Coffin Hollow and Other Ghost Tales (7 page)

About this time a second man, younger than the first, walked through the door. He too sat looking into the fire, and he too had his throat cut. The peddler finally asked him the same question and received the same reply. Soon a third man entered the room in the same condition, and he too sat staring into the fire. He gave the same answer to the peddler's question that the other two had given.

After some time had passed, the peddler asked who they were. The old man explained that they were the men of that particular household, who had been killed in battle by having their throats cut. He said they could not rest until the money they had hidden was back in the hands of the two women who needed it so desperately. They wanted to show him where they had hidden the money and asked him to give it to the wife and daughter.

The peddler promised that he would put it in their hands, and the ghosts proceeded to lead the way to the fence corner where the money was buried. But upon leaving, the three men warned him that if he did not give the money to the women to whom it belonged, he would never sleep another night, but would always hear the galloping horses. They also told him to tell the wife and daughter that they need not leave the house again, since they would never be bothered by the sounds of galloping horses after that night. Then the three men rode away.

The peddler kept his word and gave the money to the women as he had promised and was rewarded handsomely. From that time on, the women stayed in their home and never heard the sound of horses galloping around the house again.

23: A Confederate Soldier

One of the best-known ghost tales of Tucker County was told by Lewis Kittle, who lived on the Indian Fork of Clover Run. His reputation among his neighbors and acquaintances was above reproach, and the following story is an account of the facts as he knew and under-stood them. Mr. Kittle was not a superstitious man and was not a believer in spiritualism.

In 1867 Lewis Kittle, with several others, was mining coal near the ground on which the battle of Rich Mountain was fought. He and a cousin named Daniel Court-right boarded with a Mr. Hart, whose house was adjacent to the battlefield and had been used as a hospital during the battle. In the course of the battle a soldier had been shot in the room later occupied by Kittle and his cousin. The first night in the room they heard a weird and continuous noise. They supposed it was only the wind, but one day they were told by a fellow miner that the room was haunted.

One Saturday night soon after this, Courtright was absent, and Kittle slept in the room alone. Along in the night he was awakened by a strange coldness and a dim light that outlined the furniture in the misty air. The silence was broken only occasionally by a low sound that seemed to be the echo of a night breeze. Drawn by some unseen, irresistible power, Kittle arose from the bed and moved near the door. He said that he felt no fear and was struck with a sense of solemnity. Almost immediately he saw eight forms materialize, clad in Confederate uniforms. Silently they approached the bed on which Kittle had been sleeping and removed the covers, throwing them over the footboard. Four of them leaned over the bed and raised something up, as if lifting a weight.

The object, which Kittle could not see, was laid down carefully upon apparently nothing. Two of those who had lifted the object from the bed then took a place in front of the four, and the other two stepped behind. In this order they slowly marched toward the door, and as they filed out, Kittle saw lying between the pallbearers the body of a handsome young man. His coat and vest had been removed, but he was wearing butternut trousers. The figures made no sound until they had reached the hallway, where a noise resembling the knock of a crutch on a wooden floor was heard. This was followed by the closing of a door.

Kittle collected the covers and returned to bed. He said that there was not any possibility of his being mistaken about what he saw. He was in perfect health, wide awake, and not frightened. Kittle spoke to several men staying in the house who said that other people who had occupied the room had had similar experiences.

On another occasion, when Mr. Courtright was present, the covers were removed from the bed several times in quick succession. Finally, both men got up, clutching their bedclothes tightly. The same cold, clammy light entered the room and the weird wind was again heard as the two men were pushed out of the way and up against the wall. Then a calm and quiet settled over the room, and the gray air rolled like a fog in a slight breeze. The forms began to emerge slowly at first and then suddenly stood in bold view. Again they approached the bed. In a few moments they solemnly took up their burden and enacted the same scene.

These nocturnal visits became so frequent that Kittle and Courtright finally got used to it. When they first became aware of the cold light and weird echo, they would wrap their blankets tightly around them and say, “Here come them rebels again.”

24: Return from Death

When the war started in 1861, the only son in a family that lived near my great-grandparents went off to fight in the Confederate army. The mother and three daughters were left to manage the farm, as the father had been killed in an accident the year before.

They were at home one afternoon when a Union soldier galloped up to the house and knocked. Without opening the door, Mrs. Adams asked what he wanted. He demanded entrance into the house, saying that he would shoot through the windows if she didn't open up. There was nothing to do except to let him in.

He asked the girls where the watches and jewelry were kept. They replied that everything had been taken earlier. This statement enraged the soldier and he became nasty about the whole affair. He said he could wait as long as they could. He ordered the women to cook him a hearty supper. This he enjoyed very much since it had been a long time since he had had a good meal.

He kept the mother and her daughters prisoners the rest of that day. The following day they still insisted that their jewelry had been stolen at the outbreak of the war. Actually, the women had hidden the valuables so they couldn't be found.

The soldier said he was tired of playing games. He would leave without hurting them if they gave the jewelry to him. Otherwise, he would have no other choice but to kill them.

Stubbornly, the women refused. Without the watches and valuables, they would have nothing left. They couldn't work the farm by themselves, so the jewelry was the only security they had.

As the soldier prepared to carry out his threat and was raising his gun, the figure of a man appeared out of nowhere, standing between the man and the women. Obviously it was no ordinary person. Although the soldier could see through the form, he could make out the features plainly. The form told the soldier to leave at once if he valued his life.

The women were speechless, for they recognized the figure as the dead husband and father. The soldier ran out the door and rode off as fast as he could. The form left as quietly and silently as it had come.

Each of the women thought she had imagined the whole affair, but all soon realized that the father had come back to save them from death.

25: A Face in the Window

During Civil War days, Charles Perry, a soldier in the Union army, was often sent out to get supplies for the hospitals — butter, eggs, milk, chickens, and so on — and had many interesting experiences. One morning when he started out to gather supplies, he came to a farmhouse situated near a small creek.

He rode up to the place, hitched his horse to the post, and knocked on the door. After a few minutes he decided no one was home, but as he was going down the steps, he saw someone peering out the second-floor window.

Charles went back up to the porch and pushed open the door, gun in hand. There by the chimney stood a middle-aged lady, as white as a ghost. He asked her why she hadn't answered the door, and she replied that she was afraid he would kill her, since he was a Union soldier. Remembering the face at the window upstairs, he asked if anyone else was in the house. She swore to him that they were alone, but he asked if he could look around. Although she said she would rather he left, he started upstairs.

Slowly he climbed the steps, expecting a Confederate soldier to jump out of a doorway to shoot him at any moment. He ventured first into one room and then another. Finding no one, he had almost decided that he had imagined the face at the window.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye he saw the figure of a young woman slide into an opening in the wall. The girl had long brown hair and a beautiful complexion. She wore a pink silk dress that fell in folds around her legs. As he turned toward her, the opening in the wall closed and, upon inspection, could not be found. Thinking it could be a passage to an inner room of the house, he closely examined the wood. There was not even a crack in the wall!

Bewildered, he went to find the woman he had spoken with, but when he returned to the first floor of the house, she was nowhere in sight. Searching the house carefully, he could find no trace of her anywhere. Knowing she couldn't have gone far, he looked around the farm, but could find no clue to her disappearance.

He rode to the nearest farmhouse, and a lady came out on the porch to greet him. He asked who lived in the farmhouse to the south, and she replied that the place had been deserted since an intoxicated Union soldier had come upon the house where the mother and daughter lived alone. The soldier had taken both their lives when they would not give him food and money! Shocked, he asked the housewife to describe the mother and daughter. Her descriptions fit the women he had seen exactly.

Charles rode back to the house in hopes of seeing the beautiful girl again. A strange feeling seemed to attract him to the place. Upon entering, he saw for the first time that the rooms were filled with dust and cobwebs, as if no one had been in the house for months. All he could see were his own footprints leading up the stairs.

26: A Ghostly Avenger

In the southern part of West Virginia there is a gravestone with the following inscription: “SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JIM BROWN.” There is no date, no epitaph, because Jim Brown was hanged. This is the story.

At the close of the Civil War, a company of Federal soldiers was stationed in Marion County. Charles Murphy was a lieutenant in this company. His brother, who was an officer quartered in a neighboring county, was sent one day to receive funds for the payment of some men. After he had received the money, he set out again, planning to return to his troops by evening.

That night Charles Murphy was awakened by a violent flapping of his tent. It sounded as if a gale were coming, but when he arose to make sure that the pegs and poles of his tent were secure, the noise ceased, and he was surprised to find that the air was calm. When he returned to bed, the flapping began again, and this time he dressed himself and went outside to make a better examination.

In the shadow of a nearby tree, a man stood beckoning. It was his brother. In a low, grave voice he told Charles to follow him. The lieutenant walked swiftly through the woods for some time with his brother until they descended a slope to the edge of a swamp, where he stumbled against something. Looking down at the object on which he had tripped, he saw it was his brother's corpse — not newly dead, but cold and rigid. The pockets had been rifled and the clothing was soaked with mire and blood.

Dazed and terrified, he returned to camp where he roused some of his men. At daybreak they secured the body.

It was not long before evidence turned up that brought about the arrest of Jim Brown. There was a hint that his responsibility for the crime was revealed through the same supernatural being that had warned Lieutenant Murphy. Brown was an ignorant farmer who hated Yankee soldiers and who had been excited by learning the officer was carrying money.

He had offered to take his victim by a shortcut to his camp, but took him into the swamp instead, where he shot him and robbed him.

27: Darkish Knob

Near the town of Parsons, West Virginia, there is a tall, steep hill covered almost entirely with loose rock. Only one path leads over this hill, and it is almost impassable. The hill is called Darkish Knob.

During the Civil War the underground railroad was bringing as many Negro slaves as possible to the North where they would be free. These slaves had to travel by night so they wouldn't be seen, and they would hide at different houses during the day. They could not travel the same routes many times because the authorities would wait there to capture them.

One of the most favored areas to travel through was the mountainous region of West Virginia. There were many hiding places, but traveling by night was extremely dangerous. The few trails that the Negroes dared to travel were so perilous that few people would attempt them by day.

One of the resting places for these fugitives was a house in a valley at the foot of Darkish Knob. It was well hidden by mountains on all four sides. In fact, the valley was so very well hidden that the Negroes themselves often could not find it.