History & local legend
Moses Wharton was the longtime caretaker associated with McConnells Mill beside Slippery Rock Creek in Lawrence County. He began looking after the property around 1880 and was still living there in the 1950s. Local folklore later assigned him the same duty after death: responding when someone arrived at the mill after dark.
One story passed along by Butler County storyteller Jim Clements concerns a group of boys who drove there to test that legend. Their car horn would not work, so one boy leaned out and shouted a horn sound instead. The others laughed—until a gray figure appeared where the miller’s house had stood.
According to the retelling published by Christine Lorraine in 2020, the figure began walking toward the car. The boys understood the approaching shape as Wharton, the caretaker they had been trying to summon.
Sources
- Christine Lorraine, Curious Tales of Hauntings Swirl Around McConnell’s Mill Covered Bridge, quoting the Jim Clements account reported by Susan Seibel
- Lawrence County Memoirs, McConnell’s Mill State Park, biographical and photographic record of Moses Wharton
- Pennsylvania DCNR, History of McConnells Mill State Park
- Library of Congress, Historic American Engineering Record PA-458, McConnell’s Mill Bridge
