The Spirit Who Made a Man Give up Spirits

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What would it take for you to give up one of your biggest vices...or even addictions? For some, giving up such indulgences is no easy feat. However, for one man in Mercer County, WV all it would take is some strong encouragement from a ghost. 

Back in 1937, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph delighted its readers with regular ghost stories, submitted by locals and often featuring local haunts. In one such article, a woman from Nemours confirmed a previous story that happened to a man who lived out on what is now known as Brush Fork. 

This man had a bad habit. Despite having a family and not enough money to support them properly, he made it a regular occurrence to go out to Flat Top yard where there was a still. The man would purchase a jug of whisky, or sometimes even some good ol' 'shine...and place it in a sack for the walk back home.

On one particularly clear night, the man was walking back home with his sack of whisky when he heard what he described as a woman's voice coming from the clouds. Curious, he stopped to listen. Suddenly, from right over his head he heard the voice say, 'Drop that liquor!' At the same time, a loud thud, almost like a lightning bolt, hit the ground near him. 

The man dropped his sack of whisky and ran home. He got down on his knees and told his wife the whole story before swearing off liquor for good. And, according to the source telling this tale, that promise was kept and the man stayed sober for the rest of his days. 

Whether or not it was really a ghost, a drunken hallucination, or someone using the opportunity to teach this man a lesson...it doesn't really matter. What matters is that a man was able to give up a particular vice that was detrimental not only to himself, but his family. And, if it turns out that it WAS a spirit that led to him giving up the spirits, then that's just icing on the cake! 

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
21 February 1937

Ada's Apparitions: Railroad Ghosts in Mercer County

 

Ada, WV
Photo by JP Mueller: Source

Ada, WV is a small town located in Mercer County...but it's a small town with a BIG ghost story. Well, BIG might not be the right word, but it is an extremely weird tale of the supernatural. According to an article in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, this ghostly encounter happened some years before it was published in the August 22, 1937 edition. 

The exact date is not mentioned, but it was a crisp and clear night. Well after dark, Reverend G.W. Lucado was taking a stroll along the railroad tracks (now part of the Norfolk Southern Railway Christianburg District line) between the towns of Pembroke and Ripplemead. Along the way, Rev. Lucado ran into two men, one of whom he didn't know, and another by the name of Bal Thompson. 

Rev. Lucado struck up a conversation with the two men, and as he was speaking, the two men literally vanished right before his eyes. They didn't wander off into the darkness or disappear around the bend while walking ahead. They simply poofed out of existence right in front of the reverend. 

What's interesting is that at least one of these men wasn't your average spirit from beyond the grave. At the time of the encounter, Bal Thompson was alive and well and claimed that he had been nowhere near that area on the night in question and he certainly didn't stop to have a conversation with Rev. Lucado. 

In ghost lore, apparitions of the living are not uncommon. In many cases, however, the apparition of a living person is seen as bad luck, or even as a death omen. So, being the curious person I am, I wondered if Bal Thompson had come to an early demise shortly after his apparition was seen. The problem with this quest was a lack of information in the original article, lol. 

Doing a simple search for "Bal Thompson" in the newspaper archives, the WV State Vital Statistics website, and Find-a-Grave, I found some interesting stuff on at least two different men named Bal Thompson...the Bal being short for Ballard. I have no idea whether or not any of these men mentioned are the Bal Thompson of Rev. Lucado's story, but I thought I'd include them here, just in case. 

The first mention of a Bal Thompson I found was from a Bluefield Daily Telegraph article dated March 15, 1912. This article states that a B.P. (Bal) Thompson, a merchant policeman and former police chief, had shot and killed Edward Young near Charleston. Young was the superintendent of the Kanawha County Infirmary and it is said that Thompson, who had previously worked at the infirmary, had 'differences' with Young. To take a tragic tale even further, Thompson committed suicide and passed on April 30th. His Find-a-Grave entry has further information on his suicide. 

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
15 March 1912

There was another Bal Thompson mentioned in a 1921 article of the Hinton Daily News. This Thompson, a constable at Cedar Grove, was suspected of killing Edward Dawes, a watchman for the Paint Creek Collier Company. Obviously, this cannot be the same Bal Thompson who killed Edward Young, but we do have a bit of synchronicity happening here. Two men named 'Bal' Thompson, both members of law enforcement, unlawfully murdered men named Edward. There's also a Find-a-Grave entry for a Ballard P. Thompson, buried in Kanawha County, who died in August of 1921, a month after Dawes' death. Was this another case where a Bal Thompson took the life of another...and then his own?

Hinton Daily News
21 July 1921

There's also a Bal Thompson who was killed in a mine accident in Stotesbury in 1925. His death certificate is available on the WV Vital Statistics website.

So that's 2-3 Bal Thompsons making the news prior to the ghost story article being published. I honestly wasn't aware that Bal was such a popular name/nickname. But, even if it was popular, it doesn't seem to be a very LUCKY name, as at least two Bal Thompsons made the news for murder. Given this scenario, is it possible that Reverend Lucado ran into the living apparition of Bal Thompson, doomed to walk the tracks with his future victim? Is it even imaginable that the unidentified man was one of the murdered Edwards, 'haunting' his murderer even before the act even occurred? Stranger things have happened out on the railways of West Virginia and beyond...

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
22 August 1937

A Haunting on Straley Avenue (Princeton, WV)

Photo by Candace Nelson. Source

You all know I LOVE finding new-to-me haunted locations in West Virginia! Last August, I stumbled across not one, but TWO haunted locations I had never heard of before, both located in Princeton, WV. I came across an article on the Visit Mercer County tourism website entitled The Ghosts of Princeton and Athens. In an interview with Patricia (Pat) Smith, current director of the Princeton Railroad Museum, she discusses some paranormal activity going on at the museum. A local investigation team has even investigated the location, collecting evidence on a shadowy presence in the museum's attic! I'll be blogging about that location at a later date, but I first wanted to hit on another location mentioned by Pat in the article. 

Pat talks about her former restaurant she used to run, which was located in a former private residence. She doesn't mention this restaurant by name, but a little digging led to the discovery that the restaurant was actually Nonna's Italian Kitchen, located at 315 Straley Avenue. 

The first inclination that something paranormal was happening was when a customer approached Pat and asked if there was a dining room upstairs. She was hearing the sounds of laughter, and people going up and down the staircase. In her words, they were 'having a real good time!' The restaurant did indeed have upper floors, but these upper floors were completely closed to the public---there was no dining room upstairs, and certainly no party, public or private, taking place. 

Map Card for 315 Straley Avenue

That was a little weird, but Pat didn't think too much of it until one night after closing, she was taking a moment, just sitting in her car, unwinding from the hectic day. She noticed the curtains in one room rising up, then back down, in a very deliberate manner. Then, the upstairs lights turned themselves on.  For whatever reason, Pat didn't go back to check that night, but she and her staff arrived early the next morning, expecting to see missing items or other signs that someone had broken in. Nothing was missing, and nothing was out of place---except for a floral arrangement that had been placed on the steps leading down to the basement. Interpreting this as a feminine touch, the ghost was dubbed 'Mary.' 

Paranormal activity continued at the restaurant. Almost nightly, between 9 and 9:15pm as the restaurant was closing, staff would hear the foyer door creak open. Pat believes this might have been the ghosts carefully opening the door to see if they were still there. 

At first glance, it seems like the activity is fairly benign and harmless. However, some people have had less than positive experiences with the ghosts. A waitress who was in the attic heard a rather harsh voice tell her to leave. She didn't just leave the attic--she quit that day. Pat's adult daughter also had an experience where something gripped her arm with quite a bit of force.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph (8 Feb 1933)

And then there is the incident with another customer, that may or may not be malevolent---but certainly shook him up! An older gentleman approached Pat one day to let her know that the place was absolutely haunted. He had been in the restroom, and upon trying to exit, found the door stuck shut. It wouldn't budge, no matter how hard he tried to open it. As he was struggling with the door, he felt a woman's hands begin to stroke his hair. That gave him the incentive to get out of that bathroom NOW, and he managed to jerk the door open. 

So, who could be haunting this former brick home on Straley Avenue? If we look at the history of the home, the Mercer County Assessor's information states that the home was built around 1910. Unfortunately, the map card (listing former owners) only go back to 1954, so I'm not sure who actually built the house...but can safely say that the Evans Family spent quite a bit of time living in the home!

Irvin Ezra Evans was born in Pennsylvania in 1889 to parents Joseph H. and Elizabeth Christ Evans. He married Nida Lane Hale in Mercer County on October 22, 1921. He was a veteran of WWI and worked as a railway mechanic. The first documentation I can easily find online (one day I might make it down to Mercer to do some proper research on this case, lol) of the family living on Straley Avenue is a newspaper article from February of 1933 in which Irvin is meeting with city officials about putting in a drainage pipe to combat the water coming off of Straley Avenue ruining his lawn. 

Irvin passed away on September 11, 1954 from cardiac thrombosis. Although his death certificate notes that he died at a local hospital, he was living in the home at 315 Straley Avenue at the time. According to the map card, less than two weeks later, Nida signed over the deed to their son, Irvin H. Evans. It remained in his possession (and presumably acted as a family residence) until 1995 when Wilma Stone and Susan Folden purchased the property and opened up a quaint little gift shop called The Gingerbread House! In 1999, ownership would be transferred to Gifford and Pamela Coulburne. Under their ownership, the old Evans home would serve as The Magnolia Room, Nonna's Italian Restaurant, and today...is used as Yolanda's Grooming and Training. 

Update: October 2025

Since the original writing, I've learned that this location also served as office spaces, but most recently has sat vacant. Because of its status as being unoccupied, Appalachian Ghost Tours was given the opportunity to hold a private investigation of the old home, followed a couple of weeks later by a public ghost hunt. 

Both investigations proved to be interesting, with experiences much like the ones previously reported. On both nights, investigators and guests were touched and/or scratched in a forceful manner. Cat balls were triggered multiple times in the upstairs room where someone was seen moving the curtains up and down when the home was a restaurant. Spirit box activity included a long list of women's names, with many direct questions answered during Estes sessions. We're still not 100% sure who the resident ghost or ghosts may be, but there is reason to believe that the house does carry over some energy from possibly a time before the house was even built. Hopefully, we can return to the Magnolia Room and come closer to unlocking her secrets. 

The Gingerbread House (1995)

Sources and Further Reading:

Visit Mercer County--The Ghosts of Princeton and Athens

Bluefield Daily Telegraph (14 February 2015)--Curating Princeton's History: Smith Seeks to Preserve Area's Railroad Roots. Article by Greg Jordan. 

Irvin Evans Death Certificate

Marriage Registry

Candace Lately Blog--Princeton Edition: Nonna's Italian Kitchen

The Gingerbread House: Store Offers Unique Gifts from Days Gone By. Bluefield Daily Telegraph Archives. 13 August 1995

Irvin Evans Obituary
Beckley Post Herald
12 September 1954

Woodlawn Cemetery, Mercer County

Woodlawn Cemetery is located along Route 52 in Bluewell, Mercer County.  This is another one of those locations that have long been passed around the net as being haunted.  Honestly, I didn't have high hopes for finding anything of substance for this location, but a little bit of research quickly made me re-think my position on that...

Photo by Flyp Hylton

Woodlawn Cemetery was established in the early 1930s.  Over the years, the site has expanded to nearly 30 developed acres including at least 23 "garden sections" including a miners' section and a veterans' section, as well as several mausoleums.  The Waterfall Mausoleum was built in the 1960s, and there is also a newer Chapel Mausoleum, featuring three chapels.  In addition, there are several "estate" plots, including one for the Bowen family of the Bramwell Millionaires fame.  And as an interesting side note, Justus Collins, founder of the very haunted Whipple Company Store that HPIR investigated last year, is also among the cemetery's 16,000+ internments.

Photo from Bramwellwv

According to the listings on such places as WVGhosts.com and Shadowlands.net, Woodlawn Cemetery's older section is said to be haunted.  It is said that visitors to this section will hear disembodied voices telling them to "leave."  However, a little further digging (and with the help of a Topix thread on the subject) I was able to find out that this section may not necessarily be the most haunted place in the cemetery!

Several contributors to the Topix thread stated that they've had eerie experiences with the mausoleum, but didn't describe which one.  As an educated guess, I'm going to say its the Waterfall Mausoleum that is the main focus of these hauntings.  One person saw an apparition of what appeared to be a living person.  Another heard pecking noises coming from the mausoleum late at night.  Several others claimed that the mausoleum was plagued with a terrible, unidentifiable smell. 

More interestingly, several people claimed to have gotten locked inside the mausoleum for some unknown reason.  The first person to share the story was bringing flowers to a loved one's crypt and became locked inside for no apparent reason.  Luckily, a cell phone call placed to a brother alerted the office staff at the cemetery that someone was locked in...a fact that this same office staff claimed had never happened before.  Except, according to others...it had.  One person was trapped in the mausoleum for over three hours in a time before cell phones were a staple for everyone.

And while it probably has nothing to do with the hauntings, just last year a very strange incident occurred at the cemetery that should be noted.  On Sunday, January 29th, 2012 police got a call that a man was in the cemetery with a gun.  The gentleman was a 34 year old man from Colorado named Jackie Spalding, Jr.  Spalding was described as mentally unstable, and when police arrived around 6:15pm, he fled.  He was found shortly thereafter in a vehicle parked on the service road running behind the mausoleum.  State troopers fired a fatal shot at Spalding when it was claimed that he raised his rifle at them.

Shooting

Find-a-Grave

Mercer County Airport

Source: Mercer Co. Airport Website

Mercer County Airport is a small public airport located outside of Bluefield, WV. Construction began on the airport in 1951, and was completed by May 15, 1954, when a dedication ceremony was held to commemorate the opening of the new airport.

In the early 2000s, the crew of an aero-medical group opened up base operations at the airport, which left members of their crew the only living persons to man the airport late into the night and into early morning.  Shortly thereafter, rumors began to circulate and stories were reported that the airport may or may not be haunted.  According to Mark Stokes, who reported the activity to the WVGhosts site in 2006, employees would feel the sense of being watched during the night, although they were the only ones on site.  Cold chills and shivers were commonplace, as were weird banging sounds that echoed through the early morning hours.

Pieces of the wreck. Photo from the NTSB Report

Many who have experienced the phenomena attribute the activity to a plane crash that killed all on board.  At 8:44am, on January 21, 1981, a Cessna 500 Citation carrying two crew members and three passengers crashed, killing all five people.  The plane was owned by the Georgia-Pacific Company, and was taking three employees from the company's southern offices in Augusta, Georgia to Maryland for short business trip. The stopover in Bluefield, WV at the Mercer County Airport was so that they could drop off a public relations employee. According to newspaper articles at the time of the crash, Georgia-Pacific had an office in Bluefield to manage its extensive timber holdings in the Mountain State.

As the pilot attempted to make a landing on Runway 23, weather conditions resulted in the plane overrunning the runway as it slid on slushy, wet snow, striking 3 localizer antennae and a 10ft embankment, before going down over a wooded hill and bursting into flames. It is said that the hill was so steep that rescue personnel had to be lowered down using ropes. Unfortunately, it was too late to save anyone.

Killed in the grisly accident were pilots Bobby Martin and Larry Rodeffer; John P. Maddocks, in charge of public relations for the southern division; and two engineers, Emmit Swearingen and Robert Benner.

Ghost Sightings as told by Mark Stokes to WVGhosts
Full Accident Report from the NTSB
Palm Beach Post (January 22, 1981)
Cumberland News (January 28, 1981)
Airport Website

*Updated on 26 January 2018*