History & local legend
Jacob Frederick Streit and Margaret Mateer married in the early 1890s and began their life together in a farmhouse on Chapel Road in Center Township, Beaver County. Their grandson Denver Walton retold their experience in a 1994 issue of Milestones.
For months, the couple heard the front iron gate squeak open and shut at night, but found no visitor. During a blizzard shortly after Christmas, the familiar gate noise was followed by a knock. Jacob took a lantern to the door, with Margaret behind him, and found a tall figure partly covered by a black cloak.
Margaret exclaimed, 'My God, it's a man.' The stranger backed off the porch, passed through the gate and vanished into the storm. Walton said the unexplained gate sounds stopped after that encounter.
