The Homeville Apparitions

The West farmhouse in Homeville

Founded in 1898 on the spot of a historic picnic grove in West Mifflin, Kennywood Park has delighted generations of Allegheny County residents. By 1903, the park had expanded to include a carousel, dance pavilion and a roller coaster. But it was another nearby attraction, which once stood a few hundred yards west of Kennywood, that drew crowds of thousands in the fall of 1903-- a large, old farmhouse known locally as the West House.

It was November of 1903 and Mr. and Mrs. James Kemerer were annoyed beyond words. For several weeks, curiosity seekers had descended upon their property, a few miles south of the steel town of Homestead, in a picturesque, peaceful little community known as Homeville. The daily stream of visitors even caught the attention of one of the Steel City's largest newspapers, the Pittsburgh Press, which wrote: "Property throughout the neighborhood has been trampled down, and the vicinity looks as though it had been passed over by a large army."

So what was it that drew so many people to this quiet rural community? Well, to put it plainly, it was a spectacle which some attributed to nothing more than a natural trick of sunlight, though others maintained that it was proof of the supernatural-- a haunting apparition of the home's original owners, Thomas and Nancy West.

Laid to Rest Among the Natives

There was nothing particularly remarkable about Thomas West or his wife, other than the fact that they happened to be cousins. Thomas was the son of Joseph West, one of the pioneer settlers of what was then known as Mifflin Township, and his wife was the former Catherine Whitaker, who was the daughter of early settler Aaron Whitaker (in fact, West Street in Homestead and the nearby borough of Whitaker are named for the family). Joseph West's son, Thomas, married Nancy Whitaker, who bore him three children. Though records are scarce, it appears that the Wests built their farmhouse sometime in the 1840s.

This two-story brick farmhouse stood in Homeville on a small rise known as Terra Hill and featured ten large rooms and two spacious halls. From the windows of this house one could see the tiny West and Whitaker family graveyard on an adjacent hill, which today lies hidden in among a small grove of trees just above Homeville Elementary School. The West and Whitaker graveyard stands on the site of an earlier Indian burial ground, and there still stands a historical marker near the cemetery entrance stating that an untold number of forgotten indigenous men, woman and children lie in unmarked graves among the weathered tombstones. After Thomas passed away in January of 1863, Nancy continued to occupy the home for seven more years until her death in 1870. They were laid to rest in the family graveyard.

It's not clear who occupied the house immediately following the death of Nancy Whitaker West, as their children were all grown and married, but it's clear that James Kemerer and his wife moved into the property in February of 1902-- unaware that their lives would someday be turned upside down by neighbors and relatives of the deceased who swore that they saw the images of Thomas and Nancy West reflected in the south-facing middle window on the second floor, which was located at the top of the stairway to the upstairs hallway. 

Historical marker at the West family graveyard

The Grand-Nephew's Story

"I knew Aunt Nancy at once by the blue scarf that was over her shoulders and the gingham apron she was wearing," declared a grand-nephew of the home's original owners, who swore that the images were the exact likeness of the Wests. "Her hair, done up in the old-fashioned way, made her look as natural as she did while she was living. She is in a sitting posture and looks as though she is engaged in some work, such as knitting. Beside her is Uncle Thomas, standing, and apparently looking down at the work that Aunt Nancy has in her lap."

For 160 years, there has been a term to describe the phenomenon of seeing faces, shapes and patterns where none appear: pareidolia (coined in 1866 by German psychiatrist Karl Ludwig Kalhbaum). Pareidolia is the accepted explanation for everything from the "man in the moon" to seeing the likeness of the Virgin Mary burned into a piece of toast, and it undoubtedly explains a great many supernatural, paranormal and religious visions. But it seems hard to chalk up the grand-nephew's account to the same phenomenon responsible for seeing a smiling or scowling face in the arrangement of a car's grille and headlights-- the detail is far too great, from the arrangement of Mrs. West's hair to the blue scarf draped over her shoulder.

And it doesn't seem likely, or even possible, that someone had perpetrated a hoax upon the good people of Allegheny County. The owners of the property, Mr. and Mrs. James Kemerer, were the sole inhabitants of the spacious farmhouse and occupied only the first floor, having no use for the upstairs or attic. So it was unlikely that husband and wife would both be standing as still as statues in front of a window above a stairway at the same time, for minutes on end, several days a week. Also, reports of the spectral faces predate the purchase of the house by the Kemerers. According to a neighbor, Ben Smith, he had noticed the peculiar reflection at least ten years earlier, just a few years after the death of Nancy West.

Illustration of the ghostly reflection, from the Pittsburgh Press, Nov. 1, 1903.

Reporter Skeptical

Not everyone who traveled to Homeville was convinced that Thomas and Nancy West were trying to deliver a supernatural message through glass, however. A Pittsburgh Press reporter admitted that he had indeed seen the curious reflection and that it did resemble the silhouettes of a man and a woman, but he failed to discern as much detail as the descendants of the home's original owners. But there may be a good reason for this; to see the images clearly, one had to stand at a spot near the kitchen window of a neighboring house about one hundred yards south of the West House. And, of course, the sunlight had to be just right. On a cloudy day the images were still visible, but not nearly as clear. The best viewing, according to witnesses, was in the early afternoon, between one o'clock and five o'clock. 

Unfortunately, the cloud conditions and the hour of day were not mentioned by the newspaper reporter who made the journey to Homeville in 1903. The reporter didn't even mention on which day he had gone to witness the spectacle, though he remarked that the crowd that day numbered in the hundreds, if not thousands. Ultimately, he was not impressed. "All this to see the reflection of sunlight in a window," he wrote. "The sight is anything but suggestive of the supernatural to the intelligent observer. It is simply a reflection that could be produced anywhere under similar circumstances. The very conditions under which the images appear is conclusive evidence that the pictures are not spiritual visitants."

One previous tenant, who was a close friend of the Wests when they were still alive, scoffed at the notion that old Tom and Nancy were playing tricks from beyond the grave. "I've seen them (the Wests) hundreds of times and was never able to make out any likeness," the former tenant told reporters. "We lived in the house for several years, moving away about ten years ago. We knew of the reflection on the window all the time. It caused us no source of alarm."

A crowd gathered to view the mysterious window

Theories Abound

Even Mrs. Kemerer admitted to knowing about the mysterious images, but dismissed the theory that she had anything to do with the strange sight. In fact, she willingly opened her door to anyone who wanted to investigate. "It is something we cannot understand," she confessed, "but we are sure there is nothing supernatural about it. I let persons look through the house that want to, so that they can see that we are not to blame for the presence of the pictures."

Like the Kemerers, many others insisted that there had to be a perfectly rational explanation for the images. Some believed the reflection was caused by the twin chimneys of a nearby house perched on a hilltop. Others insisted that the reflection was caused by the two tall trees growing in the family graveyard-- the very trees shadowing the graves of Thomas and Nancy West. Still others argued that the images were the result of defective glass.

One elderly woman who owned a shop in Homeville was questioned by a Pittsburgh reporter and admitted that she was a firm believer in the defective glass theory. "When that glass was made they did not know how to make glass as they do now, you know," said the elderly shopkeeper. "Well, this glass, I think, had some of the same properties as plates used in photography, like those used in making daguerreotypes, for instance. While this window glass was yet... unexposed, as it were... old Mr. and Mrs. West stood before them and their images were taken in the glass just like a negative for a picture. These images remained there, and are now only visible when the light falls upon them in a certain way."

Grave of Thomas West (from findagrave.com)

 

The Mystery Deepens

But there was one big problem with the elderly shopkeeper's explanation, however. As it turned out, Mrs. Kemerer, in an attempt to discourage gawkers and curiosity seekers from trampling her lawn, had already replaced the window, switching it with one of the others from the first floor, only to discover an entirely different picture now reflected in the glass. And this new image was even more unsettling-- according to several witnesses, it appeared to be an image of an Indian warrior with a raised tomahawk, ready to strike a fatal blow to a cowering foe.

Interestingly, Homeville lies directly across the Monongahela River from the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the French and Indian War. On July 9, 1755, British forces under the command of General Edward Braddock were routed by a much smaller band of Odawa, Ojibwe, Lenape and Potawatomi warriors led into battle by Chief Pontiac, Chief Shingas and French commanders Daniel Lienard de Beaujeu and Jean-Daniel Dumas. When the dust settled, the battlefield was strewn with the lifeless bodies of nearly 500 British soldiers, with an equal number wounded in battle. It is said that, during the Battle of the Monongahela, the Indians conducted psychological warfare by nailing the scalps of British soldiers to trees.

It was here where General Braddock was shot through the chest, receiving the wound that would extinguish his life four days later. According to contemporaneous accounts, the bodies of the dead were left to rot where they had fallen, and for years after the battle, their bones were plainly visible to travelers passing along what is now known as Braddock's Field.

The family cemetery as it appeared in 1903

Another elderly woman interviewed by the Pittsburgh Press believed that she knew the reason for this ghastly apparition. 

"The picture is that of the Indian chief Chaquita. He was one of the bravest of the aborigines that were found west of the Alleghenies. Of course, when this country was taken from his people by the English, all of his tribe were either killed or driven further west.

"This chief had a very handsome daughter, who was captured by a squad of soldiers near where Braddock now stands. Her mother was afterward killed and what became of the daughter was never known. Chacquita vowed eternal vengeance on the whites for the loss of his wife and daughter, and for many years after the early settlers began to make homes through these valleys it is said that he still haunted the woods and occasionally swooped down upon one and slew him with a tomahawk." The elderly woman told the reporter that the scalping, as depicted by the reflection in the glass, had taken place on the hill where the West Home stood, and the victim had been an ancestor of the West family. She insisted that the entire farm was cursed.

"You noticed that the old well at the side of the house has been filled up," she continued. "Well, that was the best water in that well of any place on the farm. But after old Mr. and Mrs. West died the water suddenly became bad. It was unfit to drink."

Although the Kemerers were skeptics of the paranormal, the haunting image of the angry Indian, quite understandably, compelled Mrs. Kemerer to once again switch out the window pane, and for a little while everything seemed normal. But, in time, the reflection of Thomas and Nancy West returned. This was in August of 1903, around the time when one of Thomas and Nancy's daughters, Martha Ann Oldshue, grew ill and passed away in Pittsburgh at the age of 78. It seemed to many that the window apparition was at its clearest and most vivid whenever a member of the family passed away.

The graveyard as it appears today (findagrave.com photo by Roseanne Kocinski-Fowler)

 
Image Grows More Vivid With Death

The elderly Homeville resident continued her explanation. "It is a long, long story. To understand, you must go back to the time that the Wests were living in the house. All that land out about that house they owned. The old couple were considered wealthy. Tom West was not miserly though. I knew him well. He came by all his wealth honestly, and if there was ever an honest man, he was one.

"Well, old Mr. and Mrs. West were finally laid side by side in that little graveyard on the top of the hill, not far from the house. As soon as they had been buried their pictures began to appear in the window. At first they were very plain and every feature was visible. In the course of a year or more they began to grow dimmer and dimmer. Then another member of the family was buried in the graveyard, and the pictures became brighter. And so it has been ever since. Whenever a member of the family was buried there, the pictures at once got plainer.

"Mrs. Oldshue was the last to be buried there. She was a daughter of the Wests and her remains were brought here for burial several months ago. The pictures again got brighter."

She then went on to relate the experience of a friend who happened to visit the home of Ben Smith, the neighbor who first noticed the ghostly reflection a decade earlier.

"She had never been told of the old people's pictures in the window. One day as she was sitting at the window in Smith's kitchen she remarked to Mrs. Smith, 'Who are those old people who are always sitting at that window over there?', pointing to the West residence. Then Mrs. Smith told her all about the pictures." A few days later, a spiritualist from Homestead happened to learn about the mysterious window and she spread the world all over town and from that point on hordes of people descended upon the property, much to the chagrin of Mr. and Mrs. Kemerer.

 

The Image Vanishes For Good

In the following years, as the Pittsburgh region became an industrial powerhouse, the landscape of Mifflin Township changed dramatically. Farmland was overtaken by residential development, leading to the formation of independent municipalities like Homestead, Duquesne, Munhall and Jefferson Hills. By January of 1944, Mifflin Township was no more, its remaining portions having been incorporated as the borough of West Mifflin, which now includes what used to be the quiet little hamlet of Homeville.
It's unclear when the fabled West farmhouse was torn down, but the land the family once owned is now a residential neighborhood, and the only reminder of its former life is the little family cemetery shrouded by trees, on the hill that had once been an Indian burial ground.

To the so-called "enlightened" mind, the story of the Homeville apparitions can be easily dismissed as a natural occurrence, a combination of pareidolia and the refraction of light. And perhaps it was. But those who are truly enlightened aren't in any way averse to fanciful thinking; everything from radio and television to air and space travel was inspired by someone who dared to ask, "What if?"

And how quickly these so-called "enlightened" minds thumb their noses at silly superstitions, such as the superstition that cameras and mirrors can steal your soul. From North America to Africa and Australia, early encounters with photography led some indigenous people to believe this might be the case. Today, most historians insist that the natives never really believed this; they claim that it's merely a trope or a cliche concocted by the white man to portray indigenous peoples as simple and ignorant. But that's a simple and ignorant way of looking at things.

Long before cameras existed, the belief that mirrors could trap the soul was shared by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans-- the same primitive people who laid the foundations of applied mathematics, astronomy, architecture, politics, art and philosophy; the same 'ignorant" people who built coliseums and pyramids that will long outlive those "enlightened" minds who refuse to ask "What if?" And, not surprisingly, these are the very same people who will tell you that the soul itself is nothing but a myth.

But what if there is some connection between the soul and reflective surfaces? The word "photography" also has Greek roots-- it literally translates into "drawing with light". If some native Americans believed that a soul could be trapped by capturing light and focusing it onto a light-sensitive surface, then it stands to reason that light could also project a soul onto a surface. In 1903, the Homeville apparition skeptics claimed that the images were a distorted reflection of trees from the family cemetery. And maybe they were right, in a way. What if the souls of Thomas and Nancy West and the vengeful Indian chief Chaquita were projected from the old burial grounds-- where the moldering bones of forgotten natives are intermingled with the remains of the West family-- onto the Kemerer's picture window by some supernatural force? 

Perhaps it was Shakespeare who put it best, in Act 1 of Hamlet, when the Prince of Denmark explains encountering the ghost of his deceased father to his friend, the "enlightened" scholar, Horatio: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."