Free Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into Pennsylvania by Bathroom Readers’ Institute Page A

thecolonists to foot the bill. Taxation, of course, eventually helped spark the American Revolution—a conflict largely directed by a more experienced General George Washington, who never surrendered again.
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    Did You Know?
    Penn State University is one of the largest and most respected universities in the United States. Here are some facts about the school:
    â€¢The university’s main campus in State College, Pennsylvania, has been a site of higher learning since 1855, when the state general assembly created the first school on the property: an agricultural college called the Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania.
    â€¢With more than 40,000 students enrolled, the State College campus is the largest in the Penn State system. But 23 other campuses around the state serve an additional 40,000 students.
    â€¢Penn State is ranked among the United States’ top-15 universities and is often called one of America’s “public Ivies.”
    â€¢The university’s Beaver Stadium—home of the famous Nittany Lions football team—is the second-largest college stadium in the United States, with 107,282 seats. (The University of Michigan’s stadium is the largest.)

Good Scares
    Here’s a tour of some of Pennsylvania’s Erie . . . er, eerie spots .
Altoona: The Baker Mansion
    The Ghosts: Elias and Anna Baker
    The Story: In 1836, Elias Baker and his cousin bought an iron furnace near Altoona, and he moved his wife and two sons there from Lancaster County. His daughter Anna was born a couple of years later, and at first, the family lived in a small home near the furnace. But in 1844, Baker bought his cousin out and kept all the profits from the furnace for himself. Now a wealthy man, he spent the next five years building his family a 28-room mansion. With limestone walls, marble fireplaces, and decorations made from the iron produced at the furnace, the Baker home was lavish.
    The family, however, wasn’t always happy there. Young Anna Baker wanted to marry a local man whom her father deemed “unsuitable.” He forbade the marriage, and even though Anna was angry with her father, she lived in the house until she died in 1914 in her 70s.
    Haunted Happenings: Today, the Baker mansion is a museum and the site of the Blair County Historical Society. Employees and visitors have reported a number of mysterious sightings—everything from Elias Baker’s ghostly form on the stairs to strange orbs showing up in digital photos. One employee even said that she heard someone whispering her name when she was closing up for the night. But the most dramatic occurrences involve Anna Baker’s wedding dress.
    When her father forced her to cancel her wedding, Annapacked up her white wedding dress and hid it away. Years later, the historical society put it on display in a glass case. But according to a report the society keeps of all haunted happenings in the mansion, several people said they’ve seen the dress case shaking and the dress rocking back and forth.
Cashtown: The Cashtown Inn
    The Ghosts: Confederate soldiers and various children
    The Story: Peter Marck built the Cashtown Inn, a rest stop for travelers, eight miles outside Gettysburg in 1797. The inn (and later, the town) took their name from the fact that Marck issued no credit and always insisted that patrons pay in gold or silver before he’d give them a room.
    In late June 1863, Confederate soldiers under the command of General Ambrose P. Hill took over the inn. Robert E. Lee had gotten word that the Union army was on its way, and he ordered Hill to hold Cashtown, which was situated on one of the Confederacy’s supply routes. The inn was the perfect place for the soldiers to stay. It had comfortable rooms, a stable for horses, an oven for baking bread, and a freshwater spring. The inn also served as a Confederate hospital; soldiers wounded at Gettysburg were transported to the inn via carriages and