If it weren’t for Charles Edwin Price’s sensational book Haints, Witches, and Boogers: Tales from Upper East Tennessee, Dark Hollow Cemetery in Roan Mountain might not see many visitors. However, curiosity-seekers frequently stop to throw coins into the air, hoping the spirit of an interred prostitute will snatch them up before they hit the ground.
Charles Edwin Price claims that the ghost of a woman named Delinda was prematurely buried in an unmarked grave. She was a prostitute in the area and when prominent men and even a couple preachers came down with “social diseases,” the women of the community took quick, deadly action. They knocked her unconscious and stuffed her into the closed casket of a man named Jankins. When the coffin was buried, the women thought they were rid of her. However, legend claims she still haunts the cemetery and will snatch coins out of mid-air.
Curiously, this tale did not appear in Latchpins of the Lost Cove by long-time resident Malone Young, who filled his book with folklore. Unfortunately, the story cannot be verified since most of the tombstones are blank.
After Price’s book was published in 1992, curiosity was renewed about an obscure grave off Teabury Road and speculation was raised about the questionable circumstances of the burial. Some claim it is the final resting place of Delinda who was not a prostitute at all but a practitioner of widely misunderstood witchcraft. The reason for this seems to be the curious superstition that witches graves were covered in cement. The grave, however, contains two twin girls from a non-extant farmhouse. Their father cemented the grave to protect their tiny bodies from wildlife.
In Squirrel Gravy and Feed Sack Underwear by Tennessee Mountain Oldtimers , Bob Lasley and Sallie Holt, published in 2008, Connie E. Harrald gives a strikingly different story of the ghost that does not limit her to the cemetery. In an article entitled “The Legend of Screaming Hollow,” she tells that early in the 20th century, an unnamed family moved into Dark Hollow. The woman became pregnant and sent for her 16-year-old sister. The teenage girl became an instant sensation with local gentlemen. She had flowing, fiery red hair and striking, emerald green eyes. Men fawned after her, leading some citizens to suspect her of fascinating them with some diabolical spell. A group of four teenage couples set on a devious plan to drive her away from Roan Mountain. They invited her on a hay ride. Halfway through, they stopped the tractor, tied her to a tree and began taunting her. They began taunting her and she was stabbed to death. The group left her body tied to the tree and vowed never to speak of the horrendous crime again. Someone found the poor girl’s body and her sister was given the grisly task of burying the body. The family quickly moved away preceding the burial. They wanted no part of a town where such atrocities could take place. Since her death, however, tales abound that some nights the unnamed young woman will run out into Dark Hollow Road, screaming for help. As soon as a motorist stops to lend assistance, though, she disappears.
