Bob Williams has heard - and told - many tales in his days. A onetime town historian with many links to Montgomery’s past, Williams will share a few of them, Saturday, when the village hosts its annual Candlelight Ghost Tour.

Williams will lead the gathering on a two-hour tour beginning at 7 p.m. at Village Hall.

The tour is primarily a walking tour through downtown, but the first leg begins on the outskirts, at City Winery, once a woolen mill along the Wallkill River.

Founders Arthur Patchett and William Crabtree made their mark in the village. Many of the homes along Factory Street were built by them for family members and the families of mill workers.

One mill story originates in Berwick, PA, home of Montgomery Laboratories, Inc. A business trip had brought Williams to Berwick where he met with Paul Mangini, owner of Montgomery Laboratories. That’s where he learned of Mangini’s connection to Montgomery, NY and the Mill where he had once worked.

“He said to me, ‘well you know that mill is haunted,’” Williams recalled.

Mangini would be working there and often saw an image of a proprietary man walking up and down, checking the machines and making sure everything was OK in the old factory.

Williams had acquired a collection of old photographs from the estate of Lemma Crabtree, a distant cousin who passed away in 2001. Old negatives, taken by her father and grandfather depicted life in Montgomery around the turn of the last century. Many of the photos had found their way in a book that Williams had published. On a return visit to Berwick, Williams brought a copy of the book, careful to note the expression on the face of Mangini as he thumbed through the pages.

He recognized the face of William Crabtree, as the man he had seen wandering through the old factory. Crabtree had died in 1901.

Near the winery is the historic Patchett House, current home to the Wallkill River School. The house, built around 1824, by Arthur Patchett and remained in the family until the 1970s, when it became a funeral home. Many ghost sightings have been reported at the Patchett House, and an undertakers room that was in the basement, is now preserved in the UFO and Paranormal Museum in Pine Bush.

Other stops on the tour include the Hanlon House (now the Borland House B&B, Village Hall (the former Montgomery Academy) and the Montessori School.
Also on the tour is the Holy Name of Mary Church, which dates back to 1868.Williams repeated a story told by his great aunt.

In the 18th century, Montgomery was considered a Protestant community, not always welcoming of the Catholic newcomers. Williams’s great-grandfather was a Protestant who married a Catholic girl.

“My great-grandfather’s best friend took out a rifle and shot out a window from the church,” Williams said.

The parish priest went into town to inquire about the shooting. The culprit, though, was never revealed.

The priest, though, offered a chilling prediction: the hand that shot the window will never shoot another again.

It wasn’t long after that, the rifle misfired, tearing off the man’s right arm.

“My great-aunt believed the priests had powers,” Williams said. “When my great-aunt told that story she was dead serious.”

Williams will offer more tales - both historic and haunting - on the tour. Tickets are $5 per person and are available at Village Hall.