Considered a witch in her day, Dolly Ellen Cole is now a spooky legend for RI. PHOTO CREDIT: onlyinyourstate.com
Rhode Island is home to a number of spooky stories and haunted houses. With Halloween approaching, let’s take a look at the smallest state’s scariest tales.
A long time ago 27-year-old Dorothy (Dolly) Ellen Cole lived on Tucker Hill Road in Foster, RI near the Hopkins Mill. She had long brown hair and glassy brown eyes set on her pale face. She only had one young daughter who looked exactly like her mother, except for the blond highlights in her hair, passed down from her estranged father.
The townspeople thought Cole was a witch and gave her the name “The Foster Witch.” They believed she had a gift for healing. They say she used her gift for good, providing herbs to cure the community’s illnesses. But, eventually, her talents turned her into a victim of society.
One day in 1865, Cole was fetching a pail of water for drinking. As she navigated through the woods, her neighbors were setting fire to her house, unaware that Cole had left the property. Instead, her daughter with the blonde streaks in her hair was burning to death, unable to escape.
When Cole got back, she was devastated to find her house in shambles and her child lost forever. Despite being a “good witch,” the townspeople turned on Cole and stripped her of her home and child in one fell swoop.
Heartbroken, Cole swore vengeance and ran deep into the woods that night. Straddling the line of Tucker Hollow Road and Ramtail Road, she stopped by the edge of a stream and conjured a curse to the mill so that no one would pass the land without seeing her and remembering what happened to her on that fateful day.
Little did she know that the townsfolk were waiting for her arrival. Cole’s angry neighbors and frightened townspeople ganged up on her and murdered her with pitchforks and pushed her into the water, where she would never be seen again. Or so they thought.
After months had passed, her body turned up on the side of a dirt road in front of the forest, covering the gleaming running water.
A century later, the people of Providence County named the sparkling stream Dolly Cole Brook, which lies under the Danielson Pike bridge. Residents say that her curse still lingers and she haunts Foster. Many have claimed to have seen Cole all over the town.
One of the most well-known sightings was claimed by a father and son who were fishing on the brook.
It started as a normal expedition in the brook for the duo, but soon that changed. By the water, the son saw a barefoot woman in a long torn white dress with long brown hair and a wooden bucket to draw water. As soon as he spotted the woman, she started walking towards him. He turned away in fear, but when he gazed at her once more, she was gone.
Did the curse work? Did Cole’s ghost approach the boy, thinking he was her daughter?
Others say that she drifts along the dirt road where her body was found, close to her gravestone in Hopkins Mills Cemetery.
If you are feeling bold enough to test the legend on Dolly Cole, her brook is located off Route 6 in Foster, RI. But do so at your own peril!