Ghosts of the Southern Mountains and Appalachia

A Visitor From the Dead

AVisitor from the Dead Grant Town, West Virginia Jessie Jackson was a pretty blond girl whose husband was a miner. But John never seemed satisfied to stay at one mine for long. It always looked to him like the grass was greener elsewhere, and that is what sealed his doom. When John and Jessie came to Grant Town, West Virginia, they moved into one of the mine company houses. It was a monstrous, creaky old place that the company hadn't been able to get anyone else to live in. The last miner who had occupied it years ago died in an accident in the mines and there was talk that the house was haunted. Johnjust laughed at that. He told Jessie they needed all that space for the family they were going to have and he 1I4 A Visitor from the Dead 115 would fix the roof, the sagging front porch, and the rotten floor boards, and the house would be good as new. But Jessie, try as she would, never could seem to make the house look cheerful. One winter morningJackson took the lunch his wife had fixed for him and set off for work as usual. It was so cold he could see his breath curl in the air like tobacco smoke. Under his feet the ground was crisp and his boots slid now and then on puddles turned to dirty glass. He had some odd feelings on his way to the mine that morning and he mentioned them to his buddy, Tony Dominec. Although he had just leftJessie, it was like he missed her already. He couldn't understand why he felt so sad. "You'd think you two was courtin'," joked Tony but he couldn't get a smile out of Jackson, whojust shook his head and didn't say a word. They rode the buggy (a small locomotive used to haul coal cars), and when Dominec got off at his level he said, "Meetcha after work." Jackson, who was working one level down, nodded. It was early afternon when Dominec heard a terrible explosion in the depths of the mine. It seemed to come from beneath his feet and the men near him began running. He ran with them as fast as he could through the tunnel toward the main line. There he saw other miners racing through the main tunnel. Had a fire started on the level below? Would it spread? Would the main tunnel soon be filled with smoke? Just ahead of him he saw menjumping into the buggy. His chest hurt, his legs felt as if they would give way under him, but he kept running and he 116 Ghosts of the Southern Mountains and Appalachia managed to get into one of the last cars. When he reached the surface, he began looking for Jackson but he was nowhere to be found. By now wisps of smoke were coming out of the mouth of the mine. The next morning there were knots of people standing around the entrance to the tunnel-the families of miners who had not come out on the buggy and several of the top men in the coal company . Jessie Jackson was there with her two little boys, waiting to hear whether the rescue crew that had gone into the mine would find any of the missing men still alive. Finally, they came out of the mine. They had found the place were the explosion had occurred, but the men near it had all been burned to death and John Jackson was one of them. Times were hard and Jessie had only a little money to support herself and the two children. The spring after John's death she married Bill James, who had been one of her husband's close friends. Jessie would get up early, pack Bill's lunch, and off he would go to work at the mines. Then she would go back to bed for a while. About six months after her remarriage, Jessie began to see the ghost of her first husband. Each morning after she went back to bed the ghost would appear in a rocking chair near her. He would sit there staring for a while and then disappear. Jessie was so frightened she couldn't move. This went on for over a month, until she became more and more upset and had to be treated by the...