The Tale of Minister Creek

I first heard the story from my dad, but I was 16 years old at the time, and he was always telling wild stories, so I did not take him seriously…looking back now, I’m surprised that I paid attention at all! But my dad could tell an interesting story, and this one stuck with me!

We were on our way to the movies, when we passed over a small stream, which a sign told us was named “Minister Creek”. I then made the mistake of mentioning the name to my dad, noting how unusual it was! So, he began to tell me the story, as he knew it:

It was in the early years of the 19^th century, when the area was still mostly farms and scarcely populated, and while most communities had a church building, they were usually Union churches, shared between the UCC and the Lutherans. Few of these congregations could afford their own pastors, so they hired circuit preachers, who served several churches in the area, traveling to a different church each Sunday to lead worship! At that time, the circuit preacher for the local Lutherans was Pastor Frederick Muhler. By all accounts he was a dedicated pastor, who was respected for his preaching, and because he worked tirelessly for all of the congregations he served.

He would often be seen at all hours of the day and night in his small carriage, visiting the sick and the elderly who couldn’t make it to church. Pastor Muhler also made sure that he visited with every family when there was a birth or a death!

One Autumn night, the pastor was traveling along the same back road that we were driving on, but at that time it was still just two ruts in the grass! The Minister had just come from visiting a young girl who was suffering from the flu, and was on his way home after a long day! It was late, and the earlier rain had turned into a downpour, with howling winds and thunder rumbling in the skies overhead! Other than the flashes of lightning, it was pitch dark, making it hard for the Reverend Muhler to see the road ahead of him, despite the small lamps on his buggy!

As he approached the stream, the pastor did not know that it had overflowed its banks, and had washed out the small bridge! Unknowing, he pushed his horse forward into the darkness, and they were swept away by the flood waters!

The pastor lived alone, so no one knew he was missing until that Saturday night, when he failed to show up for dinner at a parishioner’s house, as was his custom. This raised concern, but it was assumed that the pastor might have decided not to make the trip, because of the damage from the recent storms. However, their concern turned to real worry on Sunday morning, when he didn’t show up for worship, this was something that was unheard of! A group of congregants went to the Muhler’s home, but did not find him there, only his pet cat, and a couple of chickens the cat had not eaten yet!

The people searched for the pastor, and while they found his horse drowned in the creek, there was no sign of the Minister! A few days into the search, the temperature dropped dramatically, and it snowed, ushering in the harshest winters in years! The Lutheran church in Philadelphia eventually offered another preacher to serve the congregations, and life went on for the community as they struggled with the heavy snows!

When the spring thaw came, the creek once again flooded, and that’s when a farmer found the pieces of the pastor’s buggy along the creek, and the after a brief search, the pastor’s water-logged Bible, his vestments and a boot were found a few yards into the woods! The boot was shredded, as if an animal had gotten to it, but they never found any other traces of the pastor, meaning that this respected man of God would never have a final resting place!

Life went on in the valley, and in time, Reverend Muhler was remembered only in stories. As more people came to the area, the towns grew larger, the churches became more established, and permanent pastors were hired, ending the time of the circuit preachers!

By the 1880’s there were few who remembered the pastor, most these were elderly people who had heard him preach when they were children, and told stories of how he was lost, vanishing almost without a trace!

Over the years, there were stories of people seeing a phantom buggy traveling the roads that crossed the creek. Some claimed to have actually seen the preacher at the reigns, others just noted the strange lights that appeared along the road on stormy nights! The general assumption being that because his body had never been found, and he was never properly laid to rest, that the Minister’s spirit was doomed to restlessness!

Many of the old timers would warn people to “Stay away from that Minister’s Creek” at night, especially when it was stormy! For the most part, the younger people laughed at these stories of a ghost on the road, at least openly, though many of those same people made sure to avoid that stretch of road, both day and night! Whispered stories of the ghostly phantom continued to be told, and eventually, the name stuck and since the late 19^th century the creek has been known as “Minister Creek”!

Then, my father told me “…to this day, people still claim to see the ghost of the minister, on these roads that cross over the creek!”  “Huh, what?” I answered, because I was only half paying attention. “I said, people are still reporting that they see the ghost of the Minister, in his buggy, wandering these roads late at night.” I just kind of nodded, knowing that my dad loved to make up these crazy stories, and said “You don’t expect me to believe this, do you dad?” He looked at me and said, “It’s just what I heard, I didn’t make up the story!” “Okay dad.” I told him and then I turned up my iPod and let the story drop.

The only time I ever thought about the story was when I crossed the creek, and saw the sign. Otherwise, I pretty much forgot about the tale of Minister Creek, which I never really believed in the first place.

Then, one dark and stormy night, as I was driving home from work, I came upon an accident that closed the road I usually took, so I had to take a detour. Believing I knew better, I ignored the official detour and took some back roads and promptly got lost. Of course, it never crossed my mind to stop and use the GPS on my phone because I was going to find my own way out, and was sure that I would find a road that I knew sooner or later.

However, because it was dark and raining, it was hard to see more than a few feet in front of the car, so I wound up cautiously feeling my way along the narrow road, hoping to find something I knew. Instead, I missed a turn and wound up off on the side of the road, spinning my tires in the mud!

I reluctantly got out of the car, and was immediately soaked! I did not have a shovel or anything close to it in the trunk, so I had to use the lug wrench to try to dig out the car…it did not work! I only sank in deeper!  Then, I got an old sweatshirt out of the car, dug out more mud, and shoved it underneath the tire, and got back in the car. This time, I wound up shredding the sweatshirt, but not moving anywhere! I gave up and got my phone, to call for help…but no service! I remember sitting there for a moment, frustrated…listening to the rain thrumming on the roof, not sure what to do next.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the window, which made me jump! There was a man dressed in black, tapping on the glass, and I rolled down the window. “Sorry, you just surprised me, I didn’t hear a car or anything.” The man smiled, and tipped his hat, and that’s when I saw his clerical collar. “That’s fine” He said, “I was riding by and thought you needed some help, would you like me and Martin to pull you out of that ditch?” I looked through the rain and that he had been traveling in a horse and buggy, and I assumed he was Amish…as we were not too far from that part of Pennsylvania. I thanked him and said “I would love some help!” as I got out of the car, but he waved me off, “Stay, it will just take a little, Martin and I have done this before.”

So, I got back in the car, and sure enough, he hooked up the wagon to the car, and he pulled Martin forward, while I gently hit the gas, and the car slowly came out of the mud, and back on the road! Relieved, I got out of the road to help the preacher unhitch the car; however, by the time I got to the front of the car, he had already finished! I thanked him again, and he nodded, saying “Martin and I are going out toward the main Pottstown road, you can follow us, that road will take you back inta town, this should keep you out of the mud.” I smiled, nodded, and began to thank him again, but he stopped me, “You’ve thanked me enough, it’s getting late and the heavens have opened up on us, it’s time to go.” I nodded and got back in the car.

The rain had begun to lighten up, only to be replaced by thick fog! I followed slowly behind the buggy as it continued down the road. Soon, all I could see were the lights from the Preacher’s lamps, although they were gas and not electric, the glow was able to cut through the fog!

While I appreciated the Preacher’s help, I was frustrated at the slow pace of the horse and buggy, but I kept my patience, remembering that he was doing me a favor! After about 15 minutes of following the lights through the fog and darkness, I found myself at the intersection with the main road, the one which led back into town! Sitting at the Stop sign, right next to the preacher and his horse, and without a thought, I offered Martin an apple I had left over from lunch. The horse took the apple in one bite, the preacher nodded at me and began to move off across the intersection. I checked for coming traffic, but saw none. Then, I turned to look back at road ahead of me, but it was empty!

My new friend, the preacher, was gone, and I was alone at the crossroads! It was a little weird how the horse and buggy had disappeared into the fog, but I told myself that he must be exactly what happened: the preacher had simply faded into the fog! Still, I did not quite believe that myself, but I made a right turn and headed for home, glad that the rain had stopped and the fog was lifting!

I was wet, exhausted and hungry, so I stopped to pick up a Big Mac and fries on the way home, looking forward to getting up to my room and crashing. When I got home, my dad asked me why I was so late. When I told him my story, his eyes lit up, and he told me, “You saw the Minister, the one I told you about…the one they named the creek after, you must have seen his ghost!” I laughed and said “Get over yourself dad, it was just some Amish Preacher!” “There are not a lot of Amish around here.” My father pointed out, with a smirk. “Okay dad.” I told him, “I’m tired, it’s been a long day, good night.”

With that I climbed the stairs, and went to my room. I crashed out on the bed and began munching on my fries and turned on the TV to catch up on the news! I was so tired that I started to fall asleep before I finished eating! It was thinking about the story of Minister Creek, and what happened to me earlier that evening, that kept waking me up! Finally, I broke down and got out my laptop, so I could Google the story, to see if there was any truth to it!

It didn’t take long…

Although I did not remember the Minister’s name, when I did a search on the legend of Minister Creek, a link to the story came up right away! It turned out that the story my dad told was mostly true, there was a Lutheran Minister named Frederick Muhler. He had been the circuit preacher, serving several area churches. He was well respected for his preaching, and for going out of his way to visit with parishioners who were dealing with grief, family troubles, and illness. In fact, it was while traveling back from visiting a young child with the flu, that he was swept down the creek in a storm, along with his faithful horse “Martin”, named after Martin Luther!

I tried to tell myself that what happened to me was a weird coincidence, that I had just met a wandering Amish preacher, and that’s all. However, it was hard to convince myself of this…and then, I pulled up a woodcut illustration of Rev. Muhler, and could not deny that this was the man I met on the back road, when I was stuck in the ditch!!

In the years since, I have often traveled those back roads, and every time I cross over Minister Creek, I say “Thank you” to Rev. Muhler, and I will slow down the car at the place where I got stuck on that rainy night, and toss out an apple for Martin…kind of a superstitious thing, except that I once went back the next evening to see if the apple was gone. I pulled the car over onto the (now dry) shoulder, and found broken pieces of apple on the side of the road, and hoof prints in the damp ground!

I was walking back to the car, when I heard a horse’s whinny!

I looked up and could see two lights, traveling along a dirt road that followed the creek. After thinking for a moment, I decided to follow the lights! I got into the car, and followed the lights through the dusk, although I was going about 25 miles per hour, I never caught up to them, reminding me of when I became so frustrated about how slow the horse and buggy moved on that stormy night!

Finally, the road ended, so I parked and began to walk, the lights always ahead of me, but too far to see much else, as it grew darker! Then the lights stopped moving, and my heart began to race as I came closer to them. I could just make out the outline of a buggy, and could hear the horse breathing…but then I was alone in the dark!

I was shook-up, but fortunately, I phone has a flashlight on it! When I started shining the light around, I could see that there was a large object, mostly hidden by weeds and other vegetation! It was dark, so I decided to mark the spot and come back in the daylight.

The next morning, I put on my boots and some work clothes, and took my battery powered hedge clippers and a shovel, and returned to the site, off in the woods alongside Minister Creek! After about 20 minutes of hacking away at the weeds, I found the remains of an old buggy, laying upside down in the dirt! There wasn’t much left, but I wanted to see if there was anything inside, so I carefully tipped the wreckage over, and there, for the first time in over 200 years, the body of Reverend Muhler saw the light of day again! He was still wearing the remains of his black suit, and his clerical collar! Around what was left of his neck was a tarnished cross, and an old hymnbook was on his chest, protected from the damp ground!

When the State Troopers arrived, they closed off the area, and called in the local historical society. Their investigation turned up the Minister’s home communion kit, with his name on it, changes of clothes, and the remains of a bottle of brandy. When he was taken to the Medial Examiner it was determined that he probably survived the accident, though was badly hurt, and was then attacked by an animal, maybe a bear or mountain lion, but still managed to crawl under the buggy for safety, and there he died of his wounds. This would explain the hymnal on his chest and the bottle of brandy by his side.

After the investigation was concluded, his remains were claimed by one of the congregations he once served, and given a full funeral service and burial in the cemetery. He was even laid to rest on the older part of the graveyard, near to those he would have served during his life.

Since then, there have been no other sightings of the ghost of Minister Creek, and it is hoped that he is finally at rest!