Old_Stone

Old Stone House

Built in 1822 by John K Brown, the Old Stone House in Slippery
Rock, PA, was originally a tavern and inn. It became a haven for
lumbermen, travelers, and highwaymen.

One June evening in 1843, a Native American, from the Seneca
nation, named Sam Mohawk was thrown out after becoming
intoxicated and belligerent. It was the next morning, just up
the road, when Sam went to the home of James Wigton and
bludgeoned to death Mrs. Wigton and their five children while
James was tending to the fields. To this day, this is one of the
worst crimes to happen in Butler county. Sam Mohawk was
caught, tried, and executed by hanging.

The house eventually fell to ruins after the railroad became the
primary way for travel. It wasn't until 1963 that the structure
was reconstructed out of much of the original material. Today,
it is owned and operated by Slippery Rock University under the
current curator Dr. Aaron Cowan, who took over for Dr. David
Dixon after his unexpected passing.

Much of the activity here has been reported by tour guides and
SRU students who volunteer here. There is a well known
report of dominoes, that had been left scattered on a table,
being found arranged to spell out the words "GET OUT".
Nobody had access to the tavern room to physically arrange
the tiles. There are many reports of sounds of someone
walking up the stairs, but nobody is ever there. There is also
an apparition of a female figure in 19th century dress roaming
the upstairs West Bedroom. People have reported shuffling
noises from that room, and a group of students spending the
night once captured groaning noises on a tape recorder there.

In mid November 2005, five members, along with a reporter
from Allied News, investigated the Old Stone House. We were
met by three graduate students who remained in a closed off
portion of the house all night. The students were very helpful;
they answered our questions and even offered to tape black
garbage bags onto the windows so the outside lights would not
interfere with our cameras.

Our investigation went very smoothly. We set up several
infrafred cameras and audio recorders. Many attempts were
made to obtain EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena). During the
course of the night we did not have any EMF spikes or
temperature anomalies picked up on any of our instruments.
However, the motion detector that we set up in the west
bedroom went off a few times.

After reviewing all of the video, photographs, and audio, we
concluded we did not capture any evidence of paranormal
activity. We would love to make a return visit sometime soon
and perhaps we can capture something on a more active night.

The Old Stone House is a beautiful structure and a unique
piece of history that offers a glimpse into the days of traveling
the Venango Trail. Anyone who appreciates history would love
this piece of property. You can get more information at
www.sru.edu/pages/3581.asp.