Sparking interest in site

Twp. supervisors are concerned about turning the house into an attraction.

By CARYL CLARKE
Daily Record/Sunday News

Updated: 06/13/2007 03:50:36 PM EDT

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Rickie Ebaugh, great-grandson of Nelson Rehmeyer, stands in the kitchen of the famed character killed at the spot of the window cut-out on the floor at left. The home in North Hopewell Township could soon be shared with visitors.<br />· <a href="http://w2.ydr.com/forms/sendPhoto.php?photo=27013">E-mail photo</a><br />· <a href="http://ydr.mycapture.com/mycapture/lookup.asp?originalname=060707-PMK-3-REHMEYER.jpg">Order photo reprint</a><br />

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MULTIMEDIA: Hex murder revisited

Jun 8, 2007 — The house where powwow doctor Nelson Rehmeyer was murdered in 1928 remains sturdily standing despite frequent vandalism through the years.

The house reeks of the passage of time but not of evil. That's what Rehmeyer's great-grandson Rickie Ebaugh intends to get across: Whatever befell this small, turn-of-the-century German farmhouse came from the outside, not from within.

Ebaugh of Stewartstown enjoys telling the tales he heard through his childhood about his great-grandfather, the victim in York County's most notorious murder. He strongly believes Rehmeyer was a faith healer, and he wants to correct the misperception some have that Rehmeyer cast spells.

To that end, he is in the process of returning the original furnishings to the three-story house on Rehmeyer's Hollow Road to re-create it as it was the night of the murder. If he can get the approval of North Hopewell Township, he would like to open it to the public as a historical exhibit.

At this point, it is a dream. His friend, Jerry Duncan of Duncan Media Productions, said they are taking one step at a time. They were surprised

this week, Duncan said, to discover the public interest in the hex story.

The story and the house

Three young men who believed somebody had cast evil spells on them came to Rehmeyer's farmhouse to steal a lock of Rehmeyer's hair and his book of spells to bury deep in the earth. A Lancaster County witch had told the oldest, 30-year-old John Blymire, that the items from Rehmeyer would cast the demons out of his head.

Blymire recruited 18-year-old Wilbert Hess and 14-year-old John Curry to accompany him. Hess believed his family's farm had been hexed into failure. Curry just went along.

The night of Nov. 27, 1928, the trio approached Rehmeyer in his home, failed to gain his co- operation and beat him to death in a struggle that left furniture overturned and blood throughout the first-floor living room and kitchen, RickieEbaugh said Thursday.

He pointed to the hole in the kitchen floor exposing charred timbers. The murderous trio tossed Rehmeyer's small mattress on the floor, dumped his body on it and emptied the burning oil from his lanterns over him, Ebaugh said.

The windows were closed to keep out the chilly November night. The three pulled the front and back doors shut and ran into the dark.

Rehmeyer's bodily fluids extinguished the flames, Ebaugh said. Ebaugh leaned over the hole left by the fire to point into the basement where Rehmeyer's farm tools, including a corn sheller and a wheel from the Rehmeyer mill, remain.

Rehmeyer's two daughters, 12-year-old Beatrice and 14-year-old Edna, had spent the night at their mother's house a short distance away, Ebaugh said. The Rehmeyers owned a beagle that ran back and forth between the houses delivering messages, he said.

A neighbor discovered the murder the next morning, Ebaugh said. Rehmeyer's family immediately removed all his belongings and stored them for the next 79 years in trunks in an attic, Ebaugh said.

"This whole area was known as Rehmeyer's Hollow," Ebaugh said. "My great-grandfather was a farmer who would help other farmers solve problems. I have many of his books. He was a knowledgeable man."

His grandmother, Beatrice Ebaugh, and her sister, Edna, encouraged Rickie Ebaugh's interest in their father. In time, he learned facts that surprised him about Rehmeyer.

"He held church picnics in his yard," Ebaugh said. "He is buried in a church cemetery."

His grandmother carried a black rose to the funeral of each of her brother's killers, he said.

He and Duncan want to share information about the practice of powwow and enlighten people with the truth of Nelson Rehmeyer through displays and speakers at the restored house.

Powwow was produced by a blend of the protective and healing arts of early German immigrants to Pennsylvania - the Pennsylvania Dutch - and knowledge of American Indians here, according to the Rehmeyer's Hollow Web site, www.rehmeyershollow.com.

Duncan referred to concerns expressed by the North Hopewell Township supervisors about turning the house into a tourist attraction this week.

"We haven't done anything we needed to ask permission for," Duncan said. "We intend to go to the township and seek their blessing. We do not even know if this is going to get off the ground. I hope the township will get behind this and support us."

Reach Caryl Clarke at 771-2032 or caryl@ydr.com.