cole kleinbauer

1807

Paul Reider and his sons construct a ferry to connect the Harrisburg and Millerstown turnpike, opening a formerly rural and densely wooded area to traffic and industrialization.   A small milling town forms along the river to ship logs from the surrounding mountains down the river to Harrisburg.  This small cluster of homes becomes known as “Reider’s Ferry”.

1817

Cole Kleinbauer and family arrive from Germany and settle on 50 acres near the river outside of Reider’s Ferry.  Cole makes short work clearing a section of ground to grow corn.  Soon after he builds a large barn and begins to raise pigs.  For an unknown reason, the initial crops are destroyed when thousands of crows alight on the property like a plague.  With no grain to make animal feed the passel of hogs die. The Kleinbauers struggle without adequate food stored and barely make it through the winter.

1818

Come Spring, Cole builds a series of large and intimidating “Vogelscheuchen”, or scarecrows, to ward off the birds.  The crops are protected, but thousands of birds congregate and watch the farming operation from branches in the woods.  They infest the barn, sitting on its rafters and eaves.  Cole begins to inhabit the local pub nightly, drinking heavily and complaining about the deafening and constant “cawing” of the crows.  Unable to pay his bills or operate his mill because of a lack of crops, Cole clear-cuts the remainder of the forest, completely timbering the land and laying it bare to sell the wood down river.

1819

Four of the five Kleinbauer children drown within a month of each other over the winter, all under mysterious circumstances.  Two are found frozen under the ice in the river.  One is found in a well. One drowns in a tub.  Cole sends his newborn child, Winnie, away to live with relatives back in Germany.  That summer, Cole drowns his wife and packs her body in a wine barrel, then ends his own life by hanging himself from the highest peak in the barn.  When Cole is found, thousands of crows again infest the property. 

Cole’s home is abandoned.  The locals dub the feed mill the “Blood Barn” and whisper constantly that the “witches in the woods” were angry that Cole clear-cut the land.

1820

Perry County is founded.  The Pennsylvania Canal is constructed, and Reider’s Ferry is renamed “Newport.”  The Kleinbauer farm sits desolate and in probate, with no one willing to take over and farm the land. 

1832

The Kleinbauer home continues to decay. Oddly, pumpkins and squash begin to grow wild across the land. No one tends them.

horror hollow

1836

A disparate group of Romanian immigrants move to the Kleinbauer farm and attempt to grow crops.  The taxes are paid and the land is again cleared, hogs are purchased, and corn and pumpkins are planted.  The immigrants keep to themselves, do not speak English, and no one in town bothers to learn their names.  One night without explanation they abandon the property, leaving their belongings in place and their livestock wandering the fields.  Eight days after their departure, all of the hogs are found dead, piled and partially burned in the middle of the cornfield.  The town folk again whisper about witchcraft.  Thereafter, without anyone planting it, corn and pumpkins grow wild across the fields.

1863

 The 8th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, a company of Union Soldiers, go missing while on route to Gettysburg.  Due to manpower shortages, the Union does not search for them until November.  The soldiers’ campsite is eventually found just south of the old Klenibauer farm, along the river, ravaged.  The soldiers are found hanging from trees, their corpses disemboweled and frozen.  Their hearts are lined up neatly in front of the campfire.  Further inquiry as to the cause of the demise of the soldiers is halted when two more soldiers go missing while on routine patrol just outside the destroyed camp. 

1871

With the war over, Perry County prospers.  The woods on the old Kleinbauer farm have regrown into a shabby thick mess during the war.  Twenty acres of the Kleinbauer farm gets divided and houses and businesses spring up on the lots.  The Kleinbauer home, barn and feed mill remain as the only trace of the Kleinbauer legacy. The remaining thirty acres remains thick with woods, corn, and crows, but are otherwise abandoned.

The locals in Newport dub this section of the town “Horror Hollow” - a nod to the strange doings in the popular Washington Irving short story.

Cushla

1888

A logging crew discovers a small child, maybe 8 years old, wandering along the river of Horror Hollow.  Dirty and unkempt, her clothing is weaved from coarse hemp. She wears a tag around her neck with a single word written on it - “Cushla”.  The child is captured and placed with a local family to foster her. On the eighth day following placement, the entire family are found by a neighbor, in their beds, disemboweled.  Their hearts rest, one by one and in a bloody straight line, upon the fire mantle. Cushla is nowhere to be found.

1890

The Newport and Shermans Valley Railroad Depot is built. It runs directly through Horror Hollow and transports people, grain, and textiles across the midstate.  The railyard in Horror Hollow quickly gains a reputation as a stop best avoided, when an entire family of eight disappears from the train in 1896 while the freight cars were being loaded with feed from the local mills.

1898

A child, maybe 8 years old, is found wandering along the river by a fisherman. She is dressed appropriately and neatly, though her hands are stained red. She appears to be deaf and mute. She is taken into custody and placed with a local family. Though no harm comes to the family, the child disappears from bed the next day. The only thing found in the bed following the disappearance are several long, black feathers.

Winnie Kleinbauer

1901

Winnie Kleinbauer returns to the family farm and repurchases the Kleinbauer home.  Though in her early eighties, oddly, Winnie doesn’t look a day past forty.  

No one in town knows what to make of Winnie. She is friendly when approached, but otherwise keeps to herself. She toils endlessly in her garden, growing herbs an exotic plants. And she has a green thumb with pumpkins, which flourish across her property.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Newport experiences a rash of child disappearances over the next several years.

1905

A traveling Freakshow comes to town.  When borough officers refuse the carnival admittance into the proper area of the town, it sets up beside the river on the abandoned land outside Horror Hollow.  Despite warnings from officials to “turn away from the sinful ways of carnies and freaks”, the youth in the town flock to the carnival.  Over the course of sixteen days, nine teenage girls and one teenage boy go missing.  The Freakshow is run off by a ragtag militia.  Several carnies are killed in the struggle, beaten by locals with axe handles and shovels.  The bodies of the girls are never found.  The body of the boy is found in pieces on and along the railroad tracks.

1907

Winnie Kleinbauer is last seen in public at a tax sale of the Blood Barn.  She is 88 years old.  Following her disappearance authorities do nothing, as her home is maintained by some unknown persons for years thereafter, and taxes on her residence are paid in a timely manner.  Every October, someone decorates the home for Halloween, but no one knows who. That practice continues for the next 50 years. Oddly, children continue to go missing during that entire period. And, as you should now expect, pumpkins continue to grow wild around her home.

dusang roux and the blood barn

1935

A family with many, many children arrive via train in Horror Hollow.  The patriarch is a large French man named Dusang Roux. His wife is a beautiful, if not altogether sane Irish woman named Anna. There are well over 20 children, an odd mixture of siblings and cousins.  Dusang Roux purchases part of the Kleinbauer property and builds an imposing mansion beside the old Kleinbauer barn. He quickly converts and opens up a butchery and meat packing business inside.  Dusang has an open charisma about him and the locals take to him instantly as everything he says sounds refined in his French accent. Even his slaughterhouse, which he calls the “abattoir” sounds fancy. Women adore him and Dusang enjoys their company -- very much.  Anna is not thrilled with her husband’s ways, but Dusang gains renown for his ability to process meat quickly and he grows in prominence and wealth, becoming a local authority and member of several local governmental boards.  

1936

Anna enjoys the wealth and distracts herself from her husband’s philandering with her hobbies.  She spends many hours making clothes and dolls for her children, and occupies her time by filling the mansion from top to bottom with Halloween decorations from her native Ireland.  Anna is especially pleasant to the neighborhood children, often inviting them into the mansion and feeding them treats of Irish apple cake and colored sugar.

1940

The Roux Abattoir falls into swift decline when the train station is closed and there is no longer an efficient means to transport meat in quantity to the city of Harrisburg.  Dusang Roux quickly exhausts the wealth he accumulated attempting to keep his many girlfriends happy. Locals begin to whisper about horrible happenings in the abattoir, when the school district notes that fewer and fewer of the Roux children are regularly attending, and the school truant officer is unable to ascertain their whereabouts.  Anna disappears without a trace. Dusang provides vague explanations that he has sent several of the children back to live with cousins in France, but can not provide an explanation as to Anna’s disappearance.

1941

The Roux Abattoir is shuttered when on October 30th a routine meat inspection by two members of the Department of Health discover the human remains of several of the Roux children, and many unidentified female bodies, in the refrigerators of the abattoir.  Dusang initially blames his wife and claims it was her idea to murder the children and sell them for meat, but when pushed on his story he shifts tactics and kills one of the inspectors with a cleaver. Dusang attempts to flee but is shot in the back, severing his spine.  While awaiting trial, wheelchair bound, he takes his own life.  

Locals are horrified, and refer to Dusang as the “Bloody Butcher” in future tellings of his tale.

1945

Rumors abound across the town that the abandoned Roux mansion is haunted by the ghosts of his many children.   And Anna.

1956

Local kids throw a party in the woods outside Horror Hollow following prom.  The prom queen and her boyfriend are killed when the boys’ car rolls over them while they “make out” on the grass in front of it.  Following formal police investigation the car, a 1951 Mercury Coupe, is found to be in working order, its parking brake fully engaged.  

MORTIMER URIAH ARRINGTON

1958

The long established funeral home in town is purchased by a new owner - Mortimer Uriah Arrington. A sullen man of sallow complexion, Mortimer has no empathy in dealing with the bereaved that enter the funeral home. His only concern is finances, and he extends no credit and routinely turns people away who can not pay, in full, up front. Mortimer is accompanied by two henchman. The first is Mr. Palmer, a hulking beast of a man who never speaks, but is recognized about town from his very distinctive smell. The second is a mysterious and dark figure that is rarely seen but is referred to by Mortimer in dealing with the bereaved as “Captain Cavity”.

Arrington handles the money, and is abrupt and harsh in dealing with the relatives of the deceased. Palmer preps the bodies and handles the crematory. Captain Cavity is in charge of doing the make-up and reconstructions of corpses for viewings.

1959

Townsfolk begin to whisper about the doings at the mortuary. Rumors begin to swirl around Arrington’s henchman, Mr. Palmer. Mr. Palmer inhabits the local bars every night, and when drunk shares disturbing details about his “love for his work”. The bar patrons begin to mockingly refer to him as Palmer the Embalmer and take action to avoid him at the bar because of his sickening smell as well as his inappropriate commentary on death.

One night, Palmer confides in the bartender that his love for his work extends to his love for corpses, and he is promptly exited out and told not to return.

1960

A fire at the local fabric factory claims the lives of 25 women. The sudden influx of new bodies brings a considerable amount of attention to the mortuary. All the bodies are transported to the mortuary for processing and funeral proceedings. Money is paid up front as is required by Mortimer in all cases. Those families that can not afford services receive donations from the town to pay for services.

After a considerable amount of money is paid, Arrington and his cohorts abandon the mortuary. What is discovered by the families of the deceased is a horror show — the deceased, most badly burned but some looking ghostly preserved from death by smoke inhalations, lay strewn about the mortuary and morgue in various states of funerary processing. Some have make-up and reconstructions partially done, some are half in and half out of caskets.

Some lie naked on tables, legs broken and akimbo.

The townsfolk are incensed at the double tragedy of the fire and the way in which their loved ones were treated. They attempt to follow, but have no idea in which direction Arrington fled.

Spatterdash veterinary clinic

1965

The Spatterdash Veterinary Clinic opens.   The owner of the hospital, an eccentric and pompous veterinarian named Dr. Dribble Spatterdash, quickly gains a reputation with the locals as a man best avoided, as his suggestion to euthanize pets who are brought in for routine check-ups does not sit well with his customers.

1966

Dr. Spatterdash soon learns that he can not operate a veterinary hospital with no customers, so he decides to supplement his income in darker ways.  The Dr. begins to take in many of the local, disenfranchised youth in the town and provides the youth with food and lodging in exchange for them providing him with some meager earnings from petty thievery.  In time, the Dr.’s unnatural proclivities overtake him, and a cult quietly forms. The cult dubs itself the “Luna-Ticks”. Dr. Spatterdash, or “Spit Spats” as he becomes known to his followers, sends the youth out to capture wild animals and residents’ pets with instructions to bring them to the hospital.  Spit Spats begins to experiment on the youth, merging their bodies in grotesque and unnatural ways with the animals he has euthanized and preserved as well as the animals captured by his followers.

1976

An outbreak of unknown origin hits the members of the cult, causing many of them to experience rabies-like symptoms and attack the town residents.  The Center for Disease Control posits that the disease outbreak is spread by ticks which infest the local woods and cornfields, so the government quarantines the fields and undertakes a massive campaign of spraying the field with poison and insecticide.   Rumors fly that Dr. Spatterdash’s experiments on his followers and the animals were the cause, but before Spit Spats can be apprehended, he flees town. 

The locals, weary, call the now forbidden areas of the old farm “Pestilence Fields”.

BUS 13

1977

In order to conserve resources (i.e.. save money) the local school district institutes a “late bus” policy, in which a single school bus takes a load of children to their homes at a nearby trailer park, then returns to the school to pick up the “late bus'“ students. Those students would then be shuttled home. This saved the district the additional cost of running another bus.

The “late bus” students live in an area outside of town which is accessible only via the covered bridge at the very outskirt of the old Kleinbauer property.

This policy created an inequitable situation where the children who lived furthest from the school district not only had the longest ride home, but they had to wait as long as half an hour after school just to even be able to take the bus. As a result, older kids often would catch rides with friends, and more affluent parents would pick up younger children to keep their kids from having to wait.

As was probably predictable, that left a very small group of children who were both too young to catch a ride with peers or whose parents either both worked or didn’t have a second car, and thus were not able to pick them up.

It left some very vulnerable children.

On October, 8 1976, the late bus picked up that small group of children at 3:55 p.m., one full hour after everyone else had left the school. Five children, ages 10 and 9, and three 8 year olds, all boarded the bus. The 10 year old was dropped off at his home. The 9 year old also made it safely.

The mothers of the three 8 year olds noticed pretty quickly when the bus failed to pull up to their homes. All the kids should have arrived at 4:20 to 4:23 p.m. as they lived within a minute of each other 2 miles passed the bridge. The parental instincts kicked in about the same time - and at 4:45 the three moms started calling.

The first calls of panic resulted in a bit of stonewalling by the district. A crusty secretary who was staying late pushed back that they were overreacting and said she wasn’t about to disturb the principal. But more irate calls brought the Newport Police out. Not long after, a search party formed.

The police arrived at the home of the bus driver by 5:25 p.m. and found him, passed out but sober, halfway up the stairs to his home. He had no recollection of anything. Could not say how he got there.

They found Bus 13 halfway down an embankment not far from the covered bridge on this side of the old Kleinbauer property. Its windows were busted out. Its seats were all pulled out, the bolts broken not unscrewed. It was covered from floor to ceiling inside and out in scrawling black unintelligible writing and runes. Hundreds of runes. Thousands of words. Forensic tests revealed all of it had been scribbled using chunks of black coal.

It would have taken a man days to cover that bus in writing. But the bus driver had not a hint of coal in his possession. No dust on his fingers. Not a speck on his clothes.

And the three young children were never seen again.

pestilence fields

1980

Eight teenagers die when they sneak into Landis Car Crushing, a junkyard located on several acres of what was once the Kleinbauer farm. Six of the kids are crushed when a stack of vehicles collapse onto them. One teen boy and one teen girl are found disemboweled and dismembered in the trunk of a 1951 Mercury Coupe.

The junkyard owner is arrested for murder, but is released based upon a showing of alibi.

1988

The Borough council purchase and clear eight acres of woods in Horror Hollow for use as a girl’s softball field.  Locals had grown concerned by the preoccupation that many of the teenage girls had developed with nature and the woods of Horror Hollow.  Girls were ignoring all school activities and responsibilities, and spending long nights in the woods doing “who knew what”. The softball game was supposed to create a diversion from what many adults considered the girls’ “strange obsessions” with nature. It is a short lived experiment, however, when the first game ends prematurely when Lenore, a fiery local girl with a wild streak, takes exception to a strike being called against her and takes the referee’s head off with her softball bat.  She is tried as an adult for murder but at sentencing the girl makes a bizarre demand for death by fire.  No such fate awaits her as the judge shows “mercy” and gives the girl life in prison.

1991

Lenore is tried and convicted but escapes from her prison cell.  The only clue to her escape are the feathers of some unknown bird which litter her cell.   A man-hunt proves fruitless even though there are rumored sightings of Lenore in the woods of Horror Hollow in the years following.

Modern Days

2017

Winnie Kleinbauer’s corpse is found, frozen, in the Juniata River.  Though born 200 years earlier and dead a hundred years– her corpse doesn’t appear to be a day past 40.

2018

A group of ambitious entrepreneurs open up a “haunted house” in the old Roux barn. The haunt faces bankruptcy almost immediately due to lawsuits from an endless stream of freak accidents that occur to the patrons who go through the haunt.

2021

The Freakshow returns to town.

2022

New Owners join the Terror Farm haunted house, purchasing a one half interest in the property. The State Police respond by increasing speed traps around the Borough of Newport.

2023

On September 30, 2023, Terror Farm opens to record crowds as its reputation as a premiere horror destination is solidified.