One of the more stranger tales you will hear around Western Pa. is that of the Beaver County Pig Lady who they hold an Annual Fair for at The New Galiliee Community Event Center this year on October 8th 2022
The Pig lady of Cannelton starts in the little unincorporated town of Cannelton which is with in Darlington Township which was settled in 1795 and which was at one time a busy railroad hub.
Early days saw coal mining for Cannol Coal which is how the town got its name and eventually the town became a Farming Town.
It was on one of these farms where the story begins a young lady named Barbara Davidson daughter of Samuel and Cora McCaskey She was married to a Nathan Davidson a Revolutionary War Soldier who supposedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances to this day unsolved , yet others say he had just died a young man . These events what ever happened would cause Barbara to go home to stay with her parents not having the means to support herself .
That's where things get very weird .
In the fall 1795 her parents took a trip to Pittsburgh to obtain what they needed to run the farm leaving her in charge of the farm and its duty's .
When here parents returned a few days later Barbra was no where to be found she had Vanished.
A massive search was launched and nothing found.
Of Course all kinds of wild speculation from running off to get married to here husband mysteriously showing back up and abducting her but still nothing.
But then a very bad smell developed in the Mc Caskey home and after lifting floor boards trying to find the source the headless body of Barbara was found but her head was never located.
Plus here killer never identified.
So ends the story but not so.
A few years later im early 1800s a scary apparition of a headless women nearly kills a man after his horses and carriage encountered it and horses took off in a fit along Cannelton road . and then boys playing on a bridge near the area in the 50's one evening encounter the apparition except this time the headless woman had a pigs skull for a head.
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| example of pig lady |
So this is where she got her name especially after neighbors near the cemetery where Barbra is buried saw the same apparition supposedly .
Yet another man who was camping in the woods nearby said he had a frightful encounter with the apparition without the pig head but it spoke to him saying "Tell them Raynoe "?
Who apparently was a Native American who lived in the area with a bad reputation but did he even exist?
Well the legend lives on and we may well hear about an encounter in the future . But the case to this day including here husbands disappearance is unsolved
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opvI_lR3KQM
