HGB Ep. 638 - Railroad House Inn and Shank's Tavern

Moment in Oddity - Arrow Injury Saves Woman's Life (Suggested by: Chelsea Flowers)

A Texas school teacher by the name of Donna Barbour had an incredibly fortunate accident back in April of 2012. Mrs. Barbour was an avid gardener and after the stresses of spending her day teaching 20 young children, she liked to unwind in her garden. As dinner time neared, Donna stopped tending her garden to fire up the barbecue for herself and her husband. Suddenly, she felt like she had been hit by a baseball bat in her neck. She was startled and reached up to her neck, shockingly she discovered that she had been shot with an arrow. Panicking, Mrs. Barbour ran indoors to find her husband who had been speaking on the phone with their daughter. Mr. Barbour managed to stop Donna from frantically running around and convinced her to lie down while he called emergency services. The wayward arrow that Donna had been shot by came from a neighbors home where the son had been practicing with a compound bow. Donna was life-flighted to the nearest trauma hospital. The fact that she was still alive was a miracle. The arrow had narrowly missed both her carotid artery and jugular vein. She underwent a 2 hour emergency surgery to remove the arrow from her neck. The next morning she awoke with her family by her side, but that wasn't the end of her miraculous survival story. When her surgeon came to check on her, he delivered the news that her CT scan the day before revealed a brain tumor. Although thought to be benign, it needed to be removed because if it were left to continue growing, the tumor would cross the midline of Donna's brain, causing a massive stroke. A neurosurgeon performed the tumor removal surgery successfully. After the surgery, Donna Barbour underwent annual MRIs to ensure that the tumor had not grown back. In April of 2015, Mrs. Barbour received a call to schedule a doctors appointment to discuss her recent MRI results. The MRI revealed that there was no new tumor discovered, but that she had a brain aneurysm. Three months later Donna underwent surgery for the aneurysm and upon doing so, it was discovered that the aneurysm was on the brink of rupturing, which would have proven fatal. To survive being shot in the neck by an arrow is a miracle. But the injury leading to the discovery and treatment of a potentially deadly brain tumor and then a fatal brain aneurysm, certainly is odd. 

Railroad House Inn and Shank's Tavern (Suggested by: Kay Eberhart)

The Railroad House Inn celebrated its bicentennial in 2023. Through those 200 years, the inn has witnessed a lot of history in Marietta, Pennsylvania. The oldest continuously operated bar in all of Lancaster County, Shank's Tavern, is also in Marietta. Both of these historic locations are reputedly haunted. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Railroad House Inn and Shank's Tavern.

Robert Wilkins was an Indian trader and he bought 300 acres along the Susquehanna (suss-kwuh-HANN-uh) River in 1719. He sold this property to Rev. James Anderson whose son set up a ferry across the river and the river trade industry was strong here. Eventually James Anderson IV and James Cook established the towns of New Haven and Waterford. In 1812, these two became one and it was named Marietta after the two men's wives, Mary and Henrietta. The residents raised two companies to fight in the War of 1812. The early years were tough with slow growth and an economic crisis. The 1870s would see the end of the river trade. Timber and iron became the main economic engines of Marietta after that. The town has a dense concentration of historic Federal and Victorian homes and buildings. One of these buildings sits at the corner of Front and Perry, the Railroad House. The Railroad House Inn got its start as a boarding house when it was built in 1823. The building was made from red brick and stands three stories tall with a balcony on the second floor and a veranda on the first floor. There is a touch of gingerbreading to the porch. The inn sat across from the train station that was built in 1820. This provided accommodations for canal traffic before the railroad came to town. The Marietta Railroad Company was formed in 1832 to help construct a railway from Marietta to a spot near Columbia. The railroad would become a boon as Columbia, Marietta, and Wrightsville would start producing pig iron, which hadn't been successfully manufactured in this country before 1840. The Reading and Columbia Railroad purchased the Hanover Junction and Susquehanna Railroad after they declared bankruptcy in 1880 and this became the Reading, Marietta, and Hanover Railroad. The first Reading locomotive came to the area on April 19, 1883. There were great hopes that this railway would have routes to New York City and Washington, D.C., but the Columbia Bridge burned and those dreams were dashed. The line was eventually abandoned in 1930. Today, the station is a visitors center and trailhead station along the Northwest Lancaster County River Trail. 

There have been several owners and name changes through the years. This was a boarding house and a tavern referred to as Depot House and then it was the Railroad Hotel. Thomas Scott was owner of the inn in the late 19th century. 

Scott was an American industrialist and railroad executive, so it was fitting he would become owner of the Railroad House Inn. Scott had been born in 1823 to a father who was a tavern keeper. He quit school at the age of ten and worked as a handyman and his work at a general supply store taught him about running a business and he pursued a couple of small business ventures in his early 20s. At 27, he got involved in the railroad and worked his way up from station agent to general superintendent to Vice President of the Philadelphia Railroad. Scott was described as being daring and operated in ethically gray areas sometimes to turn a profit. During the Civil War, he accepted a special commission in which he was placed in charge of railroad and telegraph lines for the Union and he worked to build a railroad through Washington, D.C. as an assistant to the Secretary of War. After the war, he continued to work in transportation and his employment practices that included cutting the pay of railroad workers in Pittsburgh heavily, led to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Scott said that the strikers should be given "a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread." This led to him being referred to as one of the first robber barons of the Gilded Age. His business never recovered from the strike and he had a stroke in 1878, ultimately dying in 1881. 

Mrs. Bell ran it as a boarding house again in the 1940s. There was a time it served as a private residence. Architect John DeVitry purchased the building with a man named John Westenhoefer and they hand dug the cellar to create space for what would become a 60s-era coffee house. This later became a disco in the 1970s. 

In 1989, Richard and Donna Chambers bought the Railroad House and hey had a dream that they could turn the old hotel into a beautiful Victorian restaurant and bed and breakfast. And they did just that, running it into the early 2000s. Eric Farr and Tracy Beam bought it in 2008 and they operated it until 2015. Freddy States and Joey Bowden became co-owners of the restaurant portion in 2015 and they acquired the rest of the building in 2020. Bowden had been the former manager of the Bull’s Head Pub in Lititz and States had been co-owner of McCleary’s Pub. The men took advantage of the shutdown during the pandemic to make repairs and restore the building. The only thing not made-over was the main-floor bar and dining rooms and the inn and restaurant was reopened in the fall of 2020. That bar has Victorian charm with a beautiful fireplace and hardwood floors and the adjacent dining room has a steampunk theme. Another dining room, the Brodbeck Room, has a traditional Colonial feel with exposed beams, a cooking hearth, lighting fixtures and furnishings that contribute to the atmosphere. The original summer kitchen became a private dining room that can accommodate 15 to 20 guests. The Perry Street Cellar features craft beer, pub fare and musical entertainment. There is an outdoor patio as well. The inn specializes in what they call Micro-weddings. Joey said, "We’re unique. We were doing micro-weddings before the concept even existed.” The carriage house became the wedding venue. There are nine rooms in the inn with full bathrooms and luxury linens.

The building has managed to stand through two major floods, one in 1932 and the other in 1976. Tropical Storm Lee hit in 2011 and waters from this, inundated the cellar and first floor. The cellar sustained the worst damage, as the muddy river water impacted everything. The inn also survived a visit from Jane Fonda when she came through in 1972 protesting the Vietnam War. The coffee house had a psychedelic vibe at the time and welcomed her. 

And speaking of psychedelic, there seems to be some former guests and a former owner who are still here at the inn in the afterlife. So, if you book a room, you may get a ghostly visitor. One of the spirits here may be former owner Thomas Scott. Interestingly, everything we saw in our research reported that Scott died in 1881, but when owners Richard and Donna Chambers were renovating, they found an invoice for a keg of beer and a case of wine dated May 17, 1900 and signed by Thomas Scott. One has to wonder how this could be if he were dead in 1881. Did his ghost sign off on the order? A waitress had gone down into the basement to retrieve something and she saw a man sitting at the bar and as she passed by, he spoke to her saying “Hello.” She turned to reply and the man was no longer there. Could this have been Scott? Perhaps, but there are other ghosts here. 

Room 6 is said to be one of the most haunted at the inn. Guests have reported hearing the sounds of banging coming from within its walls. It is believed that someone shot themselves in this room. Cold spots have been felt and a presence is sometimes felt. That presence sometimes sits down on the bed. In Room 8, people have reported a figure at the end of the bed. 

There is a spirit here named Anne Marie and a couple back stories are told about her. The first is that she lived next door and she tended the garden, ensuring there was a bounty to serve in the restaurant. Many eligible young men would come through and she fancied eventually marrying one of these men, but that never came to fruition. So its said that is why she appears only to single men and she likes to flirt with men. Anne Marie has been seen walking around the gardens in a Victorian dress and men have seen her on the outskirts of the Biergarten - she knows where to find the men. But she also is thought to haunt Room 6. Another story claims that she was left broken-hearted and may have been the one to take her own life in the room. She has been seen looking out the window and softly crying as though she is seeking her lost love. Some people refer to her as the white lady or lady in white. Only one woman has ever reported seeing or interacting with Anne Marie. 

One of the stranger claims people have made is that they hear the sound of a typewriter in a room that has no typewriter. Disembodied footsteps are heard throughout the building and cold spots and winds are felt. 

An employee named Jean Adams spent a night alone in one of the rooms. She was in the bed and felt a presence get in the bed with her. It didn't feel threatening, but it did make her uneasy. Jean thought she heard a voice in her head say "Move over, you’re taking up all the room." She decided to move over and the uneasy feeling left her. Another employee decided to take a nap in the TV room upstairs and she heard the door open and felt an unseen presence as if watching her. A former chef at the restaurant got the scare of his life when he came out of the kitchen and noticed that his reflection in the mirror which hangs over the bar wasn't alone. There was a little girl in a Victorian dress staring back out of the mirror at him. He quickly turned around to see if there was a child behind him and there wasn't and when he looked back at the mirror, she was gone there too. This chef saw that little girl again one day as he walked past the stairway which leads to the second floor. He saw her out of the corner of his eye. A second look revealed an empty staircase.

Spirits don't just stick to the main building. The summer kitchen has a weird experience that was reported. A couple was staying in the one-bedroom loft and the wife awakened in the middle of the night and saw an elderly woman sitting in a rocking chair, knitting. She turned to wake up her husband and when they both looked back in that direction and the scene had disappeared. We word it that way because the rocking chair was gone now too. And there was no rocking chair in that room. So the spirit brought its own chair, which makes us think this was residual. Another couple was staying several months later and reported the same thing to management. 

Dark Whimsical Ghosts did an investigation in 2024 and here is one of the exchanges she had. (Innocent Spirit Box) So interesting to get both Innocent and Trapped. So does this spirit feel trapped in the room or at the inn? Then it was like to spirits were talking to each other. A female voice said "Patience" and a loud male voice said "Disagree." At this same time, an orb floated through the screen. Then there was these two "pleases" that came through the box, and they were unusual because the one was loud and firm, while the second sounded like it was whispered, but the voice was the same. (Please Spirit Box) Did another ghost tell them to speak softer? They had a cat shaped REM Pod that plays music when it goes off and it did go off on command. So they had a couple of interesting little things happen, but nothing that would have me convinced that this place is really haunted. 

Just a couple blocks down Front Street is Waterford Avenue. Shank's Tavern is located here. Retired riverboat captain James Stackhouse opened a tavern on the corner of South Waterford and West Front streets in 1814, so this location predates the Railroad House Inn. This is one of the oldest continuously running taverns in the commonwealth. Stackhouse called his establishment The Compass and the Square, most think as a nod to navigation on the waterways. It later became Hauer House and then Maulick's, named for local brewer Ernest Maulick. A speakeasy ran here in the 1920s and when the bar was warned that the police were coming, liquor was moved next door until the coast was clear. Right before Prohibition came to its end, John and Kathryn Shank bought the property and named it Shank’s Tavern. The tavern has remained family owned with Bob Shank as the current owner. He is the grandson of John and Kathryn. Shank's got in on craft brewing right when it started in the 1990s. They have a constantly rotating selection of beers on tap as well as a selection of hard liquor. The restaurant serves up salads and sandwiches and market-fresh produce as well as theme nights like Seafood Night on Fridays and Beef on Weck Thursdays. Beef on Weck is an iconic Western New York sandwich, particularly famous in Buffalo, featuring thinly sliced, rare roast beef piled high on a "kummelweck" roll. Kummelweck is a crunchy roll topped with kosher salt and caraway seeds. The sandwich is usually served with horseradish and a side of au jus. The tavern has stayed much the same as it has survived a couple of centuries of floods, the Great Depression, Prohibition, wars and much more. The original tile floors, fireplace, and wainscoting still remain. Bob Shank freely admits that the place has ghosts. 

There is the Lady in Black who is often seen standing in the upstairs window, looking down at the street. She likes to hang out near the ladies' room and hovers at the top of the stairs. Barb Hauer ran the tavern from 1865 to 1885 and people think this may be her. The black in her name comes from the black dress she is seen wearing.

Bob grew up in the old hotel portion that had been turned into apartments. he said that he and his brother had strange experiences on Sundays when the bar was closed and everything was quiet. They called these "Sunday Night Terrors." Bob and his brother would hear people talking that weren't there. The cigarette machine would work all on its own. They even heard dimes being dropped into the payphone as though someone were making a call even though no one was standing at the phone. Bob told Uncharted Lancaster, "One night, the silence was shattered by three heavy knocks on their bedroom door. When the boys looked beneath it, no feet or shadows were visible. Their mother checked—doors locked, no one there. But the moment she returned to her room, something slammed against the boys’ door so violently it split the wood and sent coat hangers flying across the room." Bob also said of a neighbor, "One neighbor, Jack Fry, had a ghostly encounter so terrifying it kept him from entering the bar for 35 years. He described seeing two headless, floating apparitions enter through the door. As they passed through, the katydids outside went silent. The world held its breath. Then the spirits retreated, and the night sounds returned all at once. Fry never forgot it."

Patrons have felt something unseen touch them and grasp their hands. Phantom laughter is heard in the stairwell. A bartender saw a half-bodied figure in the kitchen. Booming noises are heard that have no origin and doors slam all on their own. 

Marietta, Pennsylvania is a charming river town that owes a lot to its former days when the railroad was the core of the town. Like many historic downtown areas, bars and restaurants continue to be the anchors and it would seem that these two locations have some unseen patrons. Are the Railroad House Inn and Shank's Tavern haunted? That is for you to decide! 

HGB Ep. 622 - Nemacolin Castle

Moment in Oddity - Robert Liston, Fastest Knife in the West End (Suggested by: Jared Rang)

Anesthesia was first used during surgery in October of 1846. Prior to that, patients would often go into shock during surgery if it were not performed quickly enough. Blood loss was also increased if the surgery was not performed fast. A legendary Scottish surgeon, Robert Liston, was known as "The Fastest Knife in the West End", due to his incredible speed while performing amputations. He was famous for being able to perform leg amputations in under 30 seconds. Prior to beginning the amputations, he was well known for saying, "Time me, gentlemen". Robert Liston was a pioneer in his field, becoming the first Professor of Clinical Surgery in Europe. He performed Europe's first public surgery under anesthesia on December 21st, 1846. Due to Robert Liston's desire for speed during surgery, he did have a few mishaps. During a leg amputation, Liston reportedly removed the patient's testicles inadvertently. He also was infamously known for a speed surgery that he performed which resulted in a 300% mortality rate. How could this be, you ask? Well, during the amputation of a patient's leg, Liston accidentally cut his assistants fingers which lead to infection and the assistants death. The amputee patient also died of gangrene. And a nearby witness to the surgery suddenly believed he had been stabbed during the surgery and is said to have died from shock, most likely, a heart attack. Some accounts label this story as fabricated, but regardless, in today's day and age, the thought of speed surgeries and amputations, certainly are odd.

Nemacolin Castle (Neem ah colon)

The Nemacolin Castle is also known as the Bowman's Castle and is found in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. While the mansion itself dates back to the Victorian era, there are things on the property that go back even further than that with remnants from the former Fort Burd here and even before that from indigenous people. The Bowman family built the castle and three generations lived here before it became the museum it is today. There are claims that nearly a dozen ghosts haunt the property. Join us for the history and hauntings of Nemacolin Castle.  

The site where the castle would end up being built was prime real estate for the indigenous tribes near the Brownsville area. They left behind earthwork mounds, one of which was named Redstone Old Fort by the colonists who settled here. Brownsville became a gateway for westward expansion particularly because of its location near the Monongahela (muh·naang·guh·hee·luh) River. The name means "falling banks." Before the French and Indian War in the 1750s, the land was popular hunting grounds, but people weren't living here. The area was long reported as being empty and unpopulated when the indigenous people left. The Ohio Company of Virginia began a survey of the region in 1749 with a goal of bringing 1,000 families to the future Brownsville. The guide for the group was a Native American named Nemacolin. In 1759, Fort Burd was built on the future site of the castle, which was a high bluff above the Monongahela (muh·naang·guh·hee·luh) River, and named for Colonel James Burd who was the British officer that ordered the building of the fort. Burd is credited with fortifying the Pennsylvania frontier. Before we get into talking about the castle property, the city of Brownsville has had a rough time of it. The Rust Belt suffered greatly after the industrial economy failed. Brownsville was a port town that built keel boats and steamers and then the steel and iron industry was here and eventually there was coal mining. When all of this went away, the town's population diminished and the downtown area was practically abandoned. Revitalization has only begun just a few years ago. We imagine that many of the location could be haunted just from being abandoned. A lot of great buildings had to be demolished because they fell into such ruin. Some of the interesting location here that still exist include the following. The Dunlaps Creek Bridge was the first cast iron bridge built in the United States and this was from 1836 to 1839. The Historic Saint Peter's Church was built in 1843 in the Gothic Revival style and was the first Catholic parish in Fayette County and is the oldest continuously operating parish in Western Pennsylvania. The Flatiron Building was built in 1830 and is one of the oldest, most intact iron commercial structures west of the Allegheny Mountains. Another historic home in the town is the Thomas H. Thompson House, also known as Wayside Manor, which was built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style in 1906. The house has a hipped roof with red Spanish tile, carved stone detailing and dormers on three sides of the roof. There is also a carriage house on the property dating to 1917. 

In 1783, John Bowman arrived in the future Brownsville and worked as a merchant and built a home. He was followed by his brother Jacob Bowman in 1786. Jacob was in the employ of a man named Robert Elliot who bought the first lot in Brownsville. Elliot bought that plot from Thomas Brown who was platting out the city that would be named for him, Brownsville. Jacob's parents had originally come to America from Germany. He was born in Hagerstown, Maryland in 1763 and then he came to Brownsville.

In 1788, Jacob purchased the first parcel of land where the castle was built shortly after the American Revolutionary War from a man named William Lynn. Jacob built a trading post with a space above it for him to live, which was a perfect location because it was located at the Redstone Creek river crossing. This location near the river made Brownsville the perfect place for building flatboats for travelers and traders on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. This was a terminus for the Nemacolin's Trail. The first wagon load of merchandise for the trading post arrived from over the mountains on Cumberland Road in 1789. The following year, Jacob had enough money to buy a half lot next to the parcel he had already bought. Jacob had learned the mercantile business from his former employer Robert Elliot and Elliot went on to set up a string of trading posts with another partner named Colonel Eli Williams. And we bring that up because it leads into this interesting tidbit. Remember how we have talked about General "Mad Anthony" Wayne on other episodes? Well, Colonel Williams was carrying supplies to General Wayne in 1794 when Native Americans killed him on the way. The first nail factory west of the Alleghenies was started by Jacob in 1795. With the original trading post, Jacob had built a log addition that served as a kitchen and then in 1805, he rebuilt the kitchen out of stone. This is referred to as the trading post room at the museum today. The interior has a large fireplace that was used for cooking. The Nemacolin Castle is clearly a hodgepodge of different designs and materials and that is because this started out as that trading post and then the Bowmans added to it over the years as it became the large home it is today. The name Nemacolin Castle really fits because the mansion resembles a castle with a prominent front tower topped with a crenellated parapet and a battlement running alongside it. The site still holds part of Fort Burd, the well that was dug by the soldiers who served there. There is still water down in the well and it can be seen at the museum. The name Nemacolin for the castle came from the Lenape chief Nemacolin who helped to improve and mark the ancient Native American trail through the Alleghenies known as Nemocolin's Trail. 

The mansion was built up to three stories out of stone in 1822. Jacob married Isabel Lowry in 1787 and the couple had nine children, five daughters and four sons. Jacob had been the first president of the bank and his sons James and Goodloe followed in those footsteps. Another son named Nelson was a cashier and director at the bank. His son William became an Episcopal minister and Rector at Grace Church. The daughters were Mary, Anna, Louisa, Matilda and Harriet. Jacob died in 1847 and he left the house to his son Nelson. 

Nelson had married Elizabeth Dunn in 1856 and they had six children, but only two survived to adulthood. The couple added the east wing of the house, updated the nursery from a colonial style to Victorian style and added the brick tower that gave the house its castle appearance. As a matter, starting in 1859, local books refer to the house as being fort-like with a castle-like residence. Nelson died in 1892 and the obituary said he lived in a "castle shaped house." Charles Bowman was one of Nelson's sons and he inherited the house. He had been born in 1867 and lived his entire live at the Bowman Castle. He served as a Justice of the Peace in the area for many years and married Lelia Jacobs in 1897 and they had two sons. Charles and Lelia redecorated the drawing room, library, sitting room and other parts of the house. The couple enjoyed throwing extravagant parties in the house during the Roaring 20s. Charles died in 1945 and Lelia continued to live in the house until her death in 1959. The family decided that it would be best to turn the home into a museum and they hire Esther Brain to run it. Esther restored parts of the house and made some changes. In 1961, the Brownsville Historical Society formed and they leased the castle from the family. Charles Bowman Jr. died in 1962 and the house was put on the market after that. Fayette County ended up purchasing the house in 1965. The house was designated as a National Historic Site in 1975 and got some much needed funds to replace the roof and do extensive renovations. The balconies would be restored in 1986. The house really has been meticulously refurbished and features 22 rooms with gorgeous and unique fireplaces and mantles, colored glass, marble sinks, carved wood and hand-hewn beams. The Brownsville Historical Society manages the museum.

Many of the items in the house have been in the Bowman family for years and were donated to the museum. Other interesting items have also been added. One of mine and Diane's favorite things about visiting these old homes that are now museums are all the antiques that can be found inside and we always manage to run across some new things we haven't seen before. We did a virtual tour of the castle and added some more of these to our list. 

They have the original plate that Jacob brought with him and ate off of, as well as a folding chair that came apart for easy transport. They also have Jacob's original postmaster desk that is 260 years old and it has slots for keeping people's mail. The house holds many unique features including a chimney cupboard that got that name because this is a type of closet that is the size of a chimney, so the family wouldn't have to pay that extra room tax. There is also a one-spring horse and a child would sit on it and instead of rocking, they would bounce on it and it would scoot across the floor. This had real hair from a horse for the mane and the saddle on it was made from real leather. This particular toy is in great shape and even made an appearance on American Pickers. They have a Ben Franklin stove, which worked better than a fireplace because it kept the heat in the room rather than sending it up a chimney. The Bowmans brought some superstitions with them from Germany and one of those was that it was good luck to have a squirrel in the house, so they have a squirrel cage and there was an early form of a running wheel too. Later generations did a lot of traveling and they brought back many pieces of furniture and decorative items from Italy and France.

The town of Brownsville practically became a ghost town like many old towns in the Rust Belt. As industrial things like steel and coal left the region, so did the people. Many of the buildings in the downtown area were abandoned and fell into decay, but the town is striving to bring itself back and people coming to Nemacolin Castle are helping to do that. And that includes people coming for the ghosts at the castle. 

Paranormal claims have been made about the castle for many years and these include EVPs captured, the sound of disembodied footsteps and actual apparitions. The balcony doors have multiple locks and they are found open many times after they have been locked up tight. People claim to have identified ten distinct spirits here. Obviously, Jacob Bowman was very attached to this property and he is most often seen in the library of the home. His name has also been heard audibly by someone yelling it. Another spirit here is said to be Mary Bowman. Now, Jacob's daughter Mary lived to be 63 and this spirit seems to belong to a younger person. It's possible that Mary returned as a younger version of herself, but the Bowmans did lose four children before adulthood, so this spirit could belong to any one of them.  

A ghost dog is in the castle and one paranormal investigation group reported what felt like a dog nuzzling or pushing against a wrist in the nursery. The nursery seems to be the dog's favorite spot, but it has also been seen in the hallways. Amos was an indentured servant that worked for the Bowmans and he is said to walk the hallways. 

Nelson Bowman, who inherited the castle from his father Jacob, is said to haunt the library just like his father. Elizabeth Bowman, his wife, is also here in the afterlife and is seen often wearing a white dress and will run and scream down the hallways. The spirits of two little girls like to play hide and seek with investigators and hang out mostly in the nursery. One story claims that security sensors inside went off one night and when the police arrived, they saw a little girl looking down on them from a window. After they entered the castle, they found no one inside. The Lady of the Hall is seen wearing a dark colored Victorian dress with her hair pulled back and she is usually in the second-floor hallway. An elderly old woman's spirit has been encountered in the servant's quarters and so it is thought that this had been a servant to the family. Often, investigators feel as though their chest is tightening and they have trouble breathing in this space and it has been surmised that this ghost died from some kind of breathing issue like tuberculosis. The ghost is seen wearing a dark purple dress. 

The castle was featured on the Bio Channel TV show "My Ghost Story." Ghosts N'at did an investigation there in 2020 and they caught a knocking on their recorder and then and EVP right after saying, "I'm knocking." Arstatler did a ghost hunt in 2015 and wrote on TripAdvisor, "We did have some experiences to add to our ghost hunting adventures: voices, the piano playing by itself, and the always eerie feelings that occur. But aside from the ghost hunt, the place is just a wonderful historical site to visit." femmeforce wrote on reddit, "I've had many EVP's, creepy spirit box responses, and what appears to be a dark mist going down the hall. I cannot explain that so I keep going back."

JEB did a ghost hunt in 2017 and wrote on TripAdvisor, "Went to Nemacolin Castle on Feb 18th 2017 didn't know what to expect. Turned out to be a good night, Renee Kruse was Awesome with history of the property and her personal ghost stories of 15 yrs. Night started out slow but picked up quickly, had activity in the nursery with Mary. And the next room where Mr. Bowman bedroom was, someone saw a shadow figure on the mirror. Found artificial flowers in 2 doorways, got evp's from bishop's room. Heard footsteps and knocks in the bachelor room, also got words from the ovulus as affair and couple of names. When walking out of nursery sounded a pebble was thrown in my direction, nothing to be found. While checking my pictures got images of a woman in 2nd floor hallway twice. And a picture of a shadow figure in the nursery of a child, a woman with me heard her name called twice on the spirit box. Overall a good night." A couple years ago, the director from the castle was out walking his dog in the snow at night. He glanced up at the castle while he waited for his dog to do its business and he saw a young 20-something woman with dark hair looking out of a window at him. She faded away behind the curtain. He saw that there were no cars parked outside the castle, so there should be no one inside the house. The only footprints in the snow outside were his and his dog's. He called for another director to come out and they both searched the house to no avail. It had been locked up tight and no one was inside. Flash forward a few weeks and this same director was cleaning in the castle during the off season. He got to the library 
and he glanced at the portrait of Anne Bowman on the wall and he recognized her as the woman he had seen looking out the window. 

 Brownsville is starting its comeback and one of the key places helping with that is the Nemacolin Castle. There is no better example of the changes that have come to this area than this actual house, which unbelievably, was kept in the possession of just one family until it became a public venue. Is this why so many spirits have remained with the house? Is the Nemacolin Castle haunted? That is for you to decide! 

HGB Ep. 527 - Minersville Mansion

Moment in Oddity - Lake Hillier (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)

There is a lake located on the edge of Middle Island in Australia that for many years was quite unique. Lake Hillier was a saline lake separated from the ocean by a thin strip of land. It was discovered during an expedition in 1802. The topography of the lake isn't what made it unusual, rather, it was the lakes' color which made it so different. The actual water was a bright bubble gum pink color. The hue would not change when placed into a clear container. It was determined that the pink color was caused by a combination of an algae organism called Dunaliella salina and red halophilic bacteria, bacterioruberin. Despite the strange hue, studies showed that it was actually safe to swim in. However that was not allowed without prior consent by the Western Australia Dept of Environment Conservation. It had also been revealed that the lakes salinity level rivaled that of the Dead Sea in turn making it very buoyant to humans. Sadly, reports state that the lake does not appear the bright pink color any longer. This is believed to be caused by the construction of the South Coast Highway and a rail line. This altered the flow of water to the lake, reducing its salinity in 2017. Perhaps one day it will recover the color that made it famous. Regardless, a lake the color of bright pink bubble gum certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Birth of William 'Buffalo Bill' Cody

In the month of February, on the 26th in 1846, William F. 'Buffalo Bill' Cody was born in Scott County, Iowa. His family moved to Kansas while William was still a child. While only eleven years old, Cody left home to work as a cattle driver, traveling across the Great Plains several times. From there he moved onto fur trapping and gold mining. William even worked for an early version of the Pony Express. Once the Civil War was over, Cody became a scout for the Army. This is where he received his nickname of "Buffalo Bill" due to his hunting skills, often supplying meat for the railroad workers. Buffalo Bill was a charming guy which led him into his show business career. His first performance was in a drama in Chicago called, Scouts of the Prairie. He was quite the showman and audiences loved him. Always the entrepreneur, Cody started his own acting troupe the next season and enlisted the help of friends, Texas Jack and "Wild Bill" Hickok for a time. Buffalo Bill continued arraigning plays until 1882. Later that same year he came up with the idea of creating an outdoor show involving live animals and hundreds of performers. There were trick shooters and ropers, recreations of buffalo hunts, stagecoach robberies, bronco riding and the like. Some of the stars who performed were Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane and Chief Sitting Bull. Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show even performed for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887. Cody continued performing in his show even in his older years although it was said that he required help mounting and dismounting his horse. His last performance took place just four years before his death at the age of 70 in 1917.

Minersville Mansion

The Minersville Mansion is located in Minersville, Pennsylvania and is known by locals as the DiNicola Mansion as it was owned by Dr. Arthur DiNicola who ran his practice out of the home. The mansion has stood for over a hundred years and had a series of medical professionals who owned it and today is used as an apartment building. Author and paranormal investigator Jeffrey A. Dengler wrote the book "The Minersville Mansion" after spending time investigating the house. He joins us on this episode as we share the history and hauntings of the Minersville Mansion and some of the experiences he has had investigating other locations.

Minersville, Pennsylvania was settled by Europeans in the late 1700s. Adolph Oliver Busch was the first settler and he built a cabin and sawmill along the Schuylkill River in 1783. Later he built a tavern to service people traveling the Sunbury Trail, which was a trail frequented by Native Americans before the Europeans arrived. This would later become known as the Kings Highway in honor of King George III. Anthracite coal was discovered in 1799 and formal mining operations began in 1814 and that is where the name of the town comes from. The Reading Railroad came along in the 1800s and the town expanded rapidly as commerce grew and immigrants came to work in the coal mines. An iron works was built in the town as well. It was here that a doctor decided to build his home. 

It seems that there have been many strange occurrences in the house. Is that because the house itself is haunted or is it because residents themselves have been haunted? That is for you to decide!

To find out more about Jeffrey Dengler and his books:

https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyADengler/

On TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kipacrew?_t=8jfT3QLSq3n&_r=1

You can find his books on Amazon, "The Minersville Mansion" and "The Spirits of Shoemakers Road."

HGB Ep. 496 - Haunted Amish Country: Lancaster County

Moment in Oddity - Fat Albert the Blimp

Back in March of this year, Diane and I traveled down to the Florida Keys for our honeymoon. While cruising down the highway, what did we spy with our little eyes but a big stationary blimp that had the appearance of a white whale from a distance. Of course this was just after the Chinese spy balloon reports so I immediately began searching my phone for more information. Turns out this chonky balloon has a nickname by locals of Fat Albert. The blimp is one of eight Tethered Aerostat Radar Systems (or TARS for short), that hover along the U.S. southern border. This balloon is indeed a spy balloon of sorts, however the Customs and Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security prefers the term 'surveillance' balloon. They utilize Fat Albert to monitor boats and low-flying planes in the area. According to articles, the blimp was the first of its kind, going aloft in 1978. In 1981, Fat Albert decided to go on a pleasure cruise. The blimp broke free from its moorings and began a tour around the Gulf of Mexico. Some kindly fishermen who spied Fat Albert hooked the runaway blimp to their 23 foot fishing boat. They were thanked for their efforts by promptly being lifted, men, boat and all before dumping them into the water near the Mud Keys. That Fat Albert was finally shot out of the sky by a Air Force F-4 Phantom fighter jet using air-to-air missiles. Now, if you're ever driving down scenic U.S. Hwy 1, I don't recommend trying to get a closer look at Fat Albert due to the fact that he is tethered to a military base. The base is located in Cudjoe Key and although you won't encounter a giant killer canine there, you may be met with guns. Fat Albert was scheduled to end his 45 year flight on March 15, 2023, however when we drove by on the 16th he was still flying high and proud. So if any listeners live in the area and know of Fat Albert's current status, please let us know. A blimp named Fat Albert floating over the Florida Keys for decades as surveillance, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Stephen Foster Born

In the month of July, on the 4th, in 1826, American composer Stephen Foster was born in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania. He wrote over 200 songs, many of which we are familiar with such as "Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races", "Swanee River", "Beautiful Dreamer" and so many more. There are many biographies covering Foster's life but the details vary greatly. Some historians believe that his brother destroyed any writings about the family that he thought were negative. Foster had three older sisters and six older brothers and while his initial education was academic in nature, Stephen taught himself to play the clarinet, guitar, flute and piano. When he was about eight years old, his brother William thought that Stephen would benefit from being under the guidance of Henry Kleber, a German-born music dealer in Pittsburgh. Foster learned music composition from him. Despite never living in the South and only visiting it once, most of his songs are set in the South. He became sick with a fever in 1864 that weakened him and this was what some think caused him to fall in a hotel room in the Bowery and cut his neck. But it also may have been a cut made at his own hand. Whatever the case, his writing partner found him still alive in a pool of blood and rushed him to the hospital where he died three days later. He was only 37 years old, but his music has lived on for over 150 years.

Haunted Amish Country: Lancaster County (Suggested by: Kay Eberhart)

The Amish are one of the oldest communities in America, predating the formation of the United States. Lancaster County in Pennsylvania is considered Amish Country as this is where they first settled and continue to live. The county seat of Lancaster is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States and it was the capital of the state for thirteen years. There are several locations here that are reputedly haunted. Join us as we share the history and hauntings of haunted Amish Country!

Lancaster County was established in 1729. They had no courthouse at the time, so court was held in a tavern. The jail was at the sheriff's house. The first courthouse was built in Penn Square. That one was destroyed by fire in 1784 and a new one was built in the footprint. That eventually would be known as the State House when the city of Lancaster served as the state capital. The county is 46 miles wide and 43 miles long with the Susquehanna River bordering it on the west and cities named New Holland, Mount Joy, Marietta, Bainbridge and, of course, Lancaster. Lancaster was originally called "Hickory Town" and was first settled by the Pennsylvania Dutch who actually came from Germany and took their name from "Deutsch" in German. An immigrant named James Hamilton platted out the land. Lancaster became a county seat in 1729 and remains that today. One of the citizen's championed the renaming of the city to Lancaster after the English city from where he came. For this reason, the city is also known as the “Red Rose City.” Lancaster reached borough status in 1742. As the Revolutionary War raged, Lancaster became a munitions center and was the National Capital of the American colonies for one day, September 27, 1777. The British had captured Philadelphia and the Continental Congress had to flee. Lancaster would become the capital of Pennsylvania from 1799 to 1812.

Lancaster County is known for being the oldest Amish settlement in America. The Amish here live a very plain lifestyle that they have carried on for centuries and their culture is very important to the area. Tours are offered of the farms and houses and Amish quilts and furniture can be purchased. The Amish church is a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christians that developed after a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists split in 1693. One group left with a man named Jakob Ammann and they called themselves Amish. This group also eventually divided into the Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites. The Old Order are the ones that still use horse and buggy to travel. Amish and Mennonites came to Pennsylvania in the early 18th century. They all speak Pennsylvania Dutch and are pacifists who will not participate in any military service. Those of us outside the Amish world are called "English" by them. The practice of headcovering is part of traditional Anabaptism. The Amish value humility, they reject labor-saving technologies, electricity and photographs and baptism takes place between the ages of 16 and 23. You must be baptized to join and no one is allowed to marry outside of the Amish church.

The series Amish Haunting started in 2014. The television show proves that the Amish are no strangers to ghosts, possessed dolls, demons and all kinds of chilling experiences. The Lapp family deals with a faceless doll that is evil and an Amish witch comes back from the dead to terrorize the living. A witch's tree that wasn't burned down unleashes evil and the angry ghost of a man disgraced by the Amish church haunts parishioners. An Amish family is cursed after using the dark art of fortune telling. Now obviously, the Amish community would have had nothing to do with this program because they don't do photos or videos - they don't even use mirrors. But the places where they live DO have hauntings. And that is what we are going to share on this episode. 

The Eternal Hunter

There is this legend told about an eternal hunter. Lancaster County had many foundries in the 18th and 19th century and there were all these iron furnaces along this border ridge. Ironmasters ran these furnaces and this story was about the ironmaster from Colebrook Furnace. He was an alcoholic who treated his workers poorly and his hunting dogs even worse. Everyone called him The Squire. One day, some men from Philadelphia paid him a visit and The Squire bragged about how great his hunting hounds were. When the group went out to hunt, the hounds didn't match his expectations and he said, "I'll show these town-bred gentlemen, if my dogs can hunt so well on earth, another hunt in hell!” The Squire then took his hounds to the furnace and ordered the workers to throw them in the fire. The dogs came back and haunted him and drained him of life and so his spirit now roams the countryside for eternity. The legend is thought to have originated in Germany and probably came over with the Amish. The German version of this legend is more charitable with the hunter going out to find food for the community and dying. In the afterlife he continues hunting to ensure generation after generation doesn't starve.

Mondale Road Bridge

Lancaster County has more covered bridges than any other Pennsylvania county and one of those bridges is an infamous Cry Baby Bridge. The story claims that this is the Mondale Road Bridge, but nobody knows exactly which bridge that is because Mondale Road has two bridges. These are the Hunsickers Mill Covered Bridge and the Pinetown Covered Bridge. Both were built in the mid-1800s and were damaged during Hurricane Agnes. They have been rebuilt and the one that is haunted has the spirit of a young Amish girl hanging around. The story goes that she was playing near the water and fell in and drowned. People who drive onto the bridge at night and turn off their lights, claim that the spirit of a young girl will crawl into the car and if she can't get in, she leaves small handprints on the car. 

Rachel’s Cafe & Creperie

Rachel's Cafe and Creperie is located at 201 W. Walnut Street in Lancaster's historic district. Rachel's is a popular, Parisian themed crepe place known for their savory varieties and Nutella drinks. The building is old, but there are no recorded deaths. Staff and clients claim that faucets turn on by themselves in the bathrooms. A former manager named Morgan Miller said, "It would randomly just turn on full blast! I used to think that maybe it was customers leaving it on, but it would happen early in the morning. Then I thought it was Ray [Rachel Adam’s father], but c’mon, he knows how to turn off a faucet." So perhaps this is the owner's father coming back to play pranks on his daughter's business.

Franklin & Marshall College

Franklin & Marshall College was established in 1787 and offers an undergraduate liberal education. It started off as a German school named German College and Charity School. The college became Franklin College and then merged with Marshall College in 1853. They each were named for their founders, Benjamin Franklin and John Marshall. Franklin College would be the first in the nation to allow female students, although later it would become an all-male school. Once the colleges merged in 1853, a new building and site was proposed. The site had been the former Gallows Hill and the building, now known as Old Main, was built in the Gothic Revival style and has a distinctive tall tower. Several class buildings and dormitories were added throughout the 1900s, with major expansions in the 50s and 60s.

The 200 acres of land upon which the college sits was not only Gallows Hill, it once had villages on the Susquehannock and then later a variety of indigenous people like the Shawnee, Seneca, Lenape and Nanticoke. The Lancaster Treaty of 1744 was made between English colonial officials and leaders of the Six Nations. The Conestoga Indian Town was still here and on December 14, 1763, a racist vigilante group known as the Paxton Boys, swept through and massacred several of the people. The survivors were taken prisoner and held in a Lancaster warehouse. They were subsequently murdered on December 27th. That leaves some bad energy here as does a story told about Dietz-Santee Hall. Workmen were digging on the side of the building in 1936 when they found several headless skeletons. The biology Department ended up having to come clean and admitted that their Anatomy Department dissected cadavers and these were bodies that they didn't dispose of correctly. The skulls more than likely ended up in some fraternity cellars.

There are many ghost stories connected to the campus. Hensel Hall houses the performing arts and was constructed in 1925. The building underwent a renovation in 2000 and was renamed Barshinger Center for the Performing Arts. The unexplained thing that happens here takes place when someone stands on the stage at night with all the lights turned off. If you look out over the empty auditorium, you might see two lights moving slowly back and forth across the back of the auditorium.

Another building on campus is Diagnothian Hall, which is a gorgeous building built in the Gothic Revival style in 1856. It was originally built to house a literary society. Members would read parts of classic books and then discuss what they read. They would also make speeches and debate. It then became the College Bookshop and then the Music Department. Today, it houses the Registrar's offices. During the Civil War, it served as a hospital for wounded soldiers. A part of the archives at the library documents a haunting experience a professor had one evening when he was working late and put on a Souza duet called “Red Cross Nurse,” a song about a nurse tending to soldiers during World War I. The archives says, “As this song played over his stereo, he began hearing sounds apart from the music — he heard moaning, rattling sounds, and overall, the sounds of a person in intense pain…He later realized the connection between his experience and Diagnothian Hall’s history as a Civil War hospital. About 3 or 4 years after his first experience, the same professor was in his office late at night and was playing the piece 'Haunted Landscape' by the University of Pennsylvania's George Crumb. Crumb wrote the piece specifically about the battlefield of Gettysburg as it is today and the sense of a 'lingering presence' there. The atmosphere of the piece is ambient and quiet. The professor, not realizing at that moment the implications of this piece, played it over his stereo and heard precisely the same sounds as before when he had played "Red Cross Nurse." Other people in the building have claimed to hear the slamming of doors when no one else is in the building.

Old Main sits next to Diagnothian Hall and sometimes at night, the bell that is in the tower will ring all on its own. Distler House was the Gym and is one of the oldest buildings on campus, being built in 1891. The upper floor had the gym equipment, while the lower floor had a bowling alley, dressing rooms, lockers and the boiler room. In the 1920s, the Old Gym was replaced by a new one and this building became a student center. It was remodeled in 1976 and renamed "Distler House" after former F&M president Theodore "Prexy" Distler. The building had administrative offices and academic departments until 2001 and then became the "Distler Student Union." Students report hearing strange noises late at night, especially on the upper floor. The sound is described as something similar to squirrels running in circles. There is also the sound of furniture moving and rough-housing, even though nobody is in the area of the sounds. This had been a gym with an indoor track and wrestling meets were held here, so perhaps these are residual sounds from the gym era.

The Huegel Alumni House is said to be haunted by a former President of the college because this had once been used as a residence for Presidents. His name was John Ahlum Schaeffer and he served as president from 1935-1941. Schaeffer had actually attended the school and belonged to the Kappa Sigma fraternity and Goethean Literary Society. So he was very attached to the school. He was a tall man and enjoyed smoking cigars. To blow off stress, he would leave campus at lunch and speed through the Lancaster County countryside, probably scaring the Amish in their buggies. On the evening of Sunday, April 6th, 1941, Schaeffer went to bed early to read a book and his daughter found him deceased sometime around midnight, still holding the book. He apparently had a cerebral hemorrhage. Strange sounds are heard, strange sensations are felt and the scent of cigars is often detected.

The Shadek-Fackethal Library is said to be haunted by a historian who loved the library and was there often to do research. That man was Dr. Harvey Bassler, noted geologist and expert on the Amazon river basin, and he spent his time in the library during the late 1940s researching the Pennsylvania-Dutch culture. He was also a director for the Pennsylvania German Society and collected many artifacts and books and used the NE corner of the 3rd-floor of the library for cataloging and organizing his collection. People described him as being an older man with shaggy white hair who was usually seen bent over a table, deep in thought. Bassler had premonitions about his death and told people he knew he was going to die in a car accident. He did just that on March 14th, 1950 when his car hit the open door of a parked car and careened into oncoming traffic and hit an oil truck head-on. Up through the 1970s and early 1980s, students and staff would find books strewn about after they had been shelved properly, they would hear strange sounds and the elevators seemed to have minds of their own, traveling to wrong floors and opening when no one had called them. One student described hearing noises like "people moving furniture" in the southwest corner of the 3rd floor. People believe that this is Dr. Bassler just watching over his collections and favorite library.

Wohlsen House was built in 1929 and initially served as the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house. In 1982, it was renovated and became the Admissions Office. People claim that a young man died in the house when he fell down the stairs. They have claimed to see the apparition of a man appear and then walk through a wall. The lights will turn off all by themselves and people started yelling, "Knock it off, Bob" and the lights would come back on. People have heard doors slamming in the house in the middle of the night on their own. Late one evening, a woman was working in the basement alone when she heard a loud bang on the stairs. She was alone in the house and learned later about the young man who fell down the stairs.

The Fulton Theatre

The Fulton Theatre is referred to as the "Grand Old Lady on Prince Street" and is the oldest working theater in the United States. We mentioned earlier that Indians that survived the massacre by the Paxton Boys were taken to a warehouse and imprisoned before they were also killed. Where the Fulton Theater now stands had been where that pre-revolutionary jail had stood. Fourteen of the Conestoga Native Americans were killed on this spot on December 28, 1763. As a matter of fact, the rear wall of the the theater was an exterior wall of the jail courtyard. Fulton Hall was built here in 1852 and named for Robert Fulton who was Lancaster County's steam engine pioneer. A wooden statue of him was placed on the front facade. A replica takes its place today, but the original was restored and is displayed in the front lobby. The construction was paid for by Lancaster merchant Christopher Hager and the building was designed by Samuel Sloan in the Victorian style and became a community center hosting plays, lectures, concerts and meetings. The hall was sold to a harness worker named Blasius Yecker and a hotelier named Hilaire Zaepfel. After the Battle of Gettysburg, Fulton Hall served as a hospital for wounded soldiers and then a few years later was renovated by Yecker and a man named Edward Forrest Durang. This would now be a true performance venue and had a grand re-opening on October 2nd, 1873 under the name Fulton Opera House. The first play they hosted was Othello and the proceeds benefited widows and orphans of the Civil War. 

Yecker's son Charles took over operations in 1903 and he preferred the neo-classic style, so he hired local architect C. Emlen Urban to redesign the interior. By the 1950s, this was no longer a fancy playhouse, but a second-rate movie house. Lancaster residents began a campaign to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Fulton by returning it to an opera house, but everything about the place was now set for movies and the task was too daunting. They opted for a new movie screen, which was installed in 1957 and it was now called the Fulton Art Theater. The great grandson of the Fulton Hall founder, Nathaniel E. Hager, joined with Lancaster citizens to form the Fulton Opera House Foundation to save the building from the wrecking ball. In 1983, the Actor’s Equity Association recognized the Fulton as a professional regional theatre and in 1995 it was restored to its Victorian styling, reopening on October 14, 1995 with a Gala Reopening performance of the Stephen Sondheim musical, Company. And it is still going strong today and able to boast about the many stars that have graced its stage including Sarah Bernhardt, Mark Twain, Horace Greeley, Debbie Reynolds, Lily Tomlin, Lionel Barrymore, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, W.C. Fields, George M. Cohan, Treat Williams and Lancaster’s own Jonathan Groff. Theatrical performances included Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

And then there are the ghosts. One has been nicknamed "The Whistler" because he likes to whistle. His full-bodied apparition is usually seen wearing a three-piece white suit with a straw boater hat, brown shoes and brown belt. This spectre has been reported for decades and no one is sure where he came from. The Fulton's Director of Education, Mark Wise, said, "Some people say he whistles when someone is messing up their line or their lyrics, or perhaps he’s a bit of a trickster and likes to play jokes on people. No one’s ever really been too afraid of him; they feel like he is a positive presence to have around. But he’s appeared over and over for decades now."

Another of the spirits is male and he appeared in the audience one night during a closed rehearsal. When he was questioned as to who he was, he claimed that he was there to see his granddaughter. He told a spotlight operator, "Oh, well, I'm here to see my granddaughter perform. I've never gotten to hear her sing before on stage" and then he pointed her out. After the rehearsal was done, the spotlight operator went up to the woman and told her, "I just got to meet your grandfather -- he was so proud of you, so excited to come hear you sing and perform." The woman looked at him very confused and then informed him that both of her grandfathers were dead. Then she said that she did recall that one of her grandfathers had told her that he was sad that he never got to hear her sing on stage.  

Broadway star Marie Cahill performed at the Fulton many times in the late 1800s and early 1900s. She died in New York City on August 23, 1933 and apparently she liked the Fulton so much, she returned in the afterlife. Wise said, "She tends to appear to women, female actresses on our stage, she always appears downstage right. There used to be a spiral staircase from downstage right that would go down to the dressing rooms, and she always insisted on having a dressing room down at the bottom of downstage right, at the bottom of that staircase. Some women have even said she has screamed in their ears while they’re trying to sing or say their lines. So we think she has some major jealousy issues with fellow divas." This ghost usually appears in a white dress and once told a stagehand who asked her what her name was that her name was Marie.

Bube’s Brewery

Alois Bube was a German immigrant who arrived in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania in 1876 and bought a small brewery there. He had been a brewing apprentice in Germany and brought his knowledge of creating German-style lager beer to the area. Alois expanded the brewery several times and added a Victorian hotel and restaurant to it. He was very successful, but he died suddenly in 1908 at the age of 57. His family continued on with the brewery and managed to survive Prohibition. His family continued with the business until the 1960s. Restoration started in 1968 and continues today. There are several restaurants here now. The Bottling Works is set up like a tavern and is in the original bottling plant for the brewery. The water was drawn from the limestone taverns. There is a Biergarten just outside The Bottling Works. The Catacombs is several stories below street level. It's such a cool space. It really is like being down in a cave with stone-lined vaults and big barrels for aging the beer. In 2001, a small microbrewery was added and they produce small batches of 6 to 8 offerings a year. Sam Allen is the current owner.

There are two spirits reported to be here. One is a woman in a long gown. The other goes by the nickname the White Hermit and is said to haunt the caves under the street level, which of course is lined with limestone. The story behind him is that he was a schoolteacher who immigrated to America from Scotland in the 1700s. His mother died when he was young and his father remarried to a woman the hermit didn't get along with. The father went away in the middle of winter and the hermit pushed his stepmother and and half-sibling out the door and they froze to death. He ran away to America after that and settled in Lancaster. He worked as a schoolteacher until one day someone from his hometown in Scotland came into town. The hermit decided he better hide so he ran into the caverns under the brewery and hid. He went unnoticed for years and when people finally spotted him, his hair had grown very long and gone white. So that is how he got his nickname. It was thought that he eventually died in the caves. He was last seen around 1765. And now people see his apparition down in the caves.

Railroad House Inn

The Railroad House Inn is located in Marietta, Pennsylvania. The borough was settled in 1727 and was named by combining the first names of the wives of the first two settlers, Mary Cook and Etta Anderson. The Railroad House Inn was built in 1823 directly across from the train tracks. The inn mostly housed canal workers and the occasional tourist. Today, it offers nine remodeled rooms and some ghosts. There is a Woman in White whom has been seen by several guests and people call her Annie. She likes to flirt with male guests. People see some male spirits who are thought to have been canal workers. There is also the spirit of a young girl with blonde hair. She is usually seen in Victorian garb and likes to play pranks. Room 6 is said to be the most haunted, but guests have reported feeling cold spots and seeing objects move throughout the inn.

Haldeman Mansion

The Haldeman Mansion in Bainbridge is named for Samuel Stehman Haldeman who was an internationally known scientist. He was born in the house that sits on what is known as the Locust Grove Estate in 1812. He is credited with advancing American science to a place of independence from that of Europe, but he was also a successful businessman in iron manufacturing. Professor Haldeman also was a leader in the development of phonetics as a science. (Mort: That's studying the difference between how different things are pronounced like the letter Z and the letter S. With Z our vocal cords vibrate.) The estate, which overlooks the Susquehanna River, is part of a historic and archaeological district. It is believed that there is evidence of four Indian cultures that were on the land for at least 900 years. The estate originally was made up of 440 acres and the earliest European settlers were Scot-Irish immigrants that included a fur trader, a Lieutenant Colonel from the French & Indian War, a brigade commander and wealthy tavern and land owner. That final one was Henry Haldeman. He bought the Locust Grove Estate in the late 1700s with the house already on the property. The Haldeman family lived on the property until the early 1800s and made many additions to it through the years that included a four-story grist & commercial mill, distillery, sawmill and livestock operations. They were close friends with President James Buchanan who more than likely visited the mansion.

The Haldeman Mansion is said to be one of the most haunted places in Lancaster County. There have been multiple spirits seen here. These ghosts include a teenage boy, a singing female servant, a grouchy man named Jacob who doesn't like the singing of religious music or furniture being moved and a little girl. There were several unmarked graves found during plumbing and electrical work that was done under the building. Fox 43 was out there for Halloween in 2018 and they reported hearing disembodied voices, seeing a chair move and lots of equipment going off. The reporter demonstrated the dousing rods and got them to point to where the spirit was standing and they crossed a couple of times to answer "yes" to questions. 

Christina Mark told Tyler Huber of Legends of Lancaster, "Apparitions, ghosts -- people say they can feel them, some hear them say things, some people have seen the spirits. I myself saw one here that was back in the early 1980s. I was coming through the house and actually walking out to the front porch. There was a wedding here, and I was putting food out on the tables. And as I came into this room, I could ... it was like I felt something, and I looked over at the window. There was a woman standing there, and she was looking out the window. She didn’t react to me whatsoever; she just looked out the window, dressed in a normal dress you’d see in the 1800s. … then all of a sudden she was gone."

A guest wrote of her experience, "One year, my husband and I were here for a family member’s birthday party. It was a teenager, and we had a mini haunted house for the kids, and we heard a door slam upstairs. We had made some areas off-limits. My husband thought, ‘OK, some kids went in the far room.’ The one staircase was closed off and no one could use it. When he went into the room, it was totally empty. When he came back downstairs, it happened again. He saw someone go past the stairwell, so he went back upstairs, opened up the door, and nobody was there -- no one he could see."

Jaytro wrote on TripAdvisor in 2018, "It helps to go in with an open mind and to actually participate in the experience. I distinctly heard children's voices at one point, even though no children were present in the group or on the property. I had just come downstairs from the upper floor when I heard the voices of children, laughing. It seemed to be coming from the front entrance. This room was two rooms back from the entrance. I was so sure that I heard them, that I actually walked out to the front entrance and looked outside for the children. Later in the session, I confided in Lora what I had heard. She had told me that while we were upstairs with Rob and she stayed on the first floor, she had heard the children's voices, but didn't say anything to anyone because she didn't want to influence our experience. It definitely gave me chills!!"

Rock Ford  

Historic Rock Ford was the home of Revolutionary War general Edward Hand. Hand was born in Ireland in 1744. He studied medicine in Dublin and enlisted as Surgeon's Mate with the 18th Royal Irish Regiment of Foot and was sent to Fort Pitt in America. In 1774, he resigned from the British service and moved to Lancaster to open a medical practice. He married Katherine Kitty Ewing in 1775 and joined the Continental Army as Lt. Colonel of the 1st Battalion of Pennsylvania Riflemen. Hand and Kitty had eight children: Sara, Dorothy, Katherine, John, Jasper, Mary, Margaret and Edward. After the war, Hand got involved with politics, joining the Federalist Party and serving in Congress. The Hands moved to Rock Ford in 1794 and did have at least two slaves in the time they lived there. The land upon which Rock Ford stands was purchased in two transactions: 160 acres in 1785 and an additional 17 acres in 1792. The name Rock Ford was inspired by the fact that the house sits along the banks of the Conestoga River and there were no bridges at the time, so the river had to be crossed at fords, which are shallow parts with hard rock bottoms. These are termed "ford at the rock" thus Rock Ford. This was a working farm with livestock and large orchards. Hand was an avid horticulturist and introduced a strain of plum named for him.

In total, four members of the Hand family died in the mansion. Hand died in 1802 and Kitty died in 1805, both at the mansion. The Hands' eldest son, John, took his own life with a bullet to the head. His blood is rumored to still stain the hardwood floor in an upstairs guest bedroom. The property was sold in 1810 and run as a tenant farm for 150 years with little being changed to the house. In the 1950s, the Lancaster Area Refuse Authority bought the property with the intention of demolishing the house and building a trash incineration plant and landfill. The Junior League of Lancaster put a stop to that in 1957 when they bought Rock Ford and the Rock Ford Foundation was established the following year. They restored the house and opened it as a museum in 1960. The mansion is four stories with each floor having a central hall and four corner rooms. The inside painting was restored to original and furnishings are from the Hands' time at the house. The only original thing is a dress that was worn by Kitty. There is a barn on the property that is not original, but is located where the original barn had been. Tours are offered as well as hosting of special events and weddings.

Guests and staff have experienced strange things at Rock Ford. Family members died in the house, but also it has been reported that in the 1970s, some Native American skeletons were found buried under the house. The phantom smell of snuffed candles has been detected, especially in the morning. Disembodied footsteps have been heard on the stairs. The Hands' daughter Margaret died in the house at the age of eleven and a young girl ghost that has been seen in the house is thought to be her. EVP have been caught including the voice of a young girl and a threatening voice that said “Kill her” toward a paranormal investigator. Human shaped mists have been captured in photos as well.

Director Sam Slaymaker told Legends of Lancaster, "In the 1970s, a couple had a son living in an apartment on top, where caretakers would live. The son was told he shouldn’t be playing in the museum rooms, but kids being kids, he did. He one day came back to his mom shaken up and he told her that he was in the boys’ bedroom on the second floor -- the Hand boys’ bedroom -- and there was another boy there. He said he could tell it was his room and he didn’t want him there."

Amish Country reminds us all of a simpler time and many of us probably long for that simpler life. One thing is for certain though, it doesn't matter what level of technology one embraces from the wagon wheel to artificial intelligence, ghosts are involved with it all and can be detected with gadgets or nothing at all. Are these location in Amish Country haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 484 - Hill View Manor

Moment in Oddity - Underwater World Record

Most of our listeners know that we were recently married and that we honeymooned in the Florida Keys. Apparently while we were visiting Key Largo, there was an unusual world record attempting to be broken. Joseph Dituri has been living 30 feet below the surface of the Florida Keys since March 1st, and he plans to stay there for 100 days. Joe is a South Florida University professor who was a former US navy diver and expert in biomedical engineering. If he is able to accomplish this goal, he will break the current record for most time spent in a habitat beneath the surface of the ocean. On March 15th, Mr. Dituri spoke with USA TODAY during a Zoom call. Although he is set to break the world record if he stays submerged for 100 days, the professor stated that his purpose is to study how the human body responds to long term exposure to extreme pressure. Before beginning the endeavor in his 100 square foot habitat, Joseph underwent various psychological and medical tests and he will continue to do so while submerged. These tests will continue once he emerges topside. The study is costing $250,000 to fund and the research is to study the psychological effects of living in an isolated, confined environment for months, and to explore whether living under pressure can increase life spans and prevent certain aging diseases, according to a news release about the project. "We haven't done this level of research on people while they were underwater," Dituri told reporters last week. "No humans ever stayed past 73 days. We're going to go all the way to 100." Diane and I love snorkeling and the ocean, but living isolated and under the oceans surface for 100 days, regardless of the purpose, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Dorothea Dix 

In the month of April, on the 4th, in 1802, Dorothea Dix was born in Hampden, Maine. She was an early 19th century activist who changed the medical field by challenging various practices regarding the care of both the mentally ill and indigenous populations. In addition, she helped recruit nurses for the Union army during the Civil War. At a young age Dorothea moved to Boston to live with her grandmother. She attended school while there and also tutored children. While doing so she fell ill several times and had to stop teaching. At this time, Dorothea's doctors suggested that she spend some time in Europe. While overseas, she met different groups of reformers who were pursuing changes in the ways in which the mentally ill were cared for. Once back in the states, Dorothea began touring mental hospitals around the country. She reported back to many politicians in efforts to look at new care alternatives for asylums. Eventually she established asylums in New Jersey, North Carolina, and Illinois. Once the Civil War began, Dorothea dedicated herself to the Union cause, although she was known for treating both the Union and Confederate soldiers which gained her respect from both sides. Dix held high standards for her nurse recruits after being designated the Superintendent of Army Nurses. These high expectations lent to extreme success and was pivotal in the advancement of nurses in the war and medical field. 

Hill View Manor (Suggested by: Steffanie Kolodziej)

Hill View Manor is located in New Castle, Pennsylvania. This started as The Lawrence Home for the Aged, a poor farm to take the place of a previous poor farm in the town. It was open until 2004 and saw hundreds of people come through the doors. This location hosts an annual paranormal convention called Hill-Con, an annual Psychic Fair and a haunted house attraction called Scare Manor at Halloween. So clearly, this location has some unexplained things going on and they embrace that fact. Join us as we share the history and hauntings of Hill View Manor!

New Castle sits near the border of Pennsylvania and Ohio, about 50 miles from Pittsburgh. This was an area first inhabited by the Mingoes, Lenape and Seneca who set up little towns along the Beaver River called Kuskuskie Towns. A civil engineer named John Carlysle Stewart arrived in 1798 and noticed that a 50 acre plot at the confluence of the Neshannock Creek and Shenango River had not been part of a survey done to incorporate land in grants for Revolutionary War veterans. He claimed it for himself and platted out a small town that became a borough in 1825 and by 1869 it was a city. European immigrants came from all over and one of the largest Amish communities sprung up nearby. Canal systems built in the early 19th century caused New Castle to flourish. And this put the city in the crosshairs of the Black Hand society who set up their headquarters nearby. This group extorted money from the blue color workers of New Castle. The town eventually came to be known by two other monikers: "hot dog capital of the world" and the "fireworks capital of America." 

In the 1920s, Lawrence County needed a new poor house and it chose New Castle as the location. We've featured a few poor houses on the podcast through the years. Early on, these were places that became a catch-all for the impoverished, sick, elderly or mentally ill. Communities needed a way to care for people who had no one to look after them. Perhaps their family members had all passed or they had no friends to turn to or they just couldn't afford to pay someone to care for them. Poor houses seemed like a good alternative, giving women a building to care for and men a place to get job training. These were actual farms, so the impoverished could have some pride in working a farm. But as is the case with good intentions many times, things don't always work out well. Overcrowding and sickness made many of these houses bad places to live. 

This new Lawrence County poorhouse would take the place of the original poorhouse built in 1867. That one burned down on October 14, 1897 and fortunately, none of the inmates living there died. The property was expanded and rebuilt with an infectious disease hospital added, housing around twenty inmates. Some of them were serving court-imposed sentences and others were just poor. The farm closed when the city of New Castle and Lawrence County joined forces to open a new poor house. The old poor house eventually became the Sylvan Heights Golf Course. The new poor farm would be located on 23 acres the county purchased near Ellwood Road. The government then set to building The Lawrence County Home for the Aged. This was designed by Architect A. L. Thayer and opened on October 19, 1926. 

The first managers of the home were Perry and Mary Snyder who were coming over from the original poor farm. They also brought their two children with them and they were joined by twelve staff members. The twenty inmates at the old city poor farm were brought here as well, one of whom was a young boy. Although the Snyder's clearly had experience - they had been doing this since 1913 - the care of the residents faltered enough that by 1944, the Snyder's were accused of incompetency. They were in their late seventies though, so we blame the county as well for not replacing them earlier. A court hearing was held in June and it was ruled that the Snyders would be retired and then paid pensions. They were told they could stay at the home, but by August they were being ordered to vacate. The longtime director of the Welfare Department, Mantz B. Hogue, took over management.

The home would take on the role of being a skilled nursing center in the 1960s and was remodeled under a new director, Clarence E Covert. In 1973, with funds from the county becoming scarce and a horrible overcrowding issue, Director Covert resigned. The county decided they needed to add more space and built a new larger section with three more levels of space that could house 30 residents and a new dining room and kitchen were included. Most of the rest of the building was remodeled as well. This opened in 1977 and with that came a name change to what the property is known now, Hill View Manor. The building covers 85,000 square feet. This was a perfect name as the building sat on top of a grassy hill. Hill View Manor ran as a nursing home until it finally closed its doors in 2004. And it sat for a bit unused until the paranormal world breathed new life into the building that has been deteriorating with peeling paint, leaky roof and crumbling floors. Triko Enterprises, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based development firm, bought Hill View from the county in 2004. In 2009, Candy Braniff leased the building from Triko Enterprises and began hosting tours and paranormal investigations, while also gathering volunteers to help maintain the building. Since May of 2013, Haunted Hill View Manor Inc. has run the location. Different paranormal ventures and day tours fund the refurbishment of the building.

Hill View Manor is considered one of the most haunted locations in western Pennsylvania. There are websites that claim 10,000 people died here, but that is impossible. There were probably a couple hundred people who died here, but the facility never had that many people staying there. We have heard that this might have been used as the county morgue, so perhaps that is where people are getting the idea that 10,000 dead people came through here. Regardless of how many people died here, the number that matters to us is how many of those souls remain and the answer is quite a few. Steffanie who suggested this location wrote us, "I've just found out that I'm empathic, I feel energies. I've been to Hill View Manor a few times this year. I felt a little girl hold my hand. She likes to hang out on the top floor. On that same floor there seems to be a negative energy and we believe this because while using a spirit box up there, I was told to go f myself and the thing challenged me. On the 3rd floor, we smelled cigars and last year that place was so negative I didn't stay the whole night. One hallway makes me feel overcome with sadness and I started to cry there this year. On the first floor, I caught video of a necklace swinging in the room of a patient named Mary Virginia." 

Mary Virginia is one of the most prominent spirits at Hill View. Her room reminds us of Sarah's room at Malvern Manor where there are many dolls, costumes and items to play with on the bed and dressers and several necklaces that belonged to Mary Virginia hang on the wall. Mary Virginia had Cerebral Palsy and spent her entire life at Hill View. She loved to play dress-up and listen to music, so she enjoys it when investigators try on some dress-up clothes and people claim to hear the humming of music that Mary Virginia enjoyed. Occasionally her favorite music will be caught on EVP. She is a friendly spirit who likes to move the dolls and cause the necklaces above her bed to swing. 

The spirit of a former maintenance man at the manor, George, is said to hang out in the basement. He loved football and was a big Pittsburgh Steelers fan, specifically of the Terry Bradshaw era. He smacks people on the back of the head if they mention being fans of another sports team. Another spirit residing in the basement, and specifically the boiler room, is thought to be Eli Saurri. Eli was at the poor farm because he was a recovering alcoholic. The poor house was a dry place and eventually Eli's craving for alcohol became too much for him and he snuck out to go drinking. The following day, some of the residents found Eli passed out near the front door, so they dragged him inside and thought that laying him down in the boiler room would help him sober up. But Eli had ingested far too much alcohol and he passed away in the boiler room from alcohol poisoning. Now his spirit is said to haunt the boiler room area and he likes to target women for pranks and such. Women get grabbed, poked and pinched.

The spirit of a child named Jeffery is said to be here. He was nine and he and his eleven-year-old brother were orphaned and brought here. The brother was adopted, but there is no record as to what happened to Jeffery and since he is a child spirit, we're left to think he passed away as a child at Hill View. He gave his name as Jeffery when asked by some paranormal investigators. He likes to hang out on the second floor, so there are child toys scattered throughout one of the rooms up there for him to play with. It is in Jeffery's room that investigators claim a dark entity named The Creeper likes to hide. This thing crawls on the floors and across the ceiling. People claim to hear its nails clicking on the floor and walls. Some guides claim to have caught it once on video, but when Kelly and i watched, we were unconvinced. And in the Critical Care area was a man named Bill Boots who died at Hill View from what one guide believes was a heart attack because when he asked Bill what he died from, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. They do have paperwork with a William Boots who died in the 1990s.

These are just a few of the named ghosts, but there are many more spirits here. All of them seem to be friendly, except one darker entity that hangs in the basement. One of the tour guides was closing down things one night and saw this dark shadowy thing on the stairs in the basement. A manager at Hill View named Rachelle Rozzo said, “We always try to be skeptical about things, we try to find logical explanations before jumping to conclusions… But sometimes there are just some things you cannot account for logically, like watching doors open and close when there is no draft and no one else in the whole building.” Another building manager claimed that she often saw full-bodied apparitions and communicated with spirits. Visitors and staff claim to hear banging, moving objects, scratching on the floor, slamming doors, disembodied voices and footsteps and pipes rattling. And this is in a building that has little electricity and no HVAC or plumbing. 

The grandsons of a woman who once lived here came to do some investigating and the group they were with captured an EVP that gave a family nickname that no one else would know. And speaking of grandmothers, another woman who visited Hill View said that her grandmother used to play the piano every day and there are people who claim to hear the sounds of a piano even though there is no piano in the building. A former employee said, “As a nurse, I had numerous experiences while working. On one occasion, while walking from the east wing to the west wing, a very cold and cloudy form passed through me. It did not frighten me, only gave me an incredible chill. On other occasions, when on the second floor near the break room it would not be uncommon for me to see what appeared to be someone walking down the hall but upon checking things out, nobody was ever there.”

Members of Lakeview Paranormal shared with Philly Ghosts some of their experiences. Liz said her most notable experience occurred in the men’s cafeteria where she sensed a lot of tension and she captured temperature fluctuations. Senior Investigators John and Greg felt like something followed them throughout Hill View and Greg smelled perfume and cigar smoke emanating from the rooms on the third floor. Changes in air pressure caused some of the investigators ears to pop. Ghost Lab investigated here in 2010. Ghost Hunters investigated in 2011 and the Tennessee Wraith Chasers were there for their Ghost Asylum show in 2015. TWC attempted to trap the spirits of two suicidal people. One of them supposedly stabbed himself 30 times? The guys also blasted off a bunch of fireworks to distract some kind of gargoyle entity they kept talking about. They did seem to prove a theory that there were a couple murders here that were covered up as suicides.

Portals to Hell visited during Season 3 and they were greeted by Carrie Triko of Triko Enterprises. She told them that her mother had bought the property with the hope of turning them into condominiums. Carrie has had a few of her own experiences and she always gets a feeling that there is something watching her in the front entrance area. She will not go down the Timeclock Hallway because there is something dark in it. There is a stairway behind the hallway that leads down to the basement and the guides here claim that there is a portal under that stairway. A black mass goes back and forth like it is pacing. Psychic Michele Belanger went through with a blindfold and she got dizzy in the Timeclock stairwell and in Jeffery's room she picked up on the entity and said it was something that could shapeshift into whatever it wants and that sometimes that could be a child. Michelle didn't believe a child was in the room. Katrina and Jack focused on this second floor area probably because there are really no negative experiences anywhere else in the building. They heard disembodied footsteps and rattling and knocking. The knocking was in response to a request to make a noise. The first time was light, but then Jack knocked and asked for the spirit to knock again and it knocked really loud.

Ghost Adventures visited in Season 4 on Episode 6. They captured EVPs saying, "I'm Jim", "Get Out Of This Room", "Get That Guy", "Blue", "Did She?", "Hurt Your Back", "Yeah It Is", "Hi Zak", "Maybe", "Hockey", "Pittsburgh", "I Can't", "Go Check", "Do The Math", "I Plan On Fixin' Them", "Split", "I Got A Question", "Let Us Hear", "Alicia." A door opened on its own and Zak claimed to have his shirt tugged real hard and something grabbed his arm. Nick saw a shadow figure in a hallway. They also heard pipes rattling, scratching and banging.

Hill View Manor was home for many people who had nowhere else to go and no one to care for them. It makes sense that some of them would want to stay in the afterlife. Is Hill View Manor haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 450 - Haunted Gettysburg

Moment in Oddity - Snailfish

It may seem like we've gone down an oddity rabbit hole of things that glow, but let me tell you about the snailfish. In Greenland's cold waters, there is a fish that has the ability to glow green and red. The snailfish lives in Greenland's deepest depths inside the crevices of icebergs. The ability to glow in Arctic fish is somewhat rare and in the snailfish's case, it is atributed to an antifreeze protein that keeps the snailfish from dying. This fish's specialized adaptations prevent its internal organs from producing ice crystals allowing it to live in temperatures that would normally cause fish blood to freeze. According to one article a juvenile snailfish was found to have the highest level of antifreeze proteins ever recorded. Glowing deep sea creatures are always interesting, but the fact that the snailfish can produce quote unquote antifreeze qualities, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Julian Calendar Changes to Gregorian Calendar in Britain

In the month of September, on the 2nd, in 1752, The British ended their use of the Julian calendar and switched to the Gregorian calendar. The move did not go well and it still makes it hard for historians to navigate whether historical records were entered according to the Julian calendar or Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar was started by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. It follows much of how our calendar is today, but the way that leap years were figured, ended up leaving extra dates in some months and pushing seasonal equinoxes to fall too early by nearly a week and a half. It messed up Christian holidays too, so Pope Gregory XIII authorized a New Style calendar that was eventually named for him. In order to facilitate this change, the method of calculating leap years was changed, the beginning of the legal new year was changed from March 25th to January 1st so the year 1751 was a short year with only 282 days and 11 days were dropped from Septmeber in 1752. This meant that people went to bed on September 2nd and woke up on September 14th. People felt like they had been cheated because eleven days just disappeared and riots ensued as people demanded the missing days back. At least according to urban myth.

Haunted Gettysburg

The town of Gettysburg is centrally located in Southern Pennsylvania and its claim to fame is the three day battle that took place here in July of 1863 that became the major turning point of the war. Many of the homes, inns and businesses in town still bear the battle scars of this bloody battle and nearly every location has some kind of spirit hanging around. We got to spend a couple days in this historic and quaint town and we are going to share the haunted locations outside of the battlefield on this episode. Join us for the history and haunts of Gettysburg!

The town of Gettysburg was founded in 1786 and named after Samuel Gettys who was an earlier settler here and owned a tavern that the local militia used for meetings. Samuel had a lot of land after the Revolutionary War and he eventually sold his land to his son James, who sold it off in parcels. This was the official start of Gettysburg and James is recognized as the founder. Gettysburg officially became a Borough in 1806. James would serve as sheriff for three years and was the first town clerk and treasurer and in 1815 became Burgess. Samuel's brother-in-law, Reynolds Ramsey, was the first Burgess or mayor. We actually got to see James' burial plot in the Evergreen Cemetery. He died from typhus as did many members of his family, leaving his two young sons orphans. 

Gettysburg was a trading hub with all roads and railroads leading to it and for this very reason, it was the perfect spot for a battle during the Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg would be fought here from July 1st to 3rd in 1863 with 165,620 troops facing off against each other headed by Union General George G. Meade and Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Lee had the upperhand at the beginning of the battle, but blunders on the third day led the Confederates into retreat and this became a Union victory. There were more than 50,000 casualties that day and most buildings in the area were quickly turned into field hospitals. The battlefield still serves as a reminder today of a dark moment in America's history. The battle would give the small town a spot in infamy. Today, tourists visit from all over the world to experience the deep history here. Many of the locations that stood during the battle, still stand today. And many of them are said to be haunted!

Baladerry Inn

The site where the Baladerry Inn stands at 40 Hospital Road had been the George Bushman Farm. The inn was built in 1812 to serve as the home for a tenant farmer. In 1830, the rest of the main house was added. George Bushman's son eventually moved into the home and during the Battle of Gettysburg, it was used as a field hospital with amputations taking place in the great Room. In 1992, the house was converted into a bed & breakfast. In 2010, Judy & Kenny Caudill bought the property and they have updated the place and continue to run it as a B&B. The main house and carriage house both have rooms for rent, ten in total. The Great Room has a great fireplace and opens up onto a large terrace with a hot tub. A traditional country breakfast is offered in the mornings.

The inn is said to be haunted not only because it was a field hospital, but because seven Confederate soldiers remain buried beneath some nearby tennis courts. The inn embraces their haunts and even keep a binder full of stories. A guest taking pictures around the inn captured Confederate soldiers in a picture with two of them being seated near some French-style double doors and two standing outside. One of them has what looks like a black armband, perhaps in honor of General Stonewall Jackson.

The Marigold Room plays host to a female ghost that usually appears at the foot of the bed. She is fond of jewelry as well and one female guest reported that she was participating in some re-enactments and had brough vintage jewelry with her to wear. She kept the jewelry in a bag and when she returned to her room, she found it laid out neatly on top of the bag. The Primrose Room has an amorous male ghost named Geoffrey. He rubs the feet of women and sings in their ears. Sometimes he gets into bed with guests as well.

Izzatyu wrote on TripAdvisor in 2013, "I chose the Marigold room, as it attracts ghost hunters often. (All though the whole property has that potential). I thought I would try it out and wow, a phantom voice on my recorder, a loud popping sound like a champagne cork (which I didn't hear, but was recorded), two knocks that I asked for that I heard, plus recorded, washroom door closed while I was out and couldn't make it do that myself. There could be more, as I haven't listen to all of the recordings (EVP's) as yet. I recommend the Baladerry Inn and hope to return one day. It is far enough away from the main part of town, so it is nice and quiet. This place has everything going for it. Couldn't be better! If you are afraid of ghosts, don't worry, just tell them to stop and they usually do."

George Weikert House

The George Weikert House, north of Little Round Top, is one of the houses along the edge of the battlefield that is now owned by the National Park Service. The Weikert family owned four farms in the area, but this one was owned by the patriarch George. He was born in 1801 and moved to Gettysburg from Maryland in 1838. He purchased the land with the house in 1852. The house started as a one-story, two-bay stone house built on a granite foundation that was built in 1798. The gabled roof is covered with wood shingles and has vertical board and batten on the gable ends and the rest of the house is built from stone. The house was altered in 1880, expanding it into a two-story, two-bay house. When the battle began near the farm, the family left and the house was strong enough to provide good shelter that the Union quickly commandeered it. When the Weikert's returned, they found their house had been turned into a field hospital with amputated limbs piled up outside and bodies buried nearby. Eventually the bodies where dug up and relocated and the parlor rug was found in the mass grave. At least six men lost their lives in the parlor of the house. Survivors from the New Jersey Brigade bought the farm because they had been successful holding the area and they put up a monument nearby. The park service bought the property and park rangers use the farm for housing. They are the ones who claim that the house is haunted. A door on the second floor refuses to stay shut and they've never found an explainable reason why. A frustrated ranger tried nailing the door shut and he still found it opened later. Disembodied footsteps are heard in the house, especially the attic. 

Tillie Pierce House Inn

The Tillie Pierce House Inn was built in 1829 and purchased by James and Margaret Pierce in 1847. The Pierce Family would hold onto the home for 64 years. The inn is named for Matilda "Tillie" Pierce, who was the daughter of James and Margaret. She was fifteen when the battle started and her parents sent her to the Jacob Weikert Farm believing she would be safer there. This was at the base of little Round Top and Tillie soon found herself providing aid to wounded soldiers. She wrote of her experiences twenty-five years later in a book titled "At Gettysburg, Or What A Girl Saw And Heard Of The Battle." She wrote, "The whole landscape had been changed and I felt as though we were in a strange and blighted land." The inn features six rooms, a parlor, sitting room and Victorian garden. People claim to hear disembodied footsteps walking upstairs, the sound of a soldier pacing up and down the stairs and beds appear to have something unseen sit upon them.

Farnsworth House Inn  

The Farnsworth House Inn sits on land that had been owned by Reverend Alexander Dobbins and he sold part of the land to John F. McFarlane. The house has a murky background with McFarland being credited as the first recorded owner of the house, but its not clear he built it, nor is it clear when it was built. Most historians believe that the house was built in 1810. McFarland owned it until his death in 1851 and then the Bank of Gettysburg took ownership of the property. During the Civil War, this was another one of those field hospitals and some Confederates were buried on the property. This was also a stop on the Gettysburg Address campaign. There were other owners through the years with one of the families being the Black Family who opened up the Sleepy Hollow Inn here. In 1972, Loring and Jean Shultz bought the inn and offered tours of the house in which they shared stories about paranormal activity.

The rooms of this bed and breakfast are filled with antiques. There are ten rooms to choose from and then there is also the Lee and Meade Dining Rooms, Sweney's Tavern and a Beer Garden with outside dining. We didn't get a chance to try the food here as the main dining rooms were closed the days we visited, but Sweney's Tavern is available more often. They offer a variety of tours through their Sleepy Hollow Ghost Tours. These include a Civil War Era Magic Show or a Haunted Cellar Presentation or Yankee Spirits Walking Tour or Creekside Tales or Confederate Hospital Walking Ghost Tour or ghost hunts of the place. Clearly, embracing the paranormal started with the Schultz in the 1970s and continues to today. And there is a lot of activity here. 

There are several spirits reputed to be here, including a ghost cat. The Schultz family claim that there are at least sixteen ghosts. There are claims that there is one room that has been closed off and padlocked because the activity in there had gotten so aggressive. The lock on that door is said to rattle on its own. A bathroom up in the garret, which is the attic, sometimes plays the scene of a bloody mess. There had been three Confederate sharpshooters up in the attic during the battle that were picking off Union soldiers on Cemetery Hill and one of them was either seriously wounded or died up in the attic. There are stories that the home was stormed by Union soldiers, so they could take out the sharpshooters. The disembodied sobbing of a man is heard sometimes and if this apparition is seen, he is usually carrying the body of a child wrapped in a quilt. 

A soldiers spirit is seen in the cellar helping a wounded comrade and disembodied singing is heard down here as well. The temperature plummets in the cellar unexpectedly. A midwife tucks in guests staying in the Schultz Room and strange sounds are heard in the McFarland Room. The spirit of a young boy plays in the house. His name is said to be Jeremy and he was supposedly struck by a carriage in front of the house. And there is a nose picture here: the scent of cigar smoke. The most haunted room in the inn is the Sara Black Room. Entities have been photographed many times in the window of this room and shadow figures are seen in here. Occasionally the mattress will be depressed by something unseen. A Jews Harp can be heard playing in the attic in the dead of night. 

The most memorable evening was on a Halloween one year when a local radio station hosted a special from the house. Everybody was dressed in blue and they kept calling the host "Captain" and before long, many apparitions of soldiers were seen in the house and heard banging around. The only malevolent entity at the inn is thought to belong to a female cook who lets her displeasure be known in the kitchen and dining room. Lorraine Saintz of Johnstown, Pennsylvania said, “I spent a few days in Gettysburg last year and stayed at the Farnsworth House overnight, and upon awakening during the night, I saw a form of a woman standing near the doorway. Oh how exciting it is to know that you had a ghostly encounter.” Ghost Hunters also visited the inn in 2014 and two of the teams saw a black mass down in the basement.

Cashtown Inn

Lorraine Saintz had at experience at this next location as well. She said, "Returning to the inn around 10 p.m. and while in the parking lot I heard music and people having a good time in the bar. When I unlocked the door to get into the inn, I saw no one in the bar room and no music was playing. The bar was locked up for the night and no one was in sight." The Cashtown Inn was built in 1797 as the first stagecoach stop west of Gettysburg. The Cashtown Inn was named for the crossroads village that was founded here. The name Cashtown was derived from the fact that the first innkeeper, Peter Marck, would take only cash for goods he sold and tolls he charged for using the road. Lt. General A.P. Hill used the inn as a headquarters and his troops camped around the place. Hill would launch from this site and when the Confederates retreated, Brig. General John Imboden made the inn his headquarters and his troops ascended the mountain in the direction of Chambersburg. The cellar was used as a field hospital and amputated limbs covered over the basement windows. By the 1940s, the inn had fallen into disrepair and an owner was considering turning it into low-income apartments. Bud and Carolyn Buckley bought the property and restored it, so that it would serve as an inn once again. Jack and Maria Paladino owned it for over two decades after that. The inn has just come under new ownership in 2021 and offers three rooms and three suites for rent. The inn was used during the filming of the movie "Gettysburg."

There are a variety of experiences that take place here. The main haunt here belongs to a Confederate soldier who is seen staring from the upstairs windows. Some guests return to their rooms after a day of sightseeing to find their luggage packed for them and it isn't the innkeepers providing this unwanted service. One couple had a terrifying evening. It started with knocking at their door that wouldn't stop. When it finally stopped, they heard disembodied footsteps walking towards their bed and they stopped at the foot of the bed. Then their mattress started to shake and ripple. They described it rippling like a rock thrown into water. Something unseen grabbed the woman's shoulder. Activity increases at the inn on the anniversary dates of the battle. Many guests claim to have their doors banged on during the night and lights turn on and off by themselves. Ghost Hunters investigated here during Season 4 in 2008. A TV in a room turned itself on when the crew was setting up cameras in there. Jason felt something sit down next to him on a couch and the area felt much cooler than the rest of the area. Kris Williams became nauseous while standing in a place where amputations occurred and she actually ran upstairs and puked. 

Lightner Farmhouse Bed & Breakfast

The Lightner Farmhouse B & B at 2350 Baltimore Pike is a Federal-style two-story red brick building with blue shutters. This house was built in 1862 by Isaac and Barbara Lightner on 140 acres of farmland. They had bought the land in 1841 and originally built a much smaller home. The new bigger home reflected the families moving on up the financial standing of the community. Isaac had served as Sheriff for the county from 1858 to 1861 and lived in the courthouse in downtown Gettysburg during that time. The house was just about done when the battle came to town and by the evening of July 1st, the Lightner home and barn had become hospitals. The wounded and dying would be here for three weeks. The house has been restored, preserving the random plank floors, doors, fireplaces and leaded glass windows and outside by the old summer kitchen, guests can still see the squirrel-tail oven that the Lightner's owned and in which bread was baked for Union soldiers. There are six rooms to choose from for accommodations.

jerzee2maytoe on TripAdvisor, "While they don't really play up that the house is haunted we really believe it is! We were both awakened at about the same time each night we were there by strange sounds in the hallway. It sounded like someone dragging something heavy across the floor (a body maybe?). Then even more nerve-wracking was the sound of someone trying to get in the room (turning and shaking of the knob, etc.)."

User Attack on Both Sides posted a picture to Pinterest with the following comment, "We recently stayed at the Lightner Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast. I snapped shots of the breezeway connecting the main house with the private Walnut Cottage, which is where we stayed. Later, I noticed something in the foreground, standing in front of the window. After enlarging this portion of the picture, I saw what appeared to be a soldier, looking into the french doors, kepi on his head, and a small horse or donkey beside him. I can even see the bridle across its muzzle." Here is the picture:

 

Hummelbaugh House

The Hummelbaugh Farm is today owned by the National Park Service. It is named for Jacob Hummelbaugh who was born in 1818. Dates of when he owned the property are unknown, but the house was built in the 1840s and consists of a log structure beneath the shiplap siding. There is a gable roof and an extended part to the back of the house that was added after the war. Jacob was a widower and his son John was off fighting in the Civil War near Harpers Ferry when his home became a field hospital for the 2nd Corps. Confederate General William Barksdale was treated at the house and it is there that he died. This also served as headquarters for Union Cavalry commander General Alfred Pleasanton from July 4th through July 6th. The farm was very close to some of the heaviest fighting and perhaps that is why it is haunted today. People definitely believe that General Barksdale haunts the property, along with his dog. The story goes that the General died in front of the house as he called out for water over and over, despite being given water, He was buried quickly on the property, but his wife and dog came to retrieve the body. The dog jumped on top of the grave and had to be dragged away so Barksdale could be disinterred. The dog jumped back on the grave after the body was removed and he refused to leave, so Barksdale's wife left the dog behind. He refused food and water from anyone and eventually passed away. The General is still heard calling out for water and the dog is heard howling.

Daniel Lady Farm

The 146-acre farm on the Old Hanover Street was first graced by a log barn. This was replaced in 1842 by a German bank-style barn. A fieldstone farmhouse was constructed in 1820. During the Civil War, the farm served as General Edward Johnson's staging area before the Confederate attack on Culp's Hill and then a Confederate field hospital. The Lady family stayed in their house even when it was occupied by the Confederates. Daniel and his wife Rebecca sold the farm in 1867 and they left for another town with their seven children. The Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association bought the Daniel Lady Farm in 1999 and restored the property. Tours and camping for re-enactors are offered. Bloodstains can still be seen on the woodwork throughout the house and there are even carvings and graffiti that can still be seen in the barn on the beams. Cadaver dogs have identified graves on the property. The Niagara Falls Police did some tests at the farm and they found an area in the parlor where a pile of blood-soaked rags were thrown, evidence of the upper torso of a body upstairs and marks from fingers of men who propped up against a wall. There was more death and blood here than any other location in Gettysburg. The upstairs of the house is the most active. Soldiers are seen still patrolling the land around the farm. General Isaac Ewell was here for a time with his troops and people believe he has returned in the afterlife.  

Gettysburg Hotel

The Gettysburg Hotel started as a tavern that was built in 1797. This was a much smaller building than the one that is seen today in the heart of the historic downtown area. We ate dinner in a restaurant across from the hotel and it is gorgeous with a Beaux-Arts architectural style. The tavern was built by James Scott and was named Scott's Tavern. A York County sheriff named William McClellan bought the tavern in 1809 and renamed it Indian Queen. By the late 1840s, the tavern was known as McClellan House. The larger structure was completed in 1890 and took on the name Gettysburg Hotel at that time. A few years later it added luxuries like modern plumbing and electric lights. President Dwight Eisenhower used this location as a temporary White House when he was recovering from a heart attack he had in 1955. By the 1960s, the hotel was closed and transformed into apartments until it was gutted by a fire in 1983. Gettysburg College worked with a historic architectural review board to reopen the hotel. In 2013 it underwent a massive renovation. There are 119 rooms and suites and this is one of the nicest places to stay in Gettysburg. The hotel offers meeting space and a ballroom in the former Gettysburg National Bank building dated to 1814 that they acquired under the ownership of Gettysburg College. Baskervill, an international full-service architectural and interior design firm, redesigned the restaurant leaving the interior with a tavern feel featuring a large communal table sitting before a grand fireplace. The lounge, named One Lincoln Food & Spirits, pays tribute to Lincoln being on the penny with a pressed-tin copper ceiling and an art piece made up of 100 copper pots of different sizes and styles. The menu has some of Lincoln's favorite foods, such as apples, cheese and chicken fricassee.

The hotel is home to several spirits because it too served as a hospital and these ghosts include a Civil War nurse named Rachel, a lady who dances in the center of the ballroom and a wounded soldier named James Culbertson who did succumb to his injuries. Rachel has been sited running down the stairs and also likes to rummage through people's belongings in the drawers of furniture in their rooms.

The Dobbin House Tavern

The Reverend Alexander Dobbin built the Dobbin House in 1776 and this is the oldest house still standing in Gettysburg. This served not only as his family's home, but he also ran a school from the property. The house became the first stop on the Underground Railroad above the Mason-Dixon Line and like most of the homes in the town, it became a field hospital. Today, the Dobbin House is an inn and restaurant. 

Blue orbs of light are seen, fires start themselves in the fireplaces and disembodied footsteps are heard. One of the most common spirits seen here belongs to a little girl. Patrons of the restaurant, Springhill Tavern, claim to see the apparition of this girl in one of the upper windows. Staff and patrons claim to see other spirits as well, including slaves and soldiers and maybe even Rev. Alexander Dobbin.

Heather wrote, "I used to work there. One day while a co worker and I were setting up for a banquet, Tabbi said she was going outside to smoke, I said okay and kept getting stuff ready. I heard someone clear as day say my name, 'Heather.' Didn't think anything of it, responded with, 'yeah?' Looked around and no one was there. Went through the dining room and up to the bedroom and still didn't see anyone. Went outside and Tabbi Roth was still there. Asked her about it and she said it wasn't her." Tabbi had her own experiences and said, "I remember going up to the bedroom and seeing a little girl out of the corner of my eye hated going up there by myself."

Trey wrote, "I talked to a long time employee there last year who does janitorial work. He said it was very common to hear footsteps where there were no people or catch a glimpse of people in period wear who disappeared as soon as you adjusted your eyes again." Audrey wrote, "About the year 2007, my family ate here for lunch. We sat on a long bench that was back up near a fireplace downstairs. They saw me jump when I felt something touch my back. I thought maybe a big bug but there was nothing around. To this day, I still wonder if it was a ghost or something like that."

Is this a picture of a ghost? Looks like a woman in a black Victorian mourning dress. A man named Clint wrote of this picture, "That is me and my buddy at the bar, it was a slow day in there. Not many people at all. My buddy kept saying he was feeling cold drafts of air to his left. Little while later, two ladies from out of town said they got that in one of the pics...no one was ever in that area while we were there...it's def a ghost...never into the ghost stuff or believed it until that day...def real..."

 

National Homestead at Gettysburg

The National Homestead at Gettysburg opened in 1866 to serve as a place for both widows and orphans. The location was chosen at the north foot of Cemetery Hill. The facility was under the direction of Dr. John F. Bourns and appeared in a famous photo with Ulysses S. Grant in 1867 with the future President posing with boys and girls from the orphanage. The initial head mistress helped the orphanage to prosper, but things changed drastically when Rosa J. Carmichael took over as head mistress. She was cruel and designed the basement to become a dungeon of torture. There are still chains connected to the walls that were used to lock up the children. There was even a place down there called The Pit where kids were left for days. This is barely big enough for an adult and has no light. Carmichael allowed older kids to discipline the younger ones. There are some who believe that Carmichael killed some of the children.  The location is said to be haunted by both some of the children and Carmichael herself. The disembodied voices of children are heard and people have been touched. Ghost Adventures investigate this location in 2010. The crew heard bangs and disembodied footsteps and captured the following EVPs: "you're wonderful... thank you" after Zak offered some candy, "Watch your back with them" after a rock was thrown at Nick, "Pass all the Morgans" referring to silver dollars from the 1880s, "Betcha won't untie me", "Kill the girl", "I never killed again", "I want the bowl of money." Ghost Hunters investigated this location in 2014. A woman named Alexis told them she heard an audible male voice tell her to "get out now" when she looked into The Pit.

Sachs Covered Bridge

Sachs Covered Bridge was originally spelled as Sauches during the Civil War and is a truss covered bridge spanning 100 feet. The style features wooden beams cris-crossed like a lattice. This was built in 1854 and in 1863 would provide a route for the Union Army to come into Gettysburg. After the battle was concluded, General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia retreated across the bridge. Legend claims that three deserters were hanged at the bridge, but we've found no proof of that. Vehicles used the bridge until 1968, when it was closed to vehicular traffic. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 25, 1980. A flash flood in 1996 knocked the bridge from one of its abutments and the bridge was restored and rededicated in 1997.

People believe the Sachs Covered Bridge is guarded by the spirits of the soldiers who died here while being pursued by the Union. Visitors to the bridge feel uneasy and some people claim to have seen full-bodied apparitions of soldiers pacing around the bridge. On a summer evening in 2004, a group of investigators saw a strange mist followed by several orange light orbs that appeared to be dancing near the bridge. They heard the sounds of cannons firing and horses as well.  This activity continued for nearly twenty minutes and then disappeared. Later they saw disembodied spirits that freaked them out a bit, but it took the disembodied growling of a male voice to finally chase them off. Virgil commented on the Astonishing Legends blog, "I went ghost hunting there a few years ago. I captured sometime after 3 in the morning an apparition of a woman with a long dress from the period and a union soldier in uniform standing along behind her by her side. It’s too bad I can’t post picture here." And Zach commented, "Anyway, my friend walked across it at night and had a terrifying experience. As he entered the bridge and slowly walked through it, making it to the other end, he heard boards creaking that wasn't his own steps. He turned around to see a dark figure standing where he entered the bridge."

Jennie Wade House

Mary Virginia Wade was known as Jennie to her family. She was born in 1843 and lived in a home on Breckenridge Street with her mother and two younger brothers and she worked as a seamstress. Her father had been locked up at Eastern State Penitentiary. Jennie had an older sister, Georgia Anna Wade McClellan, who lived at a home at 548 Baltimore Street and she was pregnant before the battle came to Gettysburg. She gave birth four days before the battle started and Jennie, along with her mother and brothers, moved to her sister's house to help. This is the house now referred to as the Jennie Wade House. Jennie was kneading dough in the kitchen around 8am when a Minie ball came through an outer door of the house and through the door of the parlor, which was open to provide extra protection, and hit just below her left shoulder blade, piercing her heart and killing her instantly. No one knows who fired the shot, but there are many bullet holes on the outside of the house, so it was definitely in the path of fire. Jennie was only 20 years old and she was the only civilian to die during the battle.

A shell came through the roof of the house and blew out part of a wall upstairs. Union soldiers came to rescue the rest of the family and they wanted to get them to the cellar, but they couldn't risk going outside on the side of the house that Georgia lived in, so the soldiers knocked out the rest of the wall upstairs to get the family to the other side of the house. They took Jennie's body with them and they all hid in the cellar together. The story of Jennie only got more tragic. She was engaged to marry Corporal Johnston “Jack” Skelly and he was wounded and captured in Winchester shortly before Jennie died. She had no idea. He died in captivity, probably never knowing that she had passed as well. Jennie was quickly buried right outside the house, but in January 1864, her body was relocated to the cemetery of the German Reformed Church on Stratton Street. She was moved a third time to her final resting place at Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg and we visited the plot. It is memorialized with an eternal American flag. She is only one of two women given this honor. Betsy Ross is the other. Jack is buried near Jennie.

The Jennie Wade House is now a museum that preserves the house as it was during the battle. The bullet holes are still here as is the part of the wall knocked out upstairs. The cellar has a recreation of the events with a mannequin under a quilt serving as a stand-in for Jennie. There are ghost hunts offered here and the haunted reputation is embraced. Ghost Adventures investigated in 2010 and they captured an EVP that very much sounds like a young woman whispering "I'm pregnant" when asked what she wanted to tell her boyfriend. A legend claims that if a woman places her ring finger in the bullet hole of the outer door, she will soon be proposed to and people have written letters to the museum claiming that this has indeed happened. Visitors and investigators claim to be scratched, pushed and pinched by something unseen and Zak even had his butt grabbed. Ghost Hunters also visited the house in 2014. A FLIR camera caught a figure walking on the property. They were told by a tour guide that he had seen a male child spirit in the house and they think he may have come over from the orphanage, which is across the street.

Gettysburg is a wonderful historic town that every one really needs to visit at least once in their life. The museum does a great job of covering the history before the Civil War started, the various battles highlighting Gettysburg and the aftermath for both the town and country. Gettysburg is similar to St. Augustine in that one can just feel the spiritual energy all around. Driving through the battlefield at night and seeing the silhouettes of the monuments on the hills is chilling. Driving the battlefield and heading out to Sachs Bridge reveals just how much area was covered by the battle and all the intricacies of everything that happened over those fated three days. It is not surprising that lots of spiritual residue has lead to paranormal activity in this town. Are these locations in Gettysburg haunted? That is for you to decide!