Charles J. Adams, III Offers Stories from "Haunted Boyertown"

Note from the Editor: Charles has given The Expression permission to share several selections from his book Haunted Boyertown which he generously wrote for the Boyertown Area Historical Society as a fundraiser in 2013. Copies of the book are available for sale at the Historical Society. This invaluable organization’s programs help to preserve the history of the Boyertown area—a very special kind of place.

Charles is one of the premiere paranormal writers in America, with over 30 books in print. He has led ghost tours in England, Scotland, Bermuda, the Caribbean, and the United States. He has appeared on paranormal programs on the Biography, History, Travel, SyFy, Nippon, and other networks and is a popular ghost storyteller. He also wrote and performed the award-winning CD “Let’s Go to the Haunted House” of children’s ghost stories and songs. Email: gohaunting@aol.com.

by Charles J. Adams, III

So, What is a Ghost?
The protagonist Athanasius Pernath pondered the paranormal in Gustav Meyrink’s 1914 classic The Golem. The novel is based on an ancient Jewish legend of an artificial being that was created by a Rabbi in Prague and terrorized all who came pon it

As Pernath wandered the streets of Prague’s Jewish “Ghetto” (neighborhood) in search of its supernatural secrets, he presented a provocative talking point. Although written a century before this book was published, the words put into Pernath’s usings by Gustav Meyrink are somehow still very relevant.

“Think of the crystal, revolving itself. It knows not how, but in accordance with its own immutable laws, from the formless to a definite ordered shape. May it not be even so in the world of the spirit? Who shall say?

“Just as, in thundery weather, the electric tension in the atmosphere will increase to a point past endurance, and eventually give birth to the lightning, may it not be that the whole mass of stagnant thought infecting the air of the Ghetto needs clearing from time to time by some kind of mysterious explosion, something potent in its workings. Something forces the dreams of the subconscious up into the light of the day—like a lightning stroke—giving rise to an object that, could we just read its riddle, symbolizes, both in ways and appearances, the mass-soul, could we but understand and interpret the secret language of forms?”

from A Few Words About This Book…and Boyertown

…. I write about ghosts, legends, and lore. But at the cores of every book is the history of the localities. Further, the baselines for many of the ghost stories are rooted in historical events.

Other elements—sometimes literally—play roles in the creation and retention of ethereal energies.

I subscribe to the theory that certain minerals may contribute to ghostly activity. And, the abundance of magnetic iron ore and other natural resources may well help explain the bounty of Boyertown area ghost stories.

The ore is found not only around the borough, but also beneath it.

At one time there was a Boyertown Ore Company, and mine shafts were dug into the soil in the southwestern end of town. Open pit mining was conducted at the “Middle California Slope,” later the site of the Boyertown Memorial Works. The Warwick Mines on Warwick Street sank 732 feet down….

The southwestern ridge of Gable’s Hill (a.k.a. Cannon Hill) was mined in the 1880’s. Two shafts near the Union Cemetery were dug more than 600 feet below the hill. After they were abandoned, the pits remained and were hazardous for decades.

In the early 1900’s, the possibility of removing rich ore was revitalized, but failed. As late as 1941, more explorations were made and also abandoned.

this Boyertown area is a place with a legendary Irish Wake, immense Halloween parades, and Historical Society-sponsored ghost tours.

It is a place where one of the biggest industries was once a casket factory…And it’s a place with the horrible history of one of the most disastrous fires in American history

NOTE: The names of businesses mentioned in these pages were correct at the time of the publication of this book. Those businesses, and the positions of proprietors or employees of them may have changed since the release of the book.

Preface
The Boyertown Area Historical Society considers its jurisdiction the same municipalities that make up the Boyertown Area School District. Thus, the bounds of this book extend into those same three boroughs and seven townships.

Upper Frederick Township, Montgomery County, is one of them.

And, it was in what is now Upper Frederick where the very first American ghost story was reported, researched, and published.

In my Montgomery County Ghost Stories, I recounted the story of Susanna, the nine-year-old daughter of Friedrich and Elizabeth Reiner, who had immigrated to America in 1730.

It is a complicated story of the sighting by little Susanna of a stranger who wandered onto their farmstead. Susanna, and then her 17-year-old sister Elizabeth, would see him walking between outbuildings, in the stable, and straddling the peak of a thatched roof.

He would appear as if out of nowhere, and would disappear just as mysteriously.

He would speak to the girls. He would tell them of his own death, and why he was doomed to haunt the living until certain matters were resolved. He would point to a family graveyard in a field along what is now Faust Road and told the girls that it was where his mortal remains were buried.

The many twists of the tale include the sudden death of Friedrich Reimer, whose body was found in the snow on Christmas morning, 1757. Owing to the strange circumstances of his family’s alleged misdeeds with the ghost (again, it’s complicated. The full story is recounted in my book) superstitious neighbors came to call Reimer’s death “the ghost’s revenge.”

In fact, the story spread throughout the farms and villages of southeastern PA by word of mouth.

It eventually attracted the attention of an enterprising young printer from Germantown named Christopher Sauer.

He appropriated it and published it in his German-language Philadelphia newspaper. In 1744 he reprinted it in what was the first book of ghost stories published in North America, Erscheinungen der Geister, or The Appearances of Ghosts.

The story was later picked up by a popular magazine in Germany where an international readership consumed the curious account of a vengeful specter on a lonely farm in the colonies, just a few miles from the present Boyertown.

The Scary Cellar: 127 E Philadelphia Ave, Boyertown

There’s a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on at Serenity Junction.

Of course, there is. After all, it is a Wellness Center where vibration exercise platforms shimmy, hydro massage beds swoosh, inversion machines whirl, and clients leave feeling better than when they came in.

Could it be, however, that some people have never left the former hardware store at 127 E Philadelphia Avenue?

Shannon Anthony operates Serenity Junction and is convinced that more energies than those being generated by her devices and those who enjoy them are locked within the walls of the building

“It seems to be mostly in the basement,” the Boyertown native said of the baffling and sometimes frightening incidents that have taken place there.

“Electrical breakers go off, and I’ll have to go down there and reset them,” she noted.

But then, that might be expected given the number of high-powered fitness machines on the floor of the center.

What may not be expected, however, are the multiple times that door latches and locks have kept her and others in—and out—of the building.

“When we first moved in,” she said, “none of the keys worked. Not for me, not for the landlord.

“We actually had to enter the building from the building in back, which is connected to this one.”

The center of any paranormal activity is rooted in the basement of the circa 1882 structure.

“Twice, I have been locked inside the basement,” Shannon continued. “One time, the basement began to flood. I was locked in! The door closed behind me. The latch just dropped and for a while I felt as if I was locked in, I was scared to death!”

Obviously, Shannon made her way to the self-locking latch and made her way out.

Employees have reported what could best be described as encountering a swarm of insects in the basement. But, checks just moments after those reports revealed no insects there.

“One time,” Shannon recalled, “my mother was here. She heard a loud bang and all of a sudden something that had been hung on a wall actually flew across the room.”

Shannon is not quick to attach supernatural meanings to what happens thre. But, she will not discount the possibility.

Much grief and sorrow has been contained inside the circa 1869 emporium over the years. Its first owner Levi lost his 20-year-old daughter Maggie and 27-year-old daughter Ada in the 1908 fire.

And, as the building is across the street from the Rhoads Opera House, it stands very close to the epicenter of and ost certainly within a strong vortex of activity that has nothing whatsoever to do with exercise and wellness machines.

Tilly, 6 E Philadelphia Avenue

JoAnne Adrian operated the “Somewhere in Time: gift shop and deli in what was once Boyer’s General Store at 6 E Philadelphia Avenue from 1986 to 1992,

Throughout her time there, unexplainable events would lead her to be convinced that the building was haunted. “Every time we would rearrange the store,” she said, “something would happen.”

“One day I walked through a door that was between the kitchen and back storage room,: JoAnne added, “I left the door open to get some supplies. When I came back, the door was closed and the snow shovel and fire extinguisher were sitting in front of it.”

Stranger than that, she remembered, “One day after the lunch rush, my cousin and I sat down to have lunch in the store area. We both thought that we saw someone walking in the kitchen but we knew all if the sandwich knives were standing straight up…something we could never able to do ourselves!!”

Several other incidents convinced JoAnne and others at the store that there was a spirit afoot. In fact, they even gave the ghost a name. And, a chance encounter by a visitor resulted in an eerie affirmation.

“There is a building attached going down the side street and there is one of those covered walk through areas between the buildings,” JoAnne said. “One time, our visitor saw a sighting of a lady dressed in Victorian garb. He said that they were referred to as ‘Tillies’ back in the day. Coincidentally, we had named our ghost ‘Tilly!”

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