Haunted Places of Parkersburg Part 2
TransAllegheny Bookstore
What is amazing about the TransAllegheny Bookstore, it registers extremely high on equipment during ghost investigations but what is behind the hauntings remains a mystery since. A small girl has been reported on the wooden stairs that leads onto the second floor of the bookstore. Customers have actually tripped over her! (True, one man fell, knocked me over on the stairs then red-faced said, "I know I tripped over something right there! -- S.S.) Once the Carnegie Library in Parkersburg, the bookstore seems to have four to five primary spirits, three of them are women -- psychics say one ghost is a local newspaper reporter who was murdered in her home (which is close by) in the 1980s. The reporter had spent a great deal of time there when it was the Carnegie Library and it was a second home to her.
There is no doubt, the TransAllegheny Bookstore is "alive" with spiritual presences -- many captured on video. They even have their resident black cat, along with two tabby cats. The TransAllegheny Bookstore has many great antique and used books, as well as new books of interest to the area. They are open daily except on Sundays. For out-of-towners TransAllegheny Books is open until 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays.
Bickel Estates
Witnesses have reported the apparition of a woman cloaked in shapeless black standing along the road outside the Bickel Estates, a 368-acre estate in the Larkmead section of Marrtown near Parkersburg. The figure is seen especially during lightning storms and downpours. As with most spirits, the woman, though pale and distraught, is said to look very much alive but when drivers turn back to see if they can help the stranded woman, they find she has vanished. The ghost of a white horse is said to also haunt this section of Wood County.
Many believe a woman dressed in black garb rides the hillsides of nearby Marrtown on a white horse. Both stories appear to have connections to the Marrtown Banshee tale—a Scottish death fairy that people claim still haunts the countryside south of Parkersburg. Another variation on the woman who haunts Bickel Estates appears to share some of the elements of the Marrtown Banshee tale.
Riverview Cemetery
Despite its reputation for hauntings, Riverview Cemetery on upper Juliana Street in Parkersburg, is an extremely important cemetery in terms of West Virginia history, and in some respects, in American history. It houses the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers, as well as important abolitionists, early governors of West Virginia, Marie Lavassor, the French wife of Joseph H. Diss Debar who designed the state seal, riverboat and sea captains, unmarked graves of slaves, cousins to the confederate General Stonewall Jackson, and a number of interesting statues and graves, including the famous Weeping Woman statue who grants wishes to the pure in heart and the good. Riverview is also an active graveyard in terms of hauntings, but truthfully, all places are haunted when a mediumistic or psychically receptive person is present. Spirits gravitate to those who are most open to them. They learn not to waste their time on mortals who cannot hear or see them.
The Holliday Cemetery: Tale of The East End Ghoul
"Ghoul" comes from the Arabic word GHUL, meaning to seize violently or grab a hold of! What is a ghoul exactly? A ghoul is worse than a ghost, it is something akin to a vampire or a revenant -- it is a flesh-eating spirit that hangs out at crossroads and graveyards. The Ghoul is actually more physical and more dangerous than any plain old ghost. He can eat and tear flesh.. Is it possible that a ghoul once visited Parkersburg?
In the last week of June, 1888, in the B&O railroad yards in what was then the East End Parkersburg, such a spirit appeared to an unlucky man by the name of "Mr. Crolley" who was doing business at the railroad yard.and near by at the gas company. As he came out late one night, he happened to see a seven-foot-tall, white apparition floating along the railroad tracks. Crolley would later describe the scene as the ghoul "moaning and groaning and rattling his chains." And even though the ghoul did not have any feet whatsoever, footsteps resounded against the walls of the buildings.
Mr. Crolley decided to follow the ghoul but it whirled around and chased him. As Mr. Crolley ran down the alley way toward the Holliday Cemetery (already quite old in 1888) and in close proximity to the Rowland boarding house. However, Crolley soon grew exhausted over the chase and jumped behind a tree to gain his bearings. Once Mr. Crolley peered out around the tree to spot the ghoul, he was surprised to see not only one seven-foot-tall apparition but another ghoul exactly like the first except completely enshrouded in black.
Mr. Crolley took off like lightning and headed toward the boarding house to scream for help, but what the ghouls did next completely surprised him. As they floated toward the entrance of Holliday Cemetery (see picture above) they acted distracted away from Mr. Crolley and appeared to lose interest. Instead, the two ghouls paused at the cemetery gates and in a phantom like silence, they slowly faded. The last week of June 1888 were the only times the East End Ghouls were ever sighted in Parkersburg. They seemed to have moved on to another, perhaps, more haunted place. (Note: Ransom Reed, favorite servant and dear friend to Margaret Blennerhassettt is thought to be buried in this graveyard.)
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