Site of the 1928 Pennsylvania Dutch Powwow Murder
Rehmeyer's Hollow Road, Stewartstown, PA 17363
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The Rehmeyer house is privately owned and not regularly open to the public. The surrounding hollow is rural roadway suitable for drive-by viewing only.
Access
Limited Access
Rural paved and gravel roads through forested York County hollow
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1890 · 1928 Hex Murder Case · Pennsylvania Dutch Powwow Tradition · Pow-Wows / The Long Lost Friend Folklore · True Crime Historical Site
Rehmeyer's Hollow is a small rural valley in North Hopewell Township, York County, Pennsylvania, near the town of Winterstown. The area was settled by Pennsylvania Dutch farmers and remained, into the early twentieth century, a center for the folk-magic tradition known as powwowing or braucherei. Powwowing is a syncretic Pennsylvania Dutch faith-healing practice that draws on a German-language grimoire titled Pow-Wows, or The Long Lost Friend, compiled by Johann Georg Hohman and first published in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1820.
Nelson D. Rehmeyer (1868-1928) was a farmer and powwow practitioner who lived in the hollow that today bears his name. In November 1928 a young powwow practitioner named John Blymire became convinced that he had been cursed by Rehmeyer. Acting on advice from a woman named Emma "Nellie" Knopp, who claimed witch-finding abilities, Blymire and two teenage accomplices, John Curry and Wilbert Hess, broke into Rehmeyer's home on the night of November 27, 1928. They sought a lock of Rehmeyer's hair and his personal copy of The Long Lost Friend, items they believed necessary to break the curse. In the ensuing confrontation, the three beat Rehmeyer to death and set fires in his house.
The murder became a national news story, drawing attention to the persistence of Pennsylvania Dutch folk-magic traditions in twentieth-century rural Pennsylvania. Blymire and Curry received life sentences; Hess, the youngest accomplice, was sentenced to ten to twenty years. Hess was paroled in the 1930s and was eventually pardoned by Governor Earle in 1939. The case is documented at length in Wikipedia, Atlas Obscura, the Lineup, and the 2015 documentary Hex Hollow: Witchcraft and Murder in Pennsylvania, produced in cooperation with Rehmeyer descendants.
The Rehmeyer house still stands in the hollow on land owned by Rehmeyer descendants. The property is private and is not regularly open to the public, though descendants have hosted occasional educational visits in cooperation with the documentary production and York County historians.
Sources
The folklore of Rehmeyer's Hollow is unusually well-anchored to a documented historical event. Local tradition holds that the hollow itself retains an atmospheric weight tied to the 1928 murder, and visitors driving the rural road have reported brief impressions of a figure near the Rehmeyer house, sudden cold pockets in summer evenings, and the occasional malfunctioning of cameras and cell phones along the wooded stretches.
These reports are part of York County's broader fascination with the Pennsylvania Dutch powwow tradition and its violent end in this specific case. The 2015 documentary Hex Hollow: Witchcraft and Murder in Pennsylvania, produced with cooperation from Rehmeyer descendants, brought sustained national attention back to the site and led to a modest surge in dark-tourism interest.
The house remains private property. Hauntbound's recommendation is that visitors treat the hollow as a roadside drive-by, respecting the family's stewardship of the property and the documented history that anchors its reputation. The 1928 murder is well-archived in Pennsylvania court records and contemporary newspaper coverage; the folklore should be understood as a layer on top of that documented history rather than as its substitute.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
View the rural southern York County hollow associated with the 1928 powwow-folk-magic murder of Nelson Rehmeyer. The original Rehmeyer house remains standing on private land and is not open to the public except during occasional descendant-organized events. Visit the hollow as a contextual stop and do not enter private property.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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