History & local legend
Nelson Rehmeyer’s farmhouse in York County became known as the Hex House after his murder in November 1928. John Blymire believed Rehmeyer had placed a curse on him. He and two companions went to the house seeking either a lock of Rehmeyer’s hair or his copy of The Long Lost Friend, a Pennsylvania German collection of charms and remedies.
At the trial, Blymire demonstrated how a woman had supposedly revealed the person responsible for the curse. He placed a banknote on his palm and explained that when she lifted it away, he had seen Rehmeyer’s face in his hand. That conviction had sent him to the hollow looking for a way to break the spell.
Rehmeyer came downstairs carrying a lamp and admitted the men. They killed him, then placed bedding over his body and set it alight. The fire failed to destroy the house. In the local legend, the building’s survival became another sign of the strange forces Blymire had feared, and people continued to visit the hollow looking for traces of its history.
