August 9, 1896, began like any other Sunday. Townspeople attended worship services. Families gathered at noon for a meal together. As the day slipped into the afternoon, children swam in local creeks as adults sat on their front porches sipping lemonade.
That evening at Chickies Park (spelled Chiques at the time) overlooking the Susquehanna River there was a sacred band concert of spiritual music. Then, like today, Chickies Rock was a popular summer destination. In fact, at the turn of the 19th century, there was even an amusement park near the overlook.
People could ride the hub and spoke network of trolley lines to visit from almost anywhere in Lancaster County. Sadly, no remnants of this amusement park remain today.
Towards the end of the concert, there was a severe storm that delayed the arrival of the trolley from Marietta. It was common practice not to operate the trolleys during a thunderstorm.
When the four-wheel car No. 61 of the Pennsylvania Traction Company arrived after the storm, with Adam Foehlinger as a motorman and Harry Hershey as a conductor, the car was engulfed by passengers eager to get home. The trolley’s capacity was 28, but possibly 80 adults and children climbed aboard. Every seat was quickly filled, then the aisles, and every bit of space on the front and back platforms.
At about 10 p.m., the overloaded car started its downhill ride toward Columbia. At Klinesville, about a mile from Columbia, two women signaled to get off. However, due to the weight of the car and the wet rails, the trolley was unable to stop at the crossing, going an extra 150 feet before coming to a full stop. The car was then backed up so the women could disembark.
Underway again, the trolley began to move forward on the steep slope, increasing in speed. Problems for the overloaded trolley worsened as millions of potato bugs swarmed over the rails, making the overworked brakes ineffective.
The increase in speed caused the trolley pole to leave the overhead wire, cutting the electricity and plunging the interior into darkness. With no brakes and in complete darkness, the passengers broke out into screams. The trolley car eventually hit 60 miles per hour.
On a curve, the wheels left the rails. The car careened wildly across a road, snapping off a gatepost, then sliding on its side for 75 feet, striking a tree, then a trolley pole, and dropping over a 30-foot embankment. It ended on its top, with wheels and a motor high in the air.
The accident killed six people, including the mayor of Columbia H. H. Heise, motorman Foehlinger, William Pinkerton, Henry Smith, W. J. Ludlow, and William Metzger. In addition, another 68 people were injured.
After the accident, a safety switch was installed at Klinesville, and all trolley cars were required to stop there. Damage claims from the tragic disaster aided by company mismanagement forced the Pennsylvania Traction Company, which had operated the line, out of business. The Marietta to Columbia route was later folded into the Conestoga Traction Company.
The Curse of Chickies Rock
Towards the end of the 19th Century, three sisters lived in a small house atop Chiques Hill in an area at the time referred to as “The Rock.” It was a common belief by many in town that these women were practitioners of the Black Arts.
The sisters, witches or not, were content to be left alone away from the progress of a rapidly modernizing world. Unfortunately, progress and greed felt differently.
Most trolley companies of that era had one or more amusement parks along their routes to help enhance summer revenues and provide a place for weekend outings. Conestoga Traction Company had Rocky Springs and Maple Grove, so it made sense the Columbia & Donegal Electric Railway would want one, too.
The plan was to build tracks along the side of the ridge from Columbia with a completion date of 1893. The railway would climb 1,900 feet on a 6% grade, running on the west side of Chickies Hill Road and then curving sharply west to reach Chickies Park. It was here that an amusement park would be built on the west end of the ridge, atop Chickies Rock, overlooking the Susquehanna. The only problem was the home occupied by the three sisters sat squarely in the middle of the proposed site.
The C&D began purchasing all the needed parcels of land. Most were eager to sell, except for the sisters. The C&D made several offers. Each was more generous than the one before. But the sisters refused every time. They would never give up their ancestral home.
Railway officials discussed building the park around the sisters, but given the controversy of them possibly being witches, the plan was scrapped. Left with no alternative, the trolley company convinced local officials to give them the land through eminent domain.
Left with no choice, the sisters made a suicide pact. But before they followed through, the sisters turned to the black arts for revenge. They cast a spell from the Sixth and Seventh Book of Moses to curse the land in an affirmation that greed on the part of the new owners would certainly bring death.
The Sixth and Seventh Book of Moses is an 18th- or 19th-century black magic text allegedly written by Moses and passed down as one of the hidden books of the Jewish Tanakh. Eventually, the text was brought here to Lancaster County by German immigrants. The book is rumored to be the most powerful of the series. According to lore, this book of dark magic cannot be destroyed unless cast into the fire by a boy born on the Sabbath.
A series of costly mishaps preceded this tragedy, both in the construction of the park and its operation. The trolley line was abandoned on April 25, 1932. It’s believed that their black magic spell still curses the ground today. Read more about the haunting of Chickies Rock here.
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1894 map of Columbia, Pennsylvania$27.99 – $34.99
Resources
- A Brief History of Transportation in Lancaster County
- Then and Now: When Lancaster abandoned its trolleys
- Hiking to Chickies Rock in Lancaster County, PA
- Do Potato Bugs Bite? Here Everything You Need To Know About Potato Bug
- Pennsylvania Traction Company car no. 2
- Ghosthunting Pennsylvania (America’s Haunted Road Trip)
- The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses