Coffin Hollow and Other Ghost Tales (4 page)

Mrs. Heaster related to the jury the reason her daughter had given for Shue's action. He had become so angry because his wife had no meat cooked for supper that he had squeezed her neck off at the first joint.

The elderly woman was convinced that her daughter had come back to her in flesh and blood and not as a ghost. She was in the dress she had been killed in, and as she was leaving from one of her visits, she turned her head completely around to prove that her neck was disjointed. Mrs. Heaster said that these four visits were not dreams, that she was not superstitious, and that she believed in the Scriptures. She also said that she had touched the girl to see if people came back from their coffins. The girl was flesh and blood, although cold to the touch.

7: The Peddler's Story

The house appeared to me to be just an old place that nobody thought good enough to live in, though it seemed sturdy and sound. I wondered why nobody was living in it since there weren't enough houses in the area.

My mother told me about the only family that had ever lived there. She couldn't remember their names, but they had come to this particular farm as one of the earliest families and settled near what is now the town of Harman, West Virginia. The man and his boys were very rough in their language and in their actions, but they knew a great deal about farming and the construction of buildings. They had built this house. It was one of the first buildings in the neighborhood.

The whole family seemed to have a mean disposition. They would lie, cheat, or steal if it meant any kind of personal gain. Their unfortunate neighbors would shake their heads and say, “They will not get away with all of this. They will get their punishment. Just you wait and see.”

One evening a peddler stopped at their house and asked to spend the night. They agreed only after he had offered to pay them well. During the night the father crept into the peddler's bedroom and killed him. He removed several hundred dollars from his wallet too. He then went back to bed, planning to bury the peddler in the morning.

With the coming of daylight some visiting neighbors arrived. The women of the household kept the visitors outside while the man tried to find a place to dump the dead body. There were some loose boards in the kitchen floor; the man tore them up and he and his sons buried the peddler there. When the visitors finally came into the kitchen they found the men repairing the floor “in order to keep the house in good condition.” This should have been the end of the story but the peddler's death would not go unavenged.

Almost every night after the murder, the ghost of the victim roamed the house. It kept tearing at the boards, trying to get to its body, and visited the murderer several times each night. The man was so frightened that he could neither sleep nor eat. Yet he did not take his family and move away. There seemed to be some strange power forcing him to stay in that house.

One night, when he could stand the visits of the ghost no longer, he fled from the house screaming and has never been heard of since. His family ran to a neighbor's house and told their story in hopes that the ghost wouldn't visit them there. They returned to the house the next day, gathered all their possessions together, and nobody has ever heard of them since that time.

I can't say whether the house is haunted or not, but nobody has lived in it since its first occupants. The old folks of this area stay far away from the place because they say they can still hear the ghost of the peddler at night, tearing at the boards of the kitchen floor and trying to get to its body.

8: The Black Dog Ghost

During the American Revolution, near Connellsville, Pennsylvania, a spy and his dog were captured by the British and taken back to headquarters to stand trial. That very night the spy was sentenced to death and was taken out in the yard to be shot. When he was outside, he tried to escape and was cut to shreds by a soldier with a sword. When the dog saw this, it leaped at the swordsman with a fierce growl, but the soldier turned in time to stab the large black hound with his sword. As the dog lay on the ground dying, it stared at the soldier with a fierce look of hate. The soldier laughed and gave the dog a hard kick in the side to finish it off.

That night, while another soldier was coming back from guard duty, he noticed a large black hound lying near the campfire, just like the one his comrade had killed. When he walked over to the dog, it disappeared before his eyes. The soldier went to tell the man who killed the dog what had happened and to warn him that he should be careful, since he would be on duty that night. The soldier took it as a joke. He told his comrades the story and made fun of his friend who had warned him.

That night when the soldier went out on guard duty, a mysterious thing happened. The rest of the men were awakened by the fierce growls of a dog and the screams of their comrade out on guard duty. Terrified by these horrible screams of agony, they gathered around the campfire. Finally the screams halted, and something was heard crashing through the bushes.

After a few minutes the soldier who had been on guard duty came into the light of the campfire with his clothes torn to shreds, but not a scratch on his body. When the men asked him what had happened, he could not speak a word, but just stared off into the darkness of the night. Finally, on the third night, the soldier died from fright. The very minute of his death the cries of the dog ceased and were heard no more.

9: The Barn Ghost

Many, many years ago an old farmer was preparing to start to town to buy his supplies for the month. It was not unusual for farmers to go to town once a month to buy supplies for themselves and their families. This day, however, was to be unusual. The farmer, whom we shall call Jed Smith although his first name is not definitely known, was to have a strange experience.

Jed left home at about seven o'clock that morning in order to get into town before the stores opened. It was about five miles and would take every bit of the time to travel the old rugged road with his large wagon. After he had hitched up the horses and had gotten the lunch his wife had fixed for him to eat in town, he started on his day's journey. This is the last clear account we have of old Jed Smith.

When Jed didn't return by dark, his wife was naturally worried. She couldn't imagine what had happened to him. The closest neighbors lived three miles away, and Mrs. Smith decided not to try to walk to their house and ask if they had seen Jed, because their house wasn't even close to the road.

The next morning, when Jed still hadn't returned, Mrs. Smith set out to find him. She finally learned that he and his team had fallen off the road and down a high cliff and had all been killed. She found it hard to believe that it was an accident, because her husband was a good driver and knew the road well. Maybe someone had forced him off the road on purpose.

One day Mrs. Smith went to the barn and was startled to see her husband's ghost. It must have been a ghost, because it told her that his murderer would be punished in the same way he had died. Then the image was gone.

A few months later a stranger called at Mrs. Smith's home and tried to buy her property. He said he had heard of her husband's accident and knew it would be hard for her to keep up the farm. There was something in his voice which made him sound very anxious to obtain the place, but when Mrs. Smith refused, he left in a hurry.

A few days later Mrs. Smith heard some more news. A neighbor stopped at her house and told her that a stranger had been killed at the very spot where her husband had died. The neighbor went on to say that he was an oil dealer and would do anything to get land he thought might have oil on it.

That night Mrs. Smith put the whole story together. She now remembered her husband had told her that the last time he had gone to town a man had wanted to buy their land. He had told her that when he refused to sell it the man had said that he would get it one way or another. Her husband had remarked to her then that he would rather die than sell the land.

Mrs. Smith wept quietly as she thought of her husband's strong will and also of his death.

10: The Miner's Wife

One night a miner became ill and left work early to go home. When he arrived, he walked straight to the bedroom to arouse his wife to fix something for his illness. As he entered the room he found his wife there with another man.

The enraged miner grabbed the man and gave him a thorough beating. After throwing him out of the house, he returned to his wife for an explanation. An argument followed and the wife, laughing at him, said she wanted a divorce. Shame mounted upon shame, and the miner returned to work, forgetting his illness.

When he got back, he told his friends what had happened and swore revenge. Still angry, he began working carelessly. An hour or so later, when a coal car was coming down the tracks, the miner fainted and fell in front of it. The other men did not notice until it was too late, and the car ran over him, crushing his head and legs.

At the funeral the miners remembered that the dead man had said that, if anything ever happened to him, he would return to get revenge upoo,his wife. The men told his widow, but she just laughed, saying that she was going to marry her lover and move far away from there. As it turned out, the man she was cheating with left town after the accident. She was now left by herself. Heartbroken and very lonely, she was seen only when she went out to buy groceries.

Then, one dark and dreary night, exactly one year after the accident, a terrible thing happened. It was a little after twelve o'clock when her neighbors heard a scream from the widow's house. They quickly gathered outside the house and called, but no answer was heard. The men decided to break down the door to find out what had happened.

When they got to the bedroom the door was locked, and they broke it down to see what was wrong. The widow's body was lying across the bed, the face scratched beyond recognition.

What caused this no one is really sure. Could it really have been her husband, who had come back for the revenge he swore that he would take?

11: Yankee Thrift

My grandfather, who was an engineer and demanded reason and fact for everything that happened, often made the statement that those who believed in ghosts were fools. When he spoke of the old house on Eighth Avenue in Huntington, West Virginia, however, his attitude changed.

Soon after he returned from the Spanish-American War, he learned of a beautiful, two-story house that was for sale at a very low price — so low, in fact, that he thought the price had been misquoted. Since he was a thrifty Yankee, he was afraid of missing the opportunity of a lifetime; therefore, he rushed to make the purchase. Upon closing the sale, he was told that the previous owner had been unable to keep a renter for the property; for some reason no one would live in the house for more than one night at a time. Renters would usually leave before morning and send a teamster in to move their furniture the next day. Grandfather decided that after the family was settled in their new home he would pay a visit to one of the former occupants. This is the story that was related to him.

A very wealthy widow, who had decided to vacation in Boston, left her Negro maid Clara and the maid's husband John in charge of the house. Clara decided that while the owner was away she would take in washing to make a little money. John, returning home from work one day, saw a white man leaving by the back door and suspected the worst of his wife. Later, when he confronted Clara with his accusation, she accused him of the same infidelity. One word led to another, and in the heat of the argument John stabbed her in the throat. Running to escape his knife, she started up the stairs, but the loss of blood was too much; she slumped, falling backward like a heap of wet wash to the bottom of the stairs.

Realizing what he had done, John grabbed her by the hair of the head and pulled her into the kitchen where he tried to finish his job, but she revived and with the strength of desperation pulled the china closet to the floor. This only infuriated John more, and with one quick swipe of the knife he completely cut her head from her body. Later he threw the head into the coal-burning cookstove and dismembered the rest of her body. Several years later he was convicted and executed for his wife's murder.

After recounting this story, the former renter declared vehemently that his family was unable to live in the house. Footsteps, groans, and shrieks filled the night with horror. My grandfather thought this was nonsense and said so in no uncertain terms.

The first night he and his family lived in the house they thought they heard steps in the hallway. Each night the sounds increased in volume until at last no one could sleep unless the gas lights were left burning in the hall. Also, no one could sleep in the bedroom where Clara had once slept because the blankets would not stay on the bed. Grandfather was a stubborn man and determined not to let these strange happenings ruin his investment. He was convinced that there was a logical explanation.

Several months later, during a hot summer night, a gust of wind blew out all the gas lights. Before anyone could relight them, shuffling steps were heard on the stairs, a loud crash came from the kitchen, and sounds followed as if every dish in the house was being broken. Horrible screams came from one of the bedrooms. Several minutes later grandfather's sister was found lying on the floor in Clara's bedroom; her nightgown had been stripped from her body, and great welts — some as big as a thumb — covered her entire torso. She said that she had been beaten with a blacksnake whip.