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NORWALK, Conn. Ghostly tales told by the "dead" sprang to life recently at the old Mill Hill graveyard in a pre-Halloween program that even scared some of the people from the Norwalk Historical Society who sponsored the first-time event.
"A Haunting at Mill Hill," conducted nightly the past two weekends at an East Wall Street graveyard that is one of the city's oldest, included a lighted lantern tour of the cemetery and Little Red Schoolhouse built in 1826 with eight Norwalk ghost stories described by the "ghosts" themselves.
The tales were portrayed by teachers and actors dressed in historic, and at times, "bloody" costume and makeup. They were from Norwalk's Crystal Theatre, a nonprofit theater-arts school for children from Norwalk and the surrounding communities.
David Westmoreland, president of the Historical Society, said the event is likely to become an annual tradition, as more than 300 people from Fairfield County, across Connecticut and from New York State were drawn to the tours.
"I knew what was coming, and I was still scared out of my wits," Westmoreland said. "We're always looking for ways to make history fun and interesting, and by using a Halloween entertainment theme, we were able to accomplish that."
Samantha Kulish, a teacher at Crystal Theatre and director of education for the Little Red Schoolhouse, put the event together.
"Being part of both the Historical Society and Crystal Theatre, I was asked to come up with a program that could combine history with stories of local hauntings," said Kulish, who grew up in Norwalk and wrote the program based on "real events and legends of local ghost stories and hauntings."
The characters came eerily to life throughout the graveyard tour.
"Even now, 104 years after my murder, I am still trapped among the living," shrieked a bloody-faced Hungarian girl ghost from Whistleville who told of being killed by her "crazy" and jealous boyfriend after arriving in Norwalk in 1905.
"I wander Bouton Street every night, fearful that André is still there," said the girl, played by Jessica Foulds. "Every July 5th, on the lawn of the boarding house, I relive the horror of my death. Only a few of the living have seen me, the young Hungarian girl floating on the lawn, trying to escape her failed dream."
Then, there was the 19th century Little Red schoolhouse teacher, with flogging stick in hand, who tells her tale of haunting the schoolhouse and schoolyards after dying of tuberculosis, known as consumption in her time.
"Today, as I wander through the old schoolyards of Norwalk, looking for new students to discipline, I encounter the children who died from this terrible disease," said the teacher, played on alternating tours by Christina Johnson and Maria DesRochers.
"Why did these children not cross over? Was it because they were thought to be vampires? Or was it because their hearts were ripped out and fed to their families, like mine was?"
Other "ghosts" included a bride killed in a tragic train wreck, a woman who died of a broken heart after her fiancé was killed in a machinery shop accident, and Gov. Thomas Fitch of Norwalk, who served the colony of Connecticut as governor from 1754-1766
"The burying grounds of my time were very eerie," said Fitch, played by Todd Emerson.
"Once while walking through this burying ground, I heard a soft bell sound emanating from the ground. It was the sound of someone who had been buried alive. In my day, it was difficult to prove someone was dead, so there were cases of living people being buried."
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