Record #:

23033

Author(s):

Kammerer, Roger

Abstract:

Kammerer relates some of the older tales of the unexplained he has been told from Pitt County’s past. He talks about how Halloween was celebrated before the Civil War, with watch nights and vigils, church services and visits to family cemeteries. He relates tales told around a hot wood stove of strange events, spooks and hobgoblins. There are tales of ghost talkers that frighten both men and beasts. Along the river road north of Greenville there were sightings of a “Thing” or man running on all four s loping like a dog and a headless man, who passed wagons a short distance and then disappeared. Another “Thing” or hobgoblin was reported seen by some that either hitched a ride on a wagon, weighing it down such that the horse could not pull it, or one that rode on the wagon for a while and then disappeared. Some people could hear death “rings” before someone died, or saw spirits of the recently deceased. There is a story of a death bell that called people home.

Source:

Greenville Times / Pitt's Past (NC Microforms), Vol. Issue , Oct 25-Nov 7 1995, p6

Subject(s):

Halloween--Pitt County; Pitt County--Folk heritage