THE STORY
Reported Haunting
The former Turniptown Covered Bridge over Pequea Creek was the setting of an old Lancaster County legend about a farmer who sold his soul to the Devil and was later found hanging inside the bridge. Travelers were subsequently said to encounter his dangling apparition beneath the bridge roof.
Village Road crosses Pequea Creek between Lampeter and Strasburg at a location once known as Turniptown, now generally called Edisonville. A covered bridge stood here during the nineteenth century until it was destroyed by fire in September 1897. Long before the bridge disappeared, local folklore attached a supernatural story to the crossing. The legend tells of a lazy farmer who dreamed of wealth without labor and encountered the Devil inside the bridge. He supposedly agreed to exchange his soul for prosperity, only to later be discovered hanging from the bridge. Afterward, travelers were said to encounter his suspended apparition inside the covered span, with some versions describing the ghost's dangling feet brushing against people passing beneath it. The tale survived into the early twentieth century through local storytelling and verse. Although there is no established historical evidence confirming the farmer or his supernatural bargain, the "Spook of Turniptown Bridge" became an enduring piece of Lancaster County folklore. The original covered bridge is gone; a modern concrete bridge now occupies the historic crossing.