A Poltergeist in Huntington?

9th Street, Huntington, WV ca 1912 Source: WV History on View

The year 1895 started off with a bang (almost literally) for one family in Huntington, WV.  Henry Compston had recently moved to Huntington from Ashland, Ky to work for the railroad at the car shop. He and his family set up residence at a “splendid little home” on the corner of Ninth Street and College Avenue. But life in this new city was far from idyllic. In early January, the family was greatly disturbed by a loud and boisterous spirit, haunting their new home.

Many believed the hauntings were the work of multiple ghosts, who made their presence known by slashing around the house, upturning chairs, beds, and even a crib. Then, the ghosts made their way to the roof of the home and were said to have performed a “highland fling.”  These acts created so much noise and chaos that the family fled to a neighbor’s home, where they spent the night.

Unfortunately, the events of the first evening repeated themselves the second night and the police were called in to investigate. In addition to the police, curious on-lookers flooded the home, all eager to hear the noisy ghost for themselves. Although as of this writing I couldn’t find a follow-up, the family seriously discussed moving out of the haunted house. 

Out of curiosity, I did do a little bit of additional research on this topic and discovered that the corner of 9th St. and College Avenue is the same area in which the Cabell County Public Library’s main branch now sits. Without more research, I can’t be for sure if it is in the exact same spot, but it’s intriguing due to the idea that there are stories of that library being haunted! That’s a whole other blog post, but I wanted to mention it here as an interesting synchronicity. 

Anyway, this ‘noisy’ ghost sounds like (pardon the pun) what we’d generally call a poltergeist, which literally translates to noisy ghost. From the brief newspaper article detailing the haunting, it doesn’t seem as if there was an apparition or any other visual phenomenon. The ghost or ghosts just kind of threw things around and made a loud racket. That’s pretty standard for a poltergeist. 

I’m in the camp, however, that believes that poltergeists aren’t really ghosts at all. Rather, it is a phenomenon known as RSPK—recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis. Like a classic poltergeist haunting, there is usually a central person, or agent, that the activity seems to concentrate on. This person is most likely someone going through hormonal changes, often a teen or pre-teen. But whereas some believe that an actual ghost uses that built up energy around the agent, RSPK leans on the idea that the activity is caused, involuntarily, by the agent alone. 

Again, I can’t confirm it as of this writing, but I did find a Henry Compston and family buried in Ashland, Ky. If this is the same family, Compston had several children living at home during this time, one of which was a 13 year old son. Is it possible that this son (or another child) going through a move to a new city AND puberty managed to spark up a poltergeist haunting….or was there something else going on?

Sources and Further Reading:

Find-a-Grave Entry for Henry Washington Compston

RSPK Definition by ParaRational 

The Wheeling Sunday Register 13 January 1895

The Weekly Register (Pt. Pleasant, WV) 16 January 1895