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The Haunted History of

Das Verflucht Schwarze Haus (The Cursed Black House)

Leberpul, Pennsylvania

Compiled from Historical Sources and Local Legends

Photographs and Writing

G Lee Hoke © 2012

Das Verflucht Schwarze Haus (The Cursed Black House)

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The sealed Well and Old Maple Tree behind the Haus

Preface – This Blair Witch themed and Lovecraftian styled

story was written after a day of walking through an old cemetery, running into a large black dog there, exploring a

very old stone house, and finding a heart shaped willow

wreath decorated with dried thistle flowers and a purple

glass marble on the property. The real name of this town

and historical house have been changed, and the photos

altered so as to not give away its true location. I took these

photos on a tour of the house by the realtor with hopes of

buying it since it is such an awesome house with stone walls

about eighteen inches thick, hand sawed board floors with

square cut nails holding them down, and the original old iron door and cabinet latches throughout the house. It is very

atmospheric for sure and thank the gods previous owners

have not covered it with linoleum or carpet and tried to

modernize it, or the cursed souls within would seek revenge!

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Das Schwarze Haus – Attic

The little town of Leberpul Pennsylvania was founded along the east side of the Susquehanna River in 1808 over 200

years ago. It was named after Leberpul Germany and was

primarily settled by the Germans, English and Scotch-Irish.

It has a long history as a trading town along the river and

before the town itself was built nearby the infamous river

pirate Simon Girty and the blood thirsty Indians who fought

the white man’s incursion. Like all Pennsylvania towns and

cities it started along an old Indian trail which turned into

river traffic by the French, then a road was built, and

eventually a canal and railroad.

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Magickian’s Sword found hanging in the Attic

On a hill above the town was an old Indian burial ground of

the Black Wolf clan of the Susquehannocks. Back then the dead were tied in bundles to the old oak trees whose cut

down trunks are still visible in the Leberpul cemetery which

the white men took over to bury their own dead. There was

once an old Anglican church built on that hill, but the last

Indians burned it down killing the minister and his wife and

two children in the smoldering rubble. There is a legend of

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sightings of a black spirit dog who still guards the old Indian

burial mound.

The Cellar with spirits in the light

The first house built in Leberpul was The Black House build

at the south end of the present town. It was build by

Ebenezer and Elisheba Black. He was a carpenter, cabinet

maker and coffin maker, and she was a nurse and helped

with his funeral business. His house became the first funeral

home in the county. It is said there is a now buried stone

tunnel which led from the graveyard hill down to the cellar

of his house then down to the river. This tunnel was first used by the Indian shamans and follows a natural cave

system under the hill. Later Ebenezer Black used it to bring

the bodies and bones down from the graveyard for his

necromantic researches. Elisheba used it for cold storage of

food and herbs. Long after their deaths during Prohibition

the tunnel was used to run liquor from the cellar of The

Black House down to the river to boats for distribution up

and down to those thirsty souls.

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The Cellar Fireplace with the last burnt offerings

One day while preparing a body for burial Ebenezer’s knife

slipped striking his helping wife in the eye, which she lost

from infection. He made his wife a purple glass eye which she wore until her death, and even beyond.

Dog skeleton in corner of Cellar

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Old Ebenezar died of smallpox after preparing so many

bodies for burial after a short epidemic in that county. Old

Elisheba tried to remarry, but no one would have her with

her glass eye. She turned for comfort to an old Indian medicine man and from him learned the Black Arts to

revenge herself on the community, which both feared and

hated her.

Key and Cross needed to enter the Haus

Elisheba, with the help of her medicine man Black Wolf

became a witch and soon learned the art of necromancy and

communication with the dead who were buried in the

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cemetery above the house. She prepared elixirs of death

from the spring water that drained from the cemetery into a

well in the back yard, which is now mysteriously covered

with a circular wood piece disguised as a flower pot base. In

the attic can still be seen the burned traces of a blackened pentagram where they did their dark magickes, and the

hexed sword of magicke hangs there still too from a chain,

no one having the courage to take it down. In the hardened

dirt floor of the cellar clawed footprints can still be seen of

denizens conjured from the cemetery tunnel, and in one

corner lays the charred skeleton of some kind of canine.

Old Family Bible of Ebenezar and Elisheba Black

On one dark moon night during a ritual Elisheba lost her

purple glass eye. Soon afterwards she and Black Wolf died of

an unknown illness. No one knows where they are buried.

This all happened a long time ago, but sometimes people

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say on the old German Lutheran All Souls night the

shimmering black ghost of old Ebenezer can be seen at the

house, leaving a heart shaped willow wreath decorated with

thistles, symbol of his broken heart at the loss of his wife to

an Indian. Sometimes the ghost of Black Wolf can be seen in the form of a large black dog roaming through the hilltop

cemetery. And most often is told the story of the ghost of

the witch Elisheba walking around the Old Brown House

looking for her lost purple glass eye.

The Witch’s Glass Eye found in floor board

The old Black House is now up for sale once again, and all I

can say is Beware those who may desire to buy this house

to live in again. Many are the dark homeless ghosts and evil

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Indian and canine demons who still roam there. If you find a

heart shaped willow wreath decorated with thistles laying in

the yard, as i did, sit it upright against the house to honor

Ebenezer’s undying love, as i did. If you find Elisheba’s

purple glass eye, as i did, then bury it in the front yard of your property with the leg bone of a black dog, and this will

keep the witch of The Black House at bay. Beware the curse

of The Black House Witch!

Witch’s Broom across the back step

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The Devil’s Footprints in snow behind Haus

G Lee Hoke © 2012