The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Upper Roxborough conjures up images of serenity and natural beauty.

The more than 300 acres of lush green space is home to abundant plant species and wildlife.

Probably, the last thing on one's mind when envisioning the nature preserve is murder and mayhem.

But it was at this very site around 160 years ago that the most heinous of acts took place.

Just before the start of the Civil War, three brutal slayings took place on the outskirts of what is today the Schuylkill Center, an act of evil that got much attention in its day.

The date varies depending on who is telling the story, but what is agreed upon is the carnage that took place at a home in Upper Roxborough, just shy of the Montgomery County Line. A farmhand apparently decided to take out his frustrations over wages on his employer and the man's family.

The story goes that a man believed to be John Christian Aufrecht, who went by the aliases Robert and Charles, killed Valentine Bartle, 46, and his wife, Caroline, 30, along with the couple's youngest child, year-old Lana.

The other three children, Elizabeth, 7, Frederick, 4, and Margaret, 2, were believed to have survived.

"Some people know about it," Sylvia Myers, a member of the Roxborough Manayunk Wissahickon Historical Society, said about the infamous case. "It's recorded, so it must have been a big thing at that time."

The manner by which the Bartles met their demise was as unusual as it was horrifying; they were supposedly slain with an ax.

"That was extremely rare," in those days, Myers said of murder in general, and an ax killing in particular. "I think people were so busy trying to make a living and get the community going. I think just making a living was their prime (goal)."

According to old news accounts, the suspect was apparently never apprehended, although authorities at the time linked the murders to Aufrecht, who worked for the Bartles, German immigrants who settled on a small farm in Upper Roxborough between what was then called the Ridge Turnpike and the Schuylkill River.

In his book, A Guide to Historic Roxborough-Manayunk, Roxborough author John Charles Manton writes that the murders took place either the evening of May 2, 1851, or the next morning. Manton wrote in his book that the legend has been floating around the Roxborough-Manayunk region in many variations throughout the years, and the closest thing to some semblance of truth could be found in newspaper articles from the time.

Manton attributes the 1851 death date to an article in the Norristown Herald and Free Press from May of that year. In a different news article, however, the Bartles are said to have been killed in May 1848. That article, found in the archives of the historical society, and written by reporter John M. Sickinger, is dated 1930, although the specific newspaper's identity could not be determined.

The three-year discrepancy doesn't keep Virginia "Gin" Ranly, and her husband, Phil, up at night. What did command their attention was the discovery that they lived on the plot of land on which the ax murders supposedly took place.

"I said that I didn't want to know the whole story of 'Murder Hollow' until I lived there a couple years," Gin Ranly said, using the nickname given to the area throughout the years.

Known as either "Murder Hollow" or "Murderer's Hollow," the land in question today comprises a cluster of homes that sit on the property of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.

"These are privately owned homes, which fall within our exterior boundary of our nature center," said Sean Duffy, the center's land manager.

Duffy said the homes, around six in all, lie within a ravine, or "hollow."

"It's a small hollow, basically a little valley that goes down into another valley," Duffy said, describing the terrain.

The homes that make up the hollow comprise about 6 acres out of the center's 365, he said.

Ranly, who lives in the house where the murders supposedly took place, is also employed by the Schuylkill Center; she serves as its director of education. She moved to her home a year-and-a-half ago.

Despite the horrible acts that took place at her home more than a century ago, Ranly doesn't get a bad vibe from her residence. She has had nothing but good experiences thus far.

"Now that I've lived there a year, it's got good energy," she said.

Marge Walsh thinks about Murder Hollow in a different light. The Manayunk native, now an adult and living in Roxborough, recalled the warnings she received during her younger years about venturing down the dirt road that leads to the site.

"The older kids would tell us that it was haunted, and try to scare the dickens out of you, and it worked," she said. "I remember it to this day."

Before she moved to the house, Ranly was somewhat unfamiliar with the legend of the farmhand murders. She did recall something being mentioned about it around 10 years ago, when members of the Upper Roxborough Civic Association were gathering information on the property to try and have it designated a national historic landmark. The neighbors' group received a letter from a woman verifying the historic significance of the house, Ranly said, paperwork that she believes still exists, although its whereabouts could not be immediately determined.

Ranly also said she has a box of parchment deeds to the home in her possession, paperwork dating back to the 1700s that she was handed upon her purchase of the home, but she has yet to sift through them.

The one thing she's pretty sure of, she said, is that the motive for the killings had something to do with wages.

"There was some conflict over money," she said.

Manton stated as much in his book, quoting the Norristown Herald and Free Press story as saying the suspect, Aufrecht, "left the employ of Mr. Bartle following a quarrel over wages."

Roderick "Scratch" Scratchard, the Philadelphia Police Department's graphic artist and unofficial historian, didn't recall the story of the axe murders that took place in Murder Hollow, but he does remember the place being referred to by that nickname dating back to his days working for the nearby 14th District.

"It's just what some cops used to say," he said, admitting he never fully understood the origin of the moniker until now.

While her home may have some historical significance, Ranly simply considers it a place where she lies her head at night. Murderous acts might have once marked the spot where she resides, but that doesn't seem to phase her any. But that's not to say her interest in the significance of the private, wooded lot has not been piqued.

"I would be willing to find out more at this point," she said.

Reporter Jon Campisi can be reached at 215-354-3038 or jcampisi@phillynews.com