McArthur House's Ghostly Child

I love detective work, but I usually find myself more frustrated than I am gratified, lol.  Here's another tale that makes for a great ghost story, but I'm having trouble verifying the details!  According to Haunted Houses of Harpers Ferry by Stephen D. Brown (1976):

In the town of Bolivar, adjacent to Harpers Ferry, there is a large old home that has been converted into an antique shop. 

A woman was touring the house with the owner one day.

"Who is that child," asked the visitor upon entering a room on the first floor.  The lady was gazing intently at a small antique bed located in one corner of the room.

"What child?  There is no child here."

The woman continued to gaze at the bed.  She saw a small child, apparently very ill.  Moments later the image began to fade, then disappeared altogether.  She described at once everything she had seen, and the owner immediately went over to the bed, which seemed to him as usual, empty and undisturbed.

Several days later the owner met two elderly women who knew the house and of its former occupants, the McArthur family.  The ladies remarked that Mrs. McArthur, a century ago, was the first woman offered a pension by the federal government for her service in the military.

Intrigued with the history of the house, he asked the ladies to continue.

They told him that Mr. McArthur, the local undertaker, operated his business in the two towns ravaged by war.  He had a daughter who also lived there with her baby.  But the child became ill and eventually died.

"Can you tell me which room the child died in?" he asked.

They named the location.  It was the same room where the visitor two days earlier had seen the phantom child.  He decided to move the bed to another area, and the child has not been seen again.

Historic research is rarely easy, especially on locations that I'm not familiar with...and don't live close enough to really access certain key documents that can make or break a story.  I hate to publish anything until I thoroughly examine all facets of research, but I do love this story...and I did find SOME background information on it!

There WAS a John McArthur and his wife, Mary (Polly), who lived in Bolivar...on Washington Street, in fact, according to the 1900 census.  And, according to this census, John McArthur did serve as a funeral director.  At this time, also living with the couple was a servant woman named Martha, and a 9 year old colored child named John A. Welcome.

John McArthur was born in Scotland around 1837, and married in New York around the year 1857.  In 1880, the family was still living in Pennsylvania, and it appears that the McArthurs did have one daughter, Emeline.  It is unclear whether or not Emeline made the move to WV with her parents, as records for her seem to disappear.  However, after John's death in 1919, the 1920 census does have an Emma Ketzner and husband living with Mary in Bolivar.

Based on this information, it is possible that Emeline DID have a child who passed away, but the question as to where this house actually stands is another mystery.

I was able to track down some information from a life-long Bolivar resident who remembers a Ms. McCormick having an antique store in a big yellow building in town.  The obituary for Mrs. Edith McCormick does mention her running an antique store in Bolivar...on Washington Street, the same street where the McArthur's lived!  Today, there is another antique store on Washington Street--Jason's Antiques.  That's a pretty big coincidence!

Spring Grove Cemetery, Parkersburg

When one thinks of an historic and haunted cemetery in Parkersburg, WV, the mind tends to go straight to the ever-popular Riverview Cemetery.  With over 200 years of West Virginia history packed into its gates, complete with a myriad of legends and ghost tales to go along with it, Riverview Cemetery is rightfully and understandably a first priority for ghost seekers.

However, one cannot discount OTHER local cemeteries that have a history and story unique in their own way.  One such cemetery is the Spring Grove Cemetery, located on Sayre Avenue.  In some publications, this cemetery is simply referred to as the Sayre Avenue Colored Cemetery.

Spring Grove was originally part of a 17.5 acre parcel owned by D.R. Neal.  Neal sold the land in 1892 to Peter Brock and the Pond Run Cemetery Company for a price of $900.  This cemetery is the only in Parkersburg denoted as a Black only cemetery, and is still in use today under the operation of the Spring Grove Cemetery Association.  It is the final resting place of many of the area's prominent black citizens, including Civil War veterans, veterans of several foreign wars, and interestingly enough...descendents of slaves owned by Thomas Jefferson.

The cemetery may also be home to a ghost.  According to an entry on WVGhosts Haunted Places, this cemetery is known for an apparition of a large black man.  It is said that this man appears to and comes to the aid of ladies in distress.  No other details on this haunting have been uncovered, so if you have any information on these hauntings, please contact me at theresarhps@yahoo.com.  Thanks!

Cemetery Transcription and additional information available from Internment.net
Photo property of Find-a-Grave contributor, crystal.

Another Journey to Nowhere...Frist House

Nothing frustrates me more than having a great ghost story, complete with alleged names and the likelihood of verifiable details...but then not finding anything in the historic archives to actually back that story up.

This is the case with one popular tale from the Moorefield, Hardy County, area.  The tale I refer to is that of the John Frist House and its run-in with a guerrilla warfare group by the name of McNeill's Rangers.  This story originally appeared on page 62 of the iconic Coffin Hollow and Other Ghost Tales, written by Ruth Ann Musick, and published in 1977.  According to the notes in the back, this story was submitted in 1966 by Robert Fertig of Hardy County.  Here is that tale in its entirety--as it appears in Coffin Hollow:

During the Civil War, Hardy County was one of the few counties in West Virginia to go Confederate.  The reason Hardy turned rebel was that several well-to-do farmers in the county used slave labor.  The only important person opposed to the Confederacy was John Frist, an influential man who lived in a large house outside of Moorefield.  Because of John's resistance, a group of hotheaded rebels went to his house one night and murdered him, his wife, and their three children.

After this, John Frist's home was used as a prison for runaway slaves who were caught.  The slaves would be taken into the basement of the house, chained to the wall, and left for dead.  Those who performed these acts of insanity were called the McNeil Rangers, and they operated out of Moorefield.

After the South's surrender the slaves in Hardy County were released--all except the ones who had died in the cellar of their prison.  A group of townspeople went to the Frist house and cleared out the bones and decaying bodies.

This house is still standing and is in very good condition.  Several families have owned or rented it since the end of the Civil War but none of them has remained in it for more than a year.  I know of five families--all from other places--that have owned it in my lifetime.  The families that have lived there claim that once a year, on the anniversary of the Frist family's murder, blood appears on the floor and walls of the room in which they were killed.  It slowly wears off during the year, but it can't be painted over or sanded out.  Also strange screams and the sounds of chains rattling come from the cellar.

All my life I have heard that this house is haunted; I hope it does not carry a curse, because my parents rented it for a few months, about a year after they were married, and I was born there.

In 2004, popular chronicler of ghost tales, Troy Taylor, submitted an updated piece on this story, including some additional background (and correct spelling) of the McNeill's Rangers, the group allegedly responsible for this horrendous acts, to the WVGhosts website.  However, no additional details on John Frist and his family were explored...and perhaps, for very good reason.  While this tale is a favorite among West Virginia Civil War ghost-lore, and the hauntings are well documented...it seems that the actual history is NOT.

After many hours of searching the WV State Archives, Ancestry.com, and other genealogy/history sites around the web, I have found no evidence of a John Frist family near Moorehead at the time of the Civil War.  I have found no historic homes listed on the National Register that mention a Frist family (or any similar name) or even list a history comparable to that discussed in this tale.  More importantly, I found no evidence that McNeill's Rangers ever took part in such a horrific event.  I do realize there are plenty of untold, undocumented horrors of a war that placed brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, but for being such an important man, no easily obtainable record of Mr. Frist exists.  At least, I haven't found it, and neither has several other independent researchers, historians, and Hardy County newspaper contributors. I've explored the possibility that there was a mistake in the name, but aside from a John French family who doesn't fit the scenario, I couldn't find any other possible matches, and the time period in which this would have occurred is conveniently missing from the State Archives online database.

Another aspect of the story to think about is the fact that when you start to really examine the logistics of this tale, it doesn't make good fiscal sense---captured slaves wouldn't have been left to rot.  Even if the McNeill Rangers DID capture runaway slaves during their down time from raiding railroads, it would have been much more likely that such slaves would have been returned to their owners for a bounty or re-sold for profit.

The WV State Archives has a nice history of McNeill's Rangers, led by John Hanson "Hanse" McNeill, who did live in Missouri during the outbreak of the war.  When he was killed in 1864, his son Jesse took over leadership of the group.  It is debatable as to the extent of the elder McNeill's temper, but most agree he wasn't the monster described in this tale.  However, his son was said to be more hot-tempered and since records of the group's activities aren't as strong during this time (and some members left), I would wager that if any part of this story is true, then it was under Jesse's leadership or perhaps carried out by rogue members calling themselves McNeill's Rangers.

If you have ANY information at all on the Frist Family, or the Frist House, or any other detail that would give credibility to the history of this haunting, please contact me at:  theresarhps@yahoo.com. 

Theresa's Movie Challenge-Week 3

I must be fooling myself to think that I'm EVER going to break this streak of three movies per week...

Anyway, here's what I managed to watch on Week 3 of the annual Halloween horror film cram!

1. Monster Ark (2008).  This was a SyFy Original Movie, and therefore, doesn't require much commentary, lol.  It wasn't the worst thing I've seen, but it was far from the best, which was disappointing as the concept was interesting.  Apparently, Noah had ANOTHER mission, conveniently left out of the Bible stories that most of us grew up with!

2. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.  This was a Guillermo del Toro film, so I had high hopes for it, and I did enjoy it.  Even though the "monsters" were kinda silly, their silliness WORKED for them.  However, I did find myself during much of the movie not being scared of the little buggers, but devising ways of how I would eradicate them in horribly painful ways if it were ME they were messing with.  And...like many of del Toro's works, I was left at the end wondering if I missed something important...I just didn't quite GET the end of this one.

3. Sinister!  Aaron took me out on a much needed date night, and this is the movie I chose.  I really liked it, but I will agree with Aaron on one thing...while this was a supernatural movie dealing with a supernatural being, the actual content bordered on the "torture porn" genre.  Also, it was really, really predictable and I'm guessing some critical scenes were edited out before it hit the theater, as there were some aspects that felt incomplete.  There were some pretty good jump-scares, though, and the overall concept was darn creepy!

Bonus Holiday Movie:
Luke and I stayed in Saturday night, snuggled on the couch, fixed some popcorn and watched Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman.  Too cute!  I loved Alvin and the Chipmunks when I was little, plus...I love Halloween and scary movies.  This was the perfect bit of nostalgia that I got to share with my little boy, who also loved it.

Rome's First Recorded Ghost Story

The following tale is a translation by William Melmoth.  Originally recorded and recounted in Latin by Pliny the Younger around 100 A.D., this classic ghost story is often reported to be the first of written record, and it certainly contains many of the motifs and imagery that have so long been associated with denizens of the otherworld.

There was in Athens a house, large and spacious, which had a bad reputation as though it was filled with pestilence. In the dead of night, a noise was frequently heard resembling the clashing of iron which, if you listened carefully, sounded like the rattling of chains. The noise would seem to be a distance away, but it would start coming closer… and closer… and closer. Immediately after this, a specter would appear in the form of an old man, emaciated and squalid, with bristling hair and a long beard, and rattling the chains on his hands and feet as he moved.

The unfortunate inhabitants of the house went sleepless at night due to unimaginable and dismal terrors. Without sleep, as it had happened to others, their health was ruined and they were struck with some kind of madness – as the horrors in their minds increased, they were led on a path toward death. Eventually even during the daytime, when the ghost did not appear, the memory of their nightmares was so strong that it still passed before their eyes, every waking moment. Their terror was constant, even when the source of fear was gone.

Because of this, the house was eventually deserted and damned as uninhabitable, abandoned entirely to the ghost. In hope that some tenant might eventually be found who was ignorant of the house’s malevolence, a bill was still posted for its sale. As it happened, a philosopher by the name of Athenodorus came to Athens at that time. Reading the bill for the house, he easily discovered the price – and being an intelligent man, he was suspicious at its extremely low cost. Someone did tell him the whole story, and yet he wasn’t dissuaded, but was instead eager to make the purchase. Thus, he did.

When evening drew near, Athenodorus asked for couch to be readied for him at the front of the house. He asked for his writing materials and a lamp, and then asked his retainers to retire for the night. In order to ensure that his mind stayed focused and away from distractions of stories about imaginary noises and apparitions, he poured all his energy into his writing.

For awhile, the night was silent. Then the rattling of fetters began. Athenodorus would not lift his eyes or set down his pen. Instead, he concentrated on his writing and thereby closed his ears. But the noise wouldn’t stop, and it only increased and drew closer until it seemed to be at the door and then standing in his very chamber! Finally, Athenodorus looked away from his work… and saw the ghost standing just as it had been described. It stood there, waiting, beckoning him with one finger.

Athenodorus held up his palm as though the visitor should wait a moment, and once again bent over his work. The ghost, impatient, shook his chains over the philosopher’s head, beckoning again. This time, Athenodorus picked up his lamp and followed the ghost as it moved slowly, as though it was held back by its chains. Upon reaching the courtyard, the ghost suddenly vanished.

Now on his own, Athenodorus carefully marked the spot where the ghost vanished with a handful of leaves and grass. The following day, he asked the magistrate to have that spot dug up, and in that spot was found – intertwined with chains – the skeleton of a man. The body had lain in the ground a long time and had left the bones bare and corroded by the fetters. The bones were then collected and given a proper burial at public expense – and since the ghost’s tortured soul had been finally laid to rest, the house in Athens was haunted no more.

*Follow Theresa on FaceBook!*

The Cave Ghost

In 1812, Samuel Tanner and his wife, Sudna Carpenter Tanner, became Spencer's first permanent white settlers.  They made their first home under the cliffs where Spencer Middle School now stands, and that is allegedly where their daughter, Elizabeth, was born.  Elizabeth is credited with being the first white baby born in the area.

The Tanners weren't the only settlers to make use of this convenient natural phenomena, and many white and Indian families used the cliffs and caves throughout the area as either camping grounds, or temporary shelter until more permanent homes could be constructed.  This unique style of living would eventually lead to one of the area's most prolific ghost legends.

According to a story told to WVGhosts by Edward Hensley, one such cave-dwelling family lived in an area known as Steel Hollow Road.  A man, along with his wife and three children, made a cave there their home in the early days of Roane County's settlement.  As winter approached, the man left out on a hunting trip to ensure the family had enough food to last the winter.  While he was gone, the wife and the three children came down with a fever.  With the mother too ill to properly care for the sick children, the three wailed non-stop.  Finally, the mother, in her fever-induced state, gathered the strength to smother the children to death, one by one, in order to stop the constant crying.  The father came home from his hunting trip and found the mother, rocking her dead children, telling him to "Be quiet.  The children are sleeping."  Local legend dictates that due to this traumatic play of events, visitors to the area could hear the sounds of ghostly children crying in the area of the caves well into the 20th century.

The gentleman reporting this incident decided to see for himself whether the legends were true or not, and upon investigating the cave in question, DID witness the pitiful sounds of a crying baby at midnight.

But who WAS this family?  Public records aren't the greatest for this time period, and if the children's deaths WERE reported and recorded at all, its very likely that the cause of death was simply listed as "fever."  The WV State Archives available online only go back to 1856 in Roane County, and during that time and the years following, there are literally tons of deaths attributed to scarlet fever, typhoid fever, or simply...fever.  This ailment would sometimes take out entire families, including young sibling groups.  One can only speculate the gravity of a similar situation in a much earlier time, when doctors were scarce, and "cave-dwelling" was the way of life for so many.

Photo and much more information on Spencer's earliest "cave-dwelling" citizens can be found at the Living Appalachia website.

Berkeley County's Edgewood Manor

Today, Edgewood Manor is an attractive bed and breakfast owned by Barbara Bell, located along Rt. 11 in Berkley County.  It is a popular stop on Civil War History tours, but it also has a unique distinction:  In March of 2003 the WV Society of Ghost Hunters certified it as a haunted manor house.

Edgewood, also known as the John Boyd House, was built by General Elisha Boyd for his son, John.  It served as the manor home for a vast plantation, but the house truly gained its notoriety during the years of the Civil War.  One important event is that of Gen. J. Johnston Pettigrew's death.  In July of 1862, Pettigrew was shot by Union Cavalry near Falling Waters, and brought to the home.  He died in an upstairs bedroom on July 17th.  A massive monument to Pettigrew marks the entrance road to the home today.

Another interesting Civil War story involves John Boyd, Jr., who was serving the Confederacy in the South.  On a visit home, one of the Boyd family's slaves alerted Union troops that Boyd was at the house.  The troops raided the home, and found Boyd hiding in a closet upstairs.  He was taken prisoner, and ordered to be executed, but his life was spared at the last moment.

Details are sketchy as to just WHAT type of hauntings are said to occur in the old home, but other websites have noted that apparitions and strange noises are commonplace.  Perhaps Gen. Pettigrew still walks the upstairs bedroom where he took his last breath, refusing to give in to the Union.  Perhaps the emotion of John Boyd, Jr.'s capture left a lasting imprint of both sound and sight...waiting to be played again for those open to it?

National Register Application
Contact Info for B&B 

*Elisha Boyd, who built this home for his son, John, ALSO has a haunted home, still standing in the area!  Read about Boydville Mansion at Theresa's Haunted History!*