The Ghost of Middle Street
There is a ghost wanderer on Middle Street in Boston that is seen from time to time. He is known as the “storm breeder” and his story is the American version of the Flying Dutchman. William Austin wrote the most complete account of Rugg in 1826 when he was taking a horse-drawn carriage out of Boston and spotted a man in a carriage with a little girl and a storm cloud had seemed to be following them. The driver then told Austin that he sees these two people all the time at night.
Every time, the man stops and asks which way it is to get to Boston, and each time he’s going in the opposite direction. Also, he never listens to any directions that people give him and goes on as if he never heard anything. Another interesting fact about the carriage is that every time it is seen, it is always wet even if isn’t raining. Austin interrogated a woman who lived in Rugg’s old house and found out that Rugg had visited her one night asking for his wife but he didn’t understand why she was not there and that the city had changed and grew over the years.
Austin also interviewed a man who told a story that his grandfather would tell him about Rugg. One morning back in 1730, Rugg took his little daughter to Concord and then on the way back they stopped at a friends house. The friend warned them of a terrible storm coming on the way but Rugg was so stubborn he decided to go for home anyway. They left and no trace of their bodies have ever been found.
(Source: Cohen, Daniel. Hauntings and Horrors. 2002)
