History & local legend
Milford’s old Pike County jail is associated with Herman Paul Schultz, who was executed in December 1897 for murdering his wife, Lizzie. A later story places his ghost inside the jail about a year after his death.
According to the tale, a stonecutter was locked in a cell overnight. A cold draft disturbed him, and a shadowy figure appeared. The visitor identified himself as Schultz and said that he was still looking after things at the jail.
The encounter turns the executed prisoner into a lingering custodian of the building that once held him. Allen Sircy retold the stonecutter’s experience in a 2026 episode devoted to the old jail and Schultz’s apparent return.
Allen Sircy retold the stonecutter’s experience in a 2026 episode about Schultz and the old jail.
Sources
- Allen Sircy, Southern Ghost Stories, Looking After Things: The Ghost of Paul Schultz, 2026, retelling of the stonecutter’s encounter
- Pennsylvania Haunts & History, former sheriff’s office, records the separate staff tradition of upstairs footsteps
- Barrington Review, December 11, 1897, contemporary news report of the hanging in the Milford jail
- Hissam family history, reproducing the Pike County Historical Society’s account of jailer Lucien Hissam, Lizzie Schultz, trial and December 7 execution
- Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey, Milford Jail at Broad and High streets
- Allison Mowatt, “Do You Love the Chills?”, Connections, February 2012, printed page 7
