Table of Contents:
Home Page
Introduction
What do ghosts
look like?
Why do ghosts
haunt houses?
What houses in
Madison County
are haunted?
Conclusion
Works Cited
and Consulted
Links to Other
Web Sites
|
|
There are many legends and
ghost stories throughout the world. Virginia ranks number one in the United
States in the number of alleged hauntings according to an article in Rural
Living entitled "The Spirits Of The Old Dominion" published
in October 1995. L. B. Taylor, Jr.--author of five regional and two statewide
books featuring Virginia ghosts--has investigated close to 500 ghost stories
over the past 10 years. Footsteps, rappings, rocking in unoccupied chairs,
moaning, sobbing, voices, smells, cold drafts of air, loud crashing noises,
and sightings of apparitions are all common parts of our supernatural
folklore."The state's abundance of old houses also adds to the folklore.
The reason is because so much history, trauma, and tragedy has happened
in Virginia," says Taylor.
Madison County has many old and historical houses, some dating back as
far as the 1700's, that are said to be haunted:
The Old Fishback House
A ghost is said to have haunted
the Old John Fishback House. This house, located one mile east of Madison
on Route 29, was built during the 1790's. It has since been torn down.
Gracie Maude Weaver, wife of Robert Edward Lee Fishback, often saw a ghost
in the home. She would wake her husband during the night, but he could
never find the ghost in the house. According to her husband, the description
that his wife gave of the ghost was a perfect match to his father, Staunton
Fishback. (Dove 87). Perhaps Staunton was checking to make sure that his
family and his home were okay.
List
of Haunted Houses In Madison County
A noisy ghost once haunted
the home of Old Captain Andrew Carpenter, located on Route 629, south
of Brightwood. It is said that the ghost of Mrs. Marc Wayland appeared
on the night of her death at this home:
A terrible noise was
heard on the second floor of this house. It was the sound of a walking
cane and rubbing across the floor, and as it became more violent, the
sound of the cane raking on the shingles of the roof became louder and
louder. Suddenly, Aunt Pus [Mrs. Marc Wayland] went out of the house through
the roof, they say, and neither she nor the noise was heard again. (Dove
349)
This ghost is an example of a
post-mortem apparition. Many people have reported seeing a loved one, only
to find out that person died hours before they actually saw them, perhaps,
even hundred of miles away. This is the case with Mrs. Marc Wayland: she
died in Roanoke, and on the same night as her death, she was heard and seen
in Madison County at the Old Captain Andrew Carpenter's house.
List
of Haunted Houses In Madison County
Another ghost has appeared
several times at the Blankenbaker Home, which was built in the 1800's.
This home is located on Route 649, a mile from Haywood in Madison County.
Mrs. Corrie Tanner gives the following description of the ghost that she
saw at this house:
The lady was dressed
in a gray dress with a deep ruffle. The wind blew the gray ruffle as she
walked; she wore no bonnet....Some say it was the spirit of Sarah Ann
Blankenbaker, but Mrs. Tanner recalls the lady in gray as being much taller
and thinner than her great-grandmother. (Dove 129)
A cook at the Blankenbaker home
also reported seeing the ghost of Sarah Ann Blankenbaker:
On her way from the
hen house she heard the back gate open and latch close. Thinking it was
the wind, she went on with her work. Presently, she heard a chair on the
porch rocking and upon investigation, she saw just a glimpse of Sarah
Ann Blankenbaker in the chair. She [Sarah Ann Blankenbaker] quickly vanished.
(Dove 129)
Mrs. Jesse Evelyn Fitzgerald has
seen just the shoes of a ghostly visitor coming from the bathroom into the
dining room; this would be from the old part of the house into the addition.
She said that this has happened only twice (Dove 129). It would appear that
Sarah Ann Blankenbaker and possibly even other family members have such
a strong emotional tie to their family home that they no intentions of leaving
their home.
List
of Haunted Houses In Madison County
Periodically a ghost haunts
the Hunton House, an old hotel at the north end of Main Street in the
town of Madison. Originally built around 1800 as a private home, it was
opened as a hotel in approximately 1849. Although only certain members
of the past owners living in the house have heard the ghost, the ghost
is said to walk when there is a family crisis or when the property is
about to change hands. It has been heard coming up from the second front
porch. The ghost then opens the door and walks down the front hall, turns
left, and walks down the back hall which used to be a porch (Dove 259).
In addition to the ghost that
can predict a family crisis, a chest of drawers at the hotel has puzzled
owners for years. It cracks like a pistol shot just before a family death
occurs. Seeking an explanation, owners took it to E.A. Clore and Sons,
a local furniture manufacturer, where it was found to be sound and solid.
No explanation could be offered to explain the popping sound. The sound
does not seem to be caused by changes in temperature, but only occurs
to fortell a family death (Dove 259).
List
of Haunted Houses In Madison County
A headless ghost haunts Lovell,
a house built in 1840 and located one mile north of the Locust Dale Post
Office on Route 614. An interesting tale about this ghost is found in
the book, Ghost Stories and Legends From The Old Confederacy: Volume II
written by Dr. Kenneth Stuart McAtee:
During the Civil War,
the Yankees came to kitchen demanding food from the cook. She told them
that there was no food because earlier Yankee soldiers had already raided
the kitchen and taken all of the food. All the invaders left with the
exception of one soldier, who had spotted a loose flagstone in the kitchen
floor. He lifted it and discovered food hidden there. While he was lifting
the stone to steal the food, the enraged cook beheaded him with a meat
cleaver. She dragged him into the back yard and buried him in a shallow
grave under some coffee trees. It is reported that on moon-lit nights
when the wind is howling a soldier can often be seen on the observation
platform on the top of the main house. He waves his arms and is believed
to be looking for his head. (67)
A brutal murder such as this one
can certainly be a reason why a ghost would choose to haunt a house.
List
of Haunted Houses In Madison County
While a headless Yankee soldier
haunts Lovell, the ghost of a headless horse haunts Thoroughfare Mountain
Farm, located southwest of Leon on Route 631. On the lawn in front of
the home is a burial ground in which southern soldiers, who were killed
at the Battle of Cedar Mountain, are buried. In the book, Ghost Stories
and Legends From The Old Confederacy: Volume II written by Dr. Kenneth
Stuart McAtee, an interesting story regarding the sighting of the headless
horse is documented:
An old farmer, who
was in charge of horses on his farm, saw the headless horse run past him
and disappear in a gulley. The next morning the worried farmer checked
his herd of horses and found that all were present and in good health.
The theory as to why this horse appeared here is that his its rider, a
cavalryman, and his mount were killed during the Battle of Cedar Mountain.
The luckless rider was buried at Thoroughfare Mountain and the mysterious
horse was searching for his former rider. (76)
Animals can also be ghosts. Animal
ghosts haunt houses and sites for many of the same reasons as humans.
Other residents at Thoroughfare
Mountain Farm have seen both confederate soldiers and headless horses.
In an conversation with Ms. Essie Aylor Nicholson, she told me that her
brother-in-law went for a horseback ride on the farm, and reported seeing
a headless horse run past him with a Confederate soldier riding it. On
many occasions, the Aylor family saw headless horses, some with riders
and some without riders, running up the driveway; then, they would vanish.(Nicholson)
Frequently places where battles took place have alot of ghostly activities.
This is not surprising since during battles and wars many lives are lost
under brutal circumstances.
Another story associated with
Thoroughfare Mountain Farm is that a family formally residing there neglected
their young child and the child straved to death in the cellar. James
Aylor recalls hearing the cries of this ghost(Dove 191) and upon investigation
there were no explanations for these sounds.
James Aylor died in 1988, but
the researcher had the opportunity to talk with Mrs. Essie Aylor Nicholson,
his widow. She remembered many stories that her husband told her about
the ghostly encounters at the farm where he grew up. Mr. Aylor and other
members of his family would often hear strange noises in the house such
as doors opening and closing. Upon investigation, nothing could be found
to explain the noises that they heard. She told me a fascinating story
that her husband had told her:
James, his two brothers,
and his father went hunting on the farm. The hunting dogs treed something
and they were barking. When they looked up in the tree to see what the
dogs had cornered, they saw a white thing--like a cloud--hovering over
the tree. Suddenly, it fell toward the ground and vanished before it hit
the ground. The dogs tucked their tails between their legs, as though
they had been beaten, and ran away from the site. (Nicholson)
Thouroughfare Mountain Farm has
quite a history of ghostly events. There seems to be numerous spirits that
still reside there, some of them victims of neglect and others casualities
of war.
Notes from a conversation with
Mrs. Essie Aylor Nicholson
List
of Haunted Houses In Madison County
The final story is about a
ghost who haunts a house in Madison County and moves furniture around
the house. In an interview with Sue Reynolds on November 11, 1995, she
states that she believes that her house is haunted and asks that her address
remain anonymous. Her house was built in 1991 on the foundation of another
house. In the previous house, a women poisoned her husband, her mother-in-law,
and the family dog, so that she could inherit the property. Mrs. Reynolds
did not remember the exact date of these murders, but she thinks it was
around 1964. She believes that the ghosts that haunt her house are the
spirits of the murder victims. Mrs. Reynolds says, "I have never
seen any ghosts, but strange things happen in my house." She hears
loud noises in the house, and things fall or move unexplainably:
I had two rockers
upstairs. I placed them in the room facing toward the center of the room.
Frequently, I would find that the chairs had been moved over to the windows--almost,
as if someone had been sitting in them looking out the window. I would,
once again, move them to back where I had them. Finally, I got so tired
of moving them, I just got rid of them. Also, the chairs in my kitchen
are constantly being moved from the table over to the window. (Reynolds)
Recently over the last month,
she has seen shadows that move so quickly that she barely gets a glance
of them. She notes that whenever she sees these shadows or when something
strange happens in the house she feels a breeze. This type of ghost is an
example of a poltergeist, a noisy ghost that has the capability to move
objects.
Interview
with Mrs. Sue Reynolds
List
of Haunted Houses In Madison County
table of contents
|
|