Remember When: Hauntings and strange happenings of the A-K Valley

Halloween is just a couple of days away, which makes it the perfect time to scour the local history centers and newspaper archives, searching for stories of hauntings, paranormal activities and strange happenings that have occurred over the years across the Alle-Kiski Valley.

Here are some of the stories that were uncovered:

The ghosts of Edgecliff Road

The most famous story of ghosts along Edgecliff Road in Lower Burrell was told in the New Kensington Dispatch dated Aug. 22, 1901.

A ghost frightened the people of the neighborhood to the extent that one family left their home in the dead of night and fled to Natrona. According to the story, they did not return.

That evening, they saw a large white object next to their house, the article reported. It further stated that others in the area had witnessed the appearance of this hideous “spectral vision.”

In the 1920s, the property was sold to the family of its current owners. At that time, all that remained of the previous farm was an abandoned driveway and a large deep well. In the bottom of the well was found a Native American grinding stone.

In the past 100 years, there have been no documented reappearances of this apparition.

Edgecliff Road runs from Leechburg Road, across from Glen’s Custard, down the hill and to the river at the mouth of Chartiers Run.

People who have lived at the top of the hill have told of hearing voices in their homes and the opening and closing of doors. At the bottom of the hill, near Phillips Drive, some of the residents say they also have heard voices. One woman said she heard a murder being plotted when she was alone in the house.

Recently, a concrete cross has been found along Phillips Drive, likely a grave marker. There also was a story in the archives of the Leader Times, telling of a man found hanging from a tree along Edgecliff Road in the area now occupied by the Edgecliff Condominiums.

Spooky Hollow

Spooky Hollow in Lower Burrell is near Edgecliff Road. According to local legend, about 1,900 residents were having problems on their farms, and animals were disappearing.

They placed the blame on a man from the area who was half-Native American. Some believed the man was a descendant of Simon Girty, a renegade white man who joined the Native Americans in their massacre of area settlers in the late 1700s.

Without a trial, they hung the man from a tree in Spooky Hollow. On the following day, they cut down his body and removed his head.

According to the story, many of the farmers were immigrants who were superstitious. They believed that separating the head from the body would prevent retaliation from the man’s ghost.

The plan backfired because, after that day, the farmers’ misfortunes increased. Their cows stopped giving milk and their chickens quit laying eggs. All the misfortunes to befall the neighborhood afterward were blamed on the headless Native American spirit haunting the area.

It was believed the man’s spirit could not go on to the next life until his body had been reunited with his head.

To this day, it is believed that the area is haunted by the ghost of this headless man. In the past few years, there have been reports of sightings of an apparition along Spooky Hollow Road.

Research has turned up articles on the hauntings along the road, but there have never been any records found to support the belief that a hanging or beheading ever took place there.

Deer Creek Cemetery, former church

Another interesting story comes from the contents of a scrapbook belonging to the wife of the caretaker of Deer Creek Cemetery in Harmar. The information is pulled from “The Bulletin of the Presbyterian Historical Society of the Upper Ohio Valley” from the fall of 2002.

This story concerns hauntings that occurred in a deserted Covenanter church on the grounds of the present cemetery which is adjacent to Route 28 near the Russellton Road overpass.

It was reported on a number of occasions that as midnight approached, witnesses observed a pale blue light coming from the windows of the abandoned church. They reported hearing a sound as though people were softly singing hymns. They claimed to have seen people filling the pews and a ghostly figure standing at the pulpit making gestures as though delivering a sermon.

The observers stated they could not get closer than 20 to 30 feet from the church, as they were held back by an invisible force. The visions were said to last about 30 minutes. Newspaper accounts of the haunting drew people to the church to witness the events firsthand.

On one occasion, a group of 12 young men decided to investigate the stories. Several members of the group were armed with revolvers and others with clubs for their own protection.

According to the account, as the men approached the abandoned church, a figure clothed in white and about 10 feet tall arose from the earth before them. It rose upward until it was 20 feet in the air and entered the church through an attic window about 40 feet aboveground.

After the shock of seeing the apparition faded, the young men again continued their approach to the church. They broke into two groups to enter both doors of the church simultaneously. It appeared to be vacant, but, as they entered something tall and white rose from one of the seats and approached some of the young men. They quickly exited the church.

Outside the church, the men again regained their composure and decided to light a torch to aid in the investigation, but this was knocked from the hand of the man carrying it by an unseen force, and the doors of the church were slammed violently shut.

By the moonlight streaming through the windows, the men were able to observe a coffin several feet above the floor in front of the pulpit. They also saw figures dressed in white. Six of these figures moved forward and stood on either side of the coffin.

They then started down the aisle of the church with the coffin and with the remainder of the figures following them. They passed through the closed door leading to the cemetery. Seeing this, the young men wasted no time leaving the church and cemetery behind.

Haunting and demonic possession

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a series of strange events occurred at the farm of Jacob Willery near Milligantown in Upper Burrell.

The story has been reported in newspapers and was featured on both TV and the internet.

Willery lived with his wife, sister, daughter and granddaughter.

For a five-year period, the family was tormented by unnatural happenings. Nearly every window in the house had been broken by invisible forces, and fires in the stoves had suddenly gone out without cause.

China and silverware began flying about the kitchen, in several cases injuring the senior members of the Willery family. Matches would ignite while being stored in drawers.

Chairs were thrown about, and a couch weighing more than 100 pounds was thrown the length of a room.

One night, Willery was awaken from sleep because of a sharp pain in his leg to find that he had been branded with a triangular mark. Voices were heard in the house threatening to kill, poison or dismember family members.

The barn was not exempt from the events. Horses were often set free, their harnesses cut and their food supply destroyed. Many of the threats were directed at Willery’s 15-year-old granddaughter.

The only explanation for the events was that five years earlier, a traveler was smitten with the girl after stopping at the farm in hopes of trading horses. He secretly returned later and tried to convince the child to run away with him.

When discovered, he flew into a terrible rage, cursed the family and promised to wreck the young girl’s life. The family believed he was skilled in the dark arts.

A video detailing the events at the Willery farm can be seen at youtube.com/watch?v=YQ0lRdzjO7c.

The witch of 12 Mile Island

Twelve Mile Island is located in the Allegheny River between Harmar and Oakmont. It was given its name by early rivermen, because it is 12 miles from the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in Pittsburgh.

The island was the site of a witchcraft trial in 1802. The island was settled in 1791 by a squatter named Daniel Sweeney, who had a farm on the island.

At that time, the land on the Harmar side of the river was a Native American village. In 1795, Sweeney sold his claim on the island to B.F. Brewster who obtained a patent from the state for the land and built a residence there. Shortly afterward, the Native Americans abandoned their village and settlers began moving into the area which we now know as Harmar.

Brewster, a personable and well-educated man, was regarded by the newly arriving settlers as the head man in the area.

Shortly after 1800, the residents on the mainland began experiencing strange occurrences and accused a woman living among them of witchcraft. She was taken to Brewster’s home on Twelve Mile Island, where the residents demanded she be tried for witchcraft.

Brewster, though he did not believe the woman was a witch, set up a trial to satisfy his neighbors, even though at that time he was without any legal authority to do so. He didn’t expect witnesses to come forth when the trial was held. To his surprise, many witnesses came forward to share stories they felt were convincing proof of the woman’s guilt.

The witnesses demanded the woman be killed. To defuse the situation, Brewster claimed ignorance of the law and asked for a delay to study the matter before rendering a judgment.

He used the delay to help the woman flee the area. When the day of judgment came, the prisoner could not be found and the wrath of the settlers turned on Brewster.

He was, after some time, able to talk himself out of blame. He later moved to Texas, at which point he felt safe enough to admit to helping the woman escape.

The devil on exhibition

A newspaper article printed Nov. 21, 1891, in the Kensington Dispatch tells of a local man described as a wizard or spiritualist who held “nightly seances in the woods in upper New Kensington and frightens the boys, who can muster up courage enough to attend, almost out of their wits by introducing them to the ruler of hades … in all his satanic majesty.”

Many of the attendees were convinced that the young wizard was endowed with supernatural powers.