In Nashua, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire there’s a small stonewalled cemetery that has many ghost hunters more excited than a crackhead firing up his pipe. Is it really haunted, or is it just wishful thinking? Well, as you know, on this site, I’ll never give you that answer, as I would prefer you to think for yourself, and find out for yourself.  I can however give you the facts. Hopefully, this information here will enable you to make an educated decision as to whether or not visiting Gilson Road Cemetery is worth your time.

Nashua History
Once again, as for many allegedly haunted places, the historic facts of the actual cemetery are mostly forgotten by time. Nashua, on the other hand, has a solid, and bloody history. In the beginning (1673), the place wasn’t even called Nashua, and it wasn’t considered New Hampshire. It was actually Dunstable, Massachusetts.. well, and Dunstable, New Hampshire. It was kinda cut in half by the state line, so they redrew the map, so it was only in New Hampshire.

I’m getting this historic crap from Wiki, but we didn’t even have states back then so… They were colonies…Whatever.

It was later named Nashua after the river that flows through there. Who cares? Right? What we want to know  is what went on there that could give people the impression that the place has paranormal activity. That’s what we’re really after.

If you know anything about American history, you know New England had MORE than its fair share of bloodshed, and suffering. When the European settlers arrived there, they were attacked regularly by Native Americans defending their home from unwanted, outside invaders. Lets not forget the French-Indian War, or the American Revolution. This was a very dark time for everyone involved, both by people of European descent, as well as the Native Americans who called it home.

If you were involved in that kind of continuous horror, could YOU forget it?

Maybe the land itself can’t either.

Legends (Quoting the same crap.)
There are a couple of legends that are reposted everywhere on the net, and they say the same thing word for word. I’ll do that too.

“It’s believed that when the land was blessed and non-natives began to be buried, the spirits of the Native Americans arose angered. Today, their angry ghosts roam through the cemetery creating an overall oppressive and ominous feeling.”

“Another tale is that an insane medicine man was banished to this area. He would lure young braves to this area and promise to unleash spirits that would follow the braves, making them stronger and wiser than others in their tribe. Instead, the medicine man sacrificed the braves to dark spirits that prolonged his maddened life. He died on this spot and now haunts the area still looking for victims to bring him back from the grave.

“Some believe that this area became an illicit area to dump bodies of the murdered and later became a cemetery.”

I think that there was another story about the ‘Gilson Farmhouse” catching fire, and the boy running away from it and burning to death before he could get help.

For the most part, I gotta call shenanigans.

There is no evidence to back any of that stuff up, and as far as we know, these little stories are nothing more than big lies. That sounds a bit harsh, but let’s keep it real. We have nothing to go on to even remotely prove, or substantiate these ideas.

They’re fun to think about, though.

The Cemetery
The cemetery itself is isolated within hills, and trees, and surrounded by a decaying stone wall. The headstones of the graves go back as far as the late 1700s, but there are broken, and warn away stones which MAY suggest that older graves exist there. The newest stones are from the early 1900’s, and there are a lot less gravestones than there should be if you take into consideration the size of the whole cemetery.

There IS one grave that stands out as being unique in that cemetery… Well, it would stand out in ANY cemetery. It’s got a hole drilled in it. That headstone belongs to 5 year old Walter Gilson and it not only looks different, but it sits all by its lonesome with no other graves around it.

The graveyard is located on Gilson Road, right across the street from the Tanglewood Drive Condos.

Reported Experiences
Whispers
One of the most common things that’s reported by visitors, and hunters alike is the faint voices heard with no discernible point of origin. People hear voices when hangin’ out in there. Sometimes the voices are even malicious or threatening. Aside from the possibility of it being imagination, it cannot be explained. Also, imagination can be the culprit in one or two cases, but a large amount of people have claimed to hear things. Is it possible that they are ALL imagining it?

Difficulty Breathing
Difficulty breathing… How else do you want me to describe it?

Being Followed Or Watched
There have been reports of people visiting this location feeling uncomfortable as if they were being watch by something they could not see. Other reports even claim to hear footsteps behind them, and following them, yet seeing nothing. These feelings have been reported to be strongest near the back wall.

Crazy Lights
Some people claim to have seen different colored, depending on the witness, balls of light rising from the ground and into the air. Others report seeing ‘laser’ like beams of light appearing instantly, and disappearing just as quickly.

Apparitions
Some people have even reported seeing full bodied apparitions. Some have old 18th century clothing, and there is one in particular that is described as a ‘Lady In White’ who walks along the graves, until she comes to the rear stone wall, and vanishes into thin air. Another is a report of the ‘Gilson Boy’ at the road trying to flag people down only to disappear into mist when you get close.

Other experiences include, feeling a force keeping you from entering the graveyard, or taking a picture through the hole in Walter Gilsons headstone to possibly capture some other spooky stuff.

The Verdict
I haven’t formed an opinion of whether or not the place is haunted. I’ve never been there, and I have not done a ‘Paranormal Investigation’ in the location, so what the hell do I know? Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that anyone else has done an actual investigation either. So what the hell do THEY know? I’ve looked all over the net, and I continue to find the same thing. MANY teams of ghost hunters visit the place looking for ghosts, snapping pictures, and coming out with mists, and orbs, happy that they’ve done what they’ve set out to do. They’ve found their ghosts. They’ve used EMF meters, and other gadgets to try to be scientific, but the objectivity seems to be missing, as they continue to try to find their ghosts. This is ‘Ghost Hunting’. That’s great! I love it, but it’s not Paranormal Investigation. I’ve looked at all of the pictures, and although some of it IS intriguing, the methodology leading to the the evidence isn’t solid enough to be backed up. None of it stands up to any degree of scrutiny.

With all that said… I have to say that I DO recommend the location. Based on the overwhelmingly unanimous opinion by ghost hunters, I would say the place is definitely worth checking out. Let’s hope future visits bring solid results that hold up to questioning.

Thanks
This location was suggested to me by a friend of The Beyond, Bobby Elgee of Sights Unseen Paranormal. Thanks Bobby!

Location Ratings

 NOTE: The Accessibility rating in this case is an educated guess as the information could not readily be found. Those of you that have been there, leave a comment, and let us know if this is accurate or not. We want to get it right.

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In Monroe County, Michigan, parallel to East Dunbar road is a small stream of water called Plum Creek. Located there is a small 8-acre area of land that the locals affectionately refer to as “Dog Lady Island”. It’s not a happy looking place. The trees in the area appear bare, and dying. It’s a wasteland, over-run with weeds. It looks almost ‘post apocalyptic’ as evidence of people, who are long gone clutter the overgrown area. 12th century Native American artifacts have been found there, and there’s even remains of an old burnt down home.

It’s not a place that anyone would really want to spend their time… Unless, of course they’re weird, and interested this sort of spooky crap.

No offense.

Weirdo.

The Legend
The island has had a few names over the years. It was originally known as ‘Fox Island’, and housed a mansion which was part of a womens religious school. In the late 1800’s, the island, and the house, were bought by a family named Kausler. After that, it was called ‘Kausler’s Island’. Convenient huh?

Over the years, the island, and everything on it were bought,and sold many times. Around the 1930’s, some people built cheap housing on Kauslers Island. People moved in, including an old couple who were hired on to take care of the old Kausler mansion.

A pig farm was started on the island. It didn’t make it. A trash dump was put there. It didn’t make it. Nothing prospered on that island. The people who were living there finally said ‘enough’, and moved out. Well, everyone except the old caretakers.
The caretakers were a a strange old couple. They kept to themselves, and didn’t seem to like other people much. It’s been said that they didn’t even like each other. The wife, who didn’t receive what she needed from her husband began to raise Doberman pinschers for companionship, and protection.

In 1961 there was a gas explosion, and their home, the old Kausler house was burnt to the ground. The husband died very shortly thereafter, and left the elderly woman living alone on the island, n a small shack, with only her dogs.

It’s unknown exactly what happened after that. It’s all conjecture. Some say that the dogs mauled her. They ripped out her tongue, and her eye leaving her partially blind. She went mad. She became one of them. With no tongue, she was unable speak. She started growling, and began crawling on all fours to assimilate to her chosen family. They say that this is how she lived until the end.

In the late 1960’s, teenagers discovered the island, and used it as a ‘lovers lane’. At the time, there were a lot of stories told about people being out there in the woods, and having that uncomfortable feeling of ‘being watched’, as well as hearing the old woman howl like a beast. There were stories of people being chased off of the property by wild, and vicious dogs. There were even tales of the woman herself chasing cars, pouncing on the hoods, and clawing at their windshields as fearful teenagers would drive off.

After all of those, admittedly far fetched stories, the island was called “Dog Lady Island.”

SOME kids even had it in their head that they had her phone number, and would call her up, testifying to everyone that they heard, first hand, her animalistic growls, and noises over the receiver.

In the 70’s, it was said that the Iron Coffin Motorcycle Gang took the island as their own. There were other rumors about the gang actually torturing, and murdering teenagers there. Not only that, they allegedly murdered the ‘Dog Lady’, along with her dogs, and kept her body in a wooden coffin on the island.

Since then, developers have come and gone on the island. In that time, people still have claimed to see the woman, and her dogs all around the area, as well as claiming to hear her howling, and screams in the distance. There have even been tales of seeing her, and her pack of beasts walking along Dunbar road on moonlit nights. Are they ghosts? Who knows?

In the 1990’s, the island’s name was legally changed to ‘Utopia’ because they were trying to turn it into a party island with legal nightlife. It didn’t make it. They wanted to put concerts on the island and called it ‘Croakie’s Party Island’. It didn’t make it.

Still, nothing prospers on that island.

The Facts
There are no facts. This story seems to me to be a bunch of “he said, she said” stuff. The ONLY real fact about the legend of The Dog Lady is that an old woman DID once live on the island.

I want to make it clear for all of you. Everything written here on this entry is conjecture, story, and legend. The Iron Coffins are still riding to this day. I am IN NO WAY accusing them of any wrongdoing in the 70’s. I’ve been to their website. Actually, they seem like a decent crew!

Even though there are no facts available, our minds remain open on the issue. We’ve seen a lot of strange things in this field of research. Anything’s possible.

The Verdict
At this point, we’ve heard about no official paranormal investigations on this legend. If you, or your paranormal investigation team has done any work on this subject (preferably scientific investigation), please contact us. We’d love to let people know what you’ve came up with.

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1927
Andrew Kehoe was a member of the school board and local farmer. A new property tax was levied that would fund the construction of a new school building.

The new tax put Kehoe into financial trouble, or so he believed, and the bank had foreclosed on his farm.

Dude snapped.

May 18, 1927
For the past few months, Kehoe had been hiding dynamite and other common explosives of the time period all over the school grounds. He had also filled his car up with shrapnel, debris, and more dynamite. On the morning of May 18, he put put the plan into action.

The first thing that he did that morning was bash his wife, Nellie’s head in and threw her body in a wheelbarrow. He then tied up all of his farm animals, and used some more of his explosives to destroy the farm. As his farm burned with the animals inside, he got into his car, and drove toward the school. Good thing for him, all fire departments and authorities had their hands full with the farm. That gave him the opportunity to do the unthinkable.

Approximately 10 minutes after the farm went up, the northern wing of the school exploded. I’m not going to go into elaborate details about the carnage that ensued immediately thereafter. Witnesses claimed that very soon after the explosion, there were over a hundred men trying to dig survivors out, and many woman were there weeping due to the loss of their children, thirty-seven children to be exact, between the ages of 7 & 13.

Killing his wife, 37 children and 2 teachers wasn’t enough for Kehoe. No, this guy had to keep going. Around thirty minutes later, he comes strolling up to the school in his car, and motions to the superintendent, Emory E. Huyck. Superintendent Huyck walked up to the car. Kehoe pulled out a rifle, and fired it into his back seat igniting the dynamite in the car. That explosion not only killed Huyck, but 3 more innocent bystanders, one of them being another young student. The explosion also killed Andrew Kehoe. In the picture to the right, you can see what was left of Kehoe’s car, not much.

The newspapers had a field day, and Kehoe had a last message for all involved. Officials found a wooden sign attached to one of his fences on his destroyed farm which said, “Criminals are made, not born.”

Field Report

Members of Beyond Paranormal Investigations had visited this location with another nameless ghost hunters group in the area. The other team gathered their psychic impressions, EMF readings,  and their pictures of orbs calling the place ‘haunted’.

Beyond Paranormal Investigations returned to RE-investigate the area. Meter readings on the previous visit were debunked due to under ground power lines. Pictures or orbs were captured, but Beyond Paranormal does not consider orbs to be valid paranormal evidence.

The Verdict

At this time there is not enough information to determine if the place is haunted.

Location Ratings

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