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One of the canal's
builders, Edward G. Gill traveled with his wife and infant daughter
Gretchen to Ohio from Ireland. Sadly, Mrs. Gill died en route and was
buried at sea.
In 1834, Edward Gill began work on the canal, building the large lock seen on the left. Tragedy would strike the Gill family once again.
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In 1837, the same year
the Hambletons established Sprucevale, young Gretchen fell ill with malaria
and died. According to State Park records, Gretchen was said to have
cried "I want to join my mother" during her fevers and delusional spells.
Edward Gill, grief-stricken over the loss of his daughter, entombed Gretchen's coffin in the walls of this canal lock. He had planned to bury her in Ireland. After the canal's failure in 1852, he left for Ireland with Gretchen's remains. However, they never made it back home. The ship sank, taking Gretchen and her father with it.
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It is said that
Gretchen's ghost still wanders the canal and haunts this lock, crying
because she still has not joined her mother.
Many variations of this story exist. For instance, in the 1952 book The Sandy & Beaver Canal, William H.Vodrey Jr. & R. Max Gard write that Gretchen was the daughter of Hans Gil and that the Gil family were from Holland. No mention is made of the mother's death, and the actual date of Gretchen's death is noted as August 12, 1838. Gretchen's ghost can be seen at the lock on the anniversary of her death. UPDATE: Local historian George Swetnam wrote in his anthology, Devils, Ghosts and Witches: Occult Folklore of the Upper Ohio Valley (1988), that Gretchen's ghost will appear saying, "Bury me with my mother." This was Gretchen's dying prayer.
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The lock itself is quite large, as evidenced by this photo. And eerie. The sounds here were quite unusual, but are probably explained by the acoustics produced by these walls, as well as cars traveling over a nearby iron bridge. It is accessible approximately 1/2 mile along a trail found near a group campsite, just off Sprucevale road. |
ESTHER HALE
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Sprucevale bride-to-be, Esther Hale, was stood up on her wedding day. Broken-hearted, she never took her wedding gown off, and would wander the city and the bridge in the hopes that her groom would return. When townsfolk noticed that she stopped coming around, they went to her house only to find that she had been dead for several days. And still wearing her wedding veil and gown.
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HAMBLETON MILL
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Just across this bridge to the right is Hambleton Mill, one of the few remaining artifacts of the town of Sprucevale. The legend here is quite simple. It is believed that a Quaker preacher haunts this mill. Others say that it is Esther Hale's ghost, seen as a white, misty apparition floating around the mill. UPDATE: According to Historical Collections of the Little Beaver Valleys, etc. (1914), Esther Hale was a "Quaker Lady preacher" whose ghost appears at this mill every Christmas Eve and writes the word "Come" on the stone walls. |
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To the left, a shot of the barred windows on the side of the mill. The mill was restored in 1974, but it does not appear that much has been done since then. |
THE LITTLE BOY
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The other remaining Sprucevale building is believed to be haunted by a young boy who hung himself from the rafters. The legend goes on to state that the boy's spirit does not like visitors to this place. Anomalies will appear in any pictures taken of the building. Well, we can put that story to rest. To the left and below are pictures of the building. Near as we can tell, no anomalies appeared in these pictures--and we even used a digital camera!
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PRETTY BOY FLOYD
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