Forgotten Tales of Pennsylvania (7 page)

Moll Derry had a fearsome reputation in Fayette County and throughout much of southwestern Pennsylvania. Described as an old hag, she was credited with an impressive array of magical abilities. She lived near Haydentown, several miles south of Uniontown. Most of the stories that have been told about her take place between the 1780s and the 1820s.

Many locals believed that Derry could cast spells, place curses, predict the future and even transform into animals and birds. There were even those who claimed that the old woman could fly. People came to her for help in finding lost money and possessions, tracking down thieves, finding missing persons and foretelling the future. Derry also sold whiskey to supplement her income. The witch was known to take vengeance on those who were foolish enough to cross her. She made cattle ill, prevented bread from rising and even caused deaths, if you believe the stories.

One of the most popular accounts tells of how Derry cursed three men who had mocked her and her abilities. She told all three men that they would hang. It was not long before the curse seemed to take effect. One of the men, John McFall, killed a man in a drunken brawl in 1795. He was quickly convicted and hanged for the murder. The second man, Ned Cassidy, proceeded to kill two men, and he was hanged five years after McFall. When the third man, whose name is not known, learned the fate of the other two, he hanged himself in Greene County.

It is not clear exactly how and when Moll Derry died. She seems to have simply disappeared. Or perhaps she turned into a bird and flew away.

L
IBRARIAN
S
POTTED
UFO

On the sunny and clear afternoon of June 4, 1961, a librarian spotted strange objects in the sky over Blue Ridge Summit. Mrs. Annis saw a large oval-shaped object floating low in the sky just to the north. To the east, she noticed several smaller objects just above the treetops. Suddenly, at a very high rate of speed, the smaller UFOs flew toward the larger one. They all moved farther away behind another set of trees and out of Mrs. Annis's sight.

T
WO
C
IRCUS
T
RAIN
W
RECKS

At 8:30 p.m. on October 22, 1885, the first five cars of Adam Forepaugh's eighteen-car circus train wrecked and derailed when the axle on one of the front cars snapped. The accident shut down the line for over five hours. One of the cars that overturned contained twenty-five horses. One of the horses died, and several others were injured. The accident happened at the Valley Creek switches near Woodbine. Several of the circus's attractions were destroyed, including the beehive chariot, the goddess of liberty chariot and Forepaugh's personal buggy. The wreck was Forepaugh's sixth train accident that year.

Another even more dramatic circus train accident occurred in May 1893 near Altoona. The train carrying W.L. Main's circus jumped the tracks and was severely damaged. Six people were killed, and at least seven others were seriously injured. The cars carrying the animals were knocked open. Some of the animals were injured, and a tiger, a water buffalo, hyenas, a bear, alligators, three lions, a black panther, monkeys, birds and snakes all got loose. Forty-nine horses were killed. The elephants and camels were uninjured and did not escape.

Some of the animals were recaptured by the circus crew. Two of the three lions were subdued. The snake charmer caught one of the anacondas in the nearby bushes. The tiger had made its way to a nearby farm and decided to eat a cow. The farmer, Alfred Thomas, shot and killed the tiger before it could kill any more of his animals. The rest of the circus animals eluded capture. The financial loss for the circus was estimated at $100,000.

G
OLDFISH
P
UT
O
UT
P
HILADELPHIA
F
IRE

In November 1901, a store on Germantown Avenue owned by Thomas E. Henry had a small fire. It could have been much larger if not for a conveniently placed fish tank. The fire started on furniture that happened to be in front of an aquarium large enough to hold three hundred goldfish. The heat from the fire cracked the glass, and the water spilled out and extinguished most of the fire. The rest was put out by flopping goldfish, most of which survived the ordeal.

T
HE
E
VIL
W
OLVES OF
E
LK
C
REEK
G
AP

In the late 1800s, Centre County was home to several logging companies. Because of the demand, lumber was being transported through Elk Creek Gap almost twenty-four hours a day. A story eventually circulated about why the practice was stopped. After a while, strange wolves descended from Hundsrick Mountain and began jumping onto the loaded sleds. The wolves would not attack, but the sleds could not be moved while the wolves were on them. Sometimes only one paw was required to stop the sleds. No matter how hard the drivers pushed the horses, they would not move. Eventually, the wolves would leave, after they had exhausted both the horses and the driver. Some of the drivers painted hex signs on their sleds, hoping to drive away the wolves. Nothing seemed to work. Many believed that they were actually werewolves or that they had been sent by a witch. Eventually, the drivers stopped hauling logs after sundown.

A M
IRACLE IN
A
MBRIDGE
?

On Good Friday 1989, several parishioners attending services at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Ambridge, Beaver County, believed that they witnessed a miracle. A large wooden and plaster crucifix appeared to close its eyes. Several days later, the eyes reopened. Photographs were taken to document the occurrence, and at first glance the images appeared to verify the miracle. The Diocese of Pittsburgh launched an investigation, interviewing over 150 witnesses and examining the photographic evidence. After a thorough investigation, it was determined that the event was most likely an optical illusion caused by the angle and lighting. Many parishioners continued to believe that the miracle was authentic.

S
TRANGE
R
AINS

Charles Fort, the first modern investigator of the unexplained, documented a few strange rains in Pennsylvania. On July 23, 1866, a strong storm struck Hobdy's Mills. The storm did not dump just rain on the region, however, but also thousands of red, inch-long lizards. Many of the lizards were alive and crawled away. In 1869, snails rained down in “a storm within a storm” in Chester County. For a while, the snails were displayed at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. On March 2, 1892, the residents of Lancaster looked out over the fresh layer of snow to see a rain of tiny worms. Mud fell from the sky in various areas in the northern part of the state in April 1902. The sources of these rains were never determined.

E
GYPTIAN
M
UMMIES
I
NVADED
P
ENNSYLVANIA

In 1833, six ancient Egyptian mummies were displayed in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. There was a surge of public interest in the field of Egyptology after the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s. Exhibits of Egyptian artifacts attracted considerable attention. Advertisements described the mummies as being over three thousand years old. They had “perfect expression,” and their hair was described “as if now living.” The traveling exhibit attracted thousands of curious onlookers in both cities.

W
EB
-S
PINNING
UFO
S OVER
D
ANVILLE

A man named William Hummer was pulling up to his house about two o'clock in the afternoon on May 4, 1981. As he parked his motorcycle, he noticed what he described as “cobwebs” on his roof, on his neighbors' homes and on telephone poles and trees. While observing the material, he realized that there were things moving around in the sky. It was difficult to make out details at first because of the bright sun, but he could tell that they were disc-shaped.

A few moments later a deliveryman arrived and attempted to pick up some of the white “webbing.” It disintegrated in his hand. The material kept falling as the men watched. Hummer retrieved a pair of binoculars and managed to get a better look at the discs when they got farther away from the sun. He described them as circular with a peaked dome. They traveled in groups of two or three and changed directions rapidly. When Hummer's sister arrived half an hour later, the webs were still falling from the sky and being blown around in the air. None of the webs lasted long enough to be preserved.

T
HE
C
OLDEST
M
ONTH

Pennsylvania has experienced many cold winter months over the centuries, but the coldest on record occurred in 1977. In January, the average mean temperature for the state was thirteen degrees, more than eleven degrees below normal. In some parts of the state, it was much colder. In Bradford, the temperature reached as low as twenty-five degrees below zero on January 29, with the high temperature reaching only six below. Many counties suffered through numerous days of negative temperatures.

S
TRANGE
L
ITTLE
M
EN

On December 17, 1956, a housewife in Conashaugh went outside with a flashlight to investigate a noise. To her surprise, the beam of her flashlight fell upon two little humanlike men in what looked like silver flight suits with helmets. They were about three or three and a half feet tall and remained motionless for several minutes while the light was on them. The woman went inside to get her husband, but when they returned, the men were gone.

B
ALL
L
IGHTNING IN
P
HILADELPHIA

Ball lightning is a little-understood phenomenon. It is not even accepted as a real occurrence by all scientists because of its rarity. But there was a woman who lived in south Philadelphia in 1960 who was sure that it was real. Louise Mathews had a frightening experience with ball lightning that summer. As she was resting on her couch in her living room one day, a red ball of light passed right through her front window and blinds, causing no damage to either. As it passed her, she felt tingling on the back of her neck and head. The ball sizzled and buzzed as it quickly passed into her dining room and out another window. Mrs. Matthews called her husband, who quickly came home from work. By the time he arrived, the hair had fallen out of the back of her head where she had felt the tingling. Her hand was also burned where she had felt her head.

A
RROW OF
F
LAME

In 1909, the people who lived near Stockton reported seeing what was described as an “arrow of flame” hovering above a certain spot on the mountain. It could be seen every night from about 9:00 p.m. to midnight. In that same area, the mutilated body of a woman had been discovered in a barrel two years before. The crime had never been solved, and her killer was still at large. Locals believed that the arrow of flame would continue to appear until her killer was brought to justice. There seems to be no record as to when the flame was last seen.

C
REEPY
C
LOWNS IN
P
ITTSBURGH

In 1981, Pittsburgh experienced an invasion of “evil” clowns. Reports were made of men dressed as clowns and other cartoonlike animals harassing and attempting to lure young children. The first incidents happened in June, and at the height of the sightings, the police were receiving as many as fifteen reports a day. In the first week of June, a group of children playing in the Hill District was harassed by two men dressed as clowns who had pulled up in a van. In Arlington Heights, a man in a gorilla suit and a man dressed as a clown attempted to lure a boy into a van. Some children in Garfield were stalked by a man in a pink and white rabbit suit who drove a blue van. A week later, the rascally rabbit was spotted in Allegheny Cemetery. People in several other city neighborhoods called the police to report clown sightings. No one was ever apprehended. After a few weeks, the reports ceased and the evil clown panic was over.

C
URED OF
F
OOTBALL
M
ANIA

At the 1908 meeting of the American Neurological Association in Philadelphia, guests heard the story of a strange case that Dr. Charles Mills and Dr. Charles Frazier encountered. Both doctors were from the University of Pennsylvania. One of their patients was a woman who suddenly became obsessed with football. She would rush from game to game and would travel as far away as New York and Boston. She started becoming rowdy and “irresponsible” at the sporting events. She also frequently suffered from dizziness, nausea and disorientation. (I realize that this sounds like a normal weekend in football season, but we are talking about 1908.) The doctors decided to operate and discovered that the woman had a three-inch-long cyst on her brain. It was successfully removed. After the operation, she recovered quickly and was cured. It should be noted that football mania is not recognized as a disorder in Pittsburgh.