When Things Go Bump in
the Night

A Pennsylvania minister says several spirits haunt his parsonage, including an unfriendly ghost who doesn't like photocopiers.

BY: Sarah Mausolf
Religion News Service

RIEGELSVILLE, Penn.--The Rev. Jeffrey A. Wargo says footsteps awaken him as he sleeps in the parsonage at St. John United Church of Christ.

Voices call his name.

And the clocks on the first floor stop at exactly 3 a.m. each morning. In this sleepy village, the pastor has assumed an unlikely second role: collector of "true" ghost stories.

His book, "Ghosts in the 'Ville: True Stories of the Unexplained in Riegelsville, Pa.," chronicles strange happenings in the former paper mill town.

Perhaps the most fascinating tale is his own, the story of a pastor who doubles as scribe for the supernatural.

Wargo expected nothing unusual when he moved into the parsonage after graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary at age 26.

He lived alone in the huge stone mansion for the first year. Wargo says that on his first night sleeping alone there, a rhythmic noise awakened him.

He recalls lying in bed in a state between wakefulness and sleep, trying to pinpoint the sound. When he identified the noise as footsteps pacing the floor above, Wargo sat bolt upright in bed.

"I had no idea what to do," Wargo says. "I sat there shivering. I decided to pray."

As he finished his prayer, he says, the footsteps were drawing closer and closer until they suddenly stopped. At dawn, Wargo checked the house for signs of an intruder, but everything was normal.

Later that day, someone at the church told Wargo that his predecessor had mentioned ghosts living in the parsonage.

Wargo was so shaken, he decided to drive 65 miles to sleep in his parents' house at night. He later returned and blessed the house with holy water from the Jordan River.

Wargo says he now believes several spirits haunt the parsonage, and one ghost in particular haunts the church office -- an unfriendly ghost.

Cyrus Stover built the office in 1858 as a home for himself and his wife, Anna Bunstein. After living in the house briefly, Stover went off to fight in the Civil War and died in combat shortly afterward. His grave in a cemetery near the church reads: "His sun set while it was still noon..."

Legend says Stover lingers because he never had the chance to fulfill his vision of sharing the house with his wife.

One evening, Wargo went to the church office to meet a couple who wanted to get married. When the meeting ended, the pastor says he stayed in the house alone to finish up some paperwork. As he sat writing, he heard the screen door open and footsteps enter the building, but when he checked the reception area, no one was there.

He says as soon as he sat back down in the office, an alarm clock in the building started blaring music and static.

Wargo insists that when he later mentioned the incident to the person who owns the clock, she was startled. The clock had been broken for 20 years.

Continued on page 2: 'I screamed and dropped the barbell...' »