Broken-hearted Evelyn Byrd.

Ancient Chinese wisdom teaches that “strong men tremble and stumble in the presence of the spirits, and bold, unwary men may die; wise men, frightened, tormented, saddened, or joyed, must learn to accept the mystery of the unexplained.” The four American ghost stories retold here—of a pretty ghost, a cruel witch, a singing river, and an army of the dead—are reliably witnessed but unexplained. Each has its place in the development of the nation. Each, believed true, has taken on a life in folklore. Shall we accept them?

The prettiest ghost in America

Col. William Byrd, writing in later 1727 from his Virginia plantation to the Earl of Orrery in England, commented that matrimony “thrives so excellently” in Virginia that “an Old Maid or Old Bachelor are as scarce among us and reckoned as ominous as a Blazing Star.”

One of the “most antique Virgins” was his beautiful daughter Evelyn: “Either our young fellows are not smart eno' for her, or she seems too smart for them.” But there was good reason why Evelyn, then nineteen years old, was not interested in any of the “young fellows” the elder Byrd wished her to consider; the colonel knew that reason, but he undoubtedly did not realize that his daughter was in a decline that would culminate in her eventual demise. Ten years later she finally died of a broken heart.