Church Tales and Ghost Stories

While the following stories are based in the history of Old Donation Church, none are factual. They are fairy tales, ghost stories, and events happening only in my imagination - Bob Perrine, Church Historian


(1) A long time ago when our church was very small, some Indians paid a visit to our church. In that time Indians couldn’t read or write, so when the Chief of the Indians and his tribe came for a visit, they saw the little boys and girls in our church reading and writing. The Chief asked Sarah Thoroughgood, the wife of our first church founder, if he could leave his 5-year-old son with Sarah so she could teach him to read and write. In those days most people were afraid of Indians, but not Sarah. She readily agreed to take in the little Indian boy. Many years later after the Indian boy had grown up and died, legend has it that the Indian boy was seen late at night riding through the cemetery on Anthony Walke’s famous horse Silverheels. .
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(2) Back in those early days before there were cars there was a famous preacher, Rev. Anthony Walke. Rev. Walke divided his time between preaching in our church and the hunt. Do you know anything about how our folks of old hunted fox and deer?...riding on a horse with dogs chasing after the fox and deer...... Not only was Rev. Walke noted for preaching very good sermons, but more exciting was his love of fox and deer hunting. When he came to preach in our church Rev. Walke would come riding up on his horse Silverheels and tie him to a rail out front of the church along with the other horses that some of the people came to church riding. Even if Rev, Walke was in the middle of preaching, when he heard those hunting horns, he would immediately stop preaching and hurry off on his horse Silverheels, not to be seen again until late in the day. In those days our church people didn’t go home right away. They made a whole day of it. After church they’d spread out their picnic blankets in our cemetery eating and gossiping until Rev. Walke returned from hunting to finish his sermon. Now some folks say they have seen the ghost of Rev. Walke come out of his grave, float over to the stables that were nearby, mount his ghost horse Silverheels and float around the cemetery delivering the last part of his sermon to whoever happened to be around. If you’re around late at night, you might hear the last part of his sermon… “Man’s Passions teacheth  him that moderation is to be observed in all the gratifications of life.” And why did he preach this? (He was very rich and had many slaves)

 


This picture was taken sometime before the church was rebuilt and is a view of the north front corner.
Stables used by past parishioners remained and can be seen in the rear of the church.

Reverend Anthony Walke (1755 - 1814) 
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(3) Behind Rev. Walke’s grave is his son’s, David Walke.  It’s the tallest gravestone in our cemetery. He was always getting into trouble with his drunken ways. After Rev. Walke died, David used his father’s house for gambling parties. Do you know where Rev. Walke’s house used to be? Well it was close by and today a famous house stands in its palace called the Ferry Farm Plantation House. You can go there because its open to the public. Now getting back to our story. At one of David’s gambling parties, being very drunk, David tipped over an oil lamp and burned the plantation house to the ground. Written on his tall grave stone David admitted with shame that he fell far short of living a life the Ten Commandments tells us to do. Do you know where our Ten Commandments are? (on our large wooden board called a reredos at the front of our church)  Can anyone tell me one of the ten Commandments?
•Know that God is the only god.
•Be careful with God's name.
•Do not worship statues.
•Keep Sunday a special day.
•Honor your father and mother.
•Do not kill anyone.
•Do not steal.
•When you get married honor and love each other forever.
Now go over to David’s tomb and put your ear on to the tomb stone, especially where it says, “living in strict obedience to …commandments.” You might just might hear a mournful cry of his many wrongs, asking for final forgiveness so his soul may rise to heaven from the tomb.

David M. Walke (Jan 26, 1800 – June 9, 1854),
the most formidable gravestone being the tallest grave stone in the cemetery.


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(4) William Dixon died a long time ago and was buried in our cemetery near a tree. As years past, his grave stone became partially covered in that tree as it grew. His wife, Sarah Dixon’s grave was for many years thought to have been swallowed up by that tree, but recently her grave stone was found in some rubble in the church shed. After replacing Sarah’s grave stone, it had a piece missing and not only that, it has broken off and fallen over. Some folks say they have seen Sarah’s spirit floating around our cemetery late at night looking for that missing piece. But then a new grave for Sarah was installed in Feb 2020. Sarah now rests in peace - RIP.
William Dixon's (1807 - 1853) grave stone partially buried in a tree and
Sarah Dixon's (1812-1873) grave stone broken off and never found.
 
The new Sarah Dixon (1812 – 1873) Grave Stone.
 

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(5) One day many years ago Blackbeard, the most famous pirate of old, and his men were having a jolly ole time at the Pleasure House Tavern, a place at the end of Pleasure House Road. Blackbeard always sent one of his men down a trail along the Chesapeake Bay to look-out for approaching ships that Blackbeard and his men could pirate. On one occasion when spotting Blackbeard’s men, the ship’s Captain quickly loaded the ship’s valuable jewels into a small boat and with three of his strongest men quickly rowed up the Lynnhaven River to a church yard and begun burying the jewels. When Blackbeard came along to see his pirates in the process of burying the jewels in the church graveyard and at the same time seeing two-armed local militia boats bearing down on them, with no time to spare, Blackbeard and his men hastily escaped up a path, today’s Witchduck Road. Legend has it that if anyone happens to be digging where the jewels are hidden in the Old Donation Church grave yard, Blackbeard’s ghost will come out of the ground and give chase. There are other places where people think Blackbeard's treasure might be buried, like on a small island out in Lake Joyce next to Treasure Island Drive, but we know better. . 

Edward Teach (1680 –1718), better known as Blackbeard



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(6) Grace Sherwood lived a peaceful life, but a bit different from other women of the times. When the town gossip neighbor Elizabeth Hill saw Grace working in the fields in men’s britches without her husband around, she started spreading ugly rumors about Grace. What happened next was never written in court records which had been lost in a fire in Richmond, only in myths about Grace as the “Witch of Pungo.” Coming from miles around Elizabeth circled around the crowd with her ugly gossip about Grace. To her discredit, the crowd began to believe the gossip about Grace were concocted by Elizabeth. Realizing these stories were made up, the crowd began turning against Elizabeth. The crowd at this point wanted to see someone ducked in the river, and so they picked Elizabeth, not Grace. As the crowd melted away Grace collected her three boys, went back to Pungo, and lived peacefully there until her death in 1740. To this day, folks avoid going down Witchduck Road to Witchduck Bay to hear Elizabeth screaming – YOU GOT THE WRONG WITCH - YOU GOT THE WRONG WITCH!!! And down in the underworld Elizabeth walks around and talks to anyone who will listen to her moaning, “How come Grace got to be famous and not me!”
YOU GOT THE WRONG WITCH - YOU GOT THE WRONG WITCH!!!
p.s. Down in the underworld Elizabeth walks around and talks to anyone who will listen to her moaning, “How come Grace got to be famous and not me!”

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(7) Just after our third church was built, our present church, rich people built pews up high in the church. They got there on a catwalk hanging on rods from the roof. All that remains today are the windows those rich people cut in the walls to provide air and light. Look up high and see if you can see two tiny windows on each side. Next time you’re at church, try sitting under one of those windows. I’m sure you’re hear those feet – tramp, tramp, tramps - the ghosts of the people walking to their seats up there in those hanging pews.


Small windows cut to light the four hanging pews (two on each side of the church)


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(8) Many years ago, Old Donation closed its doors because most people had moved to Kempsville. During that time folks moved away because the local river, the Lynnhaven, became filled with sand and became hard to sail in. You see, coming to church by boat was the way most folks got around because there were few roads and the ones that were, were muddy when it rained and made dust clouds when it was dry. But down at Kemp’s landing the Elizabeth River was deep and ships could easily sail up and down it, so they built a church there called Emmanuel.
Now getting back to our story. Even though our church had no people, the folks who once worship here and went to Emmanuel made yearly trips from Emmanuel to Old Donation to hold a service, even after it caught fire and mostly burned down. On one occasion the folks brought a small portable organ with them.  As “Onward Christian Soldiers” was struck up on that small organ, the folks marched around the walls of the burned-out church. Today there are some in our choir who tell stories about hearing that first organ striking up “Onward Christian Soldiers” in the walls of our church. Now whenever you’re over at the Angle Desk in the church office look closely at the picture hanging up there on the wall. Miss Frances Hoggard is playing on her organ that day over a hundred years ago in the ruins of the church. When you find her in the picture, put your ear up to her in the picture and see if you can hear the music of “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Some folks are sure they can hear it.
 

Thurmer Hoggard IV (1819-1902) organized yearly trips to our burned-out church

Pictured above organist Miss Frances C. Hoggard strikes up “Onward Christian Soldiers”
 in the ruins of Old Donation Church on September 11, 1901.
 

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(9) Pembroke Meadows Neighborhood Park has a small amphitheater dedicated to Elizabeth Nuckols. Here’s her story, one that will give pause for anyone brave enough to venture into the forest alone out behind the day school and Alfriend House. They warned Elizabeth time and time again to stay away.  It was her asthma.  It was triggered by leaves and grass and trees and dampness…and yet… she looked back at the playground, at her friends at Pembroke Elementary School playing during recess.  I’ll just walk through the path in the woods at Pembroke Meadows Neighborhood Park quickly to prove that nothing bad will happen.  I will be brave.  Nothing can happen.  She placed one foot in front of the other.  Was it her imagination, or did it get darker with each step she took?  And what was that black form slithering on the path ahead.  She was breathing hard, but it was from fear, she was sure.  Continuing to place one foot in front of the other, she saw a tree stump, sat down on it and pulled out the sandwich her mother had packed for her lunch. As the sounds of the schoolyard faded and when she had finished the first half of her sandwich, that black form she had seen earlier on her walk, slither across her foot. She screamed and jumped up to run, but the branches seemed to close in around her blocking her way out.  She couldn’t breathe.  Her heart beat wildly.  Suddenly, she fell and all went dark. Now there are folks who have walked in that same woods at night and say they can hear Elizabeth singing, “If you go down in the woods today, you're sure of something out of the norm, perhaps a black slithering form.”  Elizabeth’s warning to those with allergies, or anyone else, was not to wander alone in an enchanted forest full of dark souls. There is a path behind our grave yard leading into the forest and on to Elizabeth Nuckols’ small amphitheater. What’s there to be afraid of, it’s only a forest in Pembroke Meadows Neighborhood Park, but then very few people have ventured there. I bet you didn’t know there was a park behind our church with an enchanted forest between the grave yard and that small amphitheater dedicated to Elizabeth Nuckols. Best we keep it that way – right?
The Elizabeth Nuckols Outdoor Learning Center. On the wall are 165 bricks with donors’ names from 1999 – 2003.  At the entrance (other side from your walk) a plaque reads:
“In memory of Elizabeth E. Nuckols, May 11, 1983 – October 24, 1995. Heaven needed an angel and chose Elizabeth. ‘Life is not measured in years but by the love we touch.’”

Paths in Pembroke Meadows Neighborhood Park woods


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(10) Diana Talbot Walke Parks (1887 – 1975) joined Old Donation just after the 1916 reconstruction. She originated the church Christmas pageant in 1926, the annual Oyster Roast and Bazaar in 1934, and the Altar Guild, for many years serving as its chairman until 1971. Folks in charge of the alter guild followed her directions to place the Eucharistic Elements (the silver bread paten, wine chalice, finger bowl and towel) exactly as Diana wanted. After Diana’s death in 1975, if the elements were not placed as Diana wanted, they were mysteriously re-positioned during the night the way Diana preferred them. Each Alter Guide chairperson talked about Diana shuffling about believing Diana’s ghost remained watch over the Eucharistic Elements.

Diana's grave rests next to her husband
Rufus Parks in the Old Donation Cemetery

Diana Talbot Walke Parks, (1887 – 1975)


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(11) When Reverend Robert Dickson (1716-1777) became Rector in 1748 he took over running a free public school for orphan boys, and for the next 28 years invested his energies in seeing that the orphan children became prosperous respected citizens. Kris McTague saw a program celebrating Reverend Dickson at a service held sometime in the 1920’s noting that he was buried under the altar; but that bulletin, the only historical source confirming his burial, has been lost. There have been more than a few church members claiming they hear boys talking and laughing when the church is completely empty. Others hear calls to “Father Bob,” with an answer from the altar, "Here I am," but then no one is there. A church that for 70 years (1846 – 1916) sat crumbling and vacant in the woods had more than enough time to gather many ghosts, especially hundreds of orphan boys who passed through the halls of Old Donation.
Rev. Dickson's plaque hangs on the back wall of the church.


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(12) Captain Jonathan Saunders I (1726 – 1765) and his son Captain John Saunders II (1754 - 1834) engaged in quarrels over freedom from Great Britain leading up the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Many feared that without the authority of the British government, the church would no longer weld its Anglican tithing tax authority and the purchase of commissions in the army or navy. Young Saunders chose to be a loyalist, siding with the British, and joined the Queen's Loyal Virginia Regiment in opposition to his father, a staunch American patriot. After the war Captain Saunders II sailed to England and in 1789 to New Brunswick, Canada where he lived out the rest of his life.
On Captain Jonathan Saunders I gravestone in our cemetery, one part of the epitaph reads that he was a “tender father.”  Dying at the age of 39, was he tormented by the loss of his son to the British Loyalists, the forces he and his fellow American Patriots had fought against? If you put your ear to his gravestone, you might here his ghost lamenting,
“My son, oh my son, why have you forsaken your father and your country?”
The epitaph of Captain Jonathan Saunders I reads:
 
“SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF 
CAPT. JONATHAN SAUNDERS 
who was a person of great piety and a most 
humane Disposition 
being beneficent to all 
as far as his ability Reached 
An easy unoffensive, obligating behavior 
adored all his actions 
was a kind Husband 
tender father a sincere friend 
he died universally Lamented 
on 21st January 1765 
in the 39th year of his age.”




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(13) In 1916 a time capsule with memorabilia in the cavity of a cornerstone was inserted in the northeast corner of the rebuilt Old Donation Church. One Hundred years later on 16 Sep, 2016 when the Historical Traditions Commission opened the capsule, they found only an 1888 Canadian penny with the face of English Queen Victoria on it. We know that some hard feelings remained well after the Revolutionary War, but could all that moaning and growing in the church walls have been from the souls of Patriots who knew the face of English Queen Victoria was there in a wall of the church? Adding more misery to that was a 2015 Canada two-dollar coin donated for the time capsule by a Canadian citizen helping out with the church construction. Well, this wrong would certainly have been corrected when new items were placed in the time capsule and placed back into the corner of the church on the twentieth of December 2016, but not Lady Liberty. If you hear continued groans within the walls of the church, they might just be those Patriots waiting for the next one-hundred years when a coin with Lady Liberty on its face might be placed in the time capsule.
 
The 1888 Canadian penny found in the time capsule with face of English Queen Victoria

This 2015 Canada Toonie, a two-dollar coin, was donated for the time capsule by Andy Bygden, a Canadian citizen, employed by James D. Klote & Associates, to organize and energize our Capital Campaign for construction of more space needed for our growing church. 
The cornerstone placed 11 Oct 1916, removed 16 Sep 2016, and replaced 20 Dec 2016 at the northeast corner of Old Donation Church

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(14) Reverend Richard Jeffrey Alfriend (1860 – 1923) built a new small congregation and then help raise funds to rebuild Old Donation which had been unoccupied in ruins for 60 years (1856 – 1916). He then served as rector at both Kempsville Emmanuel and Old Donation. When he died in 1923, he was buried in the center aisle of Old Donation. He and his wife, Mary Emily Hume (June 10, 1869 – October 22, 1952) had eight children, five girls and three boys.
Emily Hume (1869 – 1952) age 83
Eliza Prentis (1889 – 1904) age 15
Margaret Bland (1891 – 1968) age 77
Richard Jeffrey (1894 – 1971) age 75
John Samuel (1897 – 1974) age 77
Virginia Blair (1901 – 1983) age 82
Mary Blair (1903 – 1995) age 91
Theodoric Bolling Sr (Thee) (1906 – 1987) age 81 
After his last child died in 1995, there are folks who claim Rev. Alfriend's ghost would wander around the church grave yard in search of his eight children, but their graves are not there and are scattered in many places outside of Virginia Beach. Late at night you might hear someone calling out for Emily, Eliza, Margaret, Richard, John, Virginia, Mary, and Thee (Theodoric).  When Thee was young, Rev. Alfriend often read to him, Jack and the Beanstalk. That’s why you might hear his call ending with “Thee-fi-fo-fum, I want to find my son's bones, so I can rest in peace.”
 
Reverend Richard Jeffrey Alfriend (1860 – 1923)


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(15) George Woodhouse has his plaque at the back of Old Donation Church. In part it reads “A brave soldier of the CSA [Confederate States of America].” When the Civil War started about a hundred and fifty years ago George joined the Confederate Army. During the war he was shot in the arm causing him to lose it. He packed it in sawdust and salt and went back to Old Donation Church. There he buried his arm in the church graveyard.  In later years he was one of several to help with the restoration of the burned-out church. While he was helping cut down trees that had grown up inside the church ruins, he often thought about his arm and really missed it, and on several occasions, though he’d dig it up, but that would have been silly. It had probably decayed and was full of worms. George died in 1915 at the age of 75 while helping with the restoration of our burned-out church. He was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Norfolk, many miles from his arm's final resting place in the Old Donation cemetery. Now some people say they have heard strange noises coming from George’s grave. They believe the scratching and knocking on his wood casket is George trying to come out and find his arm.  And some folks say they can see an arm pulling itself out of the ground in our cemetery and most likely headed for Elmwood Cemetery.  

 

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(16) Judge Warden Benjamin Dey White (1868 – 1946) was the first to write about Grace Sherwood, the Witch of Pungo, in his 1924 book, Gleanings in the History of Princess Anne County. As the senior warden he most likely was the one to pick the builder, Charles Sherwood, possibly because he might know something about his long-ago relative James Sherwood (1660-1701) and his wife Grace Sherwood (1660-1740), the Witch of Pungo.

Here’s the story Judge White told Charles. James Sherwood (1660-1701) protected his wife Grace from jail over gossip from a few jealous women. His early death left Grace without protection, ultimately resulting in the witch trial and jail for Grace. Were these women responsible for James’ death? They certainly did have motive.

Back to our builder Charles Sherwood. After hearing this story from Judge White, and knowing that, did Charles plan revenge, or was he just a poor builder? One of the most important structures were steel rod ties to the roof as visible above. Instead of being tied in to the roof, the roof was left to push outward against the two side walls. In 1960, during the Easter service, the walls of the church began to separate. County building inspectors were shocked to find that the church roof had not fallen-in for 44 years. The church was closed for a year until repairs could be made.

Epilogue: The 1960 Underworld Newspaper Headlines: The Church Walls Did Not Come Tumbling Down.
Builder Charles Sherwood meets up with Elizabeth Hill who first accused Grace Sherwood of Witch Craft and turned a whole Lynnhaven Parish congregation against Grace. Elizabeth voiced frustration for not being able to find Grace among the many witches in the Underworld, and Charles voiced frustration for leaving the above world with the Old Donation congregation believing he was a poor builder.