Pennsylvania Oddities

The following story appeared on the front page the Jan. 30, 1897 edition of the York Semi-Weekly Gazette.

Hidden in the woods throughout Pennsylvania are countless man-made rock piles. These mysterious structures can be found in a variety of shapes, from beehive-shaped mounds to neatly-stacked piles. They appear to be quite old, which has led to numerous theories on their origin, ranging from the mildly plausible to the downright ridiculous.

The most mundane explanation is that these rock piles were created by 18th and 19th century farmers and pioneer settlers attempting to clear their planting fields. Others have suggested that the mysterious cairns are monuments or markers created by Native Americans. Still others claim that Pennsylvania's man-made rock piles are relics of an ancient, unknown civilization, comparable in size and construction to other mysterious cairns that have been discovered in Wales and Ireland.

These rock cairns can be found throughout the state, but the most well-known examples are found in the remote wilderness of Susquehanna County. Other cairn fields have been…

Crime and colorful nicknames go hand in hand, from Babyface Nelson to Prettyboy Floyd to the Sundance Kid. While these outlaws may be more famous or their exploits more sensational, few criminals have been endowed with a nickname as unusual as Angus "Eatabite" Tibbs, the eccentric and charismatic bandit who terrorized western Pennsylvania in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, while managing to escape from mental asylums and jailhouses and surviving gunshot wounds that would have killed a normal man along the way.

Eatabite Tibbs first earned notoriety as a result of Uniontown's Jasper Augustine scandal of 1895. Augustine, a wealthy and powerful member of the local community, was arrested for keeping "a disorderly house" and was sentenced in November to one hour of jail and a $500 fine. The investigation revealed that Augustine's brothel was frequented by many of Pittburgh's most prominent businessmen. These revelations, along with the striking beau…

Reliance Colliery, located south of Mount Carmel on Locust Mountain, saw many tragedies since its construction in 1867. Of these, the explosion of September 2, 1926, is perhaps best remembered, which claimed the lives of four miners and badly burned several more.

However, one remarkable tragedy that took place in the shadows of Reliance Colliery didn't involve a miner at all, but a middle-aged Lithuanian woman named Annie Metzgas. Her death in 1903 didn't warrant more than a few sentences in local papers, but the stories of her ghost haunting the surrounding hills kept the residents of Mount Carmel inside their homes at night for weeks after her unfortunate demise.

On Friday afternoon, July 10, a powerful thunderstorm swept over the area. It came suddenly, catching Annie Metzgas by surprise as she was picking huckleberries on the hill near the colliery. Annie had arrived in the country just a few months earlier, and barely spoke a word of English. She shared a home with her dau…

In 1826, the citizens of Lebanon were horrified to learn that a murder had taken place in their peaceful, idyllic community. In every household in every village throughout the county, the crime was discussed, and continued to be a fixture of local conversation for years afterward. Parents and preachers alike used the murder and the subsequent execution of the killer as a teaching device in order to illustrate the perils of intoxication and the evils of liquor.

Lebanon, then just a tiny town, was holding its Cherry Fair at the time. It was the 25th of May, and the streets were swarming with merry-makers of all ages. The men disappeared into the city's taverns to enjoy a drink, while the women and children ambled from merchant stand to merchant stand by the old market house sampling molasses candy, honey cakes, mint drops and other sweets.

While the residents of Lebanon were frolicking at the fair, about a mile west of town a very different scene was unfolding. In narrow ravine tha…