Coffin Hollow and Other Ghost Tales (8 page)

A young Negro girl was trying to locate this place one dark night. She was being chased by men her owner had hired to catch his runaway slaves. She missed the valley and started up the path over Darkish Knob. Her horse was very tired, but she pushed him on harder. The top of this hill drops straight down to Cheat River. As she reached the top, she turned to look back. Her horse lost his footing, and both horse and rider rolled down the hill and hit the sharp rocks in the river. As the girl dropped, her scream was heard for miles. This hill has been known as Darkish Knob since that time.

The girl's ghost is said to have returned to the top of this hill every year on the eve of the date of her death. It chants and moans over the death just as the Negro people once did when one of their people died. At exactly the instant of the fatal plunge the ghost screams, loud and long.

The young people in this area say that the chanting and moaning is only the wind in the trees. They also say that the scream is that of a wildcat. But the older generation know that this is the ghost of the young Negro girl.

28: A Slave Boy's Revenge

It was very late at night as young Curt, a slave boy, slipped through the fence surrounding the small, dirt-floored shack he was forced to call his home. After a very hard day in the fields, he decided he could stand it no longer. He was willing to risk death itself rather than continue life under these wretched conditions. He made his break through the open fields and into the woods unseen.

His break was not discovered until the next morning. Upon learning of the boy's escape, the master immediately went for his bloodhounds, which quickly picked up the trail and sped, barking, into the woods. Curt, being on foot, had been unable to cover a great distance, even though he had several hours' head start.

When he heard the hounds in the distance, he decided to backtrack to a swamp near the plantation. As he neared the swamp, the dogs had closed the gap to just a few hundred yards. He began to run with all his strength across an open field that lay between him and the swamp.

He was caught by the dogs in the center of the field and was badly torn up by the time the master got to him, but he was still very much conscious. As the master arrived, he called off the dogs, and in front of many a watching slave (for the field was in sight of the huts) he drew his sword and with one mighty blow cut off the young boy's head.

After that, the master couldn't sleep, for he kept hearing strange sounds — as if someone were trying to enter his bedroom. This went on for several nights. One night he heard the voice of the young boy he had brutally killed. He began following it and eventually was led back to the field where he had killed young Curt. Some of the slaves saw him as he passed.

Suddenly a loud scream was heard. As the rest of the whites rushed into the field, they saw a horrible sight. The master lay dead in the same spot where Curt had lain. To their surprise, they noticed he had no head, and beside the body lay the very same sword he had used to murder the slave boy. There were no tracks to be picked up by the dogs, and the mystery was never solved.

29: Frist House

During the Civil War, Hardy County was one of the few counties in West Virginia to go Confederate. The reason Hardy turned rebel was that several well-to-do farmers in the county used slave labor. The only important person opposed to the Confederacy was John Frist, an influential man who lived in a large house outside of Moore-field. Because of John's resistance, a group of hotheaded rebels went to his house one night and murdered him, his wife, and their three children.

After this, John Frist's home was used as a prison for runaway slaves who were caught. The slaves would be taken into the basement of the house, chained to the wall, and left for dead. Those who performed these acts of insanity were called the McNeil Rangers, and they operated out of Moorefield.

After the South's surrender the slaves in Hardy County were released — all except the ones who had died in the cellar of their prison. A group of townspeople went to the Frist house and cleared out the bones and decaying bodies.

This house is still standing and is in very good condition. Several families have owned or rented it since the end of the Civil War but none of them has remained in it for more than a year. I know of five families — all from other places — that have owned it in my lifetime. The families that have lived there claim that once a year, on the anniversary of the Frist family's murder, blood appears on the floor and walls of the room in which they were killed. It slowly wears off during the year, but it can't be painted over or sanded out. Also strange screams and the sound of chains rattling come from the cellar.

All my life I have heard that this house is haunted; I hope it does not carry a curse, because my parents rented it for a few months, about a year after they were married, and I was born there.

30: The Murdered Prisoner's Ghost

About 1900, the Hall family lived near a so-called haunted hollow on a farm in Pendleton County. Their house was on one side of a dirt road, and on the other side stood two hills with a hollow between them. About halfway up the hollow stood an old log cabin.

The story was told that the log cabin in the hollow was used as a jail during the Civil War. One day an inmate dressed in white (probably his underwear) tried to escape. He ran as far as one of the hills, but was shot. Blood poured out of his right leg and stained his white pants. He reeled around, stretching forth his arm in a gesture of surrender, but was shot in the other leg. Blood also poured from his left leg. He was carried into the cabin, dead. It is not known whether he was buried or not.

As the years passed, the cabin decayed, the roof fell in, and the area around it was grown over with brush. But when people passed by the cabin, they could hear the cries of anguish and moaning.

When Mrs. Hall moved into this area, she knew the hollow was supposed to be haunted, but she did not know the story of the prisoner. The Hall family grazed their cattle on one side of the hill, and it was Mrs. Hall's chore to bring them home every evening.

One evening a few cattle strayed up beyond the cabin. In taking a short cut, Mrs. Hall passed the cabin and heard the moans. She was not a woman to be easily frightened and called out in a loud voice, “I've heard there are ghosts in the hollow. If you're a ghost, come out! I'm not afraid. And, if you're a man, come out. I'm still not afraid.”

But the noise that followed did frighten her. Hearing a loud rumbling, as if someone were removing debris, she ran down the hill towards her nearest neighbors. As she ran, she turned to see a man dressed in white, with two bloodstained legs, standing on the hill with his arm raised.

She finally arrived at her neighbors' house and told of her experience. The woman then related the legend and upon hearing this, Mrs. Hall fainted. Mr. Hall was sent for — to take his wife home — and, as they passed the foot of the hollow on their journey homeward, Mrs. Hall fainted again. The strain of living in that location was so great for Mrs. Hall that the family was forced to move.

31: The Cole Mountain Light

Outside of Moorefleld, West Virginia, stands Cole Mountain. This area was the scene of a strange happening, back in the mid-1800s.

Charles Jones, a large landowner, took one of his most faithful slaves and went coon hunting one night. The slave was carrying a lantern that provided the two with some light while they were following the voices of the dogs. Suddenly the dogs began barking more fiercely. Since this meant they probably had treed a coon, Charles and the slave both took off running in the direction of the barking. The slave was younger and stronger than his master, so he led with the lantern.

When he arrived at the place where the dogs were, he discovered that the master was nowhere in sight. The Negro, who was a loyal friend as well as a faithful servant, waited for a while and then went searching for his master. He hunted all through the night and the next morning, but could find no trace of his friend.

Overcome by fear, the slave went back to the house to inform the Jones family of the incident. Mrs. Jones organized a search party made up of friends and neighbors, and this group, led by the slave, covered the mountain thoroughly. After a whole week of searching, in which they hadn't found Jones or any sign of him, they gave up. The slave was never accused of harming the missing man, for everyone knew how devoted he was to his master.

The Negro kept on searching after the others stopped. Exactly one year to the night after his master had disappeared, the slave took his lantern and left for a final search. He was never seen again. But on certain nights the people who lived around Cole Mountain said they could see his lantern still patrolling the mountain. They said that after the night the slave disappeared, his lantern light slowly changed from yellow to a bright red.

Even today people still see the light — especially those who live around Moorefield. Some of them have had strange experiences with it. Charles Allen, a former teacher at Moorefield High School, saw the light from a distance and thought it was the moon shining on a stream. But the light appears on a part of the mountain where there is no stream.

Several times the light has chased hunters off the mountain. Two years ago two men from Westernport, Maryland, were coon hunting on Cole Mountain when something frightened off their dogs. The hunters were looking for the dogs when they saw a strange red light appear a short distance in front of them. The light kept coming closer and closer. All of a sudden it let out a weird scream, and started coming at them faster than before. The men became frightened and one of them fired three times at the light with his shotgun. At that range it would have been almost impossible to miss. But the light kept coming. The men threw down their weapons and ran as fast as they could. The light chased them off the mountain and then disappeared.

On another occasion a young man took his girl friend up on the mountain at night. Shortly after they parked the car, a weird red light appeared at the window. The young man had heard of the Cole Mountain light but had never believed in it. Thinking someone was trying to play a trick on him, he threw open the door and jumped out, ready for a fight, but there was no one there that he could see — only the light hovering in midair. As he stood there, almost in a state of shock, the light came closer to him, as if to see who he was, and then disappeared.

32: The Crying Baby of Holly

During the Depression a young girl of the neighborhood around Holly River, below Diana in Webster County, gave birth to an illegitimate child. Faced with shame and the task of supporting the child, the girl decided to destroy it. She took the infant and threw it into a hogsty to be gobbled up alive by the vicious hogs, but as it crawled in the mud the hogs paid it no mind whatsoever.

Then the despairing mother took the baby down to the logging mill by the river and thrust it into the deepest water, which was behind the dam and water wheel. Of course the infant had no chance to survive — and drowned in Holly's murky millpond. Later the mother hanged herself.

Today the local farm folks in Webster County sometimes report hearing the sound of a crying baby as they pass by the deteriorating old mill late at night.

Being somewhat skeptical of such reports, I decided to find out for myself if there was any truth in the stories. Driving to the place and parking my car, I sat and waited for anything that might happen. Sitting there in the light of the full moon, I kept my eyes on the millpond, which reflected the moon's golden glow. A steady mist spiraled up out of the black depths of the ever-flowing water. It was hard to believe that I had fished in this same spot by day and found it quite beautiful in a rugged sort of way.

While thinking about the absurdity of the situation, I began to hear a faint noise. Supposing it a feeding trout, I ignored it. But the eerie wail came again, clearer than before, and I suddenly realized that the farm folks weren't just telling a tale. When I heard the crying the third time, there was no keeping me there. Starting up my car and pulling away, I tried to put as much distance as possible between me and the “tale come true.”

There may be a logical explanation for this, but I'm not going to be the one to find out.

33: A Strange Fire

In a small town in Doddridge County, West Virginia, lived a widow and her daughter. The woman had lost her husband immediately after the birth of their only child. Because there was no one to help raise the child, the widow considered her daughter a loathsome burden.

As the years passed, the child grew to be a beautiful young girl. All the young ladies of the community were envious of her popularity. But because her mother had given her no moral instruction, she knew nothing about the perils of such popularity except what other girls had told her.

One day a handsome young serviceman came into town. The beautiful young girl chanced to meet him on the street, and a romance blossomed. But like many young servicemen, all he wanted was a good time. After he had had his fling, he left town.