Dudleytown, CT - Founded on a Curse

The abandoned village of Dudleytown (outside of present day Cornwall, Connecticut) was founded by members of the Dudley family in the early 1740s.

It’s possible that they brought the old family curse with them from England. Luck has never played a part in the Dudley family. One member was thought to be a primary carrier of the Black Death (bubonic plague). Other Dudley’s lost their heads to an executioner’s axe or rotted away in royal dungeons.

Nothing changed when they made it to the new world: freak accidents, insanity, murder, suicide followed the family to Dudleytown … and began to manifest into the lives of other residents.

During the 19th century, some reported seeing strange beasts and apparitions, corpse mutilations, suspicious and unusual deaths. It was deserted by 1900.

But not everyone left.

During the 1920’s Dr. William C. Clark of New York set moved into a summer home in the nearly-abandoned town. One evening he came back from a business trip to find his wife laughing hysterically. She rambled on and on about the apparitions, demons, ghosts that had visited her. She killed herself when they returned to New York.

Source: Dudley, Gary P.”The Legend of Dudleytown“,1999.