Free Forgotten Tales of Pennsylvania by Thomas White Page A

County. Today, what is left of the town is submerged under the reservoir behind the Conemaugh River Dam. The dam was constructed as a result of the Flood Control Acts of 1936 and 1938. The acts were passed after the great St. Patrick’s Day flood submerged parts of Pittsburgh and most of the other river towns in the southwestern part of the state. Livermore was already in decline because of the impact of previous floods, and the 1936 flood sealed the town’s fate. The best location for the dam would necessitate that the town be abandoned. Most but not all of the buildings and remaining structures were torn down before the area was intentionally flooded in 1952.
    T HE G REAT C IRCLE H UNT AT P OMFRET C ASTLE
    Circle hunts, also known as animal drives, were common in parts of Pennsylvania until the 1830s. The hunts involved gathering as many hunters as possible and spreading them out in a large circle in the woods. The hunters would drive any game in their path toward a central clearing, where they could fire on the animals and kill many more than would have been possible on their own.
    One of the largest recorded circle hunts occurred at Pomfret Castle, a French and Indian War fort, in 1760. It was led by a hunter named “Black Jack” Swartz. He organized over two hundred hunters in a circle thirty miles in diameter. The hunters made a variety of noises and fired their guns to push the wildlife toward the central clearing. When the gunfire was over, the hunters had killed 109 wolves, 112 foxes, 17 black bears, 41 panthers, 198 deer, 2 elk, 111 buffaloes, 114 bobcats and over 500 smaller animals.
    Even the two hundred hunters and their families could not use all the animals. The smell of their decomposition drove settlers from their cabins up to three miles away. Eventually, some of the remains were buried to control the stench.
    S OME C ASES OF S PONTANEOUS H UMAN C OMBUSTION
    Spontaneous combustion in humans is a phenomenon that is not accepted by all scientists. When it occurs, a person is reduced to ashes by an incredibly intense fire that starts on or in him. Usually the surrounding area suffers little damage, but the victim is incinerated. It is not known how or why this happens. Pennsylvania has a few recorded cases of the unexplainable fire.
    On January 28, 1907, a case was reported in Pittsburgh. Albert Houk’s wife was reduced to ashes. The area of the house that she was sitting in had no fire damage. It was as if she was consumed from the inside out.
    Helen Conway of Drexel Hill suffered a similar horrible fate on November 8, 1964. Conway was a smoker, and an occasionally careless one at that. Initially, it was believed that she accidentally caught herself on fire. All that remained of her were her legs from the knees down and part of the chair she had been sitting in. Investigators took a closer look when they assembled a timeline for the fire. They realized that the entire thing happened in as little as six minutes and could not have taken longer than twenty. There was too much damage done in such a small amount of time. The true cause remains a mystery.
    Two years later in Coudersport, there was another incident. A ninety-two-year-old retired doctor named John Bentley was apparently consumed by flames. His charred walker and part of his leg were discovered in a bathroom on the first floor of his home. The fire had burned a small hole through the floor. Nothing remained of the rest of Bentley but ashes.
    S AM M OHAWK M URDERED THE W IGTONS
    A gruesome murder occurred in Butler County in July 1843. The entire Wigton family, except for James, the husband and father, was massacred by an Indian known as Sam Mohawk in a drunken rage. Mohawk was a Seneca originally from New York. He had been traveling south through Pennsylvania, presumably looking for work, and drinking heavily in taverns along the way.
    After Mohawk became heavily intoxicated at the Stone Tavern, several bar patrons pitched in to get