A Clay County Ghost Story (1870)

Stock Photo of a Cabin 
with Flag Stone Chimney

I love a good 'debunking' story! In today's blog post, I'd like to share with you a ghost story from 1870 that wasn't exactly what it seemed. When two reverends took shelter in an abandoned house, they experienced horrific noises...and an even worse smell. After fleeing in fear, a brave (reckless?) neighbor decided to investigate. Personally, I think what he found was worse than a ghost! Here's a transcription of the article from The Weston Democrat, dated June 27, 1870:

A correspondent of the Kanawha Journal relates the following: 

A few days after a Sunday snowstorm, during the past winter, the Rev. Daniel Schoonover and the Rev. George Arbegast, were ascending Elk River in one of those celebrated packets familiarly known as "canoes." Late in the afternoon they cast anchor at the mouth of Peter's Creek, in Clay County, where they took immediate possession of an unoccupied house, known as the "Whaggy House." The evening being quite cool, they provided an abundance of fuel, started a roaring fire, and began to prepare supper and congratulate each other with the comfort they were about to enjoy, when lo! an unearthly sound grated discordantly on their ears; supposing the noise in the rear of the chimney to be only a resident varmint, they mustered their limited courage, sallied forth to discover if possible, from whence the frightful sounds proceeded; arriving at the rear of the chimney aforesaid, pausing for a moment to suppress, if possible, the audible working of their hearts, they heard the same unnatural sounds in the house. They hastily returned; when a horrible stench presented itself to their olfactory nerves, which one averred smelled like an old barrel of sour kraut, and the other said was sulphur, so hastily seizing their cooking utensils they immediately decamped, and boarding their craft and weighing anchor, rowing at the rate of about 40 knots an hour, they soon arrived at Brother Ralph Smyth's where they entered in a very unmilitary style, overcome with fear and great trembling, with eyes dilated to about the size of ordinary dog-wood blossoms. The dismal tale they related about the haunted house and their hairbreadth escape. The news soon spread over the neighborhood, when D. Brown who is celebrated for his reckless daring, heard the news of a haunted house in the neighborhood; he instituted a voyage of discovery, and after carefully examining the premises he found out the cause of all the fright, which he gives us as follows:

The side walls of the fire place having been made of flag stone, there was a cavity between the outside wall, and a flag having previously fallen out, the rats had taken possession, and the aforesaid gentlemen's fire cut off their outside communications, they were literally roasted to death, and their dying groans produced the horrid noise they heard, and their parched tails the infernal smell.

The Weston Democrat
27 June 1870