History & local legend
Josephine Stott Chandler married Horace Emery at the Stottsville Inn in December 1890. Her name later became central to a ghost story at the Chester County inn: she was said to haunt the upper rooms after being killed by her husband.
An undated letter displayed at the inn in 2008 helped sustain that tale. Attributed to Horace, it declared his love and proposed an extraordinary way to end his own life—provoking a cow into fatally kicking him. The story treated it as his farewell after Josephine’s death. County records, however, list Josephine as dying of bronchitis in 1893, and genealogical research places Horace alive in 1900.
The inn’s later guests have described voices and doors, windows or blinds found closed after being left open.
Sources
- East Coast Genealogy, a visit to see the letter in 2008 and a transcription from the county death register
- Sadsbury History, the 1866 stone hotel and the Josephine Stott Chandler tradition
- Stottsville Inn’s history from its ledgers, including Josephine’s December 1890 wedding
- PA Eats, the room reports and investigators’ visits in 2007 and 2008
- County Lines, spooky season in Chester County, with owner and guest traditions
- Stottsville Inn, current restaurant and location
