Coffin Hollow and Other Ghost Tales (11 page)

The cause of the ghost dog's appearance there has never been explained. Some people hint that long ago when the country was thinly settled and people were not very inquisitive concerning one another's doings, a traveler and his dog were killed by robbers and buried under the schoolhouse.

There are several persons living in Mill Creek who remember hearing reliable people tell of seeing the spectral dog — and even of being followed by it.

One man was traveling the road on horseback after dark. Just as he rounded the bend where the old school-house had stood, he plainly saw by the light of the full moon a large black dog coming down the bank from the chimney place. It came into the road and followed him. Having heard of the creature before, the traveler put spurs to his horse and rode rapidly away from the gloomy place, but the dog bounded after him swiftly, and actually leaped on the horse's back behind the frightened man. Casting a glance backward, he saw the ghastly creature sitting calmly behind him, its bloody neck from which the head was missing almost touching him. The horse apparently was not aware of the horrid spectre, but the man certainly was — although he dared not look behind him the second time until he had reached a settlement several miles away, whereupon he found the dog had vanished.

One night nearly thirty years ago, three young men were walking home from a meeting on Tug Fork. Their way homeward led past the haunted house site. Probably they had all heard tales about the headless dog and regarded them as made-up stories. They passed the heap of stones on the rise above the road, where they saw nothing unusual by the light of the brightly shining moon. But some distance beyond there one of the young fellows looked back and noticed a large black dog following closely behind them.

He called the attention of the others to the animal and they stopped to observe it more closely; their observation convinced them that it was the headless dog and that it cast no shadow on the ground where it walked in the bright moonlight. Without saying much, the young men traveled as rapidly as possible the rest of the way home, but the dog still followed them and even went ahead, gamboling and rolling at their feet. One youth struck at it with a cane, but the cane went through the spectre as though it were a shadow — and stuck in the road. After this the young men broke into a run, the dog keeping close to them until they reached a creek.

Here the dog turned back, evidently very reluctant to do so, as it could be seen in the moonlight to stop now and then and turn in the direction of the terrified youths, who lost no time in widening the distance between themselves and the horrible spectre.

48: The Legend of the Haunted House

On a hill in Harrison County stands an old abandoned house. It is a pretty, white house, with a large yard, and in the summer it is surrounded by many kinds of flowers. This house has been empty for a little over a year. It is not a spooky-looking place that everyone would be afraid of, but for some reason none of the families who have bought it have lived there more than a month, in spite of its beautiful location. Some people believe the house is haunted.

This legend was probably strengthened one rainy night when Lee Harris, a traveling salesman, was passing through that section. He had a flat tire just down the road from the house. Seeing a light in the window, he decided to ask the people who lived there if he could use their telephone to call a repair station.

A very beautiful woman opened the door. Her hair was golden blonde and waved down her back; her eyes were as blue as the sky on a bright spring day; indeed, the man was enchanted by her many charms. She was joined at the door by three small children, bright-eyed and much like their mother. The salesman called a repair shop and found that a bridge had been washed away, and no one could come to fix the tire until the next morning.

When Lee explained where he was, the man did not believe that a woman and three children were in the house; he told the salesman to get away from the place as soon as possible — to sleep in his car, if he had to. Lee could not understand this because the woman treated him so nicely. She offered him a cup of coffee and told him he could spend the night in her house — and he accepted her hospitality.

He had a very comfortable night until about 12:30, when he heard the children screaming. At first he thought they were having youthful nightmares and would soon go back to sleep. But the screaming persisted, and he decided the woman could use some help in getting the youngsters quieted.

When he got downstairs, he was amazed at what he saw. It was the same beautiful woman he had encountered just a few hours before, but she looked entirely different — thin, rough, and almost ugly. Her once beautiful bright eyes were darkened and glassy with a look of torture. The children, now wearing ragged clothing, were not even clean, and they were crying from hunger.

Lee spoke to the woman and asked her why she didn't feed the youngsters, but she only kept on screaming at them and begging them not to cry, as though she hadn't heard him speak to her at all. He walked over and touched her arm, trying to keep her from the children. When he touched her flesh, he found it was cold, as if in death. Could it be that all of them were dead? Lee used all his strength in trying to keep her from harming her offspring, but nothing he did seemed to stop her.

Finally she led the little ones out the back door. Lee followed them, sorry for the children and curious. He saw the woman line them up according to their ages. She took the smallest, who was about two years old, and led him by the neck to the well. Lee rushed to her but it was too late; she had murdered the little boy, once bright-eyed and happy. Lee turned to the other children but with all his power he could not move them from their positions. The woman took the next child, who was about four, and proceeded to do the same with her; the five-year-old was next. After this she knelt by the well and began praying to God to look after her beautiful children. She did love them so, but she had no money and could not bear to see them tortured by starvation.

The woman then rushed into the house and cut her wrists. She died on the kitchen floor. Lee went upstairs to get a blanket to lay over her, but when he returned, the body had disappeared. He looked everywhere, but it was gone. There was only the stillness of the early morning and the sun coming through the window.

When the man from the service station finally came that morning, he was surprised to find Lee in the house. He said the house was haunted — that everyone who moved into it heard the voices of children screaming as though they were in pain. Lee asked about the lovely woman, but the repairman didn't seem to know anything about any woman living in the house with three children.

Lee did not tell the man about what he had seen, but he felt he had learned the real story behind the haunted house — and perhaps he had.

49: The Man on the Railroad

It was a cool summer night. As my great-grandfather sat on his back porch overlooking the railroad tracks, little did he know he was about to see the town ghost — the man on the railroad.

My great-grandfather had moved to Colliers, West Virginia, just two weeks before. As he sat on the back porch of his new home this particular night, he noticed an old man walking on the railroad tracks. He did not think this was strange, since hobos often waited to jump the train. But this man tonight was different.

As grandfather observed him, the hobo kept taking a drink of something out of a bottle. After a while he sat down on the tracks and kept drinking from the bottle. It was obvious that the man was drunk and soon would be insensible. If he were aware of what was going on even now, he would move away from the tracks, because the 9:15 freight train was due in five minutes. But the man sat there without moving an inch, and he continued drinking from the same bottle which, it seemed, would never run dry.

At this point my great-grandfather was getting a little worried. My great-grandmother had joined him on the porch and she too was aware of the scheduled train. She urged her husband to go and help the man.

The tracks were about a fourth of a mile from the house, and my great-grandfather started to run down in the direction of the man. He had only about four minutes to reach him.

He ran faster, and in the distance he heard the train's warning whistle. Would he be able to reach the man in time? He told himself he had to. He began to shout, “You fool, get out of there before you're killed!” But the man paid no attention whatever to the warning.

Great-grandfather heard the train drawing nearer. He knew it would soon reach the spot where the man was sitting. Since the engine was so high, the engineer would not be able to see him and would not bring the train to a stop.

It was already too late. The train was right there, and a horrible death was about to occur before my great-grandfather's eyes. But much to his amazement, before the engine struck the man, the old hobo had disappeared into thin air!

At first my great-grandfather thought he was seeing things and waited for the train to pass to prove to himself that someone had really been sitting there. However, there was no trace of anyone. He was positive he had seen a man. His wife had seen him too, for she had suggested that he go down and help him, but now he was gone!

Great-grandfather returned home quite shaken up and told his wife what had happened although she had watched the scene herself. They both were disturbed over the matter and decided to keep it a secret. After about a week the mystery troubled them so much that they told their landlord about the strange night.

Expecting to be called silly or crazy as they revealed their story, they were surprised when the landlord instead listened intently, with a serious look on his face.

When my great-grandfather finished his story, the land-lord began to explain what the two had seen.

A long time before, an old man whom no one had ever seen before appeared in the town. Being wary of strangers, the people refused to give him food, shelter, or even a job. The stranger got drunk, and for the good of the town he was driven away.

The only thing the stranger knew how to do was jump trains, and so he sat down on the tracks waiting for the next freight. When the train came, the man on the rail-road was mangled to pieces.

Every year at the time of his death, this man would return and wait for the train. Whenever people would try to ride past the tracks on the anniversary of his death, the horses would buck and would go no farther. No one had ever succeeded in getting past the tracks on this particular date. My great-grandfather was the only one ever to go near them on that strange night. He thought he saw a man in trouble and tried to help him.

A year after the incident, my great-grandfather waited to see the man on the railroad appear again. It was 9:10 — five more minutes and the train would pass. There was no sign of the hobo. At last the train passed and no man appeared.

No one has seen the man on the railroad since. Some people believe that great-grandfather satisfied what the ghost had waited for all these years — a person with a human heart to help someone in need.

50: The Girl in the Green Coat

Driving home one afternoon, a man saw a little girl suddenly appear in front of his car. He slammed on his brakes and turned the steering wheel, trying to miss the child, but it was too late. He could feel a thump against the car as it hit her body.

The frightened man ran to a nearby house. After he had knocked several times, a woman finally appeared. He told her that he had just hit a little girl and asked if he could use her telephone to call an ambulance.

The woman asked him if the girl was wearing a green coat and a red scarf. The man nodded. He would not need to call an ambulance, the woman said. The child was her little girl, but she had been dead over five years. Her daughter had been hit by a car at the very spot on which his car was sitting, and she had been wearing a green coat and red scarf at the time. The man looked at her in astonishment.

The woman went on to explain that several times before someone had been driving along and suddenly seen a little girl, wearing a green coat and a red scarf, jump in front of the car.

Hardly able to believe the story, the man walked back to his car. When he looked at the road in front of his car, the girl was gone.

51: The Blue Gown

Many years ago, in the vicinity of Clarksburg, a young lad of twelve had to run an errand late at night. The family lived in a large two-story house on top of a hill that sloped down to a gully leading to the river, which was about half a mile away.

As the boy was hurrying home that cold November evening, something caught his eye. There, in the freezing temperature, a woman went walking by him. She was dressed in a blue evening gown of flowing chiffon, and she didn't seem to notice either the boy or the cold.

She was walking down the hill, and the boy decided to follow her. He called out to her several times, but she did not seem to hear; she just kept on walking, her gown flowing in the brisk air. He noticed that she was barefooted, in spite of the cold night and the evening dress she wore.

The boy followed her along the gully that led straight to the river. Finally she came to the river's edge, and without stopping she gently walked into the icy water until she disappeared. He waited for her to return, but she did not. After waiting for what seemed an hour, he couldn't stand the cold any longer and went back home. He tried to sleep, but couldn't stop thinking about what had happened.

He told his family about it the next day, but no one believed him. After everyone had half-convinced him that he must have been dreaming or sleepwalking, his little brother came running into the house with a piece of blue chiffon he had found on the path the boy had taken the night before.

52: Returning Suicide

In the 1920s there was an old white house near Monongah that was said to be haunted. It was a large house, and a woman in white was supposed to have jumped to her death from a window of one of the upstairs bedrooms.