If you travel north on highway 59, out of Brazil, Indiana, in about 4 or 5 miles you will come to a gravel road that turns to the right. The road takes the lonely traveler to the tiny town of Carbon, but before you get there, you pass over 3 hills. If you are brave enough, you can stop at the top of the last hill and look back down toward the 2nd one. If you are lucky, most nights a lone lantern light can be seen swinging through the woods, letting us know why this hill is known as ‘Spook Light Hill’. The following story tells why the light is there……
It was a cool October evening in 1894. Old man Lawry was waiting up for his daughter, his only child, to return home. Didn’t she notice the storm moving in? Where was she! He ponders that he should have never let her go. He had always been over-protective, but she was all the family that he had left! His beloved wife had died not long after Rebecca had been born. But Rebecca had begged to go to the social, so he had finally given in to her. He knew it was actually a bit early for her to be home, but there was a fierce looking storm way off to the west, moving their way……..
***CRACK**** Lightning flashed across the sky. The wind was starting to blow. Still no Rebecca! Where WAS she!! He knew she was 18 years old, but she was not that good at driving a horse & rig. Oh, if he could just see her coming up the road! John Lawry was over being mad…..he was getting frantic now! He was just about to convince himself that she had seen the storm coming and stayed at the church when there was a sudden movement out the window. Yes! It was a horse and buggy! Grabbing his raincoat, he dashed out the door, as the rain starts to fall in torrents. Running out into the rain, he grabs the harness and brings the panting horse to a stop.
“GET IN THE HOUSE!” he yells to his daughter. But there is no response…….
What’s this? John looks into the empty buggy. Where could she be? He looks in the obvious places with no success and then his eyes glance back down the dark, wet lane. Fear is slowly replaced by dread as John’s mind starts racing wildly. Rebecca is in trouble somewhere! He leaps into the buggy and whips the tired horse back into action. Down the lane, toward the church he flies. He can see steam rising from the horses back, but not much of anything else as the rain beats against the rig. The buggy slides around the corners, sending mud flinging. At the top of the first of the three hills, a bright flash of lightning illuminates the road ahead of him. There! At the bottom of the hill!!……..
Pulling back hard on the reins, the horse was more than happy to come to a stop, even if it was quite a job on a muddy steep downhill. John recognizes the dress on the figure lying in a heap in the mud. REBECCA! She must have been hurrying to get home before the storm and fell out on the rough downhill! Even before the rig had come to a complete stop, he was running to the body. Turning her over, John’s eyes fall on a most horrid sight. Her head! Where is her head?!! Apparently it had been severed by the buggy wheel……
Rebecca Lawry was buried in the family cemetery near where her body was found. Her head never turned up. It is assumed that some animal dragged it off. John Lawry never spoke much after that night. He would be seen in town occasionally, or around his house, usually muttering soft words to himself. But all night, every night after Rebecca’s death, he would go out with a lantern searching the area for his daughter’s head. Even after his death a number of lonely years later, and yes, even today, more that 100 years since that fateful night, the light from John Lawry’s lantern can be seen searching the woods of Spook Light Hill.
The End
