"Conjured from Thin Air: The Story That Started It All"

 

Recently, a friend of mine in Rhode Island was walking through a local cemetery when she stopped to take a photograph and send it to me. It was Bathsheba Sherman's headstone. It was clean, cared for, and surrounded by her family. That is where she belongs; Not in a horror movie, not in a ghost story. In the cemetery, with her people, as a real woman who lived and died like anyone else.

The historic Riverside Cemetery — where the truth endures, long after the myths have faded.

Courtesy of Elise Giammarco Carlson

Right now, there is a lot of noise surrounding the so-called "Conjuring House" in Harrisville, Rhode Island. There are legal disputes, media stories, and plenty of people still trying to make money from the legend. But Bathsheba Sherman's grave is still there, quiet and real, while people continue arguing over a story that should never have began in the first place.

That image matters to me because I have spent years trying to correct this story. It has not been easy work, and it has not always been pleasant. But I have kept saying the same thing: the stories told by the Perron family is not supported by the historical record, and a real woman's name was used in a way that is unfair and false.

A lot of the drama around that property today comes from the false history built around it. The disputes, the headlines, the tourists, and the public fascination all trace back to a story that was never backed up by documented facts. That is not a side issue. That is the point.

So let us start with the facts. Who was Bathsheba Sherman? What was actually claimed about her? When did those claims first appear? And where does the evidence lead? The answer is not hidden. It is in the record, if people are willing to look at it.

The Name They Plucked from a Cemetery

 

Let me be as plain as I know how to be: Bathsheba Sherman had absolutely nothing to do with the farmhouse on Round Top Road. She was not a witch, she was not a murderer, she was not a Satanist. She was never accused of being any of those things — not in a court of law, not in a newspaper, not in a town record, not in any document that has ever been located in any archive in the state of Rhode Island.

She was a woman who lived, died, and was buried with her family. Then, sometime around August of 1973, someone took her name — either from a cemetery stone or an old newspaper clipping — and attached it to a ghost story. That is really what happened.

The idea appears to have originated with Carolyn Perron, the matriarch of the family that purchased the farmhouse, and with Lorraine Warren, the self-described clairvoyant who became deeply entangled with the Perrons' story. It was then amplified, dramatized, and ultimately monetized by Andrea Perron, the eldest daughter, who spent decades transforming a childhood memory into a trilogy of books and a Hollywood blockbuster.

 

"The real victim of this entire saga is not the Perron family. The real victim is Bathsheba Sherman."

 

I want you to hold onto that. Because in the years since The Conjuring was released in 2013, Bathsheba's name has been spoken millions of times in theaters, on podcasts, on YouTube channels, in articles and blogs, and in the breathless whisper of paranormal enthusiasts who have never once stopped to ask: where is the evidence? She has been called a witch, a child killer, a handmaiden of Lucifer — before a global audience that had no reason to question any of it, because it was presented as based on a true story.

She deserved better than this. She still deserves better. And the work of saying so — clearly, publicly, and with the documentation to back it up — is not optional. It is necessary.

The Spark That Started a Wildfire

 

The blame for this begins with Carolyn Perron and Lorraine Warren. Both made claims about Bathsheba Sherman, and neither appears to have done the basic historical research needed before making those claims. Because of that, a false story spread. It damaged a real woman's reputation and helped make money for people who had no rightful claim to her name.

Here is what the documented record actually shows:

There are no stories about Bathsheba Sherman, and no accusations against her, in any record before August of 1973. Not one. I have looked. Other researchers have looked. The absence of evidence is not a small problem for this story. It is the problem.

Carolyn Perron claimed that she did research and found historical records about Bathsheba. Those records do not exist. Whatever Carolyn believed she found, it has never been produced, never been verified, and never been corroborated by any independent historical source. You cannot find what was never there.

Lorraine Warren claimed something even more dramatic: that she stepped across the threshold of the Harrisville farmhouse and psychically sensed the name "Bathsheba." This story has been repeated as gospel in paranormal circles for decades. But here is what the timeline actually reveals: a woman named Donna, from a group called P.I.R.O. (Parapsychology Investigation Research Organization), had already name-dropped "Bathsheba" to Lorraine Warren before Lorraine ever set foot in that house — having gotten the name from Carolyn Perron in the first place. Lorraine did not psychically conjure a name from the ether. She was told the name, and she repeated it. That is a very different thing.

 

A Note on the Tabloid Record A sensationalist tabloid article, published approximately between 1981 and 1985 and written by Tony Spera, described "Carol and Ronald Barron" — a thinly veiled stand-in for the Perron family — being terrorized by a ghost. At that point in the story's evolution, the entity described was headless. Not bent-necked. Not hollow-eyed. Not jagged-toothed. Headless.

 

That same tabloid piece contained what appears to be the earliest written attribution of a specific supernatural act to the entity later identified as Bathsheba. The passage, attributed to "Ed" — presumably Ed Warren — read as follows:

 

"A 98 year old woman who practiced black witchcraft had lived there. In her earlier years, she had murdered her own child — by driving a nail through her head — as a gift to Lucifer!" — Attributed to Ed Warren, published in a sensationalist tabloid, circa 1981–1985

 

Let me be clear about this. That quote came from a supermarket tabloid. It was not a court record. It was not a town record. It was not a reliable newspaper account. It was a sensational story printed in the same kind of publication that ran stories about bat-children and alien abductions.

This matters because the story kept changing. First it was a headless ghost, then it was a woman with her head hanging to one side, then it became a bent-necked figure. Later, it turned into a full horror-movie image with hollow black eyes, jagged yellow teeth, wild hair, cobwebs, child sacrifice, Satanic devotion, and a 98-year-old body dragging itself through a farmhouse in Rhode Island.

That is not how reliable evidence works. When a story gets more dramatic every time it is retold, that is a warning sign. It shows how memory, suggestion, and myth-making can pile on top of each other until people start treating the later version as fact. It is not proof of a haunting. It is the opposite of proof.

From Conjecture to the Bank

 

Andrea Perron took what her mother and the Warrens had conjured — their assumptions, their interpretations, their speculations — and she ran with them, all the way to the publishing house, all the way to the movie set, and all the way to the bank.

She published three volumes about her family's experience at the farmhouse, long after the family had left and long after the story had been repeated, shaped, and reshaped. I am not saying this to be cruel. I am saying it because it matters. Andrea had a responsibility to check the facts, and she did not do that in the way this story required.

As an author who has published six historical non-fiction books, I can tell you that research is the most important part of the work. You do not get to publish claims you cannot prove. You do not get to name a real person as a witch, a murderer, and a Satanist without a single piece of documented evidence to support it. And when researchers present you with documented facts that disprove your characterizations — as happened with Andrea — you do not get to simply double down and walk away.

Andrea's public record has serious contradictions. They are not small mistakes.

In a 2013 interview for San Antonio Living (Channel 4), Andrea described what happened on the day the Perron family moved into the farmhouse. She said that within approximately five minutes of arriving — almost before they knew anything about the house at all — she encountered an oddly dressed man in the dining room and greeted him politely. Yet when Andrea appeared on the program Paranormal Witness (Season 4, Episode 10, aired October 28, 2015), she told a different version entirely: no encounter on moving day. Instead, she described seeing a reflection in the glass while washing dishes — a scene placed considerably later in their tenancy. These are not two sides of the same memory. They are two different stories.

On the subject of the film itself, Andrea first claimed that The Conjuring had "toned down" the real events — implying the truth was even more harrowing than what appeared on screen. She later reversed course and acknowledged the film was exaggerated. The reversal, conveniently, came while she was still actively promoting her books as the "true story."

Perhaps the most remarkable document I possess is an email Andrea sent to me in 2016, submitted through my website at jaimerubiowriter.com. In it, she wrote:

 

"The Conjuring and the Warren files did a huge disservice to Bathsheba's memory and I had no control over how she was represented and vilified in the film but I will always defend her because I do not believe she was guilty of what she has been accused of by Lorraine Warren." — Andrea Perron, personal email to J'aime Rubio, 2016

 

I want you to read that again. And then I want you to consider that in Andrea's own published books — the ones she authored, the ones she controlled, the ones she signed her name to — Bathsheba Sherman is demonized repeatedly. She is blamed for the alleged hauntings. She is described as "lusting" after Roger Perron, Andrea's own father. She is the villain of the entire narrative. Andrea wrote those words. No one forced her hand.

That contradiction matters. What Andrea told me privately does not match what she published publicly, and that is central to this whole story.

There is also the matter of description. Andrea has recounted her mother Carolyn's first encounter with the entity in extraordinary, cinematic detail:

 

"It floated. It didn't have any feet...hollow black sockets...jagged yellow teeth...sprigs of hair like wild sprigs of hair...covered in cobwebs." — Andrea Perron, as quoted in her public accounts of the Harrisville farmhouse

 

Compare this to what was actually published in 1977, in the North Smithfield-Burrillville Observer — the earliest known printed account of this story. That article described, simply, "an apparition of an old woman with head hanging to one side" who said: "Get out, get out, or I'll drive you out with death and gloom."

That first account was simple. It did not include hollow eyes, jagged teeth, wild hair, or cobwebs. Those details came later. When a story becomes more detailed and more frightening over time, that does not make it more reliable. It usually means the story has been changed.

 

On the Question of Memory and Responsibility I do not doubt that the Perron children experienced something unusual in that house — children are sensitive, imaginative, and deeply affected by their parents' anxiety and belief. But experiencing something unusual is not the same as experiencing what Andrea has described. And publishing those descriptions as documented fact, naming a real woman as their source, without a single piece of corroborating historical evidence — that is where experience ends and responsibility begins. At this point, I doubt Andrea even knows where her memories end and her fabrications begin.

 

What Pam Kenyon Cardin Actually Witnessed

 

I need to pause here and speak about someone who mattered a great deal to me, and whose testimony has never received the platform it deserved: Pam Kenyon Cardin.

This piece is dedicated, in part, to Pam's family — may they rest in peace. Pam was a direct blood descendant of the family that owned the farmhouse before the Perrons. She was an adult on the day the Perrons arrived. She remembered it clearly — not because it was supernatural, but because it was chaotic, inconvenient, and deeply disruptive to her family in the middle of a New England winter.

What Pam remembered contradicts several important parts of the Perron story. That is why her testimony matters.

Andrea Perron has stated that her family purchased the farmhouse in December of 1970 and moved in during the first week of January 1971. Public deed records tell a different story. The property was sold to Carolyn Perron, Roger Perron, and Cora Perron in January of 1972 — a full year later than Andrea stated. This is not a minor discrepancy. It is a verifiable, documented fact that calls into question the reliability of the timeline Andrea has presented as truth.

Pam remembered moving day vividly. Here is what she told me, in her own words:

 

"Perron had somehow gotten use of a moving van and we had to pack up my grandfather and move him all in one day...I have no idea why everything had to be done the way it was." — Pam Kenyon Cardin, as documented by J'aime Rubio

 

The Perrons arrived before her grandfather was fully moved out. That meant Pam's family had to pack him up and relocate him quickly, in winter, with very little notice. It was stressful. It was rushed. It was not paranormal.

If Andrea or her sisters saw an "oddly dressed man" in the dining room that day, the most likely explanation is that they saw Earl Kenyon Jr. — Pam's father — who would have been present helping with the move. An middle aged gentleman, perhaps dressed in practical New England working clothes, in a house that was mid-transition between families. Not a ghost. 

Then there is the matter of what Roger Perron reportedly said about the former owner's parting words. According to Roger, the previous owner told him: "Do your family a favor, keep the lights on at night." A chilling warning, if true. Except that Pam flatly stated it was not true. Her grandfather was a practical New England man. He had lived in that farmhouse without incident for over 47 years. He did not believe in hauntings. If he said anything about lights — and Pam doubted even that — it was because an elderly man navigating dark stairs at night needed to be careful. That is not the supernatural. That is common sense.

And the famous lightning incident — described in the tabloid article as a "beam of psychic light shooting down the chimney"? It was lightning. A real electrical storm. Real lightning struck the chimney, traveled into the house, and caused real physical damage. Sarah Butterworth Kenyon sealed all of the chimneys after that event — also, for practical reasons, because of chimney swifts. Terrifying to witness? Absolutely. Supernatural? Not even slightly.

I have thought often about what it meant to Pam to watch her family's home — a place of ordinary, lived life — be turned into a haunted house brand. Her grandfather's name attached to ghost lore. Her family's history swallowed by someone else's profitable fiction. Pam spoke to me with clarity and without drama, and that clarity deserves to be on the record.

Pam's testimony matters because she was there. She had no reason to dress the story up. This blog exists, in part, because her voice deserves to be remembered.

The Owner They Never Told the Truth To

 

There is one more witness who has been overlooked: Norma Sutcliffe. She owned the farmhouse during the years when the Perron story was turning into a worldwide franchise. I corresponded with Norma personally, and her account is important because it is practical, steady, and based on what she actually saw. She also wrote about her years in the house in her 2020 book The Old Brooke Farm.

In a 2016 Ocean State Paracon interview, Nancy Perron — one of Andrea's younger sisters — described a visit she and her sister Cindy made to the farmhouse after the family had moved out. According to Nancy, the visit was a supernatural event: a pressure engulfed them, spirits touched their hair and faces, voices said, "Oh my God, it's you! You're back!" — and Norma herself, Nancy claimed, confirmed that paranormal activity was taking place in the home.

Norma's recollection of that visit is considerably more mundane. It was the late 1980s — approximately a year after Norma had first met Andrea and Carolyn. Two women knocked on her door. They were enthusiastic and warm. They were, by all accounts, delighted to see the house. As Norma described it to me:

 

"Oh my God! This is so beautiful! If you are going to sell it, please, we want to buy it back!" — Nancy Perron, as quoted by Norma Sutcliffe in personal correspondence with J'aime Rubio

 

There was no paranormal activity. The visit was brief, friendly, and ordinary. Nancy left her phone number because she wanted to be contacted if the house ever went up for sale. That was it.

When Norma had first met the Perrons — Carolyn and Andrea — the claims were, as Norma put it, considerably more mundane than they would later become. Carolyn spoke of one thing: hearing trumpeting sounds in the cellar. No demonic possession, no Satanic witch terrorizing the family, no entity with hollow eye sockets and jagged yellow teeth, just trumpeting in the cellar. The story, in its earliest telling to the woman who actually owned the house, was nothing like the story that would eventually appear on movie screens around the world.

But the detail that Norma shared with me that I find most quietly devastating is this: after the Perron family moved to Georgia, Nancy — one of the daughters — stayed behind at the farmhouse alone for an entire year.

 

"Nancy didn't want to go. She wanted to stay in the house. Now, if the house had been haunted, one would presume that Nancy's parents would have vetoed this. Instead, they moved to Georgia, and they allowed Nancy to stay in the house for a year." — Norma Sutcliffe, personal correspondence with J'aime Rubio

 

After Nancy finally moved out, she allowed a friend — a single mother with a newborn baby — to stay at the farmhouse for a time. Think about that. A newborn baby was allowed to stay in a house that, according to the later story, had tried to kill members of the Perron family. If they truly believed that, why would they allow it?

The answer, of course, is that the story we have been sold does not match the choices the Perrons themselves actually made.

Norma also told me something crucial about the name "Bathsheba." It was not until fifteen years after the Perrons left the farmhouse that Andrea called Norma and first told her the story about Bathsheba Sherman. 

The question Norma found herself sitting with after Nancy and her sister left that day in the late 1980s was the right one:

 

"If this house was supposedly so evil, and it tormented the family so badly when the Perrons lived there, why on earth would these two young ladies show up one day and say how much they love the house? How much they enjoyed their childhoods there? And that they wanted to buy the house if they could in the future?" — Norma Sutcliffe, personal correspondence with J'aime Rubio

 

It does not make sense. And when a story falls apart under ordinary facts, that needs to be said plainly.

A Billion-Dollar Franchise Built on Slander

 

I want to talk about scale, because this is not just a local argument about an old farmhouse in Rhode Island. This story went far beyond that. The Conjuring franchise has grossed over a billion dollars at the global box office. It has spawned sequels, prequels, spin-offs, and a merchandising universe. It has made Bathsheba Sherman's name recognizable to millions of people worldwide — people who encountered it in a darkened theater, in a trailer, in a headline, on a podcast, and who walked away believing they had learned something true about a real woman from nineteenth-century Rhode Island.

They did not learn the truth. They learned a profitable story. Bathsheba Sherman, the real woman buried with her family in Rhode Island, received nothing from that story except a lasting association with child murder, Satanic ritual, and witchcraft.

I also want to address a specific claim that has circulated in the paranormal narrative and that deserves to be met with direct clarity. On the program Paranormal Witness, Carolyn Perron described reading a "medical report" that allegedly confirmed a baby had been found with a needle embedded in its skull — attributed to Bathsheba Sherman as an act of Satanic murder.

There was no baby. There was no death. There was no medical report. I have searched. Other researchers have searched. No such document exists in any archive, hospital record, town record, or court document in Rhode Island. Either Carolyn was lying or she imagined it. I do not say that lightly, but those are the only two possibilities when someone makes a claim this serious and no evidence exists anywhere.

The same applies to the broader canvas of alleged tragedy attributed to the property. There are no records of the suicides, drownings, or murders said to have occurred there. There is no record of any figure named Mr. McKeachern or McEachern in Burrillville who could plausibly have been the local historian Carolyn cited as a source for her claims. There are no accusations against Bathsheba Sherman in any court of law, any newspaper, any town meeting record, or any document of her era. None.

That is why the story had to lean on tabloids, psychic claims, and memories that kept changing. The archive does not support it. The records show something much simpler: Bathsheba Sherman lived an ordinary life, died, and should have been left in peace.

The only reason that property is still surrounded by conflict is because a false history was built around it. That false history has hurt real people, most of all Bathsheba Sherman, who has no descendants left to defend her name and no legal way to answer what has been done to her reputation.

That is why this work matters. That is why I keep doing it.

Standing Strong and Dignified

 

I come back, at the end of all of this, to that photograph of Bathsheba Sherman's new headstone surrounded by her family. That is the truth of where she is, no matter how much noise has been made in her name.

She deserved better than what was done to her. She deserved the ordinary dignity of a woman who lived her life and was remembered by those who actually knew her — not the grotesque caricature of a hook-nosed, hollow-eyed, child-murdering Satanic witch that a franchise built its mythology upon. She deserved to rest without having her name spoken as a punchline, a scare, a marketing hook, a brand.

She still deserves better. And the work of saying so — clearly, publicly, persistently — is not glamorous work. It does not come with a box office gross or a publishing advance. It comes with pushback from people who have a financial interest in the myth, with accusations of spoiling something beloved, with the particular frustration of watching documented facts be dismissed because the fiction is more entertaining.

But it is necessary work. And I am grateful that I have not had to do it alone.

I am grateful to Pam Kenyon Cardin. She spoke to me clearly and without drama. She had a direct family connection to that farmhouse, and that gave her testimony weight. She was there. She knew what she saw. She told the truth as she remembered it. The least I can do is make sure that truth is on the record.

I am grateful to Norma Sutcliffe, who lived for years in a house that had been turned into a haunted brand before she ever moved in, who extended patience and good faith to people who did not always extend the same to her, and who still found the words to describe what she actually witnessed — as opposed to what she was told to have witnessed. Her book, The Old Brooke Farm, deserves to be read by everyone who has ever watched The Conjuring and believed it.  There are many others who have joined in the good fight to share the truth that deserve to be remembered such as Ken  

I want to say one more thing plainly: history belongs to the record. Not to a profitable story, not to a tabloid, not to a psychic impression and certainly not to an embellished memoir or a Hollywood script. The record is not perfect, but it is the best thing we have when we are talking about people who can no longer speak for themselves. When we ignore it because a better story is more entertaining, we do real harm.

Bathsheba Sherman cannot defend herself. She cannot file a lawsuit, call a press conference, or correct the record herself. She can only rest where she has always rested — in a Rhode Island cemetery, with her family — while someone else stands up and says what should have been said years ago: this woman was not what they said she was. She was real, and she deserved better. 

I am willing to say it, I have been saying it for years, and I will keep saying it for as long as it needs to be said.  The truth does not need a franchise. It does not need a sequel. It just needs to be told. —

J'aime Rubio (Copyright 2026) www.jaimerubiowriter.com  deconstructingtheconjuring.blogspot.com 

 

 

Bathsheba Sherman's Vindication

 

Photo Credit: Kent Spottswood

Chapter Seventeen, from "Stories of the Forgotten: Infamous, Famous & Unremembered"-

"Sometimes histories about people from the past become distorted due to overactive imaginations and just the passing of time itself. Like the childhood game of “telephone,” after so many re-tellings it is hard to find where the facts of a story stop and where the fantasy begins.  Take the story of Bathsheba Sherman as one example. No one knew her name or her history besides maybe a local historian or two, prior to being mentioned in the film titled, The Conjuring. In fact, most people nationally, and globally, had never heard of her until the movie came out in 2013.

The movie was said to be based on the files of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who had visited the home of the Perron family in the 1970s. The family claimed to have been tormented by evil spirits in their home in Burrillville, Rhode Island.  Let me make this perfectly clear from the beginning, there was a real person named Bathsheba Sherman who lived in Burrillville, but she was not the person that the movie portrayed her to be. Bathsheba lived in another part of Burrillville. She neither lived nor worked on the old Arnold Estate, which was the property the Perron family purchased in 1971.*

It was not until the 1970's that mysterious rumors sprang up out of thin air, ruining Bathsheba’s reputation posthumously. No one in town had ever heard of any questionable events regarding Bathsheba, but all of a sudden, stories were spreading like wildfire in this small community. Older folks who respected history became agitated by the false accusations, while the younger more superstitious ones wondered about the possibilities of this spine-chilling folklore actually being real.

In the movie, it was stated that Bathsheba Sherman was a witch who worshiped the Devil, sacrificed her baby to Satan and then hung herself from the tree in the back yard.  Accounts in the movie portray Bathsheba’s spirit allegedly terrorizing all who live in the home, also causing all the different tenants over the years to kill their own children, and allegedly possessing Carolyn Perron. This is false.

None of the so-called history that was told in the film, The Conjuring, has anything to do with the real Bathsheba Sherman or the true history of the house on Round Top Road. It is a disservice to the memory of both Bathsheba Sherman’s family and that of the Arnold family that these horrific fabrications have been spread, whether it was done purposely or not.

The facts are not hard to find with thorough research and diligent investigating by truth seekers.  The real Bathsheba Sherman was born on March 10, 1812, to parents, Ephraim Thayer and Hannah Taft. Ephraim's first wife was named Bathsheba Pain. It is safe to assume that his daughter was named after his first wife or a relative in the family, as that was quite common given that time period.  For the record, Bathsheba was not an Arnold as Andrea Perron claims in her book House of Darkness, House of Light.*  In fact, Bathsheba was born a Thayer. Another point to mention is that Bathsheba never worked on the property of the Old Arnold Estate, nor did she care for a child that died on the property.  She was never accused of being a witch, nor was there any accusations of any accidental death or murder involving either Bathsheba or any other persons or infants.

* Pages 299 & 453, Kindle Version, Volume One. 

By the age of 32, Bathsheba married Judson Sherman, and soon after the couple started a family.  Herbert Leander Sherman was the only one out of the four Sherman children to live to adulthood. Herbert’s headstone states that he was born in 1850, however the 1850 census records show him to be one year old at the time it was recorded in August of that year.

Herbert Sherman’s first marriage was to Georgianna Irons, and took place on January 7, 1872.  Not much is known about Georgianna except that her parents names were William and Mary Irons and that they were from Glocester, Rhode Island. The young couple were happily married for only three short years when tragedy struck. Georgianna passed away on February 11, 1875.  She is buried with the rest of the Sherman family at the Riverside Cemetery in Harrisville.

Her headstone epitaph reads:

"Why should we grieve for one so pure,

 Our loss to her is gain,

 Her happiness is now secure,

 Our sorrows still remain."--

Herbert married for a second time, to a Ms. Anna Jane Phair on December 4, 1880. The pair had two sons, William, born in 1881; and Fred, born in 1883. Sadly, William died in 1900, at the age of 19.

All of the Sherman’s children, including Herbert, are interred at the Cemetery in Harrisville with Bathsheba, Judson and Bathsheba’s family. None of the children died of any suspicious or questionable circumstances.

Judson Sherman passed away on October 1, 1881, at the age of 68 years. Probate records indicate that Herbert was listed as the sole heir to the family estate after his mother. The Sherman estate at the time of Judson’s death was worth a little over $15,000.00.  By January 2, 1883, Bathsheba had remarried, this time to Benjamin Greene, a farmer from Providence.  Both parties had lost their spouses in death, and it appears that more than likely the pair may have married out of necessity, as many did in those days.

Bathsheba eventually succumbed to old age, dying from a stroke of paralysis in her bed at home, on May 25, 1885.  Her obituary, from the Burrillville Gazette read, “Bethsheba [SIC], widow of the late Judson Sherman, died at her late residence Monday morning last, from a sudden attack of paralysis, aged 72 years. The funeral services were held on Thursday, Rev. A.H. Granger officiating, and the interment took place at Riverside Cemetery, Harrisville. She was the last member of the Thayer family, once numerous and well known in this town, her son, Herbert Sherman, being the only near relative remaining.”—

As you can see by the documented records, Bathsheba Sherman died an old woman in her bed at home. She did not hang herself as the movie would have you believe. The question now would be, “where did all these over the top stories come from?”  The answer is actually more simple than one would think. But first, let’s go over the other stories that have also gained infamy by their erroneous attachment to the old Arnold Estate on Round Top Road as well.

We have already established that Bathsheba never lived at the old Arnold Estate, nor did she work there. She did not commit suicide either, but died of old age. So where did this idea of a woman hanging herself come from? The stories that started in the 1970s also included one about a lady named Susan Arnold who allegedly hung herself in the barn on the property.  I believe that whomever started this rumor assumed, given the same last name, that Susan Arnold must have lived at the old Arnold Estate. The fact was that Susan Arnold lived in another part of town, and did not commit suicide in the house or outside in the barn, as told and retold over the years.

The Black Book of Burrillville, a macabre record of unusual deaths in town, which has been added to over the years, lists various unusual deaths ranging from murder to suicides, also listing them by category.  Although it is noted that Susan Arnold did kill herself, as I stated before, she did not live at the old Arnold Estate.  According to her obituary in the local paper, dated April 13, 1866,  it read, “Susan Arnold, wife of John, hung herself in a chamber of her residence on Sunday, April 6; aged 50 years. She was the daughter of Dexter Richardson, Esq. The circumstances were as follows: on Monday morning, she went about her household duties as usual and while Mr. Arnold (who is an invalid) was conversing with a neighbor; she went upstairs. In about ten minutes the neighbor left, and Mr. Arnold started to go upstairs, as was his custom, to try his strength. At the head of the stairs he turned to go up another flight, when he missed the key from the door of a store-room, and then he had suspicions that something was wrong.

He immediately tried the door and found it locked on the inside. He tried to push the door in, but was so weak he could not. He then went through another room and through a window into a shed-roof and into another window, and there found his wife suspended from a wardrobe hook with a very small cord.

They immediately cut her down, but the vital spark had fled. She had evidently made every preparation for the act. She had a loaded gun, a dirk knife and a phial of mercury in the room with her; and had also laid out upon a bed in another room all the clothes for her burial. It is a sad affliction to her friends. “ —-

As terrible a story as that one is, the fact of the matter is that she didn’t commit suicide at the old Arnold Estate on Round Top Road. That makes all the difference in the story. If that wasn’t bad enough, there were more stories of suicides, rumors of drownings and a few suspicious deaths that seemed to somehow become attached to the home. All untrue of course.  The next story thrown around was the suicide of Mr. John Arnold, the son of Edwin Arnold and brother to Abigail Butterworth. When Edwin Arnold died, he did not pass the old Arnold Estate to John, he passed it to his son-in law, William Butterworth, Abigail’s husband. 

Although John Arnold did commit suicide, he did not kill himself in the attic of the old Arnold Estate because he did not live there. According to the Black Book of Burrillville, John Arnold committed suicide in 1911, at his own home which was near Tarkiln.  His obituary in the Pascoag Herald mentions that he had been in poor health for several years, and “in a fit of despondency he took a dose of paris green* and the efforts of a physician to save his life was unavailing.” John Arnold was 57 years old when he died, and his funeral was held at the Universalist Church, with Rev. W. S. Turner officiating the services. He was later interred in Douglas.

*Paris Green is a highly toxic crystalline powder used as a rodenticide and insecticide.

  

We have established that neither Susan Arnold, nor John Arnold died at the old Arnold Estate, but what about Edwin Arnold?  Although he did once own the property on Round Top Road, even he died elsewhere. His obituary dated in 1903, mentioned that his body was found “beside a stone wall on the Smith Aldrich farm north of the Sherman Stock farm.”  This information was kindly provided to me by current owner of the home, Norma Sutcliffe.

 Apparently, Mr. Arnold had stopped to rest there and he “died of natural causes resulting from exposure.” He had been missing for seven weeks, before Frank Pierce had found what was left of his body.  His remains were taken to Waterman’s undertaking rooms to be prepared for his funeral and subsequent burial. With all these misrepresented stories, it seems not even one can hold up when examined thoroughly.

You might ask yourself then, if Bathsheba Sherman, Susan Arnold, John Arnold and even Edwin Arnold did not die at the Arnold Estate, did anyone?  The answer is, yes; however, those deaths were from natural causes, such as illness or old age. Remember, the farm is over 300 years old, so it would be ignorant on anyone’s part to think that house has never seen one death.

Are there any documents of deaths at the old Arnold Estate? Yes.  According to family records of remaining descendants of the Arnold family, Sally Eddy passed away at the home, as did her two children, after suffering from Typhus.  I am sure over the span of the 300 years that the farm has stood, there are other relatives who have lived and died in the home, or on the property, but none of an unusual nature. 

There was one man who died on the property who had been tied to a notorious scandal a few years before. Jarvis Smith was born in April of 1844, in the state of Rhode Island. According to the 1860 census, he was living with his mother, Elizabeth, 44; and brother, Clovis, 18, in Smithfield, Rhode Island. The United States Civil War Index notes that at some point between 1861-1865, Jarvis served as a private, in Company F of the 9th Regiment, Rhode Island Infantry.  By 1898, Jarvis met a turning point in his life when he was charged with the murder of Brinton Rounds. Born in 1863, Brinton was the son of Arnold and Marcy Rounds of Foster, Rhode Island. According to the 1885 State Census, his listed occupation was a farm laborer in Foster.

 In October of 1898,  Brinton was stabbed to death, and Jarvis was charged with his murder. I could not find any further details on the circumstances of the case,  but I did find that Jarvis was acquitted of all charges.

 His name was well “known  around the state” as the newspaper stated, “as the man who stabbed Brinton Rounds at Foster, in October, 1898.”  So how did Jarvis Smith die? His body was found, laying face down in a “rickety shed along the highway,” by two men who were “passing along the road leading from Round Top to Douglas.”  The shed was on the property of the old Arnold Estate. The Butterworth family was notified and Dr. Wilcox was called. When the doctor finally arrived, he ascertained the Jarvis had died from natural causes, predominately exposure to the elements after passing out from extreme drunkenness.

The 1900 census lists Jarvis as having worked for William Mowry in Smithfield as a laborer at Mowry’s steam sawmill. The newspaper stated that “since his trial for the murder of Brinton Rounds, he had been working at various things in Foster and Burrillville.”  The two weeks prior to his death, Jarvis had worked at a sawmill in Douglas. The Saturday before his death, he went on a bender lasting several days, eating little to nothing and drinking his cares away. Jarvis was 57 years old when he died, with no wife or children of his own. The final words of his obituary notice stated, “He was possessed of rather more than usual intelligence of his class and was a peaceable, kindly disposed citizen when sober.” —

So, we have learned that although there are a few deaths we can tie to the property, there are no documents of truly unusual types of deaths having occurred at the old Arnold Estate.  But what about the murder of Prudence Arnold that Lorraine Warren claimed took place in the pantry of the home?

The Uxbridge Tragedy, as the newspapers labeled it, was truly a very sad story, but it didn’t take place at the old Arnold Estate. Instead, it took place at the Richardson house in Uxbridge, Massachusetts in 1849. According to the Rochester Republican, William Knowlton, 22, cut the throat of 12-year-old Prudence Arnold, after she refused to marry him.

The Woonsocket Patriot also covered the story, adding that little Mary Thayer of Burrillville, was at the house with Prudence that day. Although Knowlton convinced Prudence to go upstairs, Mary remained downstairs and did not witness the actual act. She did say that when she saw Knowlton come down the stairs, she could see that he had a lot of blood on his hands. She ran up the stairs only to find Prudence laying on the floor, making noises. She eventually bled to death.

After apprehending Knowlton, the constable interrogated him. It was reported that Knowlton resolutely stated he had every intention to kill Prudence and followed through with it, because as he said, “love and jealousy would lead a man to do anything.” 

Some of the papers revealed that Knowlton was of low moral perception, and was prone to drinking a lot. The defense tried to use the insanity plea, but that failed in the end. Knowlton was found guilty of the murder of Prudence Arnold, convicted and sentenced to death by hanging.  Again, as horrific as this story may be, it did not take place at the Arnold Estate in Burrillville, Rhode Island.

Now that I have proven to you that none of the alleged murders or suicides took place at the old Arnold Estate, let’s look go back to Bathsheba’s story now and analyze how on earth this urban legend of sorts could have possibly started and taken on a life of its own over the years. 

For starters, you have to think back to when the rumors began.  The Kenyon family owned the property before the Perron’s bought it, and before that, the Kenyon’s ancestors, the Butterworth’s and even earlier, the Arnold’s had owned it since the 1700s.  Prior to the Perron family purchasing the property, there was no mention whatsoever of any sort of murders, witchcraft accusations or any sort of scandalous events tied to Bathsheba Sherman.

So were there any sort of terrifying stories in the local area that could have inspired the Bathsheba Sherman story? Yes. During my research of the history of Burrillville, I found another interesting tale about the Old Paul Place or "The Old Paul House."  It was said to be in ruins even at the time the book," Burrillville: As It Was, As It Is" was written in 1856. The home, or "castle" as it was called, was said to have been originally built and lived in by the Ballou family. Years later, Paul Smith and his family took up residence on the property.

“Not far from the center of the town, is a house, fast crumbling down, which has long been known as the above title ("Old Paul Place"). It was originally the residence of an ancient family of Ballou’s, a common name in this town.  A little to the east of the old castle are four graves where they were buried.

It was afterward occupied by Paul Smith. The old man met with many misfortunes which gives the place a romantic interest. His wife was insane for many years. She was confined in a lonely room, and with none of the appliances with which modern science and philanthropy soothe and improve the stricken mind, she sank into hopeless idiocy. One of the sons, an athletic young man, was engaged in a foot race in Slatersville, when he burst a blood-vessel and died in a short time.

Several families have resided there since Paul Smith died, but the edifice is at present forsaken,  the moss-grown roof has partly fallen, the massive chimney is breaking down, and the wild wind shrieks through the crazy fabric like the pitiful wail of its ruined  mistress. The forest is growing up all around it, and timersome do not like to frequent the place after nightfall. The raven croaks hoarsely from the open gable, and the twilight bat flits undisturbed through the forsaken and desolate apartments."---- "Burrillville: As It Was, As It Is." (Horace Keach, 1856)

Could this story have inspired part of the idea of the Bathsheba tale? Quite possibly. Not only does it speak of the mistress of the house becoming insane, but it speaks of the fact that many in the area were easily frightened by old, scary houses.  Then comes the story of Laura Sherman who is buried in her family cemetery on Buck Hill. Local teenagers have been flocking to this spot for decades due to the legend that if you circle her grave three times on a full moon, that she will appear.

The story about the Old Paul Place could have been passed down through the years and perhaps parts of that mixed with the old legend tripping tales of Laura Sherman’s grave on Buck Hill could have made for one big ghost story that has mistakenly become attached to the wrong person.

According to retired journalist and local historian Kent Spottswood, “This whole story is one of 1970’s folklore fantasy.”  Spottwood’s opinion is that after the publication of the Satanic bible, which was first published in 1969, that was when stories of devil worship really hit the mainstream. He also mentioned that many young women who were lonely and seeking power, turned to Wicca, becoming solitary practitioners of the craft, which became almost fashionable at the time.  It appears that someone, influenced by current events happening at that present time may have taken pieces of Burrillville history- real events, real people, and intertwined them with grossly fabricated, false stories. This not only sullied the reputation of Bathsheba Sherman, but all who were involved or lived on the property during those times.

“It’s not a matter of making up a theory and saying prove me wrong,” remarked Spottswood. “But that is exactly what has happened in the case of Bathsheba Sherman, and the old Arnold Estate’s history.”

The idea that out of all those years, one day this story just happened to come out of the woodwork to reveal itself is quite ludicrous. Bathsheba Sherman was not related to Salem witches, nor was she a witch. She was never suspected of witchcraft and was never accused of any crimes, murders or suspicious deaths. That entire idea was “conjured” up in the mind of someone either overly imaginative or delusional.  To make matters worse, once the rumors had spread, there was no taking them back.  Again, like the game of “telephone,” after this story was told and retold more and more, ridiculous claims have become attached to the story. And now we have the biggest fabrication of all, the film The Conjuring.

Kent Spottswood searched tirelessly for the history of both the Arnold property and Bathsheba Sherman’s life. At one point he even asked some of his lawyer friends to do some digging in the archives, in places the average person would not be allowed to look. After all the time spent searching for any shred of evidence that would back up the slanderous claims about Bathsheba, they “came up with nothing.”   There are no inquest records about any deaths of infants in the care of Bathsheba or of her own children dying of a suspicious nature. The facts are that there are no records in existence, because none of these events ever happened. According to the current owner of the old Arnold Estate property, Norma Sutcliffe, she also did thorough research on the home’s history and came to the same conclusion as Spottswood, that none of the accusations against Bathsheba ever took place as portrayed in the movie or Andrea Perron’s book.   

Norma insists that while visiting her house several years ago, Lorraine Warren walked around the home and told her, "This is such a loving home and the most wonderful place for the children.”  When asked by Sutcliffe why the Perron’s had experienced supernatural events and her family had not, Norma claims that Lorraine’s explanation was that certain dynamics within families can give rise to supernatural activity in a home. Whatever the case may have been, Norma and her husband have lived in the home since 1987, and besides the occasional creaking noises and doors being opened by drafty rooms, she states there hasn’t been any events she would credit to the spirit realm.  “Nothing has ever happened here that could not be explained by other things,” Norma added. Sutcliffe went on to mention that she told the same thing to the Providence Journal back in 1997. 

I received a package of sorts from Norma  while working on this chapter in my book. Among the many invaluable newspaper clippings dating back as early as 1849, up to the present day, I found a clipping of what appears to be a magazine article with the year “1985” scribbled on the margin. The headline of the piece read, “Fashion Model Meets Headless Ghost.”  At first glance it looked like a common tabloid story you might find while standing in line at the grocery store, but as I read the text of it something else became quite clear, it was all too familiar. 

The article described a couple by the names of Carol and Ronald Barron, giving accounts of their horrific experiences in their Rhode Island home.  The photograph actually shows the Old Arnold Estate, although the names were obviously changed for the article. From vicious attacks to horrific sounds, it details accounts one by one, as claimed by the lady of the house, Carol Barron, a former fashion model turned housewife. It highlights that the Warrens came to the rescue, per the Barron family’s request, but that although the Warrens tried to do their best to rid the home of the evil entities, their efforts failed.

 The most intriguing part of this article was towards the end, when Ed Warren was quoted mentioning that the 300 year old home had seen tragedies, such as suicides, drownings and even murder.  He also went on to mention that an 98-year-old woman had lived there who practiced witchcraft and as a gift to the Devil, she murdered her own child by driving a nail through it’s head.  Interesting, isn’t it?

Another thing to mention is that the article was written by a journalist named Tony Spera. Upon further  investigating, it turns out that he is Ed and Lorraine Warren’s son-in-law. The article then ends with the mention that the home was set to be buried under a huge reservoir planned to be constructed.  Of course we all know that didn’t take place, as the house still stands today. 

If this was the same home, and the Warrens claimed it was so plagued with problems that the only option was for it to be buried underwater, why did Lorraine tell Norma years later that the home was such a lovely place?  I think only  Lorraine Warren has the answer for that one.

My personal opinion on the “haunting” aspect of the home is that no one truly knows what happened in the house, except for the people who lived there at the time.  The fact that current owners of the home claim they do not experience negative activity leads me to believe that perhaps whatever was plaguing the Perron family while living there was brought there and left  when they moved.  Still, this chapter is not meant to be about the paranormal, but instead it is about the true history of the property and of Bathsheba.

Bathsheba Sherman was buried at the cemetery in Harrisville, alongside her first husband Judson, her children and other immediate family members. Her funeral was officiated by Rev. A. H. Granger, who was a well known and highly respected Baptist minister. Had Bathsheba been suspected of any sort of wrongdoing in her lifetime, there would have been a mention of it somewhere.

Another thing to consider, if such suspicion of her being involved in any sort of satanic rituals or witchcraft had been raised, she would have been shunned by the community and would not have had the full honors bestowed on her as a member of her church in her beloved hometown. 

To give any entity an identity and attach to them the name or stories of people who were once actual living human beings and then sully them in death is so very wrong.  This has happened to poor Bathsheba, and for far too long. My job as a writer is to sift through the story and get to the raw facts. Sometimes we find out that stories are not fact based, and so we have the responsibility to provide the true information to the public in order to set the stories straight. I truly hope that with this chapter, and the information I have posted on my blog, that Bathsheba’s true story will finally be told correctly.

I also hope that the stories of Susan, Edwin, John and Prudence Arnold will be told accurately, as well as the story of Jarvis Smith’s life and death.  A wise man once  told me, “It’s how we treat our dead that defines who we are.” So let us all treat these stories with the care and respect that they so deserve."

----------- Copyright 2016, "Stories of the Forgotten: Infamous, Famous & Unremembered," by J'aime Rubio 

( ISBN-13:  978-1523981175)  www.jaimerubiowriter.com

*Edit: Deed records show the Perron's actually purchased the property in January of 1972. 

All rights reserved.  J'aime Rubio identified as the AUTHOR and PUBLISHER of the work in accordance with all U.S. Copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission by the author/publisher.

Source Citations:

U.S. Census, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1885, 1900; United States Civil War Index, 1861-1865; Marriage, Death records from Burrillville Town Hall, Vol. 1. Deaths, 1854-1900, Vol. 1-A Marriages, 1846-1900; Bathsheba Sherman’s Will, (5-BUR-5-511), Public Records; Black Book of Burrillville; “Burrillville: As It Was, As It Is,” Horace Keach, 1856; Thayer Family Genealogy Records, Ancestry & Family Search; Information courtesy of Norma Sutcliffe: Copies of obituaries in archived Burrillville Gazette and Pascoag Herald, 1885, 1866, 1903, 1900, 1911, “Fashion Model Meets Headless Ghost,” Tony Spera, (unknown publisher), 1985; Providence Journal, 1997; Harrisville Cemetery records; U.S. Register of Historic Places; Find-a-grave; Baptist Missionary Magazine, 1848; Rochester Republican, 1849; Woonsocket Patriot, 1849; “House of Darkness, House of Light”- Andrea Perron, Author; Interview with Norma Sutcliffe, owner of Old Arnold Farm; Interview with Kent Spottswood, retired Journalist and local Historian.