Ghost stories emanate from the cold and dark woods that surround us. Each little town and village has its fable, each family passes down a certain brand of their own paranormal tales..
Some of the greatest tall tales of all come from Native American tribes–handed down and passed down through the centuries until today. We have what’s left of the stories, as they change and evolve through the years..
Enter Sculp’s Hill, a little known story that seems to be centered on the Orwigsburg, New Ringgold, McKeansburg, and Schuylkill Haven.
NATIVES VS INVADERS
Many generations ago, European settlers would raise fear over stories of Native Americans attacking settlers in the towns mentioned.. According to those supposed events, Natives would slaughter men and the women would be carried off to serve as slaves for the tribe!
Sculp’s Hill, located in Brunswick Township, was the said to be the location where the attackers would meet before and after an their battles. The original name of the hill was Scalp’s, or Scallop’s, named these due to the Native attackers bringing the scalps of the recently killed to decorate their spears…
Here is where the haunted tale comes in: Adam Johann Buss was one of the settlers who lost his life in one of these attacks. According to what has been said, Buss and his family lived in a log cabin in the woods near Scalp’s Hill in an area now known as Pinedale. He was killed in 1755, but owners if the properly claimed that his spirit stayed in the cabin.
So what proof exists of all of this?
IS THIS STORY BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE?
Well we know that the Reading EAGLE published a story in October 2020 that Judy Bolton, who bought the Buss property, said she felt an “eerie presence.”
Bolton even told the paper that she sometimes feels caresses on her face that gives her goosebumps.
She also told the news rag that vacuums go off and on, as do lights.. And with that, electrical disturbances happen during new moons.
But proving any of this? I mean.. we are talking 1755..
Legitimate sources are hard to find at the time. Generations move on, stories sometimes don’t.. those that do, well, they change–considerably at times.
There are references to the 1755 massacre of Buss and others on Sculp’s hill, such as this October 18 1894 (wow think of how long ago this was) snippet in the Pottsville REPUBLICAN that makes reference of someone who likes to visit Sculp’s Hill — a little point about how it got its name is included:
Beyond that, and some little peppering of history in the annals of fishwrappers about how settlers took certain area from Natives, there is not much more to back up much of anything regarding the ghost tales of Sculp’s Hill.
We did find that 1755 was a busy year for attacks between natives and settlers.. as a matter of fact, this really interesting post on a Military History forum gives us some good info about 1755 attacks featuring names like Swatara.. Weiser.. Penn’s Creek.
But ZIPPO on Scalp’s Hill the same year!
LOOKING FOR THE EXPERTS
They were kind enough to respond to the request.
Unfortunately, they ran into a roadblock as well and could not locate anything specifically on Adam Johann Buss.
The Society did send an interesting series of articles on some other massacres from the time period in question.. we share that with you here:
So .. in the end, we are unable to provide verification that the story of Adam Johann Buss and his haunted cabin are true..
But it’s a haunted tale, and it’s in those strange woods.
We will take it for what it is..
A story of a haunting. We need those in October, after all..
