Mercyhurst's Spooky Sister

Mercyhurst Old Main and Chapel - image from Family Images
Founded in 1926, Mercyhurst College in Erie has become the second largest Mercy-operated Catholic college in America. And like virtually every Catholic college worth its salt, it sports a spooked-out sister.

Old Main Tower: Mercyhurst's first building was the Gothic Old Main, built by the Sisters of Mercy and completed in 1925. And this dorm is Spook Central for the school.

The tale is that during the WW2, when the Old Main was still used as a convent, one sister joined the order after she was told her fiance had been killed in combat. But he was just MIA, and he returned with a ring for her after the war. Having taken her vows, she couldn't marry him, and went mad. She was confined to the Old Main Tower to protect herself (and the other nuns too, we'd assume).

The sister eventually killed herself. The distraught nun is said to roam the halls of the building and has been seen on the Old Main Tower, where the students believe she keeps a benevolent eye on them. (The Sisters of Mercy owned Old Main outright until 1993, renting it to the College until then) and in Egan Hall.

Christ the King Chapel: The sister of Old Main fame has been seen in the chapel, as has a blue orb by a statue of young Jesus (the chapel is joined to Old Main, a dorm now, but a convent back in the day). It's said that the good sister slipped the ring she got from her boyfriend on the icon's finger. It stayed on His hand until the 50's, when a girl took it in an effort, it's alleged, to get her boyfriend to commit. We'll never know if it would have worked; she died on the way to the tryst.

Another bit of lore is that if you touched the ring, you'd meet a tragic end within five years. At any rate, Mercyhurst decided it would be good policy to not have its students killed off by a cursed wedding band, and the ring disappeared after that night. Some say it reappears on its own every so often to raise a little havoc, while others say it was buried and forgotten. Some believe the sister is still looking for her ring.

Egan Hall: This is the only haunting not related to the tragic nun. Egan's lore is that there are certain rooms that you can't keep a mirror in; it'll will shatter. It's also said that faces can be seen reflected back just before the mirror explodes. There are also unexplained lights that occasionally shine from Egan's attic, which has been boarded off from the Hall proper and has no access point.

And hey, Egan Hall is connected to Old Main and the Chapel, too, and it's been claimed that people have seen the face of the suicidal sister in windows. She sometimes roams the halls, and enjoys playing poltergeist tricks on the students, like turning things off and on.

Weber Hall: Many students who walk over the small green island in the middle of East Main Drive in front of Weber Hall swear that they immediately suffer bad luck. Is it local lore - or where the ghostly sister's ring was buried?

And hey, there are supposed to be other apparitions in habits on campus, too. We've heard stories of the apparitions of old nuns gathered outside the Chapel, and other spirit sisters have been spotted in the Grotto.

The sister's sad tale was written up by Stephanie Wincek in Ghosts of Erie County.

Ford City Folklore

Hanging Tree image from Vicious Venues
In Shott's cemetery once was a stone that read in part "Reuben, Son of Daniel and Mary A. Briney Died June 2, 1863, Aged 17.Y 17.D - As you are now so once was I, As I am now so you will be; Remember me as you pass by, Prepare to die and follow me."

Pretty spooky all by itself, hey? It gets weirder.

Reuben was a broken hearted teen, and in his pain caused by love gone bad, he rode to a tree near the cemetery on his white steed. He put a noose around his neck, tossed and looped the other end of the rope around a branch, and spurred his horse forward. (Some say he met his fate accidentally, but what kind of spook story would that make?) Goodbye, vale of tears, hello, light on the other side.

If it were only so easy. It's claimed that he can be seen to this day riding on the hillside at night atop his white stallion with flaming red eyes, still searching for his lost love. And woe to those that see him; they're said to be doomed to die a horrible death, just like Reuben's.

Good luck trying to find his tombstone; the memorial was toppled and broken 35 years ago, and eventually hauled away. All that's left now is an unmarked footer, alleged to be near the infamous hanging tree.

So how do we know what it said? Because a photo of the broken stone and its inscription was part of Ford City HS 1974 yearbook, no doubt a reminder of the impetuousness and passion of youth.

"As you are now so once was I..."

(H&H gives big props to LC, his Philly spook sister, who dug up most of the story and the location in ways only she knows.)

Beaver Creek's Ghost Town

Hambelton Mill image from Ohio Barns

Hey, if you're in Youngstown and head south to East Liverpool, you'll run into Beaver Creek State Park. And though it's a sweet piece of land, with the creek and trails and all the other good stuff, it's really known as spook central in southeastern Ohio, and especially the area around Spruceville.

Fittingly, Spruceville is a ghost town. It started out in 1837 as a canal town, built to serve the needs of the Beaver and Sandy Creek Canal. The canal opened in 1848, but wasn't the success it was planned to be. A dam burst, seriously damaging the canal, and the railroad took advantage to skim the business.

The canal never recovered, closing in 1852, and the hamlet soon followed. It was completely deserted by 1870. But some of its residents never moved on.

The most famous ghost tale is that of Esther Hale. She was engaged to be married to a soldier, and when the big day arrived, Esther put on a white gown and waited for her beau, who never showed. Some say the man died in action, while others claim he got cold feet.

Hale refused to give up hope. She sat in her house day after day, still wearing her gown and awaiting her fiance. She never changed a thing in her home, and eventually it got kinda messy inside, but she would chase away anyone that came over to help her clean up or get on with her life.

Hale also used to walk the town, a forlorn sight in her tattered gown, looking for her AWOL significant other.

The guy never did show, and she passed away from a broken heart. Legend claims that Hale reappears every year on August 12, the day of her planned wedding.

It's said that if she brushes your skin, you will die on the spot and her skeletal figure will rejuvenate. Others who claim to have seen the misty lady in a white dress say that she does nothing but sadly keep her eyes on the ground.

She's usually seen at Hambelton Mill, one of the two remaining structures from Sprucetown days, or its bridge. Locals claim to have seen her in the headlights of their car, and some say that their cars will sometimes stop running when they pass the old mill.

Gretchen's Lock is haunted by its namesake, Gretchen Gill. Hans (or Ed) Gill came to America from his native Holland (some say Ireland; at any rate, it was from across the pond). Gill was one of the engineers who helped design the locks used on the canals. He brought along his young daughter Gretchen, his wife being departed and buried in the old country.

Gretchen contracted malaria from the mosquitoes, which seem attracted to canal-building and its standing pools. She died, and her last words were "Bury me with my mother."

Her father temporarily buried her in one of the locks. When his job was done, he raised the casket and caught a ship home with his daughter's remains. But for poor Gill, if it weren't for bad luck, he'd have no luck at all. The ship sank during the voyage, and the bodies of he and Gretchen were never recovered.

Gretchen's luck wasn't much better. Not only did she not join her mom, but she's trapped in the lock that served as her resting place. Legend claims that a young woman in a long white dress walks along the canal, screaming at anyone who comes close. Others say she just sobs.

It's said that you can only see her on the anniversary of her death, August 12th. So hey, if you're looking for a two-for-one spook sighting... But there are others.

It's alleged that Esther Hale has to share Hambelton Mill every Christmas Eve with a lady Quaker preacher whose ghost appears then and writes the word "Come" on the stone walls.

Jake's Lock is spooked by Jake, who worked on the canals as a night watchman, making his rounds with a lantern. One dark and stormy night (sorry, I had to work that in) Jake died when he was struck by lightning while walking the canal.

Local lore claims that he still makes his nightly rounds, and you can see his lantern moving down the canal, and reflecting on the water. Jake's a little shy, though. It's been reported that whenever his presence is nearby, no camera will work.

The other remaining standing Sprucevale building is believed to be haunted by a young boy who hung himself from the rafters. The legend says the spirit doesn't like company. Some who have walked inside claim to have been chased off by his unseen presence.

Beaver Creek State Park is also home to a spook known simply as the Mushroom Lady. She fell in love with a guy that didn't love her. Ms. Mushroom lived in the woods and was familiar with all the local veggies and herbs.

One night, she ran across him and his flame. She took a pot of mushroom soup to his home, for him and his honey. Yah, you guessed it - it was made of poison mushrooms. If she couldn't have him, no one could. They died quickly, and she buried their bodies in her garden.

The Mushroom Lady is said to still roam the woods. Some claim to see a woman in black moving through the trees, and others have seen a shadowy female in photographs they took in the park.

And add a celebrity spook to the cast - Public Enemy #1, Pretty Boy Floyd. He often passed through East Liverpool and stayed at the Conkle Farm. The coppers found him there, and shot him down as he tried to escape through a farm field. His ghost has supposedly been seen around the area, and many people have captured his voice on EVP recordings.

So if you're ever in East Liverpool with nothin' to do...

Creepy Crum Cemetery

Image from Witch Hunter Robin

Hey, cemeteries are supposed to be spooky places. But Crum Cemetery, in Ogle Township by Windber, takes the spectral cake.

The most popular tale is that of witch Rebecca Crum. She and her family were thought to be local hexes, and she was dragged from her home by the locals and killed. She was buried outside the cemetery proper, and her tiny village of Crum was burned to the ground by the mob.

With a rude send-off like that, it's no wonder her spirit is restless. It's said that you can hear her wails from the nearby woods, and the spirit of a lady in white can be seen floating through the grounds, thought to be Rebecca.

The urban legend goes on to claim that if you turn your car off on the second bridge of the path that leads to the cemetery, you won't be able to start it again. There's also been reports of folk spotting a black carriage that rides through the grounds at midnight.

Other versions say that the phenomena are related to a plague that hit the village of Crum, claiming most of its inhabitants. Their remains were buried in the cemetery, and the local government had the village torched to keep the disease from spreading.

And hey, we're not done with local lore quite yet. Nearby is a “dead zone”, an area rumored to be haunted by a man that hung himself after killing his wife and children. It's supposed to be about two miles away along a blocked off back road that leads to their long deserted shack.

One word of caution before you go ghost hunting. H&H and his trusty fact-checker LC think the tales point to the Windber Crum Cemetery, but there's another Crum cemetery just a few miles away near New Paris in Napier Township, Bedford County.

So if you're a local and can sort out the stories and which graveyard they belong to, give us a yell. Nothin' worst than hanging out at midnight in the wrong boneyard.

Mrs. Muller and Her Wooden Horse

Mullers Military Horse shot by Andrew 94 on Flickr
Muller’s Military Horse is a wooden merry-go-round unit that was carved in 1917 by Daniel C. Muller, and it circled the midwest, entertaining generations of riders. Its claim to fame? Hey, it's the only haunted carousel horse known to be in existence.

The carousel spent its first five decades making the rounds of county fairs, carnies, and small-town amusement parks, until it found a home at Cedar Point's Frontiertown in 1971.

The legend begins thus: Mrs. Muller fell in love with the horse that her hubby had carved. She loved that wooden horse so much that after she left this vale of tears, her spirit would return to Cedar Point to ride it.

In fact, her love was so strong that she wouldn't allow anyone to photograph the horse. Jealousy lives on, even in the afterlife...

Another bit of more grisly lore claims that Muller murdered his wife and stuffed her body into his creation. Either way, Mrs. Muller was connected to that horse. (One story claims that a woman on her honeymoon at Cedar Point had a jones for the horse and is the spook. We'll stick to Mrs. Muller; better drama.)

The tale continues that after midnight every evening, when the park was closed, the carousel would start up, lights, music, and the whole nine yards, while a ghostly apparition, assumed to be Mrs. Muller, could be seen riding the Military Horse.

But the amusement park biz being what it is, the entire Frontiertown carousel was sold and moved to Dorney Park in Allentown in 1995, with one notable exception: the Muller Military Horse. And here's where it gets confusing.

The original horse stayed put at Cedar Point. But a fiberglass replica of the famous steed was placed on display at the Merry-Go-Round Museum in Sandusky. And of course, the ride itself was at Dorney Park, known there as the Antique carousel.

The result is that spook stories began at all three sites.

The original Military Horse is now a part of Cedar Point's Frontiertown Museum, tucked away off the beaten path in the back of the park. And since it was so rudely yanked from the carousel it spent so many years being a part of, the sightings of Mrs. Muller have come to a screeching halt, too.

First, the no-photo lore can be debunked, since there are pictures of Muller's Horse, from all three locations. This tale is probably a recent add-on to the legend, started because, well, no one could find the original to snap after it was sold. The story has switched focus some, now claiming that if you take its picture, some misfortune will befall you.

As for Mrs. Muller's ghost? She's not been seen in the museum. Maybe the truth is that she wasn't such a fan of the horse; could be that she just liked merry-go-rounds.

But if you're ever roaming around Cedar Point's Frontierland and stop by the museum, don't be surprised if you see a white mist protectively surrounding the wooden horse it houses or if your Nikon acts up.

Just say "hi" to Mrs. Muller.

The Avondale Mine Disaster...and Abigail

The Avondale Mine Rescue from Explore PA credit: Harper's Weekly
On September 6, 1869, the Avondale mines, located in Plymouth Township of Luzerne county, erupted in a huge bloom of flames. Not a miner in the shaft that day escaped alive; even two rescuers died from the noxious gas produced by the inferno.

The Avondale Mine Disaster claimed 108 lives, and spurred the State to enact early mine safety laws in 1870. Better late than never, hey?

Stories of gurgling, moaning sounds and lights attributed to the spirits trying to find their way out of the mine persist to this day. The Northeast PA Paranormal gang undertook an investigation of the charred remains over a century later, and not too surprisingly, they came up with some spooks.

Oddly enough, they didn't find the restless spirits of trapped miners, but a dysfunctional family of three that couldn't cross over to the other side.

Using psychics to get the tale, NEPA found that in the late 19th century, a girl named Abigail got in a family way. She left home to have her child and spare her folks the stigma of having a daughter that was pregnant out of wedlock, a strong taboo of the era. Abigail had a daughter, Rosalyn, and took up with a man named Henry.

Henry was a cruel and domineering dude, and finally Abigail couldn't take any more of his abuse. She poisoned him at a picnic near the mine. But her choice of murder weapons was a bit ill-advised; the toxin didn't act quickly enough to drop Henry on the spot. He realized what had happened, and his final act on earth was to murder Abigail and Rosie.

The ghost hunters did some homework in the archives, and found the eerie tale to be entirely plausible. NEPA returned and found their forlorn spirits still roaming the Avondale site, and discovered that Henry, still the bully, told the girls' souls they couldn't cross over - they'd both go straight to hell if they did, one for bearing a love child, and the other, well, for being the love child.

Armed with the paranormal facts, the NEPA team tried to talk the lost women to the light, competing with blood red skies and a cursing Henry. Finally, a thunderstorm struck the area, and in its' aftermath, everything was calm. Mission accomplished! It's an interesting tale complete with EVPs, posted in three parts by NEPA.

The Inn At Jim Thorpe

Inn at Jim Thorpe from Travel Hero
The Inn at Jim Thorpe in Carbon County is a New Orleans style hotel that dates back to 1849, when the ritzy New American Hotel was erected on the ashes of the burned out White Swan Hotel, built in 1833. It became the Inn in 1988.

And like most old hotels, some of its' guest checked in but never bothered to check out. There are various poltergeist activities associated with many of the rooms, from upturned chairs, objects on the move, and cold spots, to being able to catch a whiff of smoke, a remnant of the White Swan days.

It's thought that 310 is haunted by a nurse that's still tending to her patient and gets annoyed when people get into the same bed where presumably her spectral patient lies. Her icy grip has been felt by guests by the bed and her white figure seen there. Another spook was spotted there, too, a tall man with slicked back hair.

Room 211 has a problem with the TV going on and off by itself. Men are especially targeted - items disappear then reappear in different spots. One man left his boots by the door, and awoke to find them in the hallway outside. Towels are found shoved in the toilet. Cigar and cigarette smoke is smelled when no one is around, and the noises of laughing children are heard when there are no children around.

Room 315 has chairs that are turned upside down. Down the hall at Room 303, there are unexplainable shadows and orbs. In Room 203, a guest claimed that a ghost put his cell phone in the refrigerator.

A faceless lady in Victorian attire has disappeared into closed doors. Guests have supposedly seen many spirit shadows in the downstairs foyer and lobby, and have orb and mist photographs to bolster their claims. The Innkeeper has even set up a little disclaimer about spooks in the house.

Not too surprisingly, spook seekers from coast-to-coast visit the Inn. It host ghost hunter weekends for the curious. Paranormal societies can't get enough of the Inn. Hey, the help will gladly put you up in a haunted room if you request one.

So if you want to visit the Jim Thorpe jail and see if you can spot the Molly Maguire handprint, this is the perfect place to spend the night. Two for one!