The Groaning Ghost of Kingwood

It’s time for another Throwback Thursday vintage newspaper article! In the late 1880s, the West Virginia town of Kingwood, located in Preston County, was under siege by a phantom!  It is rumored that several local citizens tried to engage this spirit, but refused to admit it…well, except for this local lawyer! The following piece is from the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, and is dated 28 February 1884.  The digitized article is available online through one of MY favorite websites, Chronicling America.  Just a quick side note: The article references the idea that the original story was found in the Argus.  The West Virginia Argus was a weekly publication from Kingwood, WV that ran between 1877 and 1945. After 1908, its offices were located in the basement of the historic Martin Building. 


A Dizzy Ghost Story

For some weeks past Kingwood has been torn up over a spook, which it is alleged roams the streets at its own sweet will, during the witching hours when graves do yawn.

Several persons are reported as having spoken to it. But when approached on the subject they denied it.  Lately, however, a prominent lawyer has been holding interviews with the “goblin damned,” and the Argus gives his story as follows:  For the past two or three weeks he has been employed at his office late at night. About a week ago he was seated at his table writing when all at once he heard a deep groan.  He listened and in about two minutes it was repeated more distinctly.  The noise seemed to emanate from something back of the office.  He went on the outside, but could see or hear nothing, nor was the noise repeated again that evening.  Since that time the same thing has been heard every evening about the same hour, 11 o’clock, and on one or two occasions, the gentleman freely acknowledged, his hair assumed a perpendicular position on his head. The most notable occasion of this kind was Friday evening.  He worked till 10:30 and then prepared himself to listen attentively, and  learn, if possible, the origin and cause of the strange and uncommon noise. Promptly at 11, the doleful, wierd, and melancholy groan was heard.  He walked to the window and looked out, but nothing was visible that could produce the noise.  He walked to his door and was just in the act of opening it, when the groan was repeated with such severity that the whole building seemed to tremble and his tables and chairs danced about the room like partners in a cotillion.  This maneuver only lasted a few seconds, and then everything was still as a graveyard.  The origin of this strange noise seems to be enveiled in an impenetrable mystery, as the gentleman is unable to give the remotest idea as to the cause.   

The photo below shows the scene from Kingwood’s Main Street.  Is this the street the ghost was said to roam on its own sweet will?  And just what WAS this thing?  Was there a ghost…or was there a natural explanation for the nightly moans and groans heard by the local lawyer?  Let me know YOUR thoughts…and if you’re looking for MORE spooky stories from Kingwood, check out my blog post on the haunted Kingwood Public Library.  Perhaps there is a connection to the noisy poltergeist who haunts the library and our noisy, groaning ghost of this vintage article!