In her 2005 book Legends, Stories and Ghostly Tales of Abingdon and Washington County, Virginia, author Donna Gayle Akers writes that the springhouse at Brook Hall is said to be haunted by the cries of a slave boy being beat to death by his cruel owner. Legend maintains that the first owner, Colonel William Byars, sent six-year old Jezzia to bring in a newborn lamb from the cold, winter night; the lamb was already death, though. Byars beat the boy to death when he caught up with him at the springhouse.Since that time, the boy’s cries for help can still be heard coming from the springhouse. 