A Stone Tomb to Avoid the Devil
New England Legends Podcast
Jeff Belanger
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2023
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Episode 291 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger hike up a wooded hill in Chester, Massachusetts, searching for a unique tomb carved into a glacial boulder. In 1873, Hiram Smith and his sister, Isabell Toogood were entombed in a rock that took masons two years to chisel. One story goes that Hiram wanted to be buried above ground so the Devil couldn’t get him. But maybe it was a childhood memory that haunted Hiram all of his long years.
See more here: https://ournewenglandlegends.com/podcast-291-a-stone-tomb-to-avoid-the-devil/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | How well did you know him? |
| 0:08.4 | Not all that well, you? |
| 0:10.0 | Me neither. |
| 0:11.2 | Like you, I was mostly friends with his son. |
| 0:13.0 | Yeah, yeah. |
| 0:13.5 | Still, I'm glad we're here, you know, showing support. |
| 0:16.9 | A well-attended funeral means a lot to the grieving people. |
| 0:21.6 | And here comes the rain. |
| 0:23.3 | Now it's perfect. |
| 0:24.8 | You know, we should probably get going anyway. |
| 0:26.8 | We actually have another grave to visit today. |
| 0:29.2 | Okay, where's the other grave? |
| 0:30.7 | We're heading out to Chester, Massachusetts to find a unique tomb that dates back to 1873. |
| 0:36.7 | They say the man inside wanted to be buried above ground |
| 0:40.4 | so the devil couldn't get him. |
| 0:51.5 | Hello, I'm Jeff Belanger, and welcome to episode 291 of the New England Legends podcast. |
| 0:56.9 | And I'm Ray Ozier. Thanks for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. |
| 1:02.0 | Did you know most of our story leads come from you? This one did. Thank you to Gail Escala for sending it in. |
| 1:07.9 | If you've got a strange tale you think we should check out, feel free to contact us anytime through our website. Now before we go searching for this one-of-a-kind tomb in Chester, we want to take just a minute to tell you about our sponsor, New Adi Herbles. Jeff, do you ever feel like the world is getting too faceless? What do you mean? Well, you know, you buy things online from other countries made by machines. |
| 1:27.9 | They show up at your doorstep. |
| 1:29.8 | It seems so impersonal. |
| 1:31.1 | That's part of the reason we're proud to have Nuadi Erbles as a sponsor. |
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