Ellis McDonald's Message

Rail Yard at Keyser
Source: WV History on View

The following 'remarkable ghost story' was published in the July 23, 1881 edition of the Martinsburg Independent, although as stated in the story, it originally came from the Keyser Tribune a week earlier. If true, it IS a remarkable tale of a young man who was killed in a train accident coming back two years later to pass on a message to someone living on this side. He didn't appear as a wispy, ethereal form, or communicate in moans and whispers; rather, he looked as solid as any living person, and spoke normally. The only problem was, he was recognized as being, well...dead. But, this story has an interesting post script, as you'll see below. 

A Remarkable Ghost Story

We take the following from the Keyser Tribune of last week. It reads a little like a Western story.

The following ghost story created a sensation among the superstitious, and from the straightforward story given by the party to whom it appeared and connections with it generally give a rather mysterious significance. The fireman on 434, a 2nd division engine, was sitting in the cab while the engine was standing in the round house in Keyser, one night last week, when he beheld a man approaching. The fireman took no particular notice of the approaching figure, as it was a common occurrence to see men in the round house after night, attending to their work. It came nearer and nearer, mounted the cab and spoke to the fireman. He looked up at the intruder, then turned pale as death, and trembled as though the ague had seized him in every limb. Oh! horrors! He tried to speak but his voice failed; he tried to move, but he was as if paralyzed, and the cold sweat stood in large drops on his forehead, as he recognized, standing before him as if alive, Ellis McDonald a man who was killed in a collision at Black Oak about two years since. The phantom spoke to him in a steady, natural voice, and requested that he deliver a message to a man in Martinsburg, whose name it gave, also giving him the message, and warned him to intimate it to no living soul except the one for whom it was intended. The fireman consented and the ghost vanished. At the disappearance of the visitor the fireman leaped from the cab and made his way to a caboose in the yard, in which some men were sitting, to whom he related his experience. Next day he went to Martinsburg, and went into a saloon where he found the man to whom the message was sent. Calling the man aside he delivered the message. "My God!" he exclaimed, and sank into a chair, quivering all over; "that affair was known to only one man on earth besides myself, and he has been dead two years!" "Where did you hear it?" "McDonald came and told me while I was sitting on my engine in Keyser," said the fireman. 

We failed to learn the names of the principals of this story, but it came from good authority, and no doubt has a good foundation.  

Theresa's Note: It's too bad that they failed to learn the names of the principals of the story. That omission really doesn't help to authenticate this case. There is one name that is given, however, and that is the name of our ghost--Ellis McDonald. I can confirm that an Ellis McDonald, aged 30, DID die in Martinsburg on 17 August 1879, two years before this story was published. His cause of death is listed as a railroad accident.

Could the writers simply have exploited a known death in the area to sensationalize into an entertaining ghost story to sell papers? That seems to be the opinion of one woman who wasn't shy about writing into the paper to share her disgust about what she felt was a false story being published.Spoiler alert--the woman was the deceased man's WIFE!!  I completely empathize with her and as someone who documents ghost stories, the reactions of living family members and friends is always something that I struggle with. I plan on blogging about it more thoroughly in the near future, but until then, let's just say that a little tact and empathy can go a long way. Anyway, here is Mrs. McDonald's response, as published in the July 30, 1881 edition of the Martinsburg Independent: 

That Ghost Story

Eds. Independent:

The pretended "Ghost Story" which appeared in the Keyser Tribune, and was copied into the INDEPENDENT, is a purely sensational fabrication, having no foundation in fact, else why did not the Tribune give the name of its informant, or the "fireman of 434" give the story over his own signature.

The publication in the Tribune, unbacked by any reliable evidence, was uncalled for, and could have no other effect than to wound the feelings of the relatives and friends of the deceased, whose name is mentioned in the article. 

The use of his name in that connection was entirely unwarranted, and in respect to his memory, and out of consideration for my own feelings and that of his other relatives and friends, I protest against it, and warn all persons against a like repetition of the matter complained of.  -MRS. ELLIS MCDONALD