The following account of a ghostly apparition in Pottsville comes from the pages of the Miners’ Journal from December 2, 1865.

The “ghost” was spotted on Market Street near Charles Baber Cemetery, which at the time of the Civil War, marked the edge of town until one walked further uphill to the neighborhood of Yorkville.

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A Ghost.—

The upper section of Market street has been somewhat excited lately, by the alleged appearance between the hours of 11 and 1 o’clock, at night, of a white moving figure. Persons who say that they have seen it, assert most positively that it has followed them up the road which runs by the Cemetery as far as the gate.

To one who saw it in a hollow, just west of the forks of the road, it bowed its head repeatedly with the stately dignity and solemnity of the shade of Hamlet’s father.

Another attempted to grasp it, as it appeared at his side, and it disappeared. Pistol balls and stones, it is said, have no effect whatever upon it.

Anxious to verify the fact of the existence of this perambulating, perturbed spirit, we visited the spot on Tuesday night at 12 o’clock. It might have been that the moon was shining too brightly, for the ghostly visitor, or that from skepticism we were deemed unworthy to hold communion with it, at any rate it did not walk that night.

In the old coach shop on Market street, recently, two workmen were employed with coal oil lamps. They (the lamps) were full of oil and the wicks well trimmed. One of the workmen was up and the other down stairs. Suddenly, without apparent cause, both lamps were extinguished precisely at the same moment. This we have from the lips of one of the workmen.

As there is some distance from the place where the ghost is seen to walk, we can only attribute this mysterious coachshop business to the fact that there must be a nest of ghosts up Market street. With interest, we await further developments in this grave matter.

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