Forgotten Tales of Pennsylvania (4 page)

A
N
E
LEVATOR
A
CCIDENT

A terrible tragedy occurred in the Donnelly Building in Pittsburgh on May 23, 1923. A malfunction caused the building's elevator to plunge six stories, killing four of the seventeen passengers and injuring the rest. The building was located at 1026 Fifth Avenue, and the fifth and sixth floors were occupied by the Pennsylvania Electric Mechanical Institute.

On that particular evening, the students and staff had cleared the floors and were holding a ball for over seven hundred people. About 10:00 p.m., seventeen guests boarded the elevator on the first floor and rode it to the sixth. Just as the elevator reached the sixth floor, there was a loud crash, and the car rapidly plunged to the ground. Two large weights had broken loose and came crashing down through the car after it had slammed into the ground.

The crash caused panic at the ball upstairs. Several people almost fell into the empty elevator shaft. Dozens fainted in the ballroom. The police and fire departments arrived quickly, but it was too late for four of the passengers. Their remains were almost unidentifiable because of the trauma they had suffered.

T
HE
E
XPLODING
S
NAKE

A bizarre snake story was reported out of Franklin County in the fall of 1899. Frank Smith was working at the McDowell stone quarry when he stumbled across a lethargic and swollen rattlesnake. Smith found a club and returned to dispose of the deadly reptile. He struck the rattler with the club, and as he did, there was an explosion. Smith was thrown several feet away and lay unconscious for several minutes until his fellow quarry workers revived him. Aside from bruising, Smith had no severe injuries. His co-workers began investigating the strange incident and discovered that one small stick of dynamite was missing. Apparently, the snake had swallowed the stick, and it detonated when it was struck with the club.

A P
TERODACTYL IN
P
ENNSYLVANIA
?

A couple driving on a mountain road in Perry County in 1981 claimed to have encountered something that was millions of years out of place. As they came around a bend, two very large birdlike creatures were sitting in the road at a distance. Their wings were the same width as the fifteen-foot highway. Their three-foot-long bodies were capped with long, thin necks and T-shaped heads. Both creatures had long, narrow beaks, and neither had feathers. The couple in the car immediately thought that they looked like prehistoric pterodactyls. Both creatures began to run straight toward the car and then took off, missing the vehicle by about six feet. The couple watched the creatures quickly glide around the mountain and disappear.

P
OWDER
M
ILL
E
XPLOSION

A series of tremendous explosions tore apart the Mosaic Powder Company in Wilkes-Barre on April 13, 1892. The first blast was in the drying mill, and seconds later the storage building exploded. The shockwave created by the explosive powder was felt forty miles away. No piece of the buildings survived that was more than a foot in length. Nearby rail cars were described as being torn and twisted like paper. The entire site was destroyed. Nine men were killed by the blast, seven of them instantly. One body was thrown 150 feet in the air. Others were found over 200 feet away.

A N
EAR
-D
EATH
E
XPERIENCE

Ezechiel Sangmeister was a Pennsylvania German who for some time was a member of Johann Conrad Beissel's Ephrata Cloister in Lancaster during the mid-1700s. Sangmeister was a spiritual man who was drawn to the semi-monastic community because of its simple and pious structure. He kept a journal that told of his life experiences, religious influences and his time at the cloister. One interesting account in his journal describes an event that occurred when he was about eight years old and still living in Germany. He describes what we now know as a near-death experience. It happened shortly after his father died, while he himself was very ill.

Sangmeister felt that he was going to die and asked for communion from the local preacher, who attempted to convince him otherwise. The boy said that he felt his father pulling at him. The next day, about noon, as Sangmeister lay in bed, he looked out his window to see the sky. He described what happened next in his journal: “It seemed as though I came out of myself. Two angels came to me, took me between them, and led me to a small door at heaven, but they said to me that I could not come in yet.” Then he suddenly awoke and began yelling that he was dying. He said that he felt both fear and joy as he jumped from the bed. After the occurrence, he got better quickly and went on to apprentice as a carpenter.

T
HE
L
EGEND OF THE
E
TERNAL
H
UNTER

For well over a century, a story has circulated in Lebanon County of a phantom hunter who roams the woods and wild lands on cold winter nights. He is accompanied by a pack of ghostly hunting dogs, forever pursuing his prey. If someone is foolish enough to venture out while he is on the hunt and cross his path, he or she will be torn to pieces by the dogs or dragged off by the hunter and never seen again.

A more benign version of the story is told in Schuylkill County. In that version, the hunter lived in a German settlement that was suffering from a bad harvest. Food stores were used up, and the community's hunters had no luck. By October, the situation was desperate. The man who became the eternal hunter was unmarried and only had his pack of hunting dogs. Since he was a skilled hunter, he promised those who remained in the town that he would not return until he found enough game to feed the village. He never returned, of course, and the settlement was abandoned. However, the hunter was unwilling to break his promise to the villagers, so his ghost and dogs still wander in the night on an eternal hunt.

T
HE
W
EREWOLF OF THE
S
HENANGO
V
ALLEY

From 1972 to 1998, reports of a strange creature circulated in the Shenango Valley of northwestern Pennsylvania. Several witnesses claimed to have seen a black-haired werewolf with a short snout-like nose, jagged teeth and abnormally large round eyes. It reportedly had joints on its arms and legs that were like a canine's rather than a human's. Described as being extremely fast, the werewolf could run on both two and four legs.

“T
HE
F
RESH
-C
ARMEL
B
OY
B
ANISHED
”

That was the headline in the
Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph
on April 6, 1890. The Pennsylvania Railroad decided to prevent young men from selling fruit, candy or other novelties onboard trains so as not to annoy passengers. Only company agents would sell newspapers and periodicals on the trains. No fruit was permitted to be taken into any of the cars. Once again, the railroads protected the best interest of their passengers by keeping them safe from dangerous fresh fruit.

T
HE
S
TORM
H
AG OF
L
AKE
E
RIE

Lake Erie, like the other Great Lakes, is known for its sudden and treacherous storms. The numerous sunken ships that rest on the bottom are a reminder of the lake's sometimes dangerous conditions. Around Presque Isle, a local legend passed down by sailors attributes some of the danger to a supernatural source. In the waters off the peninsula dwells the Storm Hag. The hideous hag has pale green skin and yellow eyes. She has pointed green teeth and long claw-like nails that paralyze her victims when they sink into flesh. Those who have escaped the hag's clutches say that they heard a strange song before she attacked:

When the song finishes, the hag calls up massive waves and storms, grabs her victim from the ship or shore and drags him into the lake. If the storm is powerful enough, she will bring an entire ship full of sailors to their doom.

A D
EADLY
H
AILSTORM

On the afternoon of July 8, 1853, a massive hailstorm struck part of the city of Erie. It occurred between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. That day, the winds changed directions several times. When they came in from the northeast in late afternoon, they brought with them strong thunderstorms. The storms dumped large amounts of hail throughout the city. In some sections, large chunks of ice fell, causing considerable damage. Some hailstones measured at a dry dock were as large as seven inches in circumference. In other places, the already melting hailstones were weighed at two pounds.

Strong winds also caused damage. A saloon being constructed on Forty-third Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues collapsed. Besides the workers, many people had entered the partially completed building to seek shelter from the giant hail. Eight people were killed in that building alone. Several other buildings had to be demolished as a result of the storm, and several other people were killed or severely injured throughout the city.

J
OHN
M
EYER
—W
ITCH
K
ILLER
!

John Meyer lived near the area of West Spring Creek in Warren County in the early 1800s. Until his death in 1821, he was well known in the region as a witch killer. His method for eliminating witches was rather unique and was a variation of the methods used by powwowers in the eastern part of the state. When a bewitched person hired him to put an end to her problem, Meyer tacked a piece of paper to his wall. Then he lit a candle and had the bewitched person stand near it so that her silhouette appeared on the paper in shadow. He carefully cut out the silhouette and pinned it to a thick piece of pine wood. Meyer then loaded a silver bullet into his gun (using as little gunpowder as possible so he could recover the bullet) and fired through the paper. The spell was then broken, and the witch would die. Of course, he was paid well for such important work.

F
IRE IN
P
HILADELPHIA
D
ELAYS
T
HEODORE
R
OOSEVELT

A large fire broke out at the lumberyard of the R.A. and J.J. Williams Company on Second and York Streets in Philadelphia on November 2, 1908. The enormous blaze appeared to have been deliberately set and destroyed over $250,000 worth of fine hardwoods. Several firemen were trapped in the heart of the fire. When they were surrounded by a wall of flames, their engine exploded. The men were forced to run through the wall of fire to escape, and they suffered severe burns.

Part of the Pennsylvania Railroad's tracks ran across the lumberyard. The fire spread to the tracks and caused warping of the metal and burned the wood. Trains were forced to take a long detour. One train that was delayed was carrying President Theodore Roosevelt. He was on his way to Oyster Bay to vote.

S
WINDLED BY
M
EDIUMS

In February 1890, Paul Hill of Lathrop accused two of his neighbors of swindling him out of $2,700. His neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Brown, were spiritualists, and Mrs. Brown claimed to be a medium. Hill frequently attended séances in the Browns' home and came to believe in her powers. Eventually, Mrs. Brown claimed to have received messages from Hill's deceased parents, as well as from Jesus. They all recommended that Hill give the Browns small amounts of money when he could so that the spiritualists could use it for “holy” causes. After giving the couple money totaling the previously mentioned amount, Hill realized that he was being taken advantage of. He brought the matter to the authorities, and the Browns were arrested.

T
HE
G
OAT
M
AN OF
L
ANCASTER

One truly bizarre creature was supposedly sighted by two farmers in Lancaster County in 1973. The farmers, who were also brothers, were in one of their fields with a team of horses when they stumbled on the beast. They described it as being as large as a cow, but it ran on two long legs. Its color was gray, and it had a white mane, long fangs and even longer claws. On top of its head were two curved horns, like a goat. The beast moved toward the horses and startled them. The brothers were thrown to the ground but managed to get up and away.