History & local legend
A Williamsport tradition places a mounted apparition on Sutton Avenue late at night or before dawn. A contributor named Justice described a Native American rider who continues along the street and passes through anyone in his path. Justice supplied no name for the rider and presented the account as neighborhood lore.
The contributor associated it with a massacre, but called the event the Sutton massacre and placed it in the early nineteenth century. The nearby historical memorial commemorates a different, dated event: the Plum Tree Massacre of June 10, 1778, when a wagon party heading toward Lycoming Creek was ambushed near wild plum trees.
The rider’s story and the memorial now share a neighborhood. The historical date helps explain the local association without identifying the apparition as a participant in that attack.
Sources
- Justice, Williamsport submission, Ghosts of America, approximately 2005, page 7
- John F. Meginness, History of Lycoming County, victims and survivors and location of the wild plum thicket
- Historical Marker Database, inscription of the 1901 monument at West Fourth and Cemetery Streets
- OpenStreetMap, named Sutton Avenue street segment
