Ghost visiting The Mohawk Valley

The Mohawk Valley seems to have had its share of tragedy and the spirits there feel as if it is their responsibility to continue  to reminding everyone. 

Printed on Thursday the 8th of February 1872 in the Schenectady Reflector out of Schenectady, New York

GHOSTS IN THE MOHAWK VALLEY – A HANGED DARKEY AND A MURDERED PEDDLER – A DESERTED WIFE.

 – A correspondent, writing to the Troy Times, from Johnstown, gives the following account of several haunted houses in the valley of the Mohawk: “ There have been several haunted houses in the valley of the Mohawk and also in the vicinity of this place, and I have often thought that something should be said on the subject. There was a house in the village which many years ago had the reputation of being haunted by a negro, who had been hanged here and afterward dissected by the village surgeon. The house where this was done was thence afterward occupied by the ghost of this unfortunate darkey which hovered in the garret where the body had been cut up. Noises also might have been heard like the sawing of human bones, which was very annoying to all who heard them. The ghost, however, never cid any damage, but only seemed of a discontented turn, as though things went all with him; but they got worse instead of better, for the house was afterward pulled dozn and the ghost was turned out of doors, and never again heard of. There are several haunted houses on the Mohawk turnpike which have had a first class set of ghosts. Some of these are the old taverns which once filled with guests when the traveling was done with stage coaches. But they stand forlorn and empty now, with the exception at least of some rooms which a tenant may occupy. One of these is haunted by a peddler who was murdered there about sixty years ago, and he is often heard going round with is pack on his back, and trying to escape form a fierce looking man with a butcher knife in his hand. The Mohawk turnpike is full of old associations, and some of these are suggested by the rates of toll which are still seen at the old guesthouses where “stages” and six-horse teams are quoted, and also wagons “with broad tyre,” etc., all of which refer to the days when both traveling and freighting were done by teams, and when this road was crowded with business. There are in this valley tow old churches built before the Revolution, and one of them is said to be haunted. I will not mention in print which is this particular one, but the ghost is that of and old dominie who was half starved by his congregation, and was finally frozen to death while going round trying to collect his salary, which was payable in a large degree sourcrout. The ghost never appears on Sunday, but in stormy weather it may be herd rolling a keg of sourcout up and down the aisles, and blessing the society in Germany for its liberality. There is also a haunted house not far from Amsterdam, which is spooked by a pretty Dutch girl who fell in love with a handsome stage driver, and her parents opposed their marriage. This driver was the son of a great family in New York, but was wild and would not do anything steadily (except drink,) and hence he was left to shirk for himself. He drove a fine team and a handsome coach, and was a great favorite. The girl clopped with him, and of course they lived unhappily. She returned to her father, but he would not receive her, and after that she was found drowned, but whether accidentally or intentionally is not known. She appears about Christmas and New Year, and has a sweet and pleasant look, but always is anxious as though waiting to hear the coachman’s horn, and she wears hat and cloak like one ready to travel off at a moment’s notice.”

Sunday Cemetery - Mine Victim Graves

Published the 14^th of July in 1902 in the Philadelphia Inquirer out of Philadelphia, PA

TRENCHES DUG TO HOLD BODIES OF MINE VICTIMS

Regular Grave Diggers Refused to Work, So Comrades Dug Grave

WORK TO BE BEGUN

But Foreign Laborers Fear a Return to the Scene of the Disaster

Special to The Inquirer.

     JOHNSTOWN, Pa., July 12 – The tragedy is about over. To-day was given up to funerals and requiem mass for the dead.

Mine Superintendent George T. Robinson took a party through the Rolling Mill mine to-day where the disaster occurred. The company is preparing to operate the mine this week. The superstitious foreigners refuse to return to work in that mine.

The regular grave diggers in the Slavock and Polish Catholic Cemeteries refused to do their work because of exhaustion from the previous day’s work, and the comrade of the men who were to be buried had to perform this last sad office.  This summarizes the day’s news in the tragedy of the Cambria mine.

Trenches Served as Graves

     The hard rock of the cemetery soil made the task of digging the seventy graves separately too great, and two great trenches were dug instead. The scarcity of men to dig the graves came very near causing the county authorities to interfere and take charge of the work of interring the remains of the dead miners.

     Almost forty bodies lay in the barn to the left of the foreigners’ cemetery in Morrellville all last night. There was not even a man left to guard the bodies. The corpses in the barn were augmented this morning by four other bodies which were taken to the barn, and as there were no graves they had to be deposited among others.

Grave Diggers in Demand

     The Rev. Father B. Dembinsky made a herculean effort to have men volunteer to go out and dig graves but very few responded. This morning he made a personal canvass among his parishioners of St. Cassmir’s Slavack Catholic Church and succeeded in getting several relatives of the dead miners to go.

     Then Rev. Father Dembinsky made a personal appeal to the official of the Cambria Steel Company and they took action on the matter at once, and sent thirty miners to the cemetery.

     During the masses, which he held for his own people this morning, the Rev. Father Dembinsky again called for volunteer grave diggers, with the result that about five men volunteered their services. At 10 o’clock mass, held in St. Stephen’s Slavish Catholic Church, the Rev. Father John Marlvin made a stirring appeal to the members of his congregation and quite a number of men agreed to go, and at 11 o’clock there were sixty-four men in the Morrellville Cemetery digging graves for the dead bodies of the victims.

Regulars Refused to Dig

     The two regular grave diggers employed by the cemetery had positively refused to take up a digging iron. The force which went to work shortly before noon make great excavation, with the result that by 2 o’clock preparations were begun to bring the bodies from the barn and deposit them in the ground. The men worked hard and fast. Then their friends came to the cemetery and many not in working clothes, who had come to the burring ground to attend the funerals, got down into the holes and worked for ten or fifteen minutes each.

Solemn Church Scene

      In St. Stephen’s Catholic Church this morning the coffins, twenty-four in number, were placed side by side and pointing toward the altar. Others were placed on the tops of church pews, where they remained while the services were in progress. One by one, as a funeral was announced, the pall bearers, and dozens of them aced at numerous funerals during the day, would walk up the aisle, select the desired coffin or casket, always