DUDLEYTOWN
Rumors persist that Dudleytown is haunted and that people have experienced the paranormal there. Repetition of these old tales and publicity connected with recent films and books have led to trespassing and vandalism. Since Dudleytown is in private hands, the owners have asked for and received police protection. The Town of Cornwall, through the State Police, enforces a year-round parking ban.
The land which later was called Dudleytown was distributed among the earliest divisions of the land in Cornwall to a man named Thomas Griffiths. In 1742, he was listed among the first tax payers in the town – he paid 56 pounds to the British for himself and a wife, two oxen, two cows and two horses – and appears to have been the fourth wealthiest man in Cornwall in that year.
The land he had chosen was on a rugged plateau in the south central section of Cornwall where the soil was poor and water was scarce. His family had disappeared from the town’s census by 1778. Other families joined the Griffiths on that plateau, among them several Dudley families, enough to cause local custom to name the place Dudleytown. In the early years the settlers kept to the hills for safety from Indian attack (which in Cornwall never came) and to be near water sources in the rocky hillsides.
Rumors persist that Dudleytown is haunted and that people have experienced the paranormal there. Repetition of these old tales and publicity connected with recent films and books have led to trespassing and vandalism. Since Dudleytown is in private hands, the owners have asked for and received police protection. The Town of Cornwall, through the State Police, enforces a year-round parking ban.
The land which later was called Dudleytown was distributed among the earliest divisions of the land in Cornwall to a man named Thomas Griffiths. In 1742, he was listed among the first tax payers in the town – he paid 56 pounds to the British for himself and a wife, two oxen, two cows and two horses – and appears to have been the fourth wealthiest man in Cornwall in that year.
The land he had chosen was on a rugged plateau in the south central section of Cornwall where the soil was poor and water was scarce. His family had disappeared from the town’s census by 1778. Other families joined the Griffiths on that plateau, among them several Dudley families, enough to cause local custom to name the place Dudleytown. In the early years the settlers kept to the hills for safety from Indian attack (which in Cornwall never came) and to be near water sources in the rocky hillsides.
