Hempfield Haunting
A farm situated in West Hempfield Township, Lancaster County, has a ghostly inhabitant which walks by elevated windows and in and out of the barn.

I received a phone call from the farm's present owner who told me about their unusual guest.

The stone farmhouse and its adjoining barn dates back to 1795. It is situated not far from Route 23, which in another century was a paved toll road stretching from Philadelphia to Marietta.

The Smith family moved into the 200 year old farm back in 1991. Refurbishing was started immediately after their arrival. The floors were sanded and the interior rooms were painted. The first indication of something out of the ordinary occurred when Mr. Smith heard someone call his name as he painted the ceiling. He dropped his work and went outside to see who it was. No one was there.

That, of course, could happen to anyone. It was forgotten. Work continued.

"The dining room was an area where the Smiths spent a lot of time painting. This room had a window which was situated high above outside ground level. A large bush grew tall and bushy and reached to just below the window sill. That is why the Smiths were so alarmed when they saw the black shadow of a person float by that window. Whoever cast that shadow would have to be either ten feet tall or walking on stilts to block out the sun's rays for the shadow to fall in that particular room. Investigation revealed no one.

Others, including Mrs. Smith's sister-in-law, saw the shadow pass. On one such occasion in the dining room, the sister-in-law, accompanied by her pet Rottweiler, were startled by what she described as the shadow of a man in a black trench coat wearing a rounded black hat.

    Mrs. Smith explained, "My sister-in-law and her dog went outside to investigate. The dog had his dander up, and was 'gruffing' deep in his throat. When they got outside they then caught a glimpse of a man in a red-plaid flannel shirt walking into the barn. Her dog started growling and took off, fur puffed and spiked, and followed the man into the barn. By that time, I came around the corner. I assured her that I had not been outside the window and that couldn't have been my husband. He was with me."

Mrs. Smith's brother has also seen the man in the red-plaid flannel shirt walking into the barn. He too thought it was Mr. Smith. Investigating, he found no one in the barn, and Mr. Smith was located at some other area of the property.

Other strange things have happened. These include being rousted out of bed at 2AM by loud "pop," "pop," "pops." This caused both Mr. and Mrs. to sit up-right in bed, their hearts aflutter.

In the fall of 1993, while putting shutters on the windows, they heard a terrible crash. It sounded like a plate glass window shattering, but they could find no broken glass. Several days later Mrs. Smith was cleaning the bedroom floor. She picked up the bed's dust ruffle and found that a very large piece of glass had broken ... under the bed.