The SNYDER COUNTY POST History Page

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125 Years Ago - 1885
    Jonathan Musser of Musser's Valley brought an ear of corn to town that measured in length at 13 3/4 inches. If any person can beat him he says he would like to hear from him.
    S. Grant Schuck of Shamokin Dam has been appointed telegraph operator at the P&R office at Lewisburg, PA.

100 Years Ago - 1910
    Last Friday morning, Mrs. P.E. Hackenburg and son Jay, wife and son of Sheriff Hackenburg and Mrs. Ada Shambach, who rooms in the jail, were overcome with coal gas emitted from the furnace in the jail cellar. The Sheriff was not at home at the time. The doctor was called and he discovered the trouble was coal gas. It appears the chimney, where the pipe enters had no way of allowing the gas to escape. There was one prisoner in the jail part, but he kept his window open and did not suffer much inconvenience.
    Henry Fetterolf, Ernest Bowersox, and Robert Middles-warth, members of the Troxel-villeTrapper Co., trapped a bear in the Seven Mountains which when dressed weighed 200 pounds.

75 Years Ago - 1935
    Several Selinsgrove Epiliptic Colony patients from the western part of the state left last week and started on their way to their homes. They were apprehended by Sheriff Carl E. Runkle and promptly returned to the institution.
    Little Miss Ethel Long, one year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ameson Long of Middle-burg spilled boiling water over her right shoulder, right arm and neck on Saturday when she pulled at the cloth on a table after her mother had served the coffee.

35 Years Ago - 1975
     Kline's Super Market in McClure was robbed last Friday afternoon around 4:30 pm and a substantial amount of money was taken from a locked safe. In business for forty years, this is the fourth time the place has been robbed and the first time ever in broad daylight.
    Sheriff Richard Nornhold of Middleburg is the only incumbent Snyder County officeholder facing opposition next week in the election. He is being challenged by Blaine Havice, also of Middleburg.

From the Archives of
The
Middleburg Post

    Every rural area has its share of local folklore, stories of creatures of the night that stalk the woods, houses that stood haunted for many years, or visions of those thought dead walking the earth. Snyder County is no exception and stories such as these have been around since the founding of the county, and probably even before.
    Many attribute some of the stories to memories of the homeland, and some folklore of things in their native land, adapted for their new lands here. Most immigrants believed in ghosts, hexing, haunted houses, and in creatures that would wander through areas, terrorizing the citizens and killing man and livestock.
    One early story involved a miller in the Isle of Que area who operated a grist mill. Sometimes during the night, the wheel would cease turning. He investigated and found a black cat that would hold a small part of the mill with its paw, causing the wheel to stop turning.
    The miller, believing in hexery and believing the cat to be a witch sent by a rival miller, fashioned a hatchet on a long pole. One night when the wheel stopped he silently poked the instrument out of an upper window, and severed the cat's paw.
    The next day, the woman who was believed to be the witch was confined to her bed and on searching for the cat's paw, found a woman's hand instead.
    He went to the woman's home and inquired about her illness. She kept her arm under the blankets and informed the miller she had hurt her hand. So he reached in his pocket, pulled out the severed hand and threw it on the bed saying, "here is your hand."
    A Mrs. Beulah Koons, of Beavertown many years ago, once told of her daughter-in-law getting so tired sometimes that a sickness was feared. One night, she couldn't finish doing the dishes and went in to lie down. Mrs. Koons heard a moan a bit later and checked on the daughter in law and found an old woman sitting on her pregnant daughter-in-law's chest. She said the old woman looked around and seen her and

Snyder County's Spooky Past...

jumped out the window.
    The woman went into labor and they delivered the baby, but the baby was so energetic, it could barely be held. They also noticed a yellow streak down its back.
    The baby refused to nurse, holding its mouth tightly shut. It lived a day or two, and right before it died, started to laugh really loud. The baby grabbed its nightgown and tore it all the way down.
    It was believed back then that witches would find favor with their unholy masters if they would bother an innocent child. Many times, a braucher would be called in, one who would know magical incantations and ways of dispelling a curse or hex.
    Near Port Ann, a story has circulated for many years of a man who wanders the countryside during rainy nights. He has been seen by several who the Post Publisher regards as very honest, and has been seen carrying an umbrella and is reported to appear to be headless. He appears in the area just up the road from the ice cream shop, just east of Port Ann.

    Pow-wowing was a popular means of dealing with spells and conditions that people thought were spirtually related. Powwowing is the practice of a very traditional collection of European magic spells, recipes, and folk remedies. The formulas mix prayers, magic words, and simple rituals to cure simple domestic ailments and rural troubles.

    The main pow-wow chief in this area lived in Liverpool and would set up shop in various houses throughout the area. In time, with business being as good as it was, he located in rural Middleburg.
    He would take in those who thought were possessed by a spirit and those with physical infirmities. Healing "services" would ensue and in some cases, seemed to have worked.
    A mother from outside of Beavertown, known here as JH, took her son of seven or eight years old to this practitioner. The boy was unable to walk since birth and was seen by all in the area as being disabled.
    The practioner performed his rituals, and prayers, and to everyone's amazement, later the boy walked, although with an unsteady gait. He got around the rest of his life on his own two legs until recently, when he has been placed in a home. He is nearly 65 years old now.
    In the hills around Kissimmee, there has been talk for many years of a strange creature called the Kissimmee Blah-Blah. This is a creature that hides in the tops of trees, moving silently from tree to tree to elude those searching for it.
    It hides in the late night woods and makes an eerie howl and will persist for hours. Some claim that it has one eye, others say that its eyes glow a piercing glow. When followed by people who would venture out to find it, it would lead them for miles before going silent.
    One one occasion, west of Kissimmee, the creature was followed for a mile and a half, silently moving from tree to tree in an effort to lure on its seekers. It went silent, and when the men returned to their home and settled in their beds, the eerie howl again beckoned them to return to the chase. They declined.

Hex signs such as those above would adorn the barns of the area in an effort to ward off evil spirits. Many hex signs were based on the pentagram and were thought to have properties that would fend off bad spirits and bring good luck and prosperity to the farmer.