This adventure is more of the background story than the actual trip itself. When I was camping in Erie over the summer I knew I just had to track down the location of one of Pennsylvania's greatest legends, General Mad Anthony Wayne. The man was a legend in life and in death, haunted while he was alive and returning the favor after he too had passed on. This one grave represents two of the best ghost stories the Keystone State has ever had: Trotter's Curse and Mad Anthony's Bones. They are perhaps the best tale of the state as it takes place in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Erie, and literally everywhere in between.Full story, adventure write-up, and pictures after the jump...
Fair warning, this is a long one that I've split into three parts... but it's totally worth it.
"Mad Anthony"
To truly appreciate theses tales, you must appreciate the man in his earliest setting and get a feel for his strange but bold persona.
As the American Revolution raged on, many heroes became legendary through their acts of courage. Anthony Wayne was one of them. He was infamous among the colonial battalions for fighting alongside his men on the front lines, an act unheard of from any officer in that era. The native of Philadelphia gained his truest notoriety during his siege of Stony Point. This British stronghold was seemingly impenetrable, surrounded by water, cliffs and swamps on all sides. Wayne encouraged his troops to approach silently with unloaded muskets through the swamp so as to completely surprise their enemies that had them entirely outnumbered. When they snuck in close enough, they attacked using only their bayonets and other melee weapons. Anthony Wayne personally led them in, and, despite being shot in the head by an enemy musket, carried on toward an improbable but bloody victory.
While being tended for his wounds, George Washington came to commend the brigadier general on his success and express his immense surprise on his willingness to push into such a risky endeavor. Anthony Wayne proudly exclaimed that he would bravely storm the gates of Hell itself if Washington so ordered. A nearby soldier, overhearing Wayne's boast of pure insanity, shouted "the man is mad!" And so the appropriate moniker "Mad Anthony" had begun, but his legend was only to grow.
Trotter's Curse
Following the Revolution, Mad Anthony retained military command for the young fledgling nation thanks to the brilliance he had already showed as a tacticion and leader. While preparing for wars on the natives in the frontier, Mad Anthony encamped his men near modern day Pittsburgh. These days he spent more time drinking than planning for battles, leaving much of the work for his assistants such as a young man by the name of John Trotter.
One day Trotter wanted to ask for a few days of leave to visit with his pregnant wife when he encountered a severely intoxicated Mad Anthony. He sheepishly made his request and had to dodge an empty liquor bottle as his general told him "I don't care what the hell you as long as you get out of my goddamn sight!" Trotter reluctantly took this as permission to take his leave.
The two days later Mad Anthony, still drunk on the same binge, began beligerently screaming "Trotter!" from his tent as he stumbled about looking for a map. Informed that Trotter had left to see his wife, the drunkard forgot his previous approvals and angrily determined that he was a deserter that must be executed immediately for treason. He ordered the three nearest soldiers to find him and kill him on sight. Afraid that they too would befall the same fate, the men enacted their search.
Trotter was on his way back to the encampment, joyous that he had finally seen his wife again, when he was ambushed by his fellow soldiers. The three men bound him and informed him of their orders. Trotter pleaded his case but the soldiers feared their fate if they returned without completing their mission. Trotter, a deeply religious man, asked for one final request: a Bible to read aloud for a moment. The soldiers obliged, and their prisoner turned immediately to Psalm 109 and orated quite furiously one of the most chilling passages of the Bible, the Psalm of False Accusations. The Psalm, directed toward "deceitful mouths" that are "speaking against [me] with lying tongues" sounds much like an ancient curse.
"May his days be few; may another seize his goods!
May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow!
May his children wander about and beg;
may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit!
May the creditor seize all that he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!"
The Psalm goes on to curse the enemies with eternal damnation and constant remorse, but the frightened soldiers fired the death shot to Trotter before he could finish his damning curse upon them. They were fearful and guilty, as was Mad Anthony himself when he finally sobered up days later and was informed of the fate of his trusted attendant. The General had no recollection of giving the drunken orders; he was only informed of his curse and subsequent death, which he met with great sorrow.
The men attempted to live out their lives and though none were victims of any immediate sudden deaths, they each were victims of some form of suffering over the next years. One became an alcoholic and believed he was constantly chased by an invisible mad dog. One developed a case of diabetes so severe that he was thirsty at every moment of the remainder of his life, a fate that he quated with misery. The third wound up in a mental asylum when he was found screaming about demons trying to possess his mind and soul.
General Mad Anthony himself mentioned in personal correspondences much later in his life that he was haunted quite literally by those events, awakening every so often in the night to the sight a John Trotter's pale white ghost, complete with a gunshot wound to the chest, following his every step no matter where he was. Trotter succeeded in never allowing him to rest in the remainder of his life, but could his curse have been so powerful that it prevented Mad Anthony from peace even in death?
The Bones of Mad Anthony
In the twilight of his career, Mad Anthony found himself a home near the fort on Presque Isle on Lake Erie. The man who had survived a million wounds succumbed to death and was buried in the city of Erie. After some years had passed his family, still living on the outskirts of Philadelphia requested to have him reinterred near his home. Mad Anthony's son set out on horseback to retrieve his remains.
When men in Erie dug the coffin back up they found quite a surprise; stubborn old Mad Anthony was still almost entirely in tact and even in death he seemed to be almost invincible. His son had expected there to be nothing but dust and bones as any seemingly normal human would have been reduced to in that time span and as such had only brought a small box to carry the remains in on the back of his horse.
A local doctor suggested a convenient but sickening solution: boiling the flesh off of the body in a large cauldron. It was a common practice in Indian tribes and seemed like a good idea. The doctor proceeded with the procedure until the bones were seperated from all of the other materials and his son placed them in his box to take back home. Uncertain what to do with the remainder, the skin and muscles were reinterred with the uniform he was wearing in a new grave on a high bluff over Lake Erie.
The whole scheme seemed eerie but it was working well. That is until Mad Anthony's son was nearly home and made a startling discovery. The latch on his box had been broken and several of his father's bones had been scattered across the state as he rode along the trail that would today become Route 322. It was too late to recover them now so what was left was buried in a family plot in a Philadelphia graveyard.
Be it the curse of John Trotter or the desecration of not one but two of his graves, Mad Anthony is said to not rest peacefully. His ghost is a traveller, riding atop his steed from Erie to Philadelphia for eternity trying to recollect his own body that has been strewn about so distantly. To this day on foggy nights in those central valleys and mountains, passerbys occasionally spot a soldier on a horse in the shadows, searching for something in the darkness.
And now for Crash's travels...
Ber-Ber wanted me to join her, Buddy, and Jasmin for a more relaxed camping trip on the shores of Lake Erie. Knowing that we wouldn't be far from one of Mad Anthony's graves, I was excited for a possible chance to visit. We were there for a few days so I was eventually able to squeeze it in but damn it was hard to leave our peaceful little beachfront campsite...
When I finally did drag myself away from our relaxation, I was quite surprised to find all three of my companions wanting to join in. I figured it would be a solo mission. All I had to go by was the intersection of two streets where the cemetery was located. Those streets, of course, no longer exist in modern day Erie so I had to use some hypothesizing with the GPS. I eventually hit paydirt. In place of an actual grave, an old blockhouse of curious architecture had been erected in his honor. Weird shit.
We still had a little time to kill while we were in town so we stopped at a very old lighthouse that was remarkably close. Pretty cool stuff.
It may not exactly be the most exciting ghost hunt in the world, but goddammit the story behind it is absolutely one of the best. Totally worth the visit to see one of the strangest pieces of American history around.
Tally-ho!
-Crash
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