Coffin Hollow and Other Ghost Tales (10 page)

The brothers told them of Old Ben's ghost leading them through the tunnel since they had no lights, but when they took the other men to this tunnel, the exit was sealed completely by the cave-in.

39: Friends to the End

John Boyer and Ted Klara had grown up next door to each other. Two closer friends couldn't be found. They walked to school together every morning and home together every afternoon. When someone picked on one, he was sure to hear from the other. They were also hired together in the coal mines the same day and worked side by side. Three years later Ted got married.

John felt that their life-long togetherness would be broken now that Ted was married, but it wasn't so. Nearly every night of the week, he would be over at Ted's place playing cards with the couple. The whole town was shocked when Ted and John had a falling out — evidently over Ted's wife. Ted accused John of seeing her when he wasn't around.

Even though they weren't speaking to each other, they still worked side by side in the mines. One cold February evening, while working together as usual, their silence was broken by bitter words. John told Ted he wasn't going to work with a jealous fool. When he started to walk out of the mines, he heard a loud rumble and turned just in time to see the roof falling on Ted. As he hurried back to help, a piece of slate fell on him, pinning his chest to the ground, but Ted rushed over and was able to lift it off.

John still couldn't move because his ribs were crushed. He remained there in agony until some other miners came to rescue him. When he told them what had happened, all the miners turned to one another in amazement. They knew Ted was lying dead under thirty tons of rock and couldn't have pulled the slate off John.

40: The Invisible Friend

Charles Peterman had worked for ten years in the mines and had never had an accident. During his early mining days, he had worked with Joseph Stonsin for nine weeks and in that time they had become good friends.

One day while Charles and Joseph were working deep in the mines, they heard a cracking sound, as if the timbers were breaking. Then the place started to fall in on the workers. In a quick decision, Joseph grabbed the nearest timber and held onto it to keep it from falling. In doing this he enabled Charles to escape. Two days later they found the body of Joseph Stonsin. He had been crushed by the mine fall.

After that accident Charles had been in numerous mine falls, but he had never been hurt by any of them. One time the timbers right above his head began to fall, but as if by a miracle they stopped in midair until he was clear of the danger.

When Charles was asked why the timbers had stopped and had not fallen on him, he replied, “I could see Joseph holding them and motioning me toward safety.” The workers could not believe this, but then one day the same thing happened again.

No matter what Charles did or what kind of danger prevailed, he was never hurt or even scratched. Every time the workers saw Charles “saved,” they asked him how he had done it. He would always say that he could see Joseph holding up the supports to save his life.

Charles finally retired from the mines, but to this day the story still goes that a ghost saved his life numerous times.

41: Eighty Feet Deep

In the days when mining first began, a man would have to work fourteen hours a day in order to feed his family. After a week of such long hard labor, on Saturday nights most of the single men would go to town to visit the local saloon.

Fred Vincent went to town one Saturday night not to go to the saloon but to get groceries for the following week. He had had an argument over a saloon girl that day with a fellow worker, and to keep out of trouble, he felt he should get his shopping done as quickly as possible and return home. As he was coming out of the store, he heard someone call his name from the shadows. He walked slowly to the corner of the building and saw Bill Sloan, the man with whom he had argued earlier that day.

Suddenly, like a bull charging toward red, Sloan lunged with full force, a shiny blade in his hand. Fred tried to disarm his attacker, but as he did so the knife slipped, and Sloan slowly fell to the ground — his face filled with hate and pain. In his last moments of life he told Fred, “You'll never be able to forget me! I'll see to that!”

Fred panicked. Since he and Bill had argued that day, he was afraid no one would believe that Sloan had called him to the shadows and that his death was accidental. He picked up the limp body and carried it to a mine shaft that had been closed down because of its danger. After placing the body several hundred yards back in the mine, he loosened a prop and ran — leaving only in time to see the entire mine collapse.

Two weeks later, when everyone had given up the search for the lost miner, Fred felt that the matter was closed.

One brisk fall evening as Fred was coming home from the mines, he heard someone call his name. Then he heard the sentence, “I'll never let you forget.” His blood chilled and he stopped still. But only the leaves falling slowly, softly, gently to the ground made another sound. He walked to his cabin in silence, wondering who or what he had heard.

About two months had gone by and Fred kept thinking of Sloan's dying words. One night at about 8:30, he seemed particularly restless as he worked in the mine — perhaps because they were deeper into the mine than they had ever gone.

Suddenly his lamp went out, and as it did, another one lit beyond him. But how could that be? No one had ever been any farther than he. Nothing was there but rock.

Fred felt a breeze and at the same moment a man spoke his name. He turned to run and saw that the men behind him had gone home for the night. He then saw a man who looked like Bill Sloan. The man walked up to him, and Fred saw that a knife was sticking in his stomach. The man
was
Bill Sloan — and he said, “You'll never forget me!”

When the men returned the next day, they found Fred with a piece of glass in his stomach and his shattered lamp lying beside him. They felt that his death was accidental. But was it?

42: The Swinging Lantern

During the early 1850s when the railroads were coming into North Carolina, a strange event occurred which has never been fully explained. A conductor on a Southern Railroad express train was signaling for the engineer to start the train, when, as it began to move, he slipped and fell to the tracks. He was killed instantly, of course.

The next day the conductor's body was buried without his head, for it had been cut off by the train wheels and could not be found. The head was
never
found, and the incident was finally forgotten.

Months later, the ghost of the conductor reappeared. Night after night, the citizens of Wrightsville saw a lantern, or at least what appeared to be a lantern, swinging from side to side as it came down the tracks. The people demanded an explanation of this strange phenomenon, and the mayor summoned several experts from all over the United States.

This group of scientists stayed at a site beside the tracks for three days, waiting for the lantern to appear. They were about to give up when finally the light came swinging down the tracks within about three yards of the men and suddenly darted toward the woods.

The next morning the scientists wrote up individual reports. The final conclusion was drawn up and published in the Wrightsville Beach newspaper: “This swinging light defies all the scientific knowledge of our time and it cannot be said that the light does not exist.”

To the people of Wrightsville there is only one explanation possible. The conductor, who was buried over a hundred years ago, is still searching for his head and carries the same lantern he used on the old Southern express.

43: Van Meter's Plight

George Van Meter's small farm was in Dorcas Hollow, just five miles south of the present site of Petersburg, West Virginia. George was a carpenter from Germany. He had settled with his family at Dorcas when there were only fifteen families in the whole county. At that time the Huron Indians were rampaging throughout the whole valley. Some of the early settlers had already been killed in Indian raids. George was one of the many isolated farmers whose cabins were a good way from the settlement.

On the morning of July 4, while most of the settlement was preparing for the coming celebration, George Van Meter was in a small field near his cabin. His son was helping him while the rest of the family was getting ready to leave for the big day at the settlement.

George and young David had just stopped for a much needed rest when a small band of Indians came running out of the woods across the field. The father told his son to run for the cabin and take the others to the settlement. He would try to fight off the band long enough for the boy to get the family to safety. That was the last time any of George's family was to see him alive.

Young David Van Meter made it to the settlement with the rest of the family and warned the town folk. A group of men, accompanied by David, left to rescue George. When they reached the farm, a sickening sight met their eyes. The ox George was plowing with had been killed, and the cabin had been burned to the ground. Only the chimneys that had stood at each end of the cabin were left.

George's body was found a few feet from the cabin he had given his life for. His head had been completely severed from his body. Although the men searched the farm the rest of the day and into the night, they did not find the head. The next day the whole settlement prepared for an Indian attack.

The Indians never showed up at the settlement, but George Van Meter's head did. On the day after the raid, a small boy found a cooking pot on the steps of the meetinghouse cabin. When the pot was opened before the settlers' eyes, George's face was staring at them. The Indians had boiled his head in the pot — a most horrifying sight to behold.

For years after the event, no one would go near the Van Meter place. There was a reason for this: some people said that on several occasions a headless body had been seen wandering about the old ruins as if it were searching for something. Was it possible that George could have been coming back, searching for his ill-fated head?

Today the two chimneys can still be seen from Route 28, out of Petersburg. Most people pass the site, never realizing the story that lies behind those chimneys.

44: The Old Man's Reward

One night an old man went to a farmer's house and asked to stay there overnight. He was told he could sleep there, provided he would go out to the little haunted house in the backyard. The farmer promised to give him a bag of money if he would stay in the little house until morning.

The stranger went to the house and got ready for bed, but before retiring he sat on the floor and began reading his Bible. He heard something rolling and went out to investigate, but found nothing. He began reading again and heard something skating. He investigated again, but found nothing. These noises went on until early in the morning. A knock sounded on the old man's door, and on opening it, he found a headless man standing there with a hatchet in his hand.

The headless man took him by the hand, led him down the stairs to a little door at the end of the hall. He took the hatchet, knocked the door in, pulled out a bag of money, and handed it to the stranger. Then he disappeared. The old man had received his reward for staying all night in the old Simpson place.

45: The Headless Man

Many years ago the people of a certain town had to pass a cemetery on their way to a little church up on the hill. Several people told of seeing a headless man who appeared in the distance before them. No one had had the courage to speak to the man — to ask him why he was there or what he wanted.

At dusk one evening a young man was passing the cemetery and suddenly the headless man appeared in front of him. Although he was startled by the appearance of such a thing, the young man got up enough courage to speak. He asked him why he was there and what he wanted. After hearing the reply to his questions, the horrified young man went on home.

The next day, some of the townspeople who had heard of the episode went to the young man's house to find out what the headless man had said to him. After they knocked several times, the young man appeared at the door.

The townspeople looked at him with astonishment. He no longer appeared young and handsome as he had before. His hair was white, his skin looked old and wrinkled, and there was a strange glassy look in his eyes.

When the townspeople asked him what had happened, he only nodded his head and went back into the house, closing the door behind him. No one ever found out what the headless man said to him.

46: Dog Rock

Clem Robinson lived at the head of Robinson Hollow, which was named after him. He was a man with a very violent temper. It is said that when he became angry at something, he would beat it to death or tear it apart, no matter what it might be. So it was with one of his foxhounds.

One night Clem was fox hunting in Robinson Hollow, and one of his hounds scented a rabbit's trail and began to follow it. As the dog chased the rabbit, Clem became very angry. He tried to call the dog back, but it paid no attention to him. This enraged him, and when the dog did return to him, he was so angry that he picked up a log and beat the animal's head off. After he had done this to the dog, it ran and rolled down the hill and into the creek.

The creek is lined on both sides by very steep and rocky hills. It has been told that at night people have seen a headless dog running down one side of the hill, across the creek, and up the other side of the hill. Clem also saw the headless ghost of his foxhound as he returned home one night. After seeing the ghost of his dog, he changed his ways and did not show such brutality toward his animals.

47: The Headless Dog of Tug Fork

A schoolhouse used to stand on a little rise near the road leading from Mill Creek to Tug Fork. The house had been gone for many years when people living in the settlement near there began to speak of seeing the headless dog that came out of the heap of stones on the site of the old chimney.