Post by Graveyardbride on May 12, 2015 0:34:17 GMT -5
Supernatural Encounters in Lancaster County
It was a warm and sunny spring evening in Manheim Township, Pennsylvania, and Keith Greenawalt’s thoughts turned to ghosts. Greenawalt, a reference librarian at Manheim Township Public Library, shared stories of haunted Lancaster County. Although he encourages credulous members of his audience to seek out similar tales, he explains, “I am not a ghost hunter. I don’t go out in the woods at night and look for EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena, aka spirit voices). I enjoy the legends, the lore behind the stories.” Following is a sampling of the sites of Greenawalt’s ghost stories:
St. James Episcopal Church. Local industrialist Robert Coleman disapproved of the men his daughters chose to marry. Anne Coleman died December 9, 1819 – possibly of hysteria, possibly of a laudanum overdose – after her engagement to future president James Buchanan was broken. Sarah Coleman is said to have committed suicide November 1, 1825, after she was forbidden to marry William Muhlenberg. Both young women are buried in St. James’s cemetery (above) and one of the star-crossed couples – witnesses aren’t sure which – has been seen strolling along Orange Street.
Fulton Opera House. From Marie Cahill, a small-time actress who reportedly walks the aisles in a white gown, to the sounds of applause in an empty theater, the Fulton has an astonishing number of ghosts in its history. Most notorious, Greenawalt says, are the restless spirits of the Conestoga Indians slaughtered on the site in 1763. “There has always been a sort of collective sense of guilt here ... for the massacre of these defenseless Indians who were under our protection,” he says. “People don’t see apparitions,” he adds. “It’s a feeling of dread. People don’t like going to the basement.”
Other Lancaster Ghosts. The Red Rose City has plenty of historic spirits, including Declaration of Independence signatory George Ross at Old City Hall, Civil War General John Reynolds at his King Street birthplace, and John Hand, son of Revolutionary War General Edward Hand, at Rock Ford Plantation (above), where John committed suicide. A stain believed to be John Hand’s final splash of blood has never disappeared from the floor in an upstairs room and in the days before the house became a museum, it was hard to keep tenants because “it was creepy and unsettling,” Greenawalt says.
The well-known tale of Augusta Bitner’s walking statue at Lancaster Cemetery is largely apocryphal, Greenawalt insists. She neither died on her wedding day nor broke her neck on the stairs. “Sometimes,” he says, “the story is better than the truth.”
Adamstown. The borough has the ghosts of headless pigs that loiter near the butcher shop where they met their demise and that of a small black dog “that just shows up periodically,” Greenawalt relates. Also, a woman in white and another in black are sometimes seen walking through town.
Chickies Rock. According to Greenawalt: “There are a lot of ghost stories out there.” These include a witch’s curse, a headless horseman, a phantom railroad worker, a tall and slender figure wrapped in bandages and a lover’s leap involving an Indian maiden, a brave and a colonist.
Ephrata. The ghost of Conrad Beissel, founder of the Ephrata Cloister, is said to have appeared to members of his congregation. Cloister member Christoph Bohler asked Beissel for help after his third wife complained she was haunted by the spirits of his previous wives.
Lititz. The General Sutter Inn (above) is said to be haunted by John Sutter, whose namesake mill sparked the California Gold Rush in 1849.
Manheim. The apparition of a nude man is said to march along his property line. Another mysterious figure, this one wearing a cloak, darts about on Ferdinand Street.
Mount Joy. Members of the Bube family are said to linger in various rooms at Bube’s Brewery, Greenawalt says. There’s also the spirit of a “naked man,” who apparently ended his days living rough in a local cave after fleeing murder charges in Scotland.
For additional information on Lancaster ghosts, Greenawalt recommends the following books:
Big Book of Pennsylvania Ghost Stories by Mark Nesbitt and Patty Wilson (2008)
Ghost Stories of Lancaster, PA by Tim Reeser (2003)
South Central Pennsylvania Legends and Lore by David Puglia (2012)
Ghosts of Hershey and Vicinity by Chris Wolf (2009)
Pennsylvania Dutch Country Ghosts, Legends, and Lore by Charles Adams (1994)
Haunted Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by Dorothy Burtz Fiedel (1994)
Ghosts and Other Mysteries by Dorothy Burtz Fiedel (1997)
True Ghost Stories of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by Dorothy Burtz Fiedel (1995)
Living with Ghosts: True Tales of the Paranormal by Dorothy Burtz Fiedel (1999)
Pennsylvania's Haunted Route 30 by Ed Keleman (2014)
Supernatural Pennsylvania by Laurie Hull (2010)
Ghosts of Penn's Woods by Jeff Fraiser (2011)
Weird Pennsylvania by Matt Lake (2005)
Greenawalt says the Charles Adams book is his favorite. “Although they are getting dated, he has written many excellent ghost story books,” he explains. Also, he adds, the Big Book of Pennsylvania Ghost Stories “is the most comprehensive source I've come across.”
Sources: Tom Knapp, LancasterOnline, May 11, 2015; and Pennsylvania Dutch Haunts.
