The Telltale Lilac Bush: Ghosts of West Virginia Quiz

Answer: The father beat the baby to death for crying, then put the body in the fireplace.

The house was owned by Mrs. Anne Bennett. She claimed that along with the face, the baby screamed, "Help! Help!"

Answer: White horse

A man by the name of George Miller succumbed to this curse when returning from a bar many years ago. The people of Mason have since blocked that area off so no one will go there. Here is an exerpt from "The Telltale Lilac Bush" explaining the significance of the horse.

"The most frequently used animal is a white horse. Perhaps the prominence of the horse in this connection goes back to the common depiction of death on a white horse, a notable example appearing in Revelation in the Bible. Vance Randalph in 'Ozark Superstitions' also has a story illustrating the white horse theme."

Answer: Water!

The official cause of the man's death was due to a fall while repairing his tobacco shed. He told the story of the ride with the devil to his wife, and asked her to never tell it to anyone else.

There has been much speculation over the meaning of his cry, "Water!" but the general opinion is that he felt the flames of hell before his death.

Answer: A dead women buried beneath the bush used it to help others find her body.

The story goes like this: A married couple, living in the Tygart River Valley, was having difficulties. They had very few friends, and no one came to visit them. So, no one noticed when the wife mysteriously disappeared. The husband lived happily for many years, until, during one of the husband's parties, a lilac bush started beating the window pane. This was not odd, except for the fact that there was no wind. Some young men dug up the bush and found the bones of a woman's hand.

"The old man screamed and ran down the hill toward the river, never to be seen again."

Answer: While attempting to get out, he slipped and broke his neck.

As the little boy died, he used the last of his strength to knock a few more times on the door. Every night, the family would hear rapping at the door. Fearing that she would lose her mind, the wife and her family moved. The people that moved in after also reported hearing the tapping at the door.

Answer: The man grabbed the jug and broke it against his chest. A stray shard cut his throat.

After he had accidently cut his own throat, the father lay dying. As he started to fade away, a voice said, "I'm still here, Pop." The man eventually bled to death.

Answer: a human hand

The hand appeared out of solid rock and told the man to look under a certain stone. The man found enough money to last him generations.

Answer: The grunt of a sow would chase people to the top of the hill.

The sow was never seen. All that existed of the entity was the strange grunting noises.
The murder of the baby was never officially solved; it was assumed that a member of the family had killed it and put it there.

Answer: Fires would spontaneously ignite.

"No fire or even a pipe could be lighted on this property." One villager said that the ghost 'Old Gopher' vowed to drown his murderer in a stream. Later that month, an unknown man was found dead in that stream. That same day, a fire destroyed the entire farm, "although it never so much as burned a blade of grass on neighboring farms." Old Gopher was finally at peace.

Answer: A skeleton had cut a piece of pie and left with it.

That ghost was hungry! Nobody else ever occupied the house.

I'd like to end by thanking Ms. Ruth Ann Musick for her wonderful and commpelling book, which inspired the questions and provided the stories in this quiz!