Rehmeyer’s Hollow and the 1928 “Hex Murder”

What the legend says

Later tellings call the southern York County setting Hex Hollow and surround the old farmhouse with warnings. Depending on the narrator, visitors hear footsteps, see lights, feel watched, or encounter a curse connected to a book hidden in the house. Some versions turn Nelson Rehmeyer into a sinister “witch,” while others make the house itself the source of the danger.

Those supernatural details are folklore. At the center is a documented act of violence: Rehmeyer was killed in his home in late November 1928 by three people who believed he had placed a harmful spell on them. Contemporary coverage describes their effort to obtain an object they thought could break that supposed influence. It does not document a haunted book, a house that traps visitors, or events continuing after Rehmeyer’s death.

Earliest credible accounts

The earliest accounts reviewed for this article are newspaper reports published within weeks of the killing and coverage of the January 1929 trials. A December 7, 1928 newspaper scan summarized the inquest and named Nelson Rehmeyer, John Blymire, Wilbert Hess, and John Curry. A January 21, 1929 Time article reported testimony that Blymire believed taking Rehmeyer’s copy of The Long Lost Friend, or obtaining and burying a lock of his hair, would break a supposed spell.

These reports are evidence for the crime, the defendants’ stated beliefs, and the sensational language surrounding the case. They are not neutral studies of Pennsylvania German culture, and their labels should be read critically. They also do not establish when the first haunting story appeared. The gap between a documented 1928 crime and later paranormal claims matters: a tale repeated decades afterward is not automatically a witness account from the time.

Documented historical context

Nelson Rehmeyer was a York County farmer associated with Pennsylvania German powwow, also called Braucherei. The Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University describes that tradition as ritual healing using prayers, gestures, and everyday objects for healing, protection, and desired outcomes. That description is more accurate than treating every practitioner as a worker of evil magic.

According to the contemporary trial coverage, Blymire believed Rehmeyer had caused his troubles through a curse. He went to the farmhouse with Hess and Curry seeking the book or hair. Rehmeyer was beaten and killed, and attempts were made to burn the scene. The three were tried in York County in early 1929 and convicted on murder charges of differing degrees.

The case attracted national attention because reporters framed it as a collision between modern courts and “witchcraft.” That framing helped make the event memorable, but it also encouraged outsiders to flatten a varied healing tradition into a lurid story. The crime demonstrates what people did because of a belief; it does not demonstrate that the alleged curse existed.

Conflicting versions

Names, motives, and labels shift across retellings. Blymire’s surname is also printed as Blymyer in contemporary and later sources. Popular accounts disagree about who first identified Rehmeyer as the supposed source of the curse and whether the assailants primarily sought the book, a lock of hair, or both. Some narrators call every person involved a “witch” or “witch doctor,” while cultural historians distinguish healing practice from accusations of harmful magic.

The geography also gets simplified. The book chapter is set in Stewartstown, a recognizable nearby community, while historical sources place the Rehmeyer property in southern York County’s Rehmeyer’s Hollow. Using a nearby town as a fictional setting should not be mistaken for a precise historical address. Modern haunted-house stories likewise vary in what appears and why, which is a sign of continuing folklore rather than a settled record.

What remains unverified

No source reviewed here verifies a supernatural curse, a book with power over memory, a continuing apparition, or paranormal activity at the house. The precise starting point of the “Hex Hollow” haunting tradition also remains unclear. Contemporary crime reporting can establish what witnesses and defendants said in court, but it cannot prove the supernatural beliefs used to explain their actions.

Rehmeyer’s surviving house has become a focus of curiosity, yet its notoriety does not erase its status as private property or the fact that a real person died there. Responsible folklore reading does not require testing a legend at someone else’s home.

How the fiction adapts the material

Chapter 1 of Hometown Horror Stories: Pennsylvania, “The Book That Doesn’t Forget,” is fiction set in Stewartstown. It borrows the region’s association with Rehmeyer’s Hollow and the idea of a troubling book, then invents its young characters, social-media conflict, memory-erasing threat, faceless figure, and resolution. The supernatural book is not presented as a historical object from the murder case.

The chapter also distinguishes healing traditions from harmful magic within its fictional world. That choice reflects an important historical caution: Rehmeyer’s practice should not be reduced to the accusations made against him by the people who killed him.

Sources

1. Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center: Heritage Center Publications, describing powwow or Braucherei as a Pennsylvania German ritual healing tradition.
2. Time: “Hex & Hoax” (January 21, 1929), contemporary trial coverage reporting Blymire’s account of the book and lock of hair.
3. The Home Paper (December 7, 1928), a digitized contemporary report summarizing the killing and inquest.
4. WGAL: “The history of ‘Hex House’ in York County”, a modern local-history interview that discusses Rehmeyer and the later reputation of the house.