Stottsville Inn

Does the Stottsville Inn in Chester County have a ghost? And is it really Josephine Emery? As the story goes, Horace Emery, the inn-keeper, murdered his wife Josephine in 1893. Supposedly, Horace found Josephine in bed with someone else and, in his rage, choked her and the lover to death. Horace then decided to kill himself and left a very bizarre ‘suicide’ note.

According to some accounts, doors open and close on their own, and guests of the inn report items going missing, only to have them turn up again. Paranormal investigators generally believe that there is something haunting the Inn. Why do they think Horace or Josephine are the ghost?

I visited the Inn for dinner back in 2008 and saw the suicide note. The note, supposedly penned by Horace, was displayed prominently in the main hallway. I was able to take the picture of the note shown to the right. Before I ever visited the inn, their website contained some information about the story of Horace and Josephine, though the current website shows nothing about them at all.

I love, love, love you. You are the dream of my life. Come with me to the shoe store and I will make love to you. Love, Horace.” “P.S., I can’t live without you so I will commit suicide in the barn. I will bite a cow’s leg and he will kick me in the head and kill me. For without you, life is nothing.”

When I conducted my own research into the story, I discovered some rather large problems with the story. In fact, the only true parts I could find were that Josephine was married to a guy name Horace and she died in 1893. But, Horace did not murder her. Chester County Death Records show that Josephine C. Emery, aged 37, died of bronchitis in Coatesville on July 6. 1893.

Josephine married Horace in 1890, shortly after her father, Maris Taylor Chandler, passed away. Even if Horace did actually write the note, perhaps in his grief over the death of his wife, it was not a suicide note because Horace did not kill himself. He died of cancer 6/23/1910. His buried at Oaklands Cemetery in West Chester, right next to Josephine.

If anyone haunts the Stottsville Inn, it would be far more likely to be Josephine’s father, who actually did die in the Inn. And while Josephine could still be haunting the Inn, it is not because Horace murdered her