Lost Children

There was once an orphanage on this piece of land, and for over a century, people have come to see the ghosts of children wandering there. In 1903, John Sprunger, a wealthy industrialist and builder, and his wife, Katie, purchased the Johnathon Swift Mansion along with a few surrounding farms. They established a printing shop and publishing company under the guise of an orphanage and trade training center for children. In reality, the children—ranging in age from about seven to seventeen—were indentured servants, forced to work without pay for the printing company and on the farm. Sprunger also rented the children out as hired hands for agricultural work on neighboring farms.

Beatings were a common form of punishment inflicted on the children by both overseers, the Sprungers, and local farmers. The children were forced to eat spoiled food, and bedbugs, lice, and rats were commonplace in their sleeping quarters at night.

Rumors persisted that many children died in a fire at the orphanage, but there is no concrete evidence to support this claim. In 1910, authorities investigated allegations of abuse at the orphanage. During this investigation, a boxcar filled with oil and printing supplies caught fire. The three-story building, which was used for printing the Sprungers’ “Light and Hope” magazine, was completely destroyed in a dramatic explosion that sent flames soaring into the sky. While no reports indicated that children were killed in the fire, records of the number of children at the orphanage were poorly maintained and often inaccurate.

Although only evidence of the death of one orphan boy was found—who tragically died while coasting on the back of a car—there were other deaths associated with the site. The Swift children, from the previous owners, also died there. This history may explain the ghostly chatter and tiny lights that hikers have reported seeing in the woods surrounding the ruins of the old Swift home.