James McCormick - Ghosts of the Bluegrass

C hildren have always looked to parents and grandparents for insights into the mysteries surrounding them, especially to explain the unexplainable, since adults have told stories that contain beliefs and family traditions they gathered or experienced across the years. These rich stories and beliefs, some of which were brought into Kentucky during pioneer times, tell a lot about who we are, where our ancestors came from, and how we deal with the unknown in our lives.

It is no surprise that numerous persons in the Bluegrass and adjacent subregional areas of Kentucky enjoy a rich supply of ghost tales and premonition stories. Their ancestors, who occupied the flat land, rolling countryside, and adjacent hill and mountain terrain in early pioneer times, generated a storytelling legacy that continues in present times.

Regardless of geographical setting, traditional and present-day stories serve as ancestral and community-wide bonding agents. The introductory comments in these oral accounts provide an abundance of historical information. For example, ghost stories about haunted houses describe these old structures by identifying their location on the landscape, telling how many rooms were in them and who slept in which room, and describing the weird personality of Aunt Jane or Uncle Tom. Then suddenly here comes a ghostly being!

Not only houses provide havens for ghosts; these creatures often occupy old deserted roads, Civil War encounter sites, and old cemeterieslikely spots for ghostly visitations. It is not uncommon for ghost stories to provide social, cultural, and economic information about ancestors and ancestral times, as well as contemporary timesinformation that is not to be found on the formal pages of historical documents or public records.

Through stories, even those with ghostly themes, people are introduced to the names and actions of dead family members whom they never knew personally. Thus, they become acquainted with the ancestral dead as well as the living. At least that's the way it was in times past: stories could provide meaningful continuity between past and present generations. It is therefore important that stories such as those contained in this book be preserved for future generations, who may gather significant historical and personal information from them.

Technological improvements, accompanied by industrial and agricultural activities, became prominent in the Bluegrass and adjacent counties following World War II. These advancements, however, did not cause family and community storytellers to cease recalling with fondness the local stories passed along to them across the years. Tale swapping sessions were still popular on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons until the advent of television, a device that regrettably turned children, even teenagers, away from the oral customs. Not all traditional activities died out, however; family and community social gatherings are still alive, as indicated in some of the stories included in this book.

Ghost stories included in the present book, along with those told and recorded elsewhere, describe the return of dead persons, typically as ghosts. Folklorists, along with certain oral historians, have actively been collecting these valuable oral accounts since the 1950s, and even earlier than that in some instancesfor example, the notable folklorists Richard Dorson and Stith Thompson. The latter, a native of Willisburg, Washington County, Kentucky, researched ghost stories on national and international levels, resulting in a book series known as Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (Indiana University Press, 19551956). Dorson, author of numerous folklore books, founded the master's and doctoral degree programs in folklore and oral history at Indiana University in the 1950s; the program is still active and fruitful. As a doctoral student at Indiana University, I knew both Thompson and Dorson, and was influenced by their scholarly and creative abilities to produce books that focus on local people and their livelihood then and now.

As previously indicated, a ghost is a disembodied spirit, generally assumed to be that of a dead person. The stories in this book, as told orally, offer firsthand experiences with the return of the deceased as ghosts and describe significant family and community beliefs relevant to the Central Kentucky area. Thanks to Georgetown College professors James McCormick and Macy Wyatt, along with their students who recorded and/or received unembellished ghost stories, premonition beliefs, and related descriptive accounts from other individuals, Central Kentucky now has another book relevant to local life and culture, this one as portrayed by ghostly beings that still love the area and refuse to leave, even after death!

William Lynwood Montell
Professor Emeritus of Folk Studies
Western Kentucky University