As this Historian told the crowd assembled for last Friday’s HO&WL Walk on the Liberty Rail Trail organized by the Sullivan County O&W Rail Trail Alliance, there are any number of spooky tales and ghost stories written about Sullivan County that make for suitable Halloween reading—Stephen Crane’s “The Black Dog” and Washington Irving’s “A Marvelous Tale of Mamakating Hollow” among them-- but the region’s most famous and enduring ghost story is not a work of fiction at all.

It is neither legend nor lore, but historical fact. A bit bizarre, perhaps, but historical, nonetheless, at least to a point. And just where exactly that point lies has yet to be determined.

It is the story of the murder on the Stone Arch Bridge in Kenoza Lake, of George Markert, farmer, husband, father, as he crossed the bridge one January night in 1892.

George Markert was born in Germany, and came to America shortly after the Civil War. He obtained work in the tannery of Gideon Wales in what was then known as Pike Pond. He married Caroline Heidt, who had also relocated to the area from Germany, and through hard work and frugal living, eventually saved enough money to purchase a farm. Caroline’s brother, Adam, and his family farmed nearby.

Both Adam Heidt and his wife were uneducated and highly superstitious. Their five children shared these traits, and the family was generally looked down upon by their neighbors, including the Markerts. When Caroline Markert died and George remarried, he and his brother-in-law drifted apart. No longer having much in common, they rarely socialized or even spoke.

At some point, Adam Heidt’s life began a downward spiral. His crops failed, and his health began to deteriorate. He became convinced that George Markert was a "hexenmeister" or sorcerer, who had placed a curse upon him and his family, causing them the misfortunes that seemed to be plaguing their life. Furthermore, Heidt believed that Markert had placed this hex upon him by patting him on the back three times, and that Markert could reactivate the curse by performing any ordinary act - stroking his beard, tugging on his ear, spitting on the ground-- three times in succession.

Heidt confronted Markert about the hex, but his contention was met with laughter and derision. Then he decided to avoid his supposed torturer and instead barraged him with letters, initially pleading with him to lift the curse and then pledging vengeance against him if it wasn’t done. Heidt’s life did not improve.

Finally, when his cows began to produce bloody milk, Adam Heidt could take it no longer. On a cold Tuesday night in January 1892, he followed George Markert to the tavern at Hembt’s Hotel, where Markert often went for a nightcap. Witnesses would later recall seeing the two men leave the hotel together. It was the last time George Markert would be seen alive.

As the men crossed the stone arch bridge over the Callicoon Creek-- folklore holds that witches and warlocks are powerless over running water-- a third man, later determined to be Adam Heidt’s eldest son, Joseph, then 22, sprung from the shadows. George Markert was shot five times in the head with a .38 caliber revolver, stabbed multiple times with his own knife, and clubbed repeatedly with a heavy table leg he customarily used as a walking stick. His body was then thrown over the side of the bridge into the icy creek below. The Heidts believed that since the hex was activated by any action repeated three times, the murder had to be committed three different ways in order to lift it.

Markert’s mysterious disappearance had the small community of Kenoza Lake-- Pike Pond had adopted the name in 1890 because of postmaster Gideon Wales’ devotion to John Greenleaf Whittier, who had written a poem by that name-- and the farm country around it, all abuzz. It was the most sensational event in the area since the widow Ulrich—incidentally, Adam Heidt’s mother-in-law-- had been murdered by itinerant laborer Sailor Jack Allen in neighboring Jeffersonville in 1887. When Markert’s mutilated and barely recognizable body was discovered in the creek about a quarter of a mile below the bridge a few days later, the community’s worst fears were realized. It was undoubtedly murder.

During his examination of the body, Sullivan County Coroner John Dycker found a packet of letters written by Adam Heidt to George Markert. The letters provided authorities with the details of the hex as Heidt perceived it, and contained threats of violence if the curse wasn’t lifted. Adam Heidt and two of his sons, Joseph and 20-year old John, were arrested almost immediately. John Heidt was able to produce an alibi and was released; the other two were charged with the murder and sent to the County Jail in Monticello. A search of the Heidt farm uncovered a revolver of the same caliber as used in the murder, and blood-stained clothing belonging to the two men.

District Attorney Melvin H. Couch charged father and son with second degree murder. Neither participated in his own defense, though Joseph Heidt claimed he had acted only in self-defense. He was nonetheless found guilty and sentenced to life in prison at Dannemora. He served 15 years, and upon release lived out the remainder of his life without incident. Judge Fursman declared Adam Heidt insane and sent him to the state hospital for the criminally insane at Middletown where he died "of chronic melancholia" in 1897.

Meanwhile, the people around Kenoza Lake almost immediately began reporting the eerie sighting of Markert’s ghost on the stone arch bridge, usually on cold winter nights. The sightings have continued to this day, prompting much speculation. Had George Markert indeed dabbled in black magic and is he now getting the last laugh?

John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian. Email him at jconway52@hotmail.com.