Shown is a front view of the Wickerham Inn as it appeared about 1890.
(By Stephen Kelley from the Peoples Defender, 1982)
Many have claimed to have personally seen the strange spectre, although most witnesses demand anonymity.
All attest to seeing the ghost of a man, a HEADLESS man, who haunts the old Wickerham Inn to this very day. It seems there are many versions to this legend as there are people who relate to it. The common theme to the various stories is a tormented spirit of a decapitated man who wanders through the ancient brick structure seeking that elusive eternal peace for which all spirits yearn.
The legend of Old Adams is one of the few ghost stories of which I am aware and is based upon historical facts. The story began in the very early nineteenth century. It took place during the days the Wickerham Inn was being used as a stagecoach stop. Although some accounts place these events as early as 1804, Stagecoach travel on Zane’s Trace was not initiated until about 1820. Knowing this, we can assume the following story occurred sometime before the year 1820 and before 1842 when stagecoaches were discontinued on Zane’s Trace through Adams County. The story is told that one evening as the stage pulled to a stop in front of the inn, a new stage driver was observed. After the evening’s meal was finished, this new driver retired early to his room on the second floor. Reportedly, he was carrying a large sum of money on his person. During the dark hours of the night, a disturbance in the driver’s room was heard by some of the guests. Despite this commotion, no one investigated the matter.
Early the next morning, as everyone was seated around the breakfast table, the absence of the driver was conspicuous. Someone, history does not record who, was sent upstairs to find the reason for the driver’s tardiness.
A gruesome sight was uncovered in the room. Blood stains were splattered on the walls and on the bedclothes. The furniture was in disarray, and a large pool of blood was soaking into the floor. Mysteriously, the driver could not be found. A rumor soon started that he had been brutally murdered with his head cut off and thrown in a nearby pond.
Within a short time after the grisly crime was committed, many persons in the neighborhood claimed seeing an apparition in the upstairs windows of the inn. It was the district outline of a headless man, the murdered stage driver seeking his head, no doubt!
As the years passed, many others reported seeing the phantom and the legend grew.
One version of the story, being repeated in the early 1910’s, includes a ghost of a little white dog accompanying the headless spectre!
Down though the years, as the legend was spread by word of mouth, it became increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction. What, if anything, had really happened those long years ago at the Wickerham Inn? Was there really a murder? If so, what had happened to the body? Only tell-tale blood stains on the floor and reported sightings of the headless ghost remained to perpetuate the spooky story.
In 1922 an astounding discovery was made at the inn which made critics of the legend think twice. It was that year the old inn was being renovated and modernized. Among other remodeling projects, a new furnace was being installed to provide central heating. The furnace was going to be placed in the old cellar under the home. It proved to be too tall, which prompted the removal of the stone floor in the cellar to provide additional clearance. Under the slabs of stone, in a crypt of lime, workmen found bones… human bones! The owners of the property were amazed to discover a skeleton, complete with the exception of the skull! Even skeptics had to admit there was some credence to the legend and that the long-missing stage driver had been found at last.
The mystery of who perpetrated this ghastly malefaction remains today. The person or persons responsible for the driver’s death and macabre burial will probably forever remain unknown. And the ghost? He continues to prowl the premises of the old wayside inn seeking his severed head and perhaps… vengeance!
