Jeff, this winter feels like it's never going to end. I hear you, Ray, blizzards, a cyclone bomb, a nor'easter. I mean, this winter has been no joke. It's been a frozen tundra out there. This has been one of the toughest winters I can remember. Even though we've come a long way in predicting the weather, snow removal, and so on, I mean, man, winter's still dangerous. You get stuck outside without the right clothing or shelter. you could die.

Yeah, we've snow removal and so on. I mean, man, winter's still dangerous. You get stuck outside without the right clothing or shelter.

You could die. Yeah, we've covered plenty of stories about freezing to death in New England winters. We have. And I'm afraid we're going to have to add one more to that list. Is that why we've come to Vermont? It is. We've come to Benson, Vermont, the birthplace of a blind folk singer named William Lorenzo Carter, who turned a tragic story into a song. We've come to Benson to search for Frozen Charlotte.

Hey, I'm Jeff Belanger. Welcome to episode 436 of the New England Legends podcast.

And I'm Ray Osier.

We're glad to have you riding along with us as we chronicle every legend in New England

from ghosts to monsters, UFOs, roadside oddities, and all the other wicked strangeness

that crosses our desk.

If you've got a story you think we should check out, please reach out to us anytime through our website. We'll go searching for Frozen Charlotte

right after this word from our sponsor. Okay, Ray, check out what I bought on eBay last week.

Okay. Oh, look at that. Okay, so I'm holding two tiny stone dolls. One is maybe an inch and a half

tall, the other maybe a quarter

inch shorter than that. They both solid, white ceramic. We're talking just a little bigger than an

aspirin capsule. They have little dots for eyes and some yellow painted on hair that's mostly

worn away. They don't weigh much, and they look pretty old.

They are old. There are two stone bisque dolls that were manufactured in Germany in the second

half of the 1800s. Now, dolls like these were pretty popular back then, and they're called

Frozen Charlotte dolls. And we're in Benson, Vermont, looking for Frozen Charlotte. Right.

I guess we just found her. Should I roll the credits now? No, no, no, not quite yet. The doll is based on a song, which is based on a poem, which is based on a legend. I'm just pointing out how big the story got. Even though these dolls are tiny, but I get your point. Right. So the doll is so small in part because people used to bake these dolls into cakes or hide them in puddings. Young children had a birthday or a holiday would get a bowl of some sugary goodness, let's say a piece of cake. A young girl may cut her fork into the cake and discover this little dead frozen doll and then squeal with delight because she now has a Frozen Charlotte. All right, that's pretty strange.

It is. And then the kids have to hear the story of Frozen Charlotte. A story will get too soon. And the reason we have these dolls today traces its roots right through Benson, Vermont, and the vocal stylings of William Lorenzo Carter. Now, we don't know a whole lot about Carter. We know that he was born in the year 1813 here in Benson, just a bit northwest of Rutland, Vermont. The boy was born blind,

but that didn't stop him from becoming a poet and a musician. He regularly toured across the country

performing. You never know when you'll have a hit. To discover the backstory of these strange and macab dolls, as well as the poem that inspired them, let's head back to the year 1839.

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