Gilson Road Cemetery
Gilson Road Cemetery, Nashua, New Hampshire
Many tales and urban legends have evolved around this cemetery, making its history hard to pin down. However, among the tales told are of a gruesome Native American battle that took place on this parcel of land in Southern New Hampshire long before a cemetery appeared. 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.
The origination of Gilson Road Cemetery is just as strange as the urban legends. The cemetery was started with little documentation, many graves are unmarked. Some believe that this area became an illicit area to dump bodies of the murdered and later became a cemetery. Overall, it was an isolated area, and a strange place to start a cemetery.
One fact is known about Gilson Road Cemetery - it's incredibly haunted.
The most common paranormal activity that people witness are light anomolies. Many people have reported seeing orbs float up out of the ground and disappear into the night sky. Others have seen streaks of light zigging and zagging through the gravestones at a high speed.
Others that have been to Gilson Road Cemetery have witnesed full apparitions. Most commonly a woman in white is seen walking between the graves. Many have seen her appear at an unmarked grave and disapear when she reaches the stone wall in the back of the cemetery. Others have seen ghosts that have appeared in 18th century clothing to more modern suits and dresses.
Another common ghostly phenomena that is witnessed at Gilson Road Cemetery are the sounds of whispering. Many have reported hearing the names whispered in their ear only to turn around and find no one. Others have stated that the whispering contains threats, telling people to 'get out' or threatening death. Many have heard the whispering not only in the cemetery but also the wooded area near it.
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Gilson Road Cemetery, Nashua, New Hampshire
Dating back to colonial times, Gilson Road Cemetery is home to multiple hauntings.
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19 comment(s) on this page. Add your own comment below.
Hi everyone, I received this email from Kevin and wanted to put it in the public comments, if you have any info please leave a comment or feel free to email me. Thanks!
Hi,
Im looking for any information you might have on the Gilson Road Cemetery in Nashua either historical or paranormal. I live maybe a mile from the cemetery and have witnessed some unbelievable things there. I've begun to look up the historical records of the Gilson family and have tried to find record of the "accident" that gave the biker his name. Its almost impossible to put everything into one email. The Gilson road area and site was allegedly the scene of a large battles between indian tribes. This I havent been able to prove. It seems like that text has been copied and pasted to many ghost hunting sites without any reference to its source. The closest I could find is a 17th century battle between the Penacook and Mohawk which almost killed off the Penacook but the location is not clear.
The first time I was there, it was a spur of the moment decision. Our group had just begun to investigate haunted places and had only been to Blood Cemetery, which has a few stories of its own. We met a small group of kids there who, apparently were there ALL the time. For some reason this particular cemetery has an almost addictive quality because they had been going several times a week, for months. We later met other people who said they were there over the course of 6 months or more regularly to witness things happen. The following things happened to us among others:
My finance was haunted by a ghost who we identified as John Gilson, who apparently hates intruders into his cemetery and is bitter about the deaths of his children at young ages. He liked to see himself as a cowboy or gold prospector but never made it out west. His wife may have died in childbirth. Much of this information was given to us by other friends with some psychic ability.
There is a ghost (presumably), called by the regulars there "the biker", who appears most nights and is always dressed in the same clothes. He rides westward away from Main Dunstable Road. We were told by a friend with some psychic awareness that he is a watcher and rides by to see who is in the graveyard. After his arrival each time, activity within the cemetery increases dramatically. We got one picture of him which shows his face blurred and the rest of his body in focus. We actually got in our car to follow him once and he had somehow transported himself way ahead of us. There is no way he could've physically traveled that distance that fast. Ive seen him personally 3 times. Others say he has been seen as late as 3am.
A voice that says "I can do it" has been heard in the left part of the cemetery near the wall on several occasions. Voices are often heard if you are very quiet but most times people are way too loud and its frustrating not to be able to hear anything.
People with us complained of something touching their legs.
Activity or energy in the woods behind the rear wall. Once, someone we met there had been hanging out there with a friend and they didn't know that it wasn't illegal to be there after dark. He spotted a police cruiser and jumped the rear wall only to come face to face with a man in old fashioned dress. He looked away and when he looked back, the man was gone.
Definite cold spots, especially near the front row of graves at certain times. My finance's sister didn't believe me that the temperature was at least 10 degrees colder in one spot until i pulled her into it.
The cemetery seems to push you back when viewed from the road, and the sense of depth perception within can be really strange.
Thank You for your help, KM
Hi
My names Tim and i have been going to the gilson rd. cemetery for the past 2 yrs now, i try my best to go once a week,and i can personally tell you that i have seen apporitions of a man in a hooded sweater about 20ft behind the back left wall. i also have many pictures of orbs at this cemetery " 17 to be exact" i havent experienced voices since ive been going there but, there was one night on april 14th 2006 that i went there alone "which i highly recomennd nobody do under any circumstance" and as i was walking along the back wall i heard crackling of leaves about 5 ft behind me and when i looked nobody was there, i then turned around and headed back for my car and as i stepped over the left back corner of the wall i was violently shoved over the wall....i got to my feet turned around to find absolutely nothing behind me, as i was walking back to my car i again was pushed as soon as i got to the entrance of the cemetery as if something was trying to tell me to stay away....i havent been to the gilson rd. cemetery since
At HollowHill.com, we have many pages of articles about Gilson Road cemetery. We also feature a map showing which areas are the most haunted. Ours was the first website to post information about Gilson Road cemetery, and we've been researching there for nearly 10 years now.
We consider Gilson Road cemetery one of the most reliably haunted locations in New Hampshire.
Just for the record, I have lived next door to this cemetery for 5 years. Aside from a few earthly visitors from time to time, the cemetery is the most quiet place. It does not deserve the supernatural reputation that others have bestowed upon it.
Hello my grandfather lived in Nashua, New Hampshire and so had his father and grandfather if i recall however i was born in RI my father was raised in nashua.Well i had read that mike had mentioned a john gilson above and he had wanted to head west to go gold prospecting well in 1990 i had went west and my hobby was gold prospecting i found a little when i say a little i mean it spent more trying to find it and as far as i can track down to the 17th century a joseph gilson that had maried a sara blood but i was unable to track down the family tree line if any of you can be of any help please reply to Tiscrap@msn.com thanks
i visited gilson rd. cemetery today. i stayed for about 20 minutes. i planned on staying much longer than twenty minutes, but i brought my dog along with me. it was just my dog and i and it was about 1pm in the afternoon. nothing ghostly happend to me nor did i see or hear anything, but being very sensitive to the paranormal i could feel an almost electrical current, kind of wierd to explain. i just felt very much like there was someone exsisting around me, its almost the feeling you get when someone creeps up behind you (you know they're there but you didnt see them yet) yes that feeling. after about 20 minutes by dog began to get very uneasy and fidgetety and he began to pull me toward the entrance with force. my dog is a very small dog but he was pulling me hard to the entrance. it was clear he wanted out. knowing that animals are sensitive to paranormal activity i started to think my dog could feel/see/hear something. this made me want to stay longer, but my dog wouldnt let us walk around more and every step he tried pulling in opposite direction, to the entrance. i eventually gave into him and left with him he was nearly running to the entrance when he figured out that i was okay with leaving and he pulled us right to my car withour stopping. i now know not to bring my dog again for it was a short visit. i plan on visiting tomorrow with out my dog.
Ive successfully filled in most of the family tree for the Gilsons buried here. They can be traced back from England to Reheboth, MA for a generation or 2, to Groton, and then to Dunstable (Nashua). Back in those days, the only real settlements in the area were Dunstable, Groton, and Chelmsford, with the towns of Pepperell and Brookline (known as Raby) coming later.
The next to be researched is the Robbins family who have both the oldest and newest legible stones. It is really odd for someone as in the Robbins case to be buried there long after the last other stone. This was Hannah Robbins, who died at the age of 99 and somehow insisted on being buried there. She was likely the last of her direct line and the only one who would have known the origin of the cemetery which was unknown even in the late 1800s.
You're definately right in trying to avoid the place while alone at night. Its stronger by night. I live just 2 miles away from here and it takes some balls to go back and even look inside.
KM
The past few nights we have been at Gilson. At first not alot happened. Other than me getting sick standing by Gilson Babies. The second night alot of orbs and movement and the mysterious "shadow person" appeared and we left. We later found what appeared to be a man with a gun of sorts in his hand and two little children (boys possibly) LAST NIGHT: we had seemingly more activity than usual. Knocking sounds. A whooovooo noise. Being tapped on the back, the legs, the neck, cold corner was colder than usual and we got a big breeze even though it was a calm night. alot of oyur pictures revealed that there were indeed alot of orbs. I used to be so frightened I didn't want to go inside, but now we have someone on our team who has the know how and experience to assist us. It was pretty scary though last night.
My paranormal team will be investigating the cemetery at night in October 2008. We have already been to the cemetery during the day on 3 occasions. Please see our website for details. www.parapatrol.org
Hi Their Well maybe this time the post will come up?I had posted one last june when i was doing some research online and came across this gilson road topic.Well i had never heard of gilson road before which seems odd because my father is from laconia NH and his dad and so on my grandmother lived in Belknap County nh.I had read in a post that one of the hauntings was of a man that had always wanted to head west to go gold prospecting well the weird part here is i had moved to california after i left the service and all my live that was one of my goal/hobbies to do well i did do it but didn’t find any however i i had met my wife and had my son and now we live here in kansas which is a hell of a lot better than California.from what i had gathered on the internet i,m not sure if its the same gilsons or not but in the early 1600 the link to the line is below if you have any information on this please let me know my email is Austin@classiccannons.com and as you can probly tell my last name is gilson.Also i have a doorknob that was on sutters mill i had bought a bunch of stuff from a yard sale when i had lived in woodland hills california and i had ask the lady about it after i found it she said her husband that had worked for the army back in the 1950s had kept it when the had redone the fort to a landmark the sutters mill was the start of the gold rush but hen became a fort during the war i have a picture of it on my website under the indian items http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~darlingfamilies/gilson.htm
i went to the gilson road cemetery the other night with a couple of my buddies. we stayed there for about 30 minutes criss crossing the entire place and absolutely nothing happenned. we were a little disapointed and left.
I'm a local that lives about a mile and a half from the cemetery. When I was younger my family took me there one Halloween night with our dogs and a friend of mine. They didn't tell me anything about the cemetery except that there had been complaints of hauntings from the people living in the houses of the new development across the street. When we went there we took many photos and wandered around for almost an hour.
As dusk began to deepen, I started getting uneasy. The back corner of the cemetery (the one that connects the left wall with the back wall) seemed to have a physical pull on the people I was with but I could tell that it was no good. They all wanted to explore and I wouldn't let them. It was then that the dogs began to bark madly, staring at the corner and pulling on their leashes towards the entrance to leave. The group I was with became uneasy and started to head back to the car but I remained for a few minutes longer. My head began to swim and I started to see a men fighting, fire, blurred shapes, chaos. It's hard to describe it, even today. I thought I was crazy. I felt a presence in front of me, screaming at me to get out. I ran to the car. I didn't tell anyone of what I saw.
The next morning my father came downstairs early to load the digital pictures from the night before. He immediately pulled us all out of bed. "I got up," he said, "to photoshop the pictures and give you guys a real scare but... then I loaded them and realized that I didn't have to." In about 7 or 8 of the pictures there were orbs. They were all surrounding me or in front of me. They asked me if I saw anything and I repeated my story. My mom's eyes grew as she told me about the battle between Native American tribes that she had read about online. I decided to go back.
I've been on many trips to Gilson, more than I can count. Usually they've been during the day and I always make sure to leave before dusk but, one time I took a friend of mine there. He parked the car across the street and got out the flash lights and cameras. He double checked that all the equipment was working before we got out of the car. It was already dark so we turned on the flashlights as we crossed the street. As soon as we got over the stone wall the lights began to dim, then flicker, then go out. We tried them several times but they were dead. We tried to take pictures but the camera's battery was drained after three, it had been fully charged across the street.
The cemetery grew colder but we stayed, thinking of the events as simply a little odd, a tech malfunction. Again, he was drawn into the corner. I told him not to go but he seemed to go into a kind of trance, saying that he was being pulled there and wanted to find out what was back there. I had to physically restrain him from exploring the corner. I saw a man on a horse standing in front of me. The horse pawed the ground frantically, as the man told us to get out. My friend did not see this, but suddenly commented on the tension and saying that he had a feeling that we should leave, so we did.
When we got back to the car, the flash lights and cameras worked once more. My friend told me later when reflecting about the experience from the safety of my home, that he did not remember me restraining him, just that he had wanted to go in the corner. He told me that I would never get him back in that cemetery ever again and he begged me not to return. He calls it evil and refuses to go into any depth of conversation about it. I haven't returned since, although I have often felt the pull of it. The place is something like a magnet for me, and I have no idea why but I don't like the feel of it.
Please, if anyone has similar stories to mine, contact me. I'm interested in learning all that I can about this cemetery, past and present. If you'd like to see the pictures from the cemetery, you can also e mail me. There are some good ones of orbs, if you believe in that sort of thing. (Most find it hard to, blaming dust or such and I respect them for it. You can never really tell about orbs, or validate them completely either way.)
Also, if you know the history of the Hanging Tree located in Tyngsboro, I'm studying that as well.
my wife and i went the other night about 8:00 pm for the first time. I had read about this site in a (haunted new hampshire) book with little about the detail or history there.but it was close so we decided to check it out. wow, what a strange place, and the moment we got out of the truck to cross the road, we were feeling a strange force almost like something was pushing us back. We only stood outside the stone wall because there was alot of snow on the ground. But even for those few moments you get the feeling that something there does not want you to be there. of course after that experience i went on google to check out all the details and history of the land, and it seems that there is alot more to this site than i originaly expected. We will return when the weather gets better,and we will be better prepaird next time.
I'm doing a documentary on Gilson Road Cemetary for my video class and I'm interested in talking to people who have had these experiences in person. They're great to hear but I need a personal, on-camera interview for this project. If anyone's interested, let me know at swordluvr12@comcast.net (I know, it's a weird email but there's a story behind it). Thanks!
Me and my friends went to the gilson road cemetary on may 15th after a dance at a church, and we walked near the far side of the cemetary over by the woods. there were other people there, but we didnt't know them, and they were shining a flashlight over by us to see if we were ok. next to my friends shadow was a shadow of a little kid on a tricycle. it freaked up out so we ran out as fast as we could.
Just a few comments to add here. I re-found this page after not seeing it for a while.
The story of the burned house was possibly true. It has been confirmed with contemporary sources that an attack on a homestead that stood near the school happened in the 17th century. I could tell you the date but I haven't looked it up in a while. Research the history of Dunstable and don't take internet rumors for truth. The original actual house most likely stood further from the road behind the stone wall, near where in the old times, the people who were thought of as unworthy of being buried with the rest were put. Gilson road at one point was probably a cart path between fields like those found lined with stone walls in the woods all over New England.
That said, this place does have a lot of energy. The cemetery was referenced in a book on the history of Nashua written in the 1890s where they at the time did not even know of the history of the cemetery. I bet few of you know that the oldest graves in the big Nashua cemetery (Woodlawn) were actually moved there from somewhere else to build a school (which was years ago demolished)!
To comment Austin Gilson: It is nice to find someone with the name but unfortunately Austin likely decended from an older branch of the family from Mass or Brookline, NH. The oldest member of the Gilsons was recorded in the 1860 census as living with unrelated people before he died. The family died out because most of their kids did not survive birth or childhood. This is confirmed in the repeated names. If a baby Jonathan for example died, they might years later name a new son John.
To anyone researching this, I can give some info if I can but don't just cut and paste all internet stories without confirming they are real! I've looked all over the net and too many times, I've seen the same exact text apearing on different sites. It wouldn't surprise me at all if someone started quoting me too. I live 2 miles away from the site. I clocked it in my car.
KM
I also live about a mile from Gilson Cemetary and went there today to check it out. I was there alone for a good 30 min. and found nothing. I ven walked through the the gap in the back left hand corner and walked behind the cemetary. I do belive in the paranormal and would like to visit this place at night, but I would like to go with someone who has experienced this place before. If you would care to join me let me know. Kate your stories interest me, they are amazing. gsweet75@comcast.net
The group I'm a part of visited Gilson Road Cemetery on 9/5/09, and we are still analyzing the data we gathered. To be quite frank, I assumed that all the stories and information available on the Internet were exaggerations, but after our interesting visit, I now believe many of them.
Even in the afternoon, the place had an oppressive feeling, and at times the energy was palatable. In addition, what we experienced matches up very closely with the multitude of other reports from many paranormal investigators.
Considering that this site is very small and easily accessible, it lends itself to convenient exploration. As ghost hunters tend to be a respectful bunch, we hope that this wonderful location will remain accessible to the general public as it is rare to have access to such a wonderful place that regularly elicits such varied and numerous reports of possibly paranormal activity.
I have read the stories and legends about gilson road cemetery on this site and others. It wasn"t until Oct. 27,2009 that I decided to look it up and go there myself,My first trip gave me an incredibly eery feeling< something just feels "off", thats how to easily describe it there. My kid was uneasy so I left only to want to return as soon as possible. A few days later my wife and I and our three kids all went to the cemetery.My wife immediately agreed that the feeling she had was one of strangeness, something just not right.We took several pictures and the photos are astounding, one photo has an enormous ball of light with one smaller orb beneath. There were several pics with one or two orbs and some with none, besides the picture of light i mentioned above there was one which i couldnt believe-the picture of the back wall surrounded with small white orbs, id say roughly 70 easily all over the pic. This experience was amazing and i have never seen anything like that on my pictures even though when i took them i was hoping for such a result. AMAZING. this site is worth a visit even from a serious skeptic, perhaps they will discover something unbelievable just as i had.
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