Marrtown - Parkersburg,West Virginia

One mile south of Parkersburg, is a small farming community called Marrtown that was settled by Scottish Immigrants in the mid 1800s. They came from an area of Scotland that believed in many supernatural creatures, including witches, ghosts, elves, fairies and not the least of them, the Banshee. The Banshee is an Irish/Scottish death fairy who attaches herself to Scottish and Irish clans. She sometimes rides a white horse and hangs out at waterways washing out the grave clothes of her dead. She is dressed in a death shroud and other tattered rag and her eyes are blood red from crying for her Scottish dead. Thomas and Mary Marr survived the Civil War, but they lost a lot of property. Thomas went to work on the toll bridge in Parkersburg that went over the little Kanawha River. He would always see a figure on a white horse whenever he came home very early in the morning. On February 5th, 1873, Mary awakened with a feeling of dread. She got up and look out the window and saw someone very old riding a white horse who was coming up to her front stoop. She went outside and saw it was an old woman whose eyes had an eerie glow. Finally, the old woman screamed, "Mary Marr, Thomas Marr has just died. Say your prayers, Lady. I bid you will." Woman and horse instantly disappeared. Within the hour, a man who worked with Thomas came to deliver the dreaded news. In fact, Thomas Marr did die -- he died in the icy waters of the little Kanawha River. Some say it was an assailants bullet that brought him down, Others say it was the keening cry of his Scottish Banshee that wailed and startled him into falling and meeting his death in the river below. Many still claim the Scottish Banshee still rides her horse on clear night and she still brings death to those of Irish or Scottish blood. Even to this day, the Marr family is still visited by the Banshee's presence. It would be wise to stay away from Marrtown on cold, lonely, moonless nights.