U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: --------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Wetzel County, West Virginia by John C. McEldowney, Jr., 1901 Pages 128-130 THE GHOST OF GAMBLE'S RUN. This article is not based upon superstition, but it is written to show one of the peculiar cases that has been in the courts, since the formation of the county. The following sketch was written by D. W. Gamble, who was then but ten years old, but who remembers the incident very well, it being revised and corrected by the author. John Gamble, of whom our story relates, was born in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, in the year of 1814. He was a house carpenter by trade, and helped build the second house built in New Cumberland. In the year of 1850, he moved on the farm now owned by the D. W. Skinner heirs, near Sardis Station, on the West Virginia side. He often engaged in buying up staves, tanbark and wagon spokes, and carried them down the Ohio river in flat boats to Cincinnati. The same year he moved to this county there was a very large crop of apples, there being two large orchards on the farm he moved on, and one of the orchards contained crab apples. He went to work, and with hired help, made a number of barrels of cider, and on the afternoon of November 12th, same year, it being the thirty-sixth anniversary of his birth, he started from home in a hurry for New Martinsville, with a skiff, after barrels to put the rest of his cider in, but he never returned, for that very night he was murdered by one Leb Mercer. Now to bring about the facts of the deed. The writer was about ten years old, at the time, and well remembers the incident. John Gamble had a wagon, and sold it to the Whiteman Brothers, who then lived on what was then the Cox farm, and now the property of the Short Line Railroad Company and the heirs of John R. Brown, and took their note for twenty dollars, and after going to New Martinsville, on his return he stopped at the home of the Whiteman Brothers, where he asked the boys if they wanted to cash the note, on which they remarked that they did not. He put it back in his pocket. John Gamble also dealt in cattle, and some time previous to this occasion, had purchased a calf from Mercer, on which he paid him all but two dollars. On meeting him at the home of the Whiteman Brothers, Mercer asked him for the money, upon which Gamble drew from his pocket a five dollar bill, and asked him if he had change for that, and Mercer replied that he had not. Mercer then asked him if that was all he had, and he said no. That he had something near two hundred dollars. It was now beginning to get dark, and Gamble started for home, and told Mercer to come to his house in a few days and he would pay him. Mercer then stood watching him, and after Gamble had got in his skiff and pushed it out into the river, Mercer started toward him. That night he came home about two o'clock, wet and muddy. The evidence was sorely against him, though he presented the note that the Whiteman brothers had given to Gamble for payment. The thing now laid over for a year, and in the fall of 1851 there was a cornhusking near Point Pleasant ridge, and a number of people from New Martinsville attended. Among them was one John Hindman. On their return home they decided to all go different routes and see who got there first. Hindman took over the hill, coming over what is now known as Gamble's run (so named from Gamble), and as he was walking along a path which was then on the river bank, he saw the form of a man, who remarked: "I am John Gamble; Leb Mercer killed me. Take him up and have justice done," and suddenly disappeared from view. Hindman being very badly scared, walked rapidly toward town, and the next morning told what he had seen. It was not believed by many people. Though he had never seen Gamble, he described his walk, clothes, etc. Mercer was arrested for murder in the first degree, which under the old law meant death or freedom, and he was released on the grounds that ghost evidence would not go in court. It was believed by many that he was guilty of the crime, and it is said that his lawyer had a very hard time to keep him from confessing the crime. He is now living back of St. Marys, W. Va., where it is said he acts very strangely, often muttering to himself. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other articles in this book by going to the following URL which contains a linked index for the book. http://www.us-data.org/wv/wetzel/history/mceldowney.html -------------------------------------------------------------------