Furnace Town Living Heritage Village

Sampson Harmon, a free Black man born in 1790, refused to leave Furnace Town after everyone else abandoned the iron works around 1850, living alone with his cats for nearly fifty years until he died at 107. His dying wish to be buried there was denied, and visitors have been seeing his ghost (and hearing him call for his cats) ever since.

Stray cats have roamed the grounds of Furnace Town for over a century, and the museum keeps them on purpose. They belong to Sampson Harmon.

Sampson was born free in 1790 at Nassawango Hills, a rarity for a Black man on Maryland's Eastern Shore. His father Levin was also free. Described as "big, tall, fast, and strong," Sampson worked as a jack-of-all-trades at the Nassawango Iron Furnace, which the Maryland Iron Company built in 1830 to smelt bog ore from the surrounding Pocomoke swamp. At its peak in the 1840s, around 300 workers labored here: miners, colliers, molders, and bargemen feeding raw materials into a furnace stack that hit 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The furnace pioneered "hot blast" technology in America, adopted just years after its invention in Scotland.

When the company went bankrupt around 1850, every resident left. Every resident except Sampson.

He stayed for nearly fifty years. Built a small wooden house near the manor. Raised corn in a garden and bartered with nearby Snow Hill for supplies. Author Dennis William Hauck described it in "Haunted Places: The National Directory": "He came to think of Furnace Town as his only home and refused to leave the settlement, even when everyone else had abandoned it." His wife and children eventually moved on. Sampson stayed with his cats, particularly a grey one named Stormy (some older accounts say a black cat named Tom).

In 1896, when Sampson was 106, county officials finally convinced him to move to the Alms House in Snow Hill. He died there a year later at 107. His one dying wish, to be buried at Furnace Town, was denied. They buried him in Snow Hill instead.

People have been seeing him ever since. A tall Black man walks through parts of the village, especially during restoration work in the 1960s when the Worcester County Historical Society began stabilizing the ruins. Visitors hear him calling for his cats, the sound carrying through the forest. Some catch a glimpse of a cat trailing behind him through the shadows.

Furnace Town sits within 18,000 acres of Pocomoke Forest, which locals call "the most haunted forest in Maryland." Sampson is one of over a dozen spirits tied to these woods, alongside legends of the Goat Man, the Cellar House murders, drowned fishermen, and escaped slaves from the Underground Railroad era.

The investigations are a regular thing now. Peninsula Ghost Hunters and Delmarva Spirit Hunters run events at the site, setting up K2 meters and EVP recorders in the restored buildings. Chesapeake Ghosts organizes public ghost hunts where participants walk through the village with electromagnetic equipment. Findings have included orbs (though one investigator noted the night was "buggy," leaving the orb evidence debatable), EMF spikes, temperature swings, and REM-pod activity. EVP recordings have captured audio the teams interpret as responses. The atmosphere, according to a MidAtlantic Daytrips writer who attended a 2018 investigation, "never felt negative or terribly scary," suggesting Sampson and whoever else lingers here are friendly company.

Investigations always end at the Old Nazareth Church, built in 1874 at the edge of the village. Inside sits the "Heavy Bible," a leather-bound scripture that, according to legend, grows heavier the closer you carry it to the door. Nobody has been able to remove it from the building. In September 2021, vandals caused over $100,000 in damage to the site, including the historic Bible, though the culprit was never caught. The museum has since recovered with upgraded security.

Sampson wanted to spend eternity at Furnace Town, and the county said no. Based on 170 years of sightings, he found a way around the paperwork.