The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1881-04-21
. A Ghost story.

4u0 lOCdl0 10 UIC OAu - OeSAOcSHo ASsS>sS
which leads north from this city out past
the Fair Grounds, and the legendary
Mt. Pleasant; out past the old Van
Pearse homestead, up the rocky hill and
through the oak woods, by the Still
House Hollow, and out through the
beautiful reaches of woodland and mea-
dow beyond. The time was, more than
a half century since, when Lancaster
was backwoods hamlet with bowling
wilderness all round about. Then the
Foglesang road was hardly more than
bridle-path, and the rocky i'll next to
impossible on account of its sharp and
angular projections, its offsets, deep
burrows, crevlces, and Irregularities, and
the sturdy old farmers who lived up in
that section invariably made the trip on
horseback. The Still-House Hollow was
a deep, dark, heavily -timbered, forbid
ding ravine, at the head of which, we'll
hidden in the rocks. and exuberant vege-
tation, was an old log still, owned and
run by mysterious specimen of
antiQuated humanity named Crow
ley. He was surley, un-
communicative dog, with scowling WIS.,
age and repellant aspect, and the farm
ers always gave him and his a wide berth,
much preferring to go through the hol-
low in the broad glare of the sun than
after the shades of evening had begun to
foil. One night, when the chill Novem-
Der winds were whining and moaning
through the leahess oaks, and the first
great fakes of winter were descending,
murder was committed in the rocky pass
by the Still House Hollow. The victim
was John Ormsdorf, q recent settler in
the vicinity, who came from Licking
county, and who was u stock dealer, and
in those days man of money. say it
was murder, but that was never fully
demonstrated, yet all the good people of
the region were fully agreed upon
this point. His horse came home
riderless, with empty saddle.
bags besmeared with blood, and
brains and hair. A great crowd visited
the spot next morning, and by the marks
ON the ground they made out where
Ormsdorf had fallen from his horse, just
at the brow of the hill, where the rocks
began to show themselves from out the
soil The men discovered by the bloody
trail where the body had been dragged
from the roadside, into the bushes, down
the hollow toward the old log-still, and
up to its very door, which was closed and
barred. But the rugged yeomanry who
we're there were not to be frustrated by
bars and bolts, and a few vigorous
strokes with an axe acted like the open
sesame of the Forty Thieves. With
bated breath they entered the dismal
abode of the old benzine.maker, fol-
lowed the bloody track across the main
room and into smaller and rear apart
ment, where lay, before their eyes, COW
cred and bedabbled with blood, the life
less corpse ola yearling steer!
The old farmers stood aghast! What
unseemly trick was this? And they
gazed in speechless wonder into each
others faces. Search was then made
through the still, its cramped little
cells, dirty, dingy, and smoke begrim.
med, but nothing was found. Even old
Crowley had disappeared as thoroughly
and completely as if he had been re-
solved into original elements. The very
atmosphere of the shanty smacked OF the
devils domicilium the great cracks IN
the walls looked as if about to open and
swallow the intruders, and more than
one averred, after well out on the high
way again, that there was sulphurous
smell about the place.
Days grew into months, and months
into years, and old Crowley was never
heard of again, nor was the mystery OF
Ormsdorf's murder ever explained. The
old log hut still went into rot and decay.
The logs tumbled down and the entrance
became cLoked with briars and bram-
bles. The wolf hid her litter under the
moldy floor, and an owl made his habi-
tation in the gruesome garnet, and final
". under Times corroding hand, it melt
ed away and disappeared entirely, and
a thicket of haw and dogwood sprung
up on its site.
The old Eogelsang road ever after that
to the farmers who went over its rocky
way. was haunted spot, and in the vail
ing winds of autumn it is asserted that
the mourning tones OF poor Ormsdorf
have been heard, and some even declare
that the wild shrek he uttered when the
death blow descended has more than
once been heard echoing and quavering
M and down the dismal defile.
It was many years after before any
thing was actually seen here, and the
first man who encountered the unearthly
thing that was supposed to haunt the
spot was the venerable Jacob Spangler,
OF Pleasant Township, who can be seen
in the city here any Sunday afternoon,
and who will verifyalong with many other
good and reliable citizens OF that neigh