Coffin Hollow and Other Ghost Tales by Ruth Ann Musick Read Free Book Online Page B

directly opposite the place where she had jumped.
    The old-timers say that on the night of the full moon, her spirit rises above the place where she jumped — and hovers, waiting. Another white mist rises from the river and comes to meet it. They merge, then drift upward and fade away.

    19: The Murdered Girl
    Many years ago a wealthy Connecticut man had a brother who lived on Point Mountain in Webster County, West Virginia. The wealthy man’s daughter was stricken by that dreaded disease called consumption, and he wrote his brother asking if she could come to the West Virginia farm to spend a month or two, for the doctor had said that a change of climate might cure her.
    The brother agreed to take her, and preparations for the visit were made. When the girl arrived, she paid $1,500 in advance for her board, room, and expenses. Later her father sent her $2,000 more, which she gave to her uncle to keep for her. He decided to kill her and leave with her money. After the murder, he buried her under the hearthstone of the fireplace. He then took her money and went West.
    The house was haunted after this happened, and the door wouldn’t stay shut. Occupants even tried bolting it, but to no avail. No one would live there any length of time. Two old Christian ladies who lived nearby told the man who owned the house that if he would put a bed in the room where the ghost was and get wood enough to burn all night, they would come and sleep in the bed, and when the ghost appeared, they would ask it what it wanted.
    The owner prepared the room as they suggested. That night they were lying there talking when the door opened and a young girl walked in! She put her hands behind her back and turned around, facing the old women. They raised up on their elbows and asked her what she wanted.
    She said, “I was a rich man’s daughter. My uncle killed me for my money and buried me under this hearthstone. If you’ll look, you’ll find me.”
    The next morning they told a neighbor, who lifted the hearthstone and found her body. They called the authorities, who got out a warrant for the uncle’s arrest, brought him back from the West, and hanged him on a tree near where he had killed the girl.

    20: The Hitchhiking Ghost of Buttermilk Hill
    In the early 1900s an old-time peddler traveled from Fairmont to Fairview, with his heavy pack of goods on his back. Everyone liked him and seemed happy to have him come — not only to display his wares but also to report any news.
    The peddler was such a good, kind, and interesting man that people missed him when he stopped coming. It seemed as if he had disappeared. No one had heard or seen anything of him until finally his body was found stuck in a barrel which had been rolled into the valley below Buttermilk Hill.
    On dark, dreary nights, people would stay away from this hill. They tried to pass over it before dark, because it was said that when one came to the top of the hill, the peddler’s ghost would ride with him in his buck-board wagon or buggy, or behind him on his horse, until he arrived at the first house at the foot of the hill.
    Jack Toothman, who worked in the mines at Grant Town, always rode a brown mare between the mines and his house at Monumental. He usually tried to cross the hill before dark, but one night he stopped at a bar in Grant Town. There he started drinking and talking with some of his friends, and before he knew it, darkness had appeared. That night Jack met the ghost of Buttermilk Hill.
    Sometime later, neighbors were awakened by a pounding at their door. When the husband opened the door, he saw Jack standing on the porch. He was as white as a sheet and shaking all over, so frightened he could hardly talk. He swore that the ghost had jumped on his horse behind him, wrapped its cold arms around his waist, and ridden with him until he got to the bottom of the hill. He said he had fought with it all the way down the hill, but could not get it