Nine Men’s Misery | A Historic (and Possibly Haunted) Site in Cumberland, RI
In the woods of Cumberland, RI, Nine Men’s Misery marks the spot where nine colonists were captured and killed by the Wampanoag during King Philip’s War.
The grave markers of Nine Men’s Misery, when you do find them, are distinct but drab, not what you would imagine given that this is considered the oldest veterans memorial in America…Nine Men’s Misery in Cumberland, Rhode Island.
At the heart of the town of Cumberland, a suburb in the northeast corner of Rhode Island, is a stone pillar topped by a metal plaque that tells the short story of Nine Men’s Misery:
NINE MEN’S MISERY
ON THIS SPOT
WHERE THEY WERE SLAIN BY
THE INDIANS
WERE BURIED THE NINE SOLDIERS
CAPTURED IN PIERCE’S FIGHT
MARCH 26, 1676
The pillar is located on property known today as the Cumberland Monastery, which once was home to an order of Cistercian Monks. The old monastery building still stands, albeit renovated and reconstructed in part, and is now home to the town’s public library. The grounds are trimmed with gentle, unmarked trails, meadows of milkweed, ferns unfurling at the edge of wetlands, wildflowers the color of cobalt and canary, and berries the deepest shade of burgundy.
To walk the grounds, the loops of hard-packed dirt or crushed grey stone, and circle around all that flora, at times bumping into relics of moss-covered stone quarried by the monks who built the monastery, is to experience a kind of refuge, a divine shelter from the squalls of life. The remains of a monastic, contemplative and hard-working community seem to cast a kind of magical, or spiritual, aroma in the air.
The grounds at Cumberland Monastery in Cumberland, Rhode Island. The grounds at Cumberland Monastery in Cumberland, Rhode Island.
On any given day at the Monastery, you will find several folks traversing the footpaths, many of them unaware of the grave atop a knoll, marked by the pillar announcing Nine Men’s Misery. In fact, there are two separate monuments that mark this historically significant gravesite, yet neither is easily visible from the well-traveled path (which itself is hard to find, as there are no signposts) leading up to it, set back, as they are, in the woods where felled trees along the entry path seem to collectively say, Stay out!
The marker for Nine Men’s Misery in Cumberland, Rhode Island.
Trail maps are available on the Cumberland Library’s website, but most visitors who have read or have been told about this place ask passersby where they can find the Misery. Where can they find the ghosts?
The grave markers of Nine Men’s Misery, when you do find them, are distinct but drab, not what you would imagine given that this is considered the oldest veterans memorial in America. The ancient marker is a squared off stockpile of rocks and cement that was built by the monks in 1928, using the same rocks that had, over the years, been placed upon the grave in the form of a simple cairn. The cement pillar with the short story was later installed at the site by the state of Rhode Island.
There are two separate monuments that mark this historically significant gravesite, yet neither is easily visible from the well-traveled path.
The Monastery area was once the land of the Narragansetts, and the territory’s larger story is one of years of tension between the Native Americans and the English settlers who came to the New World in the early 17th century. Relations between the English and indigenous peoples, such as the Wampanoag, remained mostly peaceful for nearly forty years. But ceaseless encroachment by the land-hungry colonialists soon caused affiliations to deteriorate, precipitating King Philip’s War – a year long battle (1675-1676) between local New England tribes and the English – a war purportedly more brutal and destructive (in terms of ratio of casualties to total population and New England towns and land destroyed) than America’s Civil War.
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In late March, 1676, Captain Michael Pierce, lured by Native tribesmen feigning injury, led his men into a deep river bend along the Blackstone River, bordering what is now Central Falls and Cumberland. The ambush was swift and thorough, killing Pierce and all but nine of his men. Terrified, the surviving troops crossed the river and ran, following a trail through the swamp to the wetlands of the Monastery, with the Wampanoag in pursuit.
Or perhaps the tribesmen captured the nine men closer to the lowland, and brought them to the wetlands, where the tribe had an established base camp. We can’t know for sure. Either way, it was there at the base camp, on the spot marked by the monuments, that the colonialists found their end by (allegedly) customary torture and execution.
This is the bit of history that is not taught in our local schools. There are two stories, of course, of two different nations with very different ways. Both are stories of survival. The 17th century was a tumultuous time for both peoples. Given all the conflicts and hardships, it is not difficult to believe (if one is prone to believe) that the voices of many anguished men and women linger in the spirit world today.
Some day the trails near Nine Men’s Misery are haunted.
The strange happenings reported by people who have walked the trails near Nine Men’s Misery include visions of a phantom horse galloping through the woods, odd screams or cries, and the voice of a young girl heard near the stone grave markers.
In the years following the Misery, several exhumations were conducted at the site – one of them in 1790, by medical students, which resulted in the discovery of a very large skeleton with a double row of teeth, believed to be colonist Benjamin Bucklin. Some folks believe that all the disinterring disturbed the poor souls, causing the cries heard near the grave. Others report seeing visions of a giant gnashing his double rows of teeth.
In 2014, Syfy’s “Ghost Hunters” TV show investigated the disturbances using an EMF (Electro Magnetic Force) detector. The hunters claim that levels spiked as the names of the nine men were read. Other paranormal explorers, following up on rumors of high concentrations of EMF and EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena), found nothing, no clear evidence of a spirit world.
In the years following the Misery, several exhumations were conducted at the site – one of them in 1790, by medical students, which resulted in the discovery of a very large skeleton with a double row of teeth. Spiritual is how many people describe their experience of the Monastery. It is, no doubt, a special place. The land is now most commonly used for quiet contemplation and recreation. It is in these moments of passivity, walking gentle paths or snowshoeing through New England’s first snow, that visitors feel a sense of otherness, that they are not alone. Some people will describe such feelings as ghostly, while others attribute such sensory experience to the raw beauty of the Monastery. Either way, it seems clear that this land will continue to haunt for ages.
You can find more information about the Monastery, and download trail maps, at the Cumberland Public Library.
Have you ever heard about or visited Nine Men’s Misery?
This post was first published in 2015 and has been updated.
