Legends & Lore of Little Beaver Creek

by Michael Kishbucher

Overview

A dark and bloody past lurks beneath the folklore of the Little Beaver Creek watershed in Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. The first American frontiersmen hesitantly settled this region in the late 1700s following more than forty years of warfare. Fables like Barbara Davidson, the Pig Lady of Cannelton, sprang from this long, horrific conflict. The legends of Esther Hale, the White Lady of Sprucevale, and Gretchen's Lock rose shortly thereafter, whereas the age of the Indian Rock petroglyph remains hotly debated. Today, most locals know these stories. But few know the purpose of Indian Rock or why Barbara's restless spirit sometimes appears with a pig's head. Using methods honed over twenty years of service as a Department of Defense intelligence analyst, author Michael Kishbucher uncovers the history and potential origins of these and other tales.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781540238825
Publisher:	History Press Library Editions
Publication date:	05/27/2019
Series:	No Series Linked
Pages:	146
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

Michael Kishbucher resides in Virginia with his wife and daughters but grew up in Cannelton, Pennsylvania, and Negley, Ohio. He first learned intelligence tradecraft while serving in the United States Air Force. He earned a Master of Science degree in strategic intelligence from the Department of Defense's National Intelligence University, and he now analyzes adversarial military capability for the Defense Intelligence Agency as a civilian in federal service. Michael doesn't believe in ghosts, and he thinks it's bizarre that authors always write their bios in third person.

Table of Contents

Foreword 9

Preface 13

Acknowledgements 15

Introduction. Little Beaver Creek: A Wild and Scenic Bloody River 17

1 Mansfield the Mythmaker 21

2 The Pig Lady of Pennsylvania's Pioneer Era 27

3 Esther Hale: An Ohio Ghost Town's Lady in White 69

4 Gretchen's Lock 80

5 The Fennell House and Other Lesser Known little Beaver Legends 89

6 Knobs, Frauds and the Cannelton Sun God 105

Conclusions of a Grand Experiment 127

Notes 133

Bibliography 139

About the Author 143