| Rehoboth stands as one of the most haunted towns in Massachusetts. Boston and Salem get most of the press in the state, but the majority of the hauntings mentioned there are the stuff of legend, old stories passed down from generation to generation. In Rehoboth, the ghosts still walk the cemeteries and can be found in the streets waiting to be picked up. People in Rehoboth seem proud of their haunted history and are always ready to share their stories about the present day ghost they live side by side with. Looking at a map of the town something strikes you as being odd. There are a high number of cemeteries, more cemeteries than one would expect for a rural town with such a small population. Some are acres in size, but most are only a few Revolutionary headstones with faded names. One such abandoned graveyard is home to several veterans of the Revolutionary War. Most paranormal investigators stay away from such areas, believing the age of the dead means their spirits have come to some peace and there is not much activity there. This cemetery is different. Although there are only several headstones, misty figures have been seen walking between the roughly defined paths. At least two different apparitions have been described there. The first is about the size of an average man and has no solid form. The mist is sometimes described as grey, but usually it is black or transparent, allowing the viewer to see something but not get a full view of what it was he just saw. The second is a reddish circle, about the size of a softball, which floats about waist high. Although people have tried to get a picture of the unusual light, it always vanishes before a shot can be taken. Rehoboth has several of its own haunted schools. The most notorious is the historic Hornbine School. Originally built in 1845 and enlarged in the 1920’s, the school has not been used to educate youth since the late thirties. The one room schoolhouse was restored in 1968 to celebrate the town’s 325th anniversary. Whether it was the renovation and the import of other desks and materials or just the added people coming in contact with the school, it has now become known as a paranormal hotspot. People hear noises, usually the laughter of children, coming from the area of the school and then find no one there when investigate. On at least one occasion a visitor to the town stopped by the school and watched a teacher dressed in period clothes teach a room full of eager students. When the teacher sensed his presence she turned to him, annoyed he had disturbed class. He then went inside to apologize and found no sign of the children or the angry teacher. A more modern school in Rehoboth also has ghosts, but at least one spirit there can be traced to a local tragedy. The Crystal Springs School is another residential treatment program for students of the Department of Youth Services. Several of the staff members have heard unexplained noises in areas of the building where students are not allowed and at times when they are confined to their rooms. An old women and a young boy have been seen walking the halls and a ball of white light has appeared and disappeared through doors. The most disturbing presence is a young man who never attended the school. One worker saw a man in his mid-twenties walk through a door. Even though she did not recognize him, she thought it might be a resident out of his room and followed him. There was no other way out of the room and he was nowhere to be seen. The man was described as having sandy hair in a mullet style with jeans and a leather bomber jacket. A few nights later she was waiting to be picked up and she saw him again. A coworker called out that her ride was there, but when she looked out she saw no car. The man in the leather jacket was leaning up against a streetlight and then disappeared when she looked away. Although there is a cemetery on the site of the school, the man’s ghost might have a more logical answer. A man matching his description died on the road just outside the property a few years ago. While the man in the leather jacket might be able to be identified, there is another ghost that walks the highway in Rehoboth. The story of the Red Headed Hitchhiker of Route 44 has become legend, and although many details of his story mimic traditional myth and urban legends about ghostly hitchhikers, it is his differences that make him stand out. He was first spotted decades ago, but the sightings have continued, adding to the aura of the ghost and making it harder to separate the genuine encounters with him from the friends who heard a story from a friend. Most sightings of the ghost hitchhiker follow the same pattern. The driver is traveling along Route 44 at night, usually near the Seekonk-Rehoboth line, when they encounter a well built man between the ages of thirty-five and fifty-five. He has red hair and beard and is dressed in a red flannel shirt with either jeans or brown work pants and work boots. Sometimes he is well kept, or at least clean, but other times he appears disheveled with an overgrown beard, dirty pants and an untucked shirt. He has been known to be transparent, but most people who encounter him agree he seems solid and able to interact with. The biggest discrepancy in the physical description of the hitchhiker is with his eyes. Some say they look normal but just don’t feel right. Some say they are black and empty, others glowing and lifeless. Every color has been attributed to them at one time or another, from yellow and red to green and it is this inconsistency which adds fuel to the skeptic’s argument against the existence of a genuine spirit. The basic encounters sound similar. Someone is driving along the road, usually alone, when they see a man in the road or on the side of the road. They may hit him or stop to pick him up. The hitchhiker will interact with the person and then eventually vanish before their eyes or no longer be there when they turn to look. This is followed by some type of audio finale where he laughs at them, yells or taunts them. Anyone who has driven that stretch of road at night can understand the uneasy feeling that pervades Route 44. A similar scene plays itself out in any rural towns across America where there are more legends than streetlights. Most people in Rehoboth have at least heard of him and this has caused a cult following in the area. Some now say if you ride Route 44 with three people, he will appear in the fourth seat and follow each person home that has witnessed him. It is difficult to find what might be a genuine sighting of the ghost, but the reports continue. One person told of the hitchhiker appearing in the backseat of his car. He was alone and saw him in the rear view mirror. The radio started to scan the stations and then became so loud it shook the car. The man disappeared and began to laugh on the radio. Another resident of Rehoboth claims to have recently seen the man as a shadow in her rear view mirror. She had conducted interviews herself with people in the area. Her research found the identity of the spirit might be that of a local farmer who was hit while changing a tire on 44. His description matches that of the hitchhiker. She also identified another aspect of the story might contributes to the legend aspect of the story. Some people remember a ghost story involving a traveler seen on the road between Redway Plain and Wilmarth Bridge Road. The name of the street may have helped change the description of the ghost over time, creating the legend that endures today. |
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