AN ABONDONED FARMHOUSE
(NEAR) BLACKWATER, VIRGINIA
Unknown (Legend)
there is an occasional ghost story which I have included here not necessarily because it's provable, accurate, or could even be regarded as "true". That being said, the manifestation of this particular spirit is not outside the realm of what a ghost can do, either. Perhaps such tales should be best left classified as "folklore" or "colorful local legends". However, if such tales were ever to be proven true, such as this one from rural Lee County, Virginia, then perhaps some ghosts can be more potent, vengeful, and fearsome than ever imagined. For now, you can classify this one as rollicking good old folklore fright-story... or can you?

Lee County is as close to Tennessee and Kentucky as you can get without actually leaving Virginia, and it's got both Powell Mountain and many other hilly ridges jutting up out of the rich, black soil - the kind used heavily for farming in the area.

It is said that there was once a preacher caught up in a harsh, driving, freezing rainstorm. He stopped at a local house over in the general vicinity of Blackwater and asked to stay the night at a local farmhouse. The house was full but the man who owned it said that there was an old empty building in a field against the mountain, and the preacher could stay there if he wished. After a warm dinner, the man took the preacher out to the mountain and helped him build a fire in the fireplace, but did not stay for long. His rush is understandable.

The preacher fell asleep in a chair in front of the fire reading the bible, but he was awakened "around midnight", right as the last coals were burning down, but a strange noise. It was similar to that which would be caused by a "whole wheelbarrow full of rocks being dumped on the roof"! running outside into the rain, the holy man could see nothing on the roof. Then he heard a noise which was colorfully described as if "like a rooster startin' to crow right at the door but it cut off quick like somebody hit it with a rock and knocked the rooster right out of it".

The preacher returned inside and relit the fire. Right then, strange noises began to echo through the rooms - first out in the hall, then suddenly in the cellar, then in the rooms all around him. It was the noise was a young woman moaning and groaning!

Next, a set of footsteps seemed to approach the back door, all while the voice screamed in torment, and the door swung open of it's own volition! A dim outline of a "young woman sobbing" formed, then vanished, and the door swung shut.

The preacher, now shaken to the bone, stood with his back to the fire and a fire poker raised above his head. Then the sobbing began again, and the door opened, revealing the same figure as before. The preacher screamed out in horror: "In the name of the Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost, what do you want!". The figure seemed to gasp, as if catching her breath, and stumbled over to the preacher, gasping him by his coat lapels. The figure, on close examination, was not a pleasant sight. It was a young woman, perhaps in her mid 20's, with her hair in tangles all around her head. Earth clung to her face and faded dress, and she had huge, vacant holes for eyes, and no nose.

The preacher was having difficulty breathing by now, and he was practically paralyzed, either by his own fear or design. The figure exclaimed that it wanted to be reburied, that she was murdered in life by her husband ands buried under the hearthstone of the fireplace, apparently to get to her money. The money was still hidden on the property and he could have it if he followed her directions: to bury her in a churchyard but to save the pinky finger on her left hand. Then, the bone was to be passed around a dinner table filled with everybody in the neighborhood, and that the bone would stick to the murderer. And then to return the next night to claim his money. Then the vision vanished.

The preacher didn't sleep the entire night, and the next day he went back the farmhouse where he had been directed to the haunted farmhouse. The man and the preacher uncovered the bones, and the preacher gave them a formal funeral in a nice churchyard. That night a large dinner was held with many men attending of local residence and a plate with the finger bone was passed around. It stuck to the finger of an old man, and he was apparently so horrified that he confessed to the crime and was hanged.

The preacher returned to the old house the next night and the figure told him where to recover the stolen fortunes. After that, it has been said, the house was no longer haunted. Oddly enough, though, is a strange footnote to the tale. In the place the specter had grasped the preacher, his coat lapels, were a pair of handprints, burned right into the fabric.