Echoes of the Civil War can still be heard in Laurel Bloomery, especially in Haunted Hollow off Highway 133.In History of Watauga County, North Carolina, author John Preston Arthur reveals the name of the ghost thought to beg for his life near a twisted old dogwood tree. In 1863, Confederate Daniel Sheppard, part of the Home Guard in Ashe County North Carolina, hanged Union soldier Jacob May from the Roan Creek area of Johnson County. When the victim’s father, Jeff May, heard his son’s murderer was in the area, he swore revenge. He waited to Daniel was alone and knocked him unconscious. While quoting Exodus 21:23 – 27, he strung Daniel up by the neck with a rope in a tall dogwood tree. The rope was too old and snapped. Jeff strangled Daniel with a horse halter and buried the body under the tree to cover his crime.