Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Good evening and welcome to tonight's Boo Review. I'm your host, Jill Stanley. Tonight we bring you a chilling tale from Lancaster county involving a William Wilhelm Abel and a mysterious series of events that left the town in shock. Based on an article from the Maryland Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, dated Thursday, August 9, 1753.
Let's throw it to Jennifer James at the Bulletin desk for the full report on the disturbing incidents that had gripped this community.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: Thanks, Jill.
The people living in Lancaster county in southern Pennsylvania built small, tight knit communities among the green rolling hills. The Quakers who settled there sought to live peacefully with all their neighbors and did their very best to welcome every newcomer.
This tradition was sorely put to the test with the arrival of a Jacob Wilhelm. Wilhelm moved to Lancaster county in 1752 and started a business tanning leather to sell in town.
He lived like a hermit in a rough cabin, seldom visiting town more than necessary and returning home as quickly as possible each time.
Those who encountered him considered the dingy bow legged man to be sour, opinionated and quite unpleasant with a stubborn streak a mile wide.
His Quaker neighbors forgave all these foibles, as was their way. And if his irascible nature had been their only concern, the people of Lancaster would have welcomed the man wholeheartedly. In truth, however, their hearts were greatly troubled by his arrival.
Jacob Wilhelm owned a slave, the only slave in the entire county.
His name was Abel and he was a young man, tall and soft spoken. He spoke mostly French and when asked, he said he had come from the island of Martinique before being sold to Wilhelm in Philadelphia.
The Quakers of Lancaster were horrified to have an enslaved man living in their midst and found it difficult not to entreat Wilhelm to free Abel.
Each week in the local meeting house, Wilhelm's neighbors offered prayers that the man might somehow see the light.
And as time went on and as Wilhelm grew only more set in his ways, the people of Lancaster prayed for a miracle.
About a year had passed since he settled in Lancaster county and Jacob Wilhelm was still living in a rough cabin that he shared with Abel, surrounded by racks of drying hides and pits on lime that stank in both summer and winter. And he still tended to avoid the town and its residents except for selling his leather and buying food and supplies.
On April 3, Wilhelm stormed into the center square, shouting and cursing violently. He demanded that the townsfolk cease harassing him at once and threatened violence upon any who persisted.
Wilhelm insisted that two days before a Quaker man unknown to him did trespass upon his land and knocked upon his cabin door this man stated that Abel should be set free at once and offered to compensate Wilhelm a fair price.
Wilhelm sneered at the offer, saying that his neighbors could scarcely raise enough money to pay a fair price for his strong young servant. And in any event, Abel was of more use to him as a servant than a handful of grubby coins.
Wilhelm said the stranger had persisted in his requests and Wilhelm declared that even if his neighbors had raised enough money to compensate him, truly for the man's worth, Wilhelm would sell them Abel and then hie to Philadelphia to procure another servant at once.
Following his rant in the town square, Wilhelm returned to his house, flinging insults at his gentle neighbors as he did so.
The citizens of Lancaster were alarmed and puzzled, for no one had any idea who might have gone to Wilhelm's house. The town elders insisted that Wilhelm not be harassed any further, and all the residents of Lancaster agreed.
The next time Wilhelm returned to Lancaster, he was wearing an old sword. He was wild eyed and livid. According to him, on Friday, April 13, the same man returned again to his cabin and asked Wilhelm to set Abel free.
Wilhelm turned him away with much cursing.
His neighbors protested that they did not see anyone traveling on the road to Wilhelm's land on Friday or on any other day.
Then On Sunday the 15th, Wilhelm claimed the man returned again and asked Wilhelm to set Abel free for his own sake. Wilhelm laughed and turned the man away, hurling an empty whiskey bottle after him.
On the Evening of Tuesday, April 17, Wilhelm came to Lancaster again and claimed the man had returned un fourth time. The stranger that day had told Wilhelm that he must free abel by Sunday 22nd April, and he would be forgiven in the eyes of God and many blessings would come upon him.
Jacob Wilhelm spat on the ground and he swore he would never set Abel free. He shook his fists and in the Lancaster center square, before many witnesses, he swore before God and the devil himself that he would rather kill his servant than free him.
Wilhelm screamed a furious vow. If any man comes again and knocks upon my door, know that your full pride will bring an ending, but not the ending you seek. Instead, I shall put my servant to death at once.
By this time he was completely obsessed with stopping the stranger's visits and thought of little else in his single minded mania. He had been neglecting his work for more than a week, as well as locking Abel in the cabin whenever he was away to prove to his neighbors that he was serious. On Wednesday the 18th, Jacob Wilhelm began digging a hole in the road to his property near a stand of oaks. Where his goats had eaten the grass down to the bare dirt. He dug the hole for the next two days, sweating and cursing until he deemed it was large enough for his grim purpose.
The two following days brought heavy rain, and Wilhelm stayed indoors, drinking whiskey, carving a marker to place next to the hole, all while jeering at Abel and threatening his life.
The next day, he nailed the marker to a fence post. The marker read, April 22, 1753. I was struck dead for pride and laid in this hole for justice.
Early Sunday, April 22, Wilhelm prepared to stick the post in the sodden ground, but discovered that the hole was gone. Somehow the rain had swept enough mud back into the hole that there was no trace of it left.
He flew into a sudden rage, threatening Abel's life again and swearing that the townsfolk or someone had filled in the hole and he would see justice done.
In a red fury, Wilhelm redoubled his efforts and dug a new hole, all in that day, not stopping to eat or rest. And when the storm began anew that evening, Wilhelm shook his fist at the raging sky and kept digging.
Finally, caked in mud, screaming and cackling at the storm, Wilhelm lunged to the cabin and seized Able. He dragged the struggling man to the edge of the waterlogged grave and flung Able to his knees.
Wilhelm, bereft of all reason, raised the shovel high and prepared to bring it crashing down on Able's head, when suddenly there was a terrible, tremendous crash.
A flash of light, and everything went dark.
Able fell prone, his ears ringing from the blast of thunder which had filled the air. He dragged himself away from the open grave and sprinted towards Lancaster, never once looking back.
Monday morning, moved by Abel's story and relieved that he was safe, several Quakers traveled to Wilhelm's property to see him. They found him laying face down in an open grave underneath a sizable oak bough which had been blasted off a nearby tree by a lightning bolt. They saw with some wonder that Wilhelm had fallen into his own grave with a marker of the very date he had carved with his own hands.
Now back to you, Jill.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: My goodness, Jennifer. A gripping story indeed. Thank you so much from all of us here at the Boo Review. We appreciate you tuning in. Thank you and good night. This has been a Common Mystics Media production in association with Access Paranormal editing done by Yokai Audio out of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Story by Dennis Bros to learn more about Common Mystics, please check out our website, commonmystics. Net. Follow us on all the socials at Common Mysticspod. Once again, thank you and good night.
