THE GHOST OF POLLY MILLER ROAD
DATE SUBMITTED: 05/01/13
NAME: Nathan Gazin
WHAT TOWN IN THE MOHAWK VALLEY ARE YOU FROM: Mohawk
PLEASE TELL YOUR EXTRAORDINARY TALE ABOUT THE MOHAWK VALLEY:
Burned alive for witchcraft, her ghostly flame still burns to this date. She curses the very road that her colonial cabin once resided. She was sent to her demise after a prolonged drought left the farmland infertile and the livestock famished and dead. Accusations of witchcraft were placed upon her. The widowed farm girl was locked and boarded in her small home while natives set it a blaze. Her smoldering corpse was placed in an unmarked grave soon to be forgotten. In an attempt to lift the plague full curse that lays upon this darkened country road, its residence renamed it after her damned soul…. “Polly Miller”.
Polly Miller by Artist Nate Gazin
ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY ON POLLY MILLER: (from the comment section of the original INSAP Website)
Thomas Backus says:
I grew up on Polly Miller road and The truth is in the believer . I have seen many strange things in the exact place where her house sat !! I don’t think It is just coincidence that thing happen there !! My Parents actually owned the land until they sold it to my uncle William Robotham in 1982. Their house was built right across the road from the site that Polly Millers house was burned down.I seen things and I am convinced that there is spirits in this area !!
Joe Plunkett says:
Alright, here is the deal… I’m not going to drop names besides Thomas Backus because he is already here. I grew up around Thomas and his brother through a childhood friend and was very close to the Backus family for most of my life. I even considered some, my own family. I spent the greater part of my summers and weekends on Polly Miller Road from the age of 8 until around 18. we would help the local farmers bale hay, we would camp, fish the creek, ride bikes, fool around in the wood’s etc. First of all there was no burning due to “witchcraft” and no such thing as the chair in the road. I will say this… Polly Miller road is most definitely haunted and I have personally seen and heard very, very strange things to put it mildly! It doesn’t just stop at the ghost story. Speaking of which, I can tell you with great confidence the actual story of Polly Miller as told to us by many different farmers and old timers from around the area over the years. All of their stories were the same. I have already tried researching this with the Town of Columbia and Herkimer County and they have very little information to offer. With that being said, here is the “old timer” story of Polly Miller. Polly Miller was married to a local architect. Her husband left town to help on a project either in Albany or Amsterdam for several weeks. Upon his return it was found that Polly had been cheating on him. He ended up poisoning her and burning down the house with her body in it. That is the official story from the old timers that had been passed down through generations that lived there. While I can not claim that I have ever actually seen a *boop,boop here I am* ghost on any property, I can tell you that it is a very, very strange area, and there was rarely a weekend that went by without something very bizarre happening.
