The Lure of Local Lore

We like to drive up Philadelphia Rd (which will eventually take you to Philadelphia if you let it) to the Cracker Barrel up in Abingdon, Harford County, and along the way, we pass this sign every time. In fact, I had Peggy take this picture of the sign from our moving car just to prove I'm not making it all up.

The Ha Ha Branch is just a little stream, a tributary of the Bush River, on land once owned by the descendants of John Hall of Cranberry, who owned 1500 riverside acres as of 1673.

The local legend has it that a headless horseman (not the same one written of in Washington Irving's "Legend Of Sleepy Hollow") (we hope) would appear when horseback riders would attempt to ford the stream we're speaking of...and the ghostly headless horseman would "issue blood-curdling taunts of "Ha Ha!" according to the local history book "Our Harford Heritage" by C. Milton Wright.

C. Milton Wright has a high school named after him, so he must have known a lot. He had no idea, of course, that a man named Ha'Sean Treshon "Ha Ha" Clinton-Dix would leave his native Orlando to play for the Crimson Tide of Alabama and then seven years in the National Football League as a safety, but there is no apparent connection between the athlete and the stream. 

Another interesting fact I just made up is that the headless horseman had a daughter, a modest young lady who was very popular in the community. In fact, all the horsemen knew her.

Please say that last part out loud again.