Bumps in the night in Delaware County

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Bumps in the night in Delaware County
October 29, 2010
By JOE McALLISTER
Delaware County News Network

“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us…” Stephen King

With the influx of media programming concerning spooks, specters, orbs and goblins (Check your local TV listings for A&E’s Paranormal State, SyFy’s Ghost Hunters and the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures, just to name a few), the paranormal is looking more like normal.

Not since the 1980s hit movie “Ghostbusters” and its surrounding ethereal hype (and that scary Ray Parker song) have Americans become less skeptical of the unseen and more accepting that long-departed apparitions may dwell among us. Hey, they actually go looking for poltergeists nowadays.

And apparently (maybe transparently is a better word), Delaware County is a popular destination for the otherworldly, especially this time of year.

“Traditionally at Samhain (Halloween) the veil that separates our world from the spirit world is at its thinnest, allowing spirits to easily cross the barrier into our world,” says Laurie Hull of Tri County Paranormal Research Society, a local organization that investigates the paranormal. “The veil doesn’t just get thinner at Samhain. It’s a process that takes a year. So it gets thinner until Samhain and then begins to thicken again.”

Hull says there are many haunted places in the area including Fort Mifflin where the group recorded many EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomenon – when you record you ask questions and the answers are heard only during playback. It seems some ghosts would rather be heard than seen.)

“Fort Mifflin is the one place that never disappoints,” she says of the disembodied voices. “I think the state of Pennsylvania is one of the most haunted places in the world.”

A little closer to Delaware County, take the lore of the Lansdowne ghost – please. The story is the spirit of a young girl haunts the area of the intersection of Lansdowne Ave and Providence Road. The lass met her untimely end when she was struck by a car while bicycling home. Some midnight motorists in the area have sworn to see a girl coiffed and dressed in 1980s attire with faded jeans, puffy socks and high top sneakers just staring straight ahead in the middle of the intersection. Some have swerved erratically to avoid hitting the quirky and quickly disappearing pedestrian.

“I actually saw the Lansdowne ghost about 10 years ago but I don’t know of any recent sightings,” says Hull. “She looks like she stepped out of 1985.”

The Witch of Ridley Creek is more of an old school specter, 1684 to be exact. That was the year Margaret Mattson of Crum Creek was indicted for witchcraft and appeared before William Penn and a jury of 12 men. Her crime: bewitching cows and cattle.

Legend has it that Penn asked her point blank “Art thou a witch? Hast thou ridden through the air on a broomstick?”

Margaret, who was Swedish and could not understand a word of English, replied “Yes.” Fortunately, riding a broomstick was not illegal in Pennsylvania at that time (pre Parking Authority). She was convicted of “having the common fame of being a witch” and her husband and son-in-law pledged 50 pounds each to guarantee her future good behavior. It was the first witch trial in Pennsylvania.

The Heilbron Mansion in Media is said to be a bad luck house. In the early part of the 19th century, a family named Murchison owned the house. A fire in the middle of the night cost seven family members their lives. They are said to be buried in a family crypt not far from the house.

In 1837 the house was rebuilt by a man named Joseph Edwards who used it as a station in the Underground Railroad. Edwards’ daughter Margaret was raped and killed by a farmhand at the property in 1864. The other servants lynched the guilty party.

Edwards distraught wife hung herself from the third floor front window shortly afterwards. They say the ghost of a heeled woman still roams the house, ascending up to the third floor where they abruptly stop.

According to Hull, the Heilbron Mansion burned down again in the 1980s. The ghosts of the madam and the madman still haunt the area.

Maury Hutelmyer is head of the volunteer association at the Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation in Ridley Creek State Park. Known as “one of the most haunted properties in Delaware County,” the Plantation is frozen in time, reflecting pre-Revolution America. Myths and legends swirl around the 16th century 12 acre property like the twilight autumn winds through the stately oak trees.

“There are many people who work and volunteer here and refuse to sleep overnight. They feel creeped-out by the place,” says Hutelmyer. “In particular, stuff is known to move around here. In the blacksmith area, the hand crank on the bellows goes around on its own. There could be a number of reasons for that.”

Hutelmyer relates the story of a local farmer who claimed to hear the sounds of horses and then sighting a carriage being pulled in the early morning mist around the Plantation. A volunteer claims she was stopped in her tracks coming down the steps of the main house, built in 1690. She could not move her feet until exclaiming out loud to some unseen force, “I not taking stuff from the house.”

One of the most famous ghosts of Delaware County, Sandy Flash, is said to haunt the area. Flash, a Revolutionary War soldier, was man of spurious character.

He defected from the army and was convicted of cowardice in upstate New York. He returned to this area and turned to a life of crime – robbing from the rich and giving to himself and his stable of girlfriends. One scorned paramour tripped him up, knocked him out and turned him over to authorities.

“He was hung at Castle Rock, a short distance from the Plantation,” says Hutelmyer. “He was hung with a short, loose noose and died a horrible death.” Coincidentally, the Plantation is located on Sandy Flash Drive.

During the rest of the year, Colonial Plantation exhibits living history from the 1760 to 1790 period. Costumed re-enactors play the role of colonial life authentically. It’s only around this time of year that a cadre of unsettled spirits comes out to play.

Why the undying fascination with ghosts? “We know and understand so much about the world around us. This is one area we still do not know or understand,” says Laurie Hull, citing that people today are more well-informed about ghosts. “It is easier to admit that you may live or work in a haunted location than it has been in the past.”