Ever hear the story of the curse of the Saco River? What about Mary Bean, a mill worker who was killed and thrown in the river? Then there was the mill fire that killed a number of people, probably more than were even reported. These are just a few of the thrilling stories that will be told by Biddeford High School students at the Pepperell Mill Campus on Friday ”“ just in time for Halloween.

Students from Biddeford High School’s Drama Club and National Honor Society are being sponsored by the Biddeford Mills Museum to hold the “Perilous Pepperell Tours of Terror.” The event is a fundraiser for all three groups.

The students will perform six original stories, said Ben Cote, a senior and president of the BHS National Honor Society. They are based on historical information that students and people connected with the Biddeford Mills Museum have researched.

During the tours, audience members will travel through portions of the mill buildings, locations which most have never seen before. At each stop, students will recite a story and other students in costume will perform partial reenactments of the events. There will be several tours throughout the evening, said Cote.

Victoria Eon, a senior and vice president of the BHS National Honor Society, will tell the tale of Catherine Cotton.

“Catherine Cotton worked at the Pepperell. She fell in love with this fellow, and he broke her heart,” said Eon. Then Cotton and a friend of hers, who also had her heart broken, both jumped off a bridge in Manchester, N.H., committing suicide.

As Eon tells her story, two other students will appear to reenact the suicides.

Another story that will be performed will be told by Drama Club member Thomas Laverriere, a junior. His story is about a fire that took place in a storeroom in 1915, in which a number of mill workers died.

“I created a character of a Turkish person,” said Laverriere, “who ended up dying in the fire because he was a squatter.”

Laverriere said many more people probably died in the fire than were reported because many of the immigrants who slept in the mill and died were not recorded.

“There names were not remembered,” he said.

His story is based on the historical facts he was able to dig up, said Laverriere. However, he said, there isn’t a lot of information available about the fire.

One of the other stories is of the curse of a Native American chief whose child was killed by white men in the Saco River in the 17th century, said Cote. The chief’s curse, for three white men to die in the river each year, lasted through the 1940s, he said.

Another story is the story of Mary Bean, a mill worker who was unmarried, became pregnant and was killed in a back-alley abortion.

Other stories to be told on Friday revolve around various work accidents that were fairly gory, causing the loss of limbs and other appendages; and of the Spanish Flu, which ripped through the mill in 1918, killing many, including decimating the Muslim population of Biddeford, many of whom squatted in the mill buildings, said Cote.

The stories and reenactments are more spooky and unsettling than gory, said Cote.

Eon described them as “psychological thrillers.”

Space for the event is donated by Pepperell Mill Campus owner Doug Sanford.

Those interested in experiencing the Perilous Pepperell Tours of Terror can buy tickets at the door. The cost is $5; tours take place every 20 minutes between 5-9 p.m. Tours begin at the North Dam Mill lobby. The event is being held in conjunction with the Biddeford ArtWalk.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.