The Moon Ghost

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Please welcome guest authors Steve Gilly, Gena Gilly & Rod Mullins, producers of the Mountainlore podcast. MountainLore brings the folklore of Appalachia to the rest of the world.  Each week Steve and Gena tell a different tale about ghosts, witches, oddities, Cherokee traditional tales and even a Jack tale or two.  They’re assisted by Rod, whose vocal talents provide not only many of the character voices each week but also the voice introducing every podcast episode.  You can find their podcast and other stories on their website: www.mountainlore.net.  They can also be found on most podcast apps, from Apple Podcasts to Spotify.

The town of Buchanan, Virginia, is located in Botetourt County, about midway between Roanoke and Lexington along I81.  A typical small town in Appalachia today, Buchanan was the scene of some ghostly activity almost 150 years ago.

During and right after the Civil War, the Reverend G. C. Thrasher lived in a fine house in Buchanan, where he had a Baptist congregation to whom he preached every Sunday.  That house, though, contained something special.  

You see, there was a ghost in the house.  This ghost, or spirit, or whatever you want to call it, started its haunting of the good reverend and his family by making its way into the family corn crib (through a padlocked door, nonetheless!) and stealing a sack of corn.  It would then proceed to move out about twenty paces from the crib and pour it out onto the floor, making a mess.

This ghost would then come by nightly and play tricks on the family.  It would open windows, unlock doors, scatter furniture and throw spoons, forks and knives around randomly, before going back from whence it came.

All this would occur even though the house was guarded inside and out by not just the family but parishioners and neighbors, all armed to the teeth and eager to catch whatever it was that was doing these things.

Even more strange was what happened a few days later.

Reverend Thrasher went next door to his neighbor’s house, a Dr. Wood.  While there he distinctly heard his children, who he had left at home, ringing a bell.  Then he heard a violent knocking at Dr. Wood’s door.  The two men started toward the door, Dr. Wood armed with a shotgun, when Reverend Thrasher distinctly heard the voice of his son back at his house ask whatever was at that home’s door what it wanted.  The reply, which he also heard, was a low indistinguishable mumble, as if coming from underground.  The two looked high and low, but could find nothing at the Wood house.  All was coming from the Thrasher house, as the little son of Reverend Thrasher questioned the ghost at the door.

A few weeks later, Reverend Thrasher was in his yard, armed with a double barreled shotgun, when he noticed some shadowy presence pass by him as swift as the wind before it disappeared. 

The ghost continued his pranks in the Thrasher house.  Every night he would come, causing many to call it the “Moon Ghost” after a similar ghost that was haunting a nearby house owned by a Mr. Moon.  It would scatter whatever it could find in an effort to play a prank on the living.  Old bones, wood chips, rocks, ears of corn, whatever, it would throw them about the house in every which way.  Then it would turn everything upside down in whatever room it wished, just to make a mess for the Thrashers to pick up.

As a test, two young ladies visiting the home decided to see just what the Moon Ghost could do.  

They arranged the parlor in a particular way.  They then carefully locked all the doors, then carried all the keys to Mrs. Thrasher’s room. They waited a few minutes, then got the keys and returned to the parlor, only to find the doors to that room wide open, the books from the bookshelf scattered about the floor, lamps placed on the floor and things in a general state of disarray.  To make matters worse, the girls discovered a strange key that would neither lock nor unlock any door in the house, sticking in the keyhole of the parlor door.  

Another day, Reverend Thrasher left the dining room, carefully locking the door behind him.  He went upstairs to the bedroom, but just as he was about to go in, he heard a noise downstairs and returned to the dining room, where he found the door open, the furniture moved about and all the dishes scattered on the floor.  The clock was taken off the mantel and put on the floor as well.

This ghost, not to be ignored, began to get a bit bolder.  It started knocking at the front door.  And this knocking was done every single day between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.  As Christmas approached, the rapping at the door grew louder and louder.  And at the same time, it began to whistle through the house, slam doors, rattle windows and slam whatever it could slam, apparently to get some attention.

One story goes that two men wanted to see what was going on for themselves.  They visited the house, intending to sleep over that night.  The ghost had other plans.

The men reported seeing a strange presence which walked into the room then walked back out in reverse.  It would stomp as if it were angry.  The Thrasher’s bedroom door was opened and closed constantly that night, as if the spirit did not want those strangers in its house.

These odd occurrences continued, but many in Buchanan were convinced that a young girl named Anna Pring was responsible for these pranks, not a ghostly spirit.  Ms. Pring was staying with the Thrashers, but neither Reverend Thrasher nor his wife felt that she had the opportunity nor the desire to do these pranks.  They were convinced it was a spirit of some sort doing those deeds.

But spirit or child, the good Reverend Thrasher and his family had had enough by the spring of 1872.  In March they moved out of the house and headed to Jonesborough, Tennessee.  No word on whether the ghost moved or stayed behind.

And that’s the story of the Moon Ghost, another bit of folklore from Appalachia.  

More articles on poltergeists:

The Wizzard Clip –part 1 of 3(Opens in a new browser tab)

Things that go bump in the night(Opens in a new browser tab)

The Ghosts of Smith Haven Manor(Opens in a new browser tab)