Brook Hall

Credits, Links, Resources and Suggested Reading:

1. To read a full account of this story, please pick up a copy of Legends, Stories and Ghostly Tales of Abingdon and Washington County, Virginia by: Donna Akers Warmuth

Brook Hall sits on a hill off US Route 11, the old Wagon Road, in Glade Spring, Virginia. Colonel William Byars, a wealthy land and slave owner, finished the home in 1826, leaving his original log house, built in 1773, still on his land. According to local legend, on one cold, winter night, Byars son order a six year-old slave, Jezzia to go out and bring in a newborn lamb. But, by the time the boy got there, the lamb was already dead. When he told Byars son, the man brought him to the springhouse and beat him to death. Jezzia’s mother found him and brought him back to the slave house to await spring’s thaw so she could bury her son. But, on some old, winter nights, people say that they can still hear the cries of despair coming from the springhouse. 1