California Hill

First of all, let me explain that I grew up in a small community out in the country known as California. There had been a time when it was a thriving community with a post office, general store, hotel, church and a school. Up until a few years ago the old one room schoolhouse still remained on the hill, however, it burned to the ground when it was being remodeled into a dwelling. The new owners did not give up and reused the original stone to build a new home. Now only the road and the California E.C. Church retain the old name. Growing up in the area one gets to hear many of the local stories, which are handed down from generation to generation. Currently four generations of my family, who helped settle the community, reside on the hill.

Perhaps one of the better-known stories and one of my personal favorites is how the hill community got to be called California. Directly behind California Church was the house of John W. Spotts, my great grandfather. There was a grove of trees(now gone) between the church and the California Farms which was owned by a man named William Murphy. Mr. Murphy took excellent care of that wooded area, cleaning out all underbrush and dead wood. He would walk out every week to tend the grove and walk through the trees then go back to town. He resided in Churchtown. As he got older he wasn't able to make the trip as often until finally he was unable to make the trip at all.

On is deathbed he had sent for my ancestor who, not knowing the other gentleman very well did not make the trip to his house. When Mr. Spotts did not arrive, Mr. Murphy made his final request again. Mr. Spotts still delayed going to Mr. Murphy's side and in the meantime Murphy passed away.

Mr. Murphy was never thought of as being a rich man. He paid in gold for everything he purchased but never over spent. He saved his money for old age. People thought he was frugal and industrious. They never thought he was miserly. He was never thought to have much of anything except the grove of trees.

Upon his death his executors found among his belongings a chest, which contained thousands of dollars in gold coins as well as a deposit slip for a Reading bank in the amount of 25,000 dollars. Questions were soon brought up as to why he called for Mr. Spotts. And why did he visit the grove so often? Was there something there? Did he have something to tell my great grandfather?

We are all familiar with the California Gold rush. Well this small community had one of there own as well. Once the rumors were spread people from all areas came to find the gold buried in the hill. On top of the hill is where the old hotel was now long closed. It was rumored that the treasure was buried on that farm. There is a twist to this tale. The treasure was not only buried but an invisible spirit guarded it. One could only dig for the gold at a certain time of the night and in the light of the moon. A family burial plot on a neighboring farm was violated. It was thought that the hex could be broken by the use of a charm, the nail from a coffin.

This was in a time when it was thought that misers always buried their gold and set a spirit to protect the fortune. Breaking a spell is not as easy as it sounds. The person who had hidden the treasure would sometimes sprinkle the blood of an animal over the spot, there would be mumbling and signs drawn to call up a genie or spirit. If it were the first the treasure hunter would have to find the same animal and sprinkles its blood over or near the area before digging. If it were the latter than the charm would do the trick. The charm be a nail taken from a coffin was much more powerful if it was taken from the grave of a child born out of wedlock.

A charmed circle in which this invisible spirit would stand guard surrounded the treasure. This spirit would rest at night between sunset and midnight. It was only during that time that one could dig for the treasure. One could dig under the condition that not a word was spoken in the circle. It was thought the treasure itself would shift spots if the slightest sound were made. It was also thought that if you failed on the first attempt you had to wait seven years before trying again. The farms were dug up numerous times yet no one had actually found anything gold coins did show up in the area and the digging stopped. Or at least it has slowed down a bit. Even now a lone person with a metal detector can be spotted on the surrounding farms from time to time.

Log Cabin on California Hill

Not far from the Spotts farm was an old log cabin, which has long since disappeared. There were ghostly visitors to this cabin. At certain hours of the night a mysterious racket would be heard coming from the cellar and then the occupants would hear the sound of someone walking up the cellar stairs. Then the door going to the stairs would open and close and someone or something would walk away from the door. Then the same racket as before would be heard from the garret. No one wanted to live in the cabin.
The ghostly visitors in the house were due to a log, which should not have been used. The owner of the cabin had torn down the first cabin to build the second house. While tearing down the first house the skull of a child was found i the ground of a log that was later used to build the second cabin. The owner was quoted as saying "That log should never have been used in building the second house..."

California School House

There were always stories about the old school house as well. My own mother had attended this one room schoolhouse as an elementary school student. Perhaps because it was one of the older buildings in our neighborhood it was bound to have a ghost story or two attached to it. At midnight on a full one was said to be able to hear the cry of an infant coming from the basement. On those same occasion the rocker on the front porch was supposed to sway back and forth. As a young child I could never bring myself to go past the schoolhouse on a full moon. I have never seen the strange goings on there but my older cousins swear they have seen it.

The Swamp

I am reminded by my Mother of another story about the swamp at the north end of California hill. Just as the road starts to incline again slightly past my Grandparents place and the turn off to go to Zerbe Sisters Nursing home (once the Rigg Farm) there is an old swamp. The swamp itself had been much larger before the ponds were built. On certain nights my mother remembers seeing two ghostly figures walking through the swamp toward the road. They were cloudy figures about the height of a young man and they would just drift toward the road and disappear before they got there. Once the ponds were built the ghost no longer haunted the grounds. Was it swamp gas or were their spirits disturbed never to return? It is a good possibility that they were indeed ghost for two men had died in that swamp many years before. In 1876 a man by the name of John Weller had been killed. When he did not return home a search party went out to find him. He was found dead among a pile of large boulders out in the swamp. He had been struck in the back of the head with a club or an ax. The murder was never found.

Several months later, during the winter months, his son Dan went missing. Finally his body was fond near the stone fence where is father’s body had been found. He too had died from a blow to the head. It was thought that he simply slipped and hit his head on the stones and died there in the cold. Was it an accident or did someone kill him? We will never know.

As the saying goes, "everything happens in threes" a blow to the head killed another member of the family while he was playing baseball. The young man was hit in the head with a ball during the game and was killed by the injury. The injury just happened to be in the same area in the back of the head where John Weller’s injuries had occurred. There is a strange similarity about these deaths all occurring in the same family and all being caused by a blow to the head.