History & local legend
Harthegig’s story appears in Mercer County’s 1888 history as a recollection from settler Samuel Pew. As a boy, Pew said, he was sitting by the family’s fire when Harthegig and two companions entered. Harthegig seized him by the hair and raised a knife. A hunter, James Jeffers, intervened and forced Harthegig outside.
The following day, Jeffers came past with his gun and asked which direction Harthegig had taken. He followed into the woods and returned hours later without explaining what happened. Harthegig was not seen again, and bones later discovered in the forest were said to be his.
That settler account does not establish how he died. His name survives in Harthegig Run, west of Mercer, while a later local tradition associates his ghost with Hell’s Hollow. This is the Mercer County landscape, separate from the Hell’s Hollow at McConnells Mill State Park.