Classic Mysteries by Brent Raynes

The Machiasport “Spectre”

Noted paranormal author Susy Smith, in her Haunted Houses for the millions (1967), wrote that one of the first American ghost stories for which any documentary evidence was produced occurred on the coast of Maine, near the community of Machiasport. As it turns out this “Spectre,” as it came to be known, was better witnessed and documented than the majority of such incidents throughout history.

This was a very impressive case. It began on the night of August 9, 1799, as a disembodied voice in the home of Abner Blaisdel. The voice returned months later on January 2, 1800, allegedly explaining that she was the spirit of the deceased wife of Captain George Butler, had been David Hooper’s daughter, and that her name was Nelly. She also explained that she would soon be able to show herself apparitionally.

This she accomplished toward the latter part of that January. For a number of months she appeared to witnesses, sometimes one or two, or in one instance as many as fifty people who had gathered to see her. Her appearances were focused primarily in the cellar of Abner Blaisdel and she came to be seen by a hundred people during this time. Susy wrote that she was seen as a “glowing, beautiful spirit,” and that “she was quite a ham, loved an audience, and made the most of it.” The account continues that she was recognized by those who had known her, plus she provided accurate information about her identity, and in addition made predictions about events that would later come true.

Reverend Abraham Cummings was a well-educated man, a graduate of Brown University, who firmly believed that members of his congregation describing this “Spectre” had flipped their lids. However, his attitude changed one day as he was walking across an open field where he observed a mysterious globe of light with a rosy tinge. He was mesmerized by it and hadn’t taken more than five paces when the luminous mass suddenly flashed to where he was and instantly transformed into the appearance of a woman. At first she appeared the size of a child, say about age seven, and as the parson stood gazing at her in amazement he thought to himself how this figure was not tall enough to be the woman he had heard described by others, at which point she then increased to a normal size! He wrote later how she “appeared glorious,” complete with rays of lights shining out from her head in all directions and even reaching to the ground. During these brief moments Rev. Cummings was filled with genuine fright, but at the same time (as he wrote later) “my fear was connected with ineffable pleasure.” Then as mysteriously as she had appeared, the apparition was simply gone.

Susy Smith described how Rev. Cummings was changed by that experience for the rest of his life, and how he described how mundane things seemed dull and commonplace and no longer of any real value to him.

Meanwhile, the spirit of Nelly Butler explained her appearances by stating that she wanted to make certain that her surviving husband married Lydia Blaisdel. In fact, the two were already courting. In addition, it was reported that as soon as the marriage had been consummated, Nelly whispered in Captain Butler’s ear that he must be kind to his new wife, for she would die in another year in childbirth. Again, we read, another of Nelly’s predictions came true!

Rev. Cummings painstakingly gathered and assembled the testimony of many of the eyewitnesses to Nelly Butler’s apparitional appearances and had them published in a pamphlet back in 1826, a year before his death. He came to regard her apparitional appearances as the best evidence available for the continuity of life after death. Susy Smith wrote that a copy still exists at Brown University, and that another edition was issued in Portland, Maine, back in 1859, of which (back in 1967) only three copies were known to still exist.