The Haunting of the Sammet Farm
Over a century ago, a ghastly crime was committed on a Lancaster County farm situated along Lititz Run, about midway between Zook's Mill and Rothsville Mill, in the shadows of Owl Hill. The brutal deaths of Richard Sammet and Kate Nagle Hornberger so rippled the peaceful countryside that countless locals insisted that the farm on which the tragedy occurred was haunted. In 1924, 32-year-old Richard Sammet owned a sawmill and small farm between Rothsville and Millport. For eight years Richard had shared his home with 43-year-old Mrs. Kate Nagle Hornberger, but their relationship was one of constant quarreling, as Richard was insanely jealous of Kate. In this home also lived their three year old son, Richard, Jr. and two sons from Kate's previous marriage, Robert, age 8, and Albert, age 14. Richard's aged mother, Catherine Sammet, lived alone on the second floor of the farmhouse, having refused to live with Richard and Kate because they were unmarried. Nine years earlier, ...
