Category: Gettysburg Residents
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Preserving Black History at The Jack Hopkins House
The Adams County Historical Society and the managers of Lincoln Cemetery announced in October 2025 that they would restore the Jack Hopkins House and turn it into a black history museum. Why did prominent historians in town choose the Jack Hopkins house? As various articles explain, the house itself is possibly the last edifice in…
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Truth and Legend on the John Forney Farm
The Legend of John Forney, his wanderings, his farm, and the role of his property in the Battle of Gettysburg was forged during his own lifetime. Forney’s property today is home to the Eternal Light Peace Memorial, and tales of the disaster of Iverson’s Brigade on his land are told on most tours. Further, ghost…
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The Dobbin House, the Underground Railroad, and a History of Hauntings
I was once having dinner with a work colleague at the Dobbin House. It was a quiet late winter day, and we had been doing work on a phone app. The fine dining was slower than usual, and several tables sat empty around us. A table just across from us had two married couples—clearly tourists,…
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Tillie Pierce: Her Battlefield Account, Family, and Haunted House
Today, the story of Tillie Pierce and her family has been subsumed by the story of the battle, Tillie’s recollections of it, and the landmark house that is now a bed and breakfast. Like the Jennie Wade House, the Hotel Gettysburg, the Farnsworth House Inn, and the Rupp House and Tannery, the site has also…
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The Rupp House and Tannery: A House Divided . . . and Haunted
The Rupp House is close to the Jennie Wade House and the Farnsworth House Inn, and it’s just south of the Hotel Gettysburg. It stands at 451 Baltimore Street in Gettysburg, PA, and today houses the Children of Gettysburg 1863® museum (a Gettysburg Foundation interactive history center). In the 1860s this Gothic-Revival home belonged to…
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Thirsty Soldiers and the Mysterious Woman in White at Spangler’s Spring
In the years shortly before the war and shortly after, Spangler’s Spring was a gathering spot for the town. Newspaper notices often carried announcements of Fourth of July celebrations or political gatherings at the site. Likewise, it was a center point for visitors at Culp’s Hill. In the first several decades after the war, Culp’s…
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The Daniel Lady Farm: Bloody Floors, Carvings, and Ghosts
The Daniel Lady Farm near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is known both for its pivotal Civil War history and for ghostly legends. John Forney, owner of the land of Iverson’s pits, could relate well to the Ladys. But more than just the dead in the fields, the house and barn have permanent reminders of the war (similar…
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The Ghosts at Iverson’s Pits: Why Workers on the John Forney Farm Avoided this Burial Site
On certain foggy evenings at Gettysburg, witnesses claim to hear faint moaning voices and see pale lights floating above a quiet ridge. This unassuming patch of farmland—known as Iverson’s Pits—hides a grim legacy. Here on July 1, 1863, nearly an entire North Carolina brigade was cut down in minutes during the Battle of Gettysburg. In…
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Is the Basement Really Haunted at Pennsylvania Hall?
People trying to explain the inexplicable at Pennsylvania Hall often suggest that hugely traumatic events leave an energy or an imprint on a place and that the imprint will then sometimes “play,” like an old record on a record player if someone cranks it up. My father was a rational man who practiced law and…
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It’s Called ‘Devil’s Den,’ So It’s Haunted, Right?
On the afternoon of 2 July 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the jumble of pink granite boulders at the southern end of the battlefield became the scene of intense fighting. Known today as Devil’s Den, the rocky defile marked the left flank of General Dan Sickles’s extension of the Union line, and its capture…