Haunted West Virginia

Ghost stories are just ghost stories. They can scare you and set your imagination dancing. However, ghost stories that are real are the most frightening of all because you know the places that the ghosts haunt and they just might be close-by.

Harper’s Ferry

At the place where the Potomac and the Shenandoah Rivers meet in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the northeast corner of West Virginia we can find the village of Harper’s Ferry. The village is now a National Historic Park. Employees who are dressed in period clothing, give tours during the summer months and on weekends during the spring and autumn.

Harper’s Ferry is considered to be one of the most haunted places in America because it has a long history of bloody violence and natural disasters. Violence erupted in 1859 when John Brown decided Harper’s Ferry would be a great place for his headquarters because there were good hideouts where he could store weapons and troops to defeat slave owners and begin to establish a slave-free place for runaway slaves. Federal forces arrived determined to wipe out Brown and his army as a result a lot of other people living there were killed.

Because of its location the village was also in the middle of many battles during the Civil War resulting in horrible deaths of men and a great many women and children. Those surviving suffered and sometimes died in cholera epidemics and periodic flooding.

Due to all these happenings in Harper’s Ferry many restless spirits can be seen there. A Georgetown federal employee in a guest house encountered a good looking man dressed in a brocade vest, wearing a top hat and holding a cane. He was standing at the top of the servant’s stairway at the end of the hall. The spirit gave off hostile vibes and the employee ran to the balcony door at which point an invisible hand pushed her and she stumbled. When she turned around the entity had disappeared. Another time she saw a woman on the staircase who was dressed in a long, gray, hooded dress and was holding an eight year old child by the hand. Ignoring the employee they disappeared.

Staying at the same guest house a planner from Denver saw all three spirits the man, the woman and the little girl. They all stood before him and then vanished. A researcher taking a nap in the front room awoke and felt that someone was watching him. He saw a man dressed in 19th century work clothes and he was carrying a dead man. They disappeared in the hallway.

Located in the center of Harper’s Ferry is another historic house. There a Mr. C lives with his children on the top floor. Mr. C kept being awakened by a little child’s crying which seemed to come from his bedroom closet. One night Mr. C was washing dishes when he saw a glowing white object float out of his closet, move toward his bed then vanish. Returning to the dishes suddenly the house was shaken by a tremendous crash but there was no explanation for this either.

Recently a possible explanation has been found by the discovery of a Civil War era woman’s diary in which is written that her baby’s death was caused by a fallen chimney in the middle of a Civil War battle fought in Harper’s Ferry.

The Spirit of John Brown

The Kennedy Farmhouse (John Brown’s Farmhouse Headquarters) is a 200 year old restored log cabin 5 miles outside the main town. Brown and his 21 men slept in the small attic. John Brown’s ghost has been heard pacing back and forth on the top two floors and footsteps of a crowd of people going up the stairs has been heard. Also the sounds of people talking, breathing and snoring. Psychics have felt an aura in the attic. One psychic made contact with John Brown himself. An apparition looking like John Brown has been seen walking the streets of Harper’s Ferry. At times he smiles at visitors. One tourist asked the apparition to join in picture taking. When the pictures came back there was an empty space where the old man had stood.

Saint Peter’s Church

An unseen phantom Army with fife and drum has been heard marching down High Street. A little drummer boy who was thrown out of a window by a Union soldier cries for his mom. A young girl burned in a 1830 fire, still screams for help. And up on the hill at Saint Peter’s Church Father Costello’s ghost can be seen praying for his congregation.

Parkersburg

Located in northwest West Virginia next to the Ohio River is the city of Parkersburg. The city has a lot of tragic history. Two wealthy families the Blennerhassetts and the Marrs suffered and endured the death of family members and loss of property. Parkersburg gained a reputation of being a very morally loose city during the Civil War. At this time the city became an adult playground where people and soldiers drank, gambled and visited brothels. Parkersburg was also the site of 5 Civil War hospitals for the Confederacy.

The Haunting of Quincy Hill

The Quincy Hill Hauntings – During the Civil War despite the fact that Parkersburg had 5 Civil War hospitals there were so many wounded that a tent overflow hospital was set up at Quincy Hill. Those soldiers who didn’t want to die in agony tried to crawl down the hill to get to a hospital. Today upon this hill people have seen orbs of light, strange occurrences and apparitions. They have also heard the cries of dying soldiers’ and their moans.

Spirits of the Theater

Located on the site of the Camden Theater is the Parkersburg Art Center. The theater was destroyed in a fire in 1928. At the time the theater had some ghostly inhabitants which afterwards roamed the land searching for a new place to haunt. At the Art Center and in other buildings on the city block where the theater once stood people have smelled hot buttered popcorn and have noticed heavy objects being lifted and falling over as if they were picked up and dropped by unseen hands.

The Haunting of a Historical State Park

Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park – Rich Irishman, Harman Blennerhasset built a large mansion on the island in 1798 and settled there with his family. He met his ruin in 1806 when he and Aaron Burr hatched a “mysterious military enterprise” and President Jefferson accused them of treason. Harman wound up spending some time in the Virginia State Penn.

Due to these troubles Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett only lived in the Palladian style mansion for a few years. All the furnishings and the material in the mansion came from London and Paris. The grounds had a flower garden ane two huge lawns. Two of the couple's children a six year old daughter and a baby, who died while the family lived on the island were buried on the grounds.

In 1811 the mansion burned to the ground but 165 years later in 1973 archaeologists unearthed the mansion’s foundations and the mansion has been recreated for the public. Margaret Blennerhassett has moved back into her beloved mansion and has been reunited with her children. The apparitions of Margaret holding her baby with her 6 year old daughter by her side have been seen walking about the island in the evening hours.

The Haunting of a Hotel

The Blennerhassett Hotel – located on Market Street in Parkersburg. It was built in 1889 by wealthy businessman William Chancellor. Approximately five ghostly residents dwell here. One such entity is William Chancellor himself who has been seen walking the halls accompanied by the smell of cigar smoke.

Restless Spirits

At the Riverview Cemetery founded in 1801. Orbs and other strange occurrences have been spotted here. A sea captain has been seen bending over his grave and other ghostly apparitions have been seen walking around the cemetery.

The Silver Run Tunnel – the old B & O Railroad corridor between Grafton and Parkersburg has now become a bike trail which goes through the tunnel.. In 1880 a young woman traveling to Parkersburg to get married disappeared from the number 19 train. As the years went by train conductors saw a beautiful woman with raven hair wearing a long white gown standing in the middle of the tracks at the far end of the tunnel.

Interesting places to take a vacation in if you're into crowds of the ghostly kind.