Ghosts, Legends, and the Truth Behind Lancaster County’s Most Haunted Stories

• Asia Tabb
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Asia Tabb is the Host and Producer for WITF’s The Spark.
  
  She began her start in radio when she joined legendary radio/ host producer, Doc Christian. She worked closely with Doc for her role on “The Gospel Express, on WHOV 88.1 FM and was a host for “Unrestricted Praise” at Praise FM.
  
  Previously she was an anchor in Shreveport, Louisiana at KTAL/KMSS. Asia also worked as a Multi-Media Journalist at WHP-TV here in Harrisburg, PA.
  
  Asia got her break into news at KTVO in Ottumwa, Ia. While the 2020 caucuses were gearing up. Asia followed many candidates through their campaign trail from Senator Cory Booker, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and 46th President of the United States Joe Biden.
  
  Asia was born and raised in Norfolk, Va. She graduated from Old Dominion University in 2018 with a major in Communications.
  
  Asia is extremely friendly so don’t be afraid to say hi if you see her out and about.

photo courtesy of Adam Zurn

AIRED; October 28, 2025

Listen to the podcast to hear the full conversation. 

Lancaster County’s ghost stories have captivated generations — whispered around campfires, retold during long car rides, and passed down like folklore stitched into local memory. But as historian and Uncharted Lancaster founder Adam Zurn has discovered, some of the county’s most enduring legends have a little less to do with the supernatural and a lot more to do with history, humor, and happenstance.

In a recent interview for The Spark, Zurn peeled back the layers on three of Lancaster’s most talked-about legends: The Face on Carter’s Hill, The Wandering Statue of Augusta Bitner, and The Knocking Coffin of Lititz.

“Every time I tell the story, scores of people will comment and say, yes, I’ve seen it,” said Zurn. “In the attic window, there is a head — and it has been there since the late 1800s.”

Drivers traveling along Route 222 near the small town of New Texas may still catch a glimpse of that eerie head staring from the attic window of a brick home. The tale goes that it’s the ghostly wife of a Civil War soldier, waiting eternally for his return.

But as Zurn discovered, the truth is more curious than tragic. “In the late 1800s, a professor named Henry Carter lived there. He was a professor of phrenology — a now debunked Victorian science that claimed you could read people’s personalities by the bumps on their heads,” Zurn explained. The “ghostly head,” it turns out, is actually a phrenology bust that Carter used for teaching.

When Carter died, his daughter found it among his belongings and placed it in the attic window — where it’s remained for over a century. “It’s neat because unlike other ghost stories, you can actually see this one. It’s always there,” Zurn said with a laugh.

Another Lancaster favorite centers on Augusta Bitner, whose sorrowful statue stands in the Lancaster Cemetery. Legend has it that Augusta died tragically on her wedding day after tripping on her gown — and that her ghostly statue roams the cemetery at night.

But historical research paints a different picture. “She didn’t die on her wedding day,” said Zurn. “She actually lived about a year afterward, had a child, and then passed away from typhus when she returned to Lancaster to visit family.”

Despite the truth, the story endures — largely because of Augusta’s striking monument. “It’s not just your classic tombstone,” Zurn explained. “It’s this beautiful statue of a woman in what looks like a wedding dress, standing on steps beside a pillar that says, ‘Could love have kept her?’ It’s very dramatic.”

Even knowing the facts, Zurn admits, “It’s more sad than spooky — but that doesn’t make it any less fascinating.”