The Witch of Wyoming County

Shirley Donnelly was a native of Jackson County, WV.  A local historian, Donnelly spent 27 years writing a column for the Beckley Post-Herald, called Yesterday and Today, .  Each column featured tales of local folklore, mountain superstitions, and my favorite: West Virginia ghost stories!

For his December 21, 1964 column, Donnelly rehashes a ghost story from the Sizemore Gap area near Pineville, WV. The story comes from another West Virginia historian, Barty Wyatt.  Barty tells of a dark and rainy night in the 1870′s when a man named Saul Clay encountered a phantom black dog!

Today, the area of Sizemore Gap (named for the George Sizemore family) is more commonly referred to as Jackson Hill, and is located near the small community of Rock View, named for its close proximity to Castle Rock. The area was first settled around 1840 and is known today for its natural beauty.  But, in the 1870′s it was better known for being haunted by what some thought was a witch!

The ghost (or witch) was said to appear to travelers on the road through Sizemore Gap, and even those who WEREN’T necessarily believers still avoided the area at night…just in case.  Saul Clay was not one of these people.  Saul was a fearless man, standing close to 7 feet tall, and he wasn’t going to let any phantom scare him off.  At least, that was his mindset when he set off through the gap one dark and rainy night. His confidence was further bolstered by the American Bulldog pistol and hunting knife he carried with him.

Somewhere between the old Missionary Baptist Church and the school house (Barty believes it was the vicinity in which the home of Rev. Harry S. Stevens would later be built) the ghostly apparition appeared.  This wasn’t a normal apparition, however.  What Saul Clay saw was a giant black dog, the size of a calf! Startled by the creature, Saul yelled at it to leave, but when it refused and started coming towards it, Saul fired his gun.

The shot either missed or went through the creature (it being a witch or a ghost, obviously), but Saul’s braveness still prevailed.  He started up the hill towards the old Rock View post office with the phantom black dog trotting alongside him.  It didn’t take long before Saul’s courage returned, full-force, and he decided that he was done with this creature once and for all.  Again, he gave the dog a rather stern verbal warning to get lost.  When it failed to do so, Saul LUNGED at it, rammed his pistol into its side, and fired off five shots.

Once again, the shots had no affect and Saul resorted to trying to out-flee the creature. In his haste to get away, he abandoned his hat and his gun and literally ran for the hills towards Rock Castle Creek. All the while, the phantom black dog was still right on his heels. Luckily for Saul, as soon as he reached the creek and began to cross, the creature disappeared.  Local folklore tells us that a witch’s power cannot cross running water, confirming the suspicion that the phantom black dog must surely be the product of witchcraft!