History & local legend
Otthille and Lydie Bousson made a fortune producing shirts in New York for wealthy customers, including Ulysses S. Grant. They later built a brick mansion in Crawford County, where their parties and unusual household became subjects of local fascination.
One story sent to a northwestern Pennsylvania folklore collector claimed that a sister planned to marry late in life, only for the other to kill her suitor out of jealousy. A different correspondent described a large creature prowling the estate. These were separate tales about the same property, rather than two episodes in one established family history.
The mansion was demolished in the late 1930s. A more tangible part of the sisters’ legacy survives in Frenchtown: the crystal chandelier they donated to Saint Hippolytes Church around 1888.
Sources
- Northwest Pennsylvania Hauntings, June 2006 web archive
- Crawford County Historical Society, Frenchtown’s Crystal Chandelier
- Gumash, history of the Bousson estate, siting on Oil Creek Road and subsequent land use
- Allegheny College, Bousson Environmental Research Reserve
- DIRT research network, Bousson Experimental Forest site coordinates
