Pennsylvania Fireside Ghost Tales

For those who may not remember or not know, the name Pennsylvania was bestowed upon the state by King Charles II of England when he granted the land to William Penn in 1681. Quaker Penn, in modest fashion, had suggested that his province be simply named Sylvania, meaning “Woodland”, but the king wanted to honor Penn’s father, an admiral in the British navy, and so the name chosen was Pennsylvania, or “Penn’s Woods”. The name was appropriate then because the state at that time was a vast woodland, and it seems appropriate that the same name is used as part of the title for this volume since the stories it contains are from those parts of the state that have been preserved as throwbacks to the time of William Penn and to that period when the woods could still be found in their ancient state.

As my wife likes to say, “It’s not hard to fall in love with the woods”, and we both agree that that’s particularly true in the fall of the year. When autumn comes it can inspire us with its beauty, but it can also sadden us. Because it’s then that whiffs of dried leaves and dying plants serve as melancholy reminders of the passing of yet another year, and as the winds stir them their rustlings also cause us to pause and listen. To some it’s the “pause that refreshes”, just another way of enjoying nature, but to others the sounds might stimulate other thoughts; ideas that the soft chatter is something almost supernatural, and that, if we are even more attentive and observe even more carefully, we might actually see the passing of a ghost.

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