Leesburg, Virginia. 1872.

In terms of history, the house is built in an area which has experienced plenty of supernatural activity and warfare. Leesburg’s earliest occupants include the Algonquian Indians, who believed in the afterlife and practiced shamanic rituals. 

Perhaps their efforts to reconnect with the deceased are what have left portals to the hereafter still open. Two other tribes, the Catawba and the Lenape, frequently butted heads, and had a particularly bloody battle right by Leesburg. You can imagine that the spirits of these warring warriors have been unhappily disturbed by the influx of present day tourists.

“Even legends often originate with the belief by the storyteller that they are actually true.”

--R.A. Musick

This is a classic West Virginia ghost tale.

Ruth Ann Musick originally wrote it down. It was one of hundreds of ghost tales her students shared with her at Fairmont State College over the years.

During WWl a young soldier was called to serve sooner than expected. He was newly engaged to a sweet, beautiful girl he had known since childhood. She was the only child of the town’s wealthy merchant.