given the opportunity to review this book and jumped on the chance.
The introduction itself caught my attention because you can tell that the author has a passion for what she does. The book was very informative and covered probably every historical cemetery in the New England area. Each section held a good amount of information but not so much as to overload you.
The photography was wonderful also and very interesting. There were several pages of color and black and white photos with nice descriptions of what you were seeing.
There was a section including interesting epitaphs that you can find on some of the resting places, and a section on superstitions which contained write ups on some familiar and not so familiar ones.
Overall I really enjoyed this book (especially having visited the New England states and several graveyards in my teenage years. I also think that this book would be a fantastic guide for someone venturing to the area and wanting to visit some of these sites and learn some history.

[Christopher Obert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is similar to Ms. Zwicker’s book, “Massachusetts Book of the Dead, Graveyard Legends and Lore”, however it covers all of New England’s six states. The book is divided by state and could be used as a guidebook to explore the creepy (and historic) sites across New England. Some of the tales told in this book have been told in other Zwicker books but I found that this did not take anything away from the book. The book includes some black & white and color photographs which add to the text.