Rogues Hollow boasts storied and spooky past

By EMILY CANNING-DEAN

Gazette & News

DOYLESTOWN  For generations, residents of Doylestown and the surrounding communities have enjoyed sharing creepy and chilling stories about Rogues Hollow and earlier this month, the Chippewa Rogues Hollow Historical Society invited the community to join in the fun during their annual Walk in the Hollow.

Earl Kerr, president emeritus of the historical society, said the organization owns the famed Chidester Mill in Rogues Hollow and the surrounding 24 acres which they lease to serve as a township park.

“The park is open from dawn until dusk so if you want to see Rogues Hollow after dark, all you can really do is drive through,” he said. “But once a year we offer this Walk in the Hollow, usually around Halloween. I serve as the storyteller at the campfire and give the audience a history and tell them some of the favorite stories.”

Kerr explained that the Rogues Hollow area was once the home of a lot of mills and coal mines.

During tough financial times, unemployed miners would charge a toll to farmers who traveled through Rogues Hollow to transport their goods.

“The farmers were not too fond of that, because they felt they were being robbed,” Kerr said. “They would often carry axe handles and arm themselves for protection, but then the Rogues Hollow miners would arm themselves as well. This was common right after the Civil War, then in 1873 and 1893. During these times, the law officers wouldn’t go into Rogue’s Hollow and during these three periods it was considered a criminal territory. One of the newspapers in Doylestown named it the most dangerous place in America.”

Kerr said there is a legend about a worker who was killed at the Chidester mill whose ghost still haunts the structure.

“He was hired to do some repair work on the water wheel and put a log in to brace the wheel,” he said. “Supposedly while he was working on it, the log moved and he was crushed and killed.”

Kerr said the Chidester family denied the event ever took place, but legends of the ghost of the worker continued.

“One of the legends I love to tell is about four young boys who snuck into the mill at night and as their eyes adjusted to the dark, the four of them saw a figure at the top of the stairs,” he said. “They had snuck in through this tiny opening and all squeezed out simultaneously after they saw the ghost.” 

Kerr said he also likes to give an account of the headless horse of Rogues Hollow.

“At the intersection of Fraze Road and Clinton Road was this big oak tree and a huge branch stuck out over the road,” he said. “According to the legend, the branch was once covered with ice and came down lower than usual and a horse ran into it and sliced off its head.”

According to legend, since the headless horse needed guidance, it was adopted by the devil who would ride the horse himself.

Kerr said Doylestown was also mentioned in the book “Weird Ohio” for their Crybaby Bridge, where legend claims a baby can sometimes be heard crying.

“We don’t have the only one,” he said. “According to the book, there are 23 other Crybaby Bridges in Ohio.”

Kerr also explained that the bridge people currently think of as Crybaby Bridge, is not the original. 

“That was a wooden bridge located about three quarters of a mile north of the one most people think of,” he said. “But during the flood in 1903 that bridge was taken out and the road was completely rebuilt.”

For more information about Rogues Hollow legends and history, visit www.chippewarogueshollow.org.