A Spectral Flying Dwarf In Connecticut

My friend Simon Young at the Fairy Investigation Society sent me the following story via an old newspaper clipping. Unfortunately the year of publication is missing, but it seems to be from a paper called The Globe-Democrat and is probably from the late 19th or early 20th century.

The date is January 11 (of whatever year), and the byline is New Haven, Connecticut. The headline reads:

AN ACCOMMODATING GHOST

A Massachusetts Dwarf Who Appears or Disappears In Night or Day - He Is Cut In Two By A Workman's Spade

Who can resist a headline like that? The article goes on to describe how for the last thirty years the people of North Haven have reported seeing a spectral dwarf in the vicinity of Shear's Brickyard.

Many men and women who have been riding and walking along the highway after nightfall have seen the strange figure of a dwarf about three feet high. Sometimes he would be dressed in one color of clothing and then of another. When people told of what they had seen they were received with incredulity by some, and other would put faith in the stories. 

On the night of January 9, five men employed at the brickyard had a vivid encounter with the mysterious dwarf. Owen McNulty, Oscar Jansen, Septa Maganzo, Pasco Servisco, and Lorenzo Partico were walking home from the brickyard at about 7:00 pm when the dwarf appeared in the road in front of them. He was about three feet tall, and wore a black velvet coat trimmed with fur and a "cocked hat" (a tricorn or perhaps bicorn hat). His clothes looked like they were fashionable 100 years ago, and he carried a lantern in his hand.

Owen McNulty was carrying a spade home from the brickyard, and swung it at the dwarf. It passed through the entity's body, and the dwarf disappeared. The men panicked and ran off, crossing themselves for protection.

I just want to interject and ask why do so many people attack supernatural beings when they encounter them? From shooting at Bigfoot to attacking dwarfs with spades, people in these accounts often react violently. And you know what? It never works.

Anyway, back to the story. The next day the five men went back to the spot where they had seen the dwarf. McNulty once again had his trusty spade. The black-clad dwarf appeared again, even though it was daytime, and without his lantern. Not learning his lesson from the previous night's encounter, McNulty swung his spade again at the dwarf. He succeeded in cutting the dwarf into two pieces, but he was probably not prepared for what came next.

Rather than fall over and die, the two halves of the dwarf's body floated forty feet up into the air and rejoined together. Then, with a blinding flash of light, the dwarf disappeared.

The men went back to boarding house where they all lived and described to their landlady what they had just witnessed. In response, she told them that many people had seen the same thing and that it wasn't really that unusual. I guess flying ghost dwarfs were just a common occurrence in the neighborhood!

The article ends by noting that there is a tradition in the neighborhood that "many years ago a sailor of dwarfish stature sailed up the Quinebec river (sic), his boat was capsized, and he drowned." I am assuming that Quinebic is a variant spelling of Quinnipiac, the large river that flows through North Haven. Connecticut readers, let me know if this is correct.

American newspapers in the 19th century often ran stories about ghosts, monsters, and other strange occurrences. They were a good way to increase readership, and people didn't have access to the almost unlimited weird news we now have via the internet and shows like Ancient Aliens or Finding Bigfoot. Newspapers had to do it all.

I suppose this story could be a hoax, but the article does include names and a verifiable location, so perhaps these men really did encounter something. And maybe that something really did have a long tradition of appearing to people in the neighborhood.

The people of North Haven explained the dwarf as a ghost (who was apparently once from Massachusetts), but he also sounds suspiciously like a fairy. Although quite powerful, fairies are often small in stature and often appear in the garb of an earlier era. But the distinction between fairies and ghosts are blurry. Whether by living under ancient burial mounds or including deceased humans in their company, fairies are often associated with the dead. This may also be why fairies often appear in antiquated clothing - they're just wearing what they wore while alive.

Ghost or fairy? It's really impossible to say. I think at some point it just becomes futile to categorize or define paranormal occurrences. All we really have are the strange stories people tell and our inclination to categorize what is inherently disorderly.

I've included the full article below in case you want to read the original:

The Specter Moose of Maine

At least 29,000 live in Maine, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. That's a lot of moose! Most of those moose are colored black or brown, but over the last hundred years a gigantic, white moose has been seen lurking in those piney northern forests.

Because of its ghostly color it's been dubbed... the specter moose of Maine! Well, and also because of the weird stories associated with it.

The specter moose was first seen in 1891 outside of Bangor by a hunting guide named Clarence Duffy. Duffy, no stranger to moose, was horrified by the encounter. Not only was the animal an unusual color, but it stood 13 feet tall and had antlers that were more than ten feet across. It was a moose of almost prehistoric proportions!

Another man named George Kneeland was so frightened by the giant white moose in 1900 that he abandoned his newfangled bicycle and climbed up a tree for safety. After investigating the bicycle, the moose vanished into the forest.

The specter moose appeared sporadically throughout the 20th century and became an established piece of Maine folklore. But where did it come from, and why is it such an unusual color?

There are of course a few possible scientific explanations. The specter moose could simply be an albino moose, although that doesn't account for it's gigantic size. It could also be infested with winter ticks (yuck!), which are known to cause lightening of an animal's coat.

However, science can't account for some of the wilder stories about the specter moose. For example, what would a scientist say about this story? A group of hunters near the Molunkus stream in Maine killed a large white moose, slit its throat, and hung it from a tree overnight so they could skin and dress it the next day. They were surprised in the morning to see that the moose had vanished, but were even more surprised that evening when the giant moose walked into their camp - with its throat still cut. The hunters shot it dead (again) with their rifles, but the moose calmly got up and walked off into the dark forest. Wisely, they didn't pursue.

That's pretty freaky, but things got even freakier. The giant white moose, its throat slit open, was seen soon after by one Burt Peggins near Ashland, Maine. Peggins shot at the moose to no effect, and then dropped his rifle and ran into his house. From inside, he watched the moose pick up the rifle with its teeth, fire it, and then amble away.

An undead moose that can shoot a gun is kind of scary, but the specter moose has his happier side as well. A man named Harry Porter claimed that he became stranded out in the woods with his girlfriend after their horse died. Happily, a giant white moose appeared and carried them back to town. Specter moose to the rescue!

One of the later stories about the specter moose also shows its supernatural side. According to some people in Franklin, the moose appears when bad things are about to happen, and it reportedly appeared shortly before the town's restaurant burned down in 2002.

Your average, mundane moose is pretty scary, but a giant supernatural white one is just disturbing. I can thank the following for adding a new monster to my nightmares: Michelle Souliere's book Strange Maine, and the BioForetan Review's article "King Moose." Michelle Souliere also writes the Strange Maine Blog, which is full of unusual stuff from the north.