The 2015 Rhody Warm
RAM TAIL MILL COLLECTION
from our Lost Village Series

It is not uncommon when the remains from old villages and factories are linked to paranormal activity. What is left of the Ram Tail Factory, located in Foster, Rhode Island, has been officially listed as haunted by the state's census since 1885. But before all of that, the factory was an example of the ever growing New England textile industry.

In 1813, William Potter of Warwick, RI purchased the land in Foster where the factory would be located. He started The Foster Woolen Manufacturing Company, now commonly referred to as the Ram Tail Mill, with his son Olney, brother-in-law Jonathan Ellis and his sons-in-law Marvin Round and Peleg Walker. The mill used the nearby Ponagansett River to power its machines that spun and mechanically wove woolen cloth. It is said that the nickname of Ram Tail is derived from the fact the mill worked with sheep's wool.

The factory was a prospering business with even a small village forming around the area. There were no recorded problems until 1822. Peleg Walker was said to be in debt for $500, which was humiliating to the Potter family and company. Walker was forced to hand over his shares of the mill to William and Olney Potter, but he stayed on as a night watchman. He would keep an eye on the mill at night and toll the bell in the mornings to let the workers know it was time to come to work.

Sometime in May of 1822, Walker and William Potter were said to have a heated argument, with Walker's parting words being "The next time you take these keys from me, it will be from the pocket of a dead man!" As the legend goes, on the morning of May 19, 1822, Walker was found hanging from the bell of the factory. Walker, 35 years old, was buried in the Potter family cemetery plot and shortly after being laid to rest, the legend is said he began haunting the area of the Ram Tail Mill. Strange events started happening around the mill, like the bell being rung with no one pulling on the rope and the mill starting up in the middle of the night with no one there. Even after Potter had the bell taken down, workers could still hear it ring at night. These events unsettled workers and they began to move away.

For the next 20 years, ownership would keep changing hands over and over again, until 1850 when all of production had stopped. Then in 1873, the mill was burned down beyond repair. The property is now owned by the Providence Water Supply Board. All that is left are some old foundations of the mill and the legend of Peleg Walker walking around the area with his lantern at night. Some believe the ghost stories, others don't, but what is true is how another prospering mill of the heyday of textiles is long gone and long forgotten about.