A Golden Rule Ghost Story

all words and photos by JoLynn Powers, reprinted with permission

JoLynn Powers served as an Americorps with Woodlands during the early stages of reconstruction work on the Golden Rule building in Belington. In fact, she was in charge largely of the deconstruction work that is a very important if non-glorious part of any clean-up job. She poured her heart and soul into the project and in return, made contact with the hearts and souls of many in the community as you will see if you read her first person accounting below…

I had worked in The Golden Rule building for about 18 months, clearing out trash, tearing down old shelving, and organizing the historical and cultural artifacts to auction, sell, or repurpose. I get asked all the time the building is haunted. For a building to be built in 1902 and not be haunted is a bit of a surprise. It is not haunted in the traditional way — not in the way horror movies show hauntings: full of evil spirits and terrible outcomes. It doesn’t have slamming doors, lights turning on and off or cold chills in the building. I work for hours alone in the large empty building day and night, never feeling a cold chill or hearing strange, unexplained noises. But. This building does have visitors.

One usual Wednesday evening in the middle of the summer I was working alone doing inventory and getting ready for an antique auction we were planning as a fundraiser. Tables were lined with items from the 1920s to items used in the 1970s. I would list each item on an inventory sheet and photograph it so we could either sell the item or place in on display in the future. A storm came in about 4pm and darkened the sky and made the inside of the building dreary enough I needed to turn on the lights. I continued working, listening to the rumble of thunder and the sounds of pouring rain. A few minutes into the storm I head a pecking sound on the glass that brought my attention to the double glass doors at the front of the building. Standing under the aged front arch, was a man. A small aged man, maybe 5’2″ around 70.

The man wore a blue and white striped engineers cap over his head of short white hair. His face was light with a short groomed beard and mustache with crystal blue eyes that twinkled when he spoke. He wore an insulated blue work coat in the style of a 1970s coal miner. He wore dark blue work pants rather than blue jeans. The blue of his eyes, hat, and coat contrasted with his healthy pink skin so much it appeared he had just showered and still had the rosy glow of the heat.

I walked to the locked door and smiled at him through the glass. I opened the door slightly to speak to the petite man. I asked if I could help him and he replied that he had worked in the building years ago and had seen the lights on. That he saw my car parked outside as he drove by and wanted to see what was happening with the old place.

His accent was pure West Virginia, charming and educated. I felt the urge to let him in from the cold gray outside and felt no fear bringing the stranger into the building. We stopped at the front of the first floor and he began to ask questions about who owned the building and who worked for the company and what were the future plans for the Golden Rule.

He was so filled with love for the place that he excitedly asked if I knew the Shinn family. He also asked if I had known him or his brother back in the 1970s when he worked at the store. I explained that I was not in West Virginia then and shared who I worked for. He preceded to share that everyone called him Hatchet and he had a brother named Don who worked there off and on too. He explained that he helped Don moved the furniture and did deliveries for Mrs. Shinn, who owned the Golden Rule for close to 50 years. He had run the historic water-powered elevator and trapped bats on the third-floor rafters over the years. I asked if he had been in the building recently and he said, “No, not for years and years. I spend most of my time fixing up old cars now.”

Drive gears of the old elevator

We visited for an extended time on the first floor then I offered to show him around. He was a fit older man, so we talked about what was on each floor when he worked for Wanda Shinn. He shared stories about selling mattresses and box springs and having to wait on the elevator to raise and lower. “It was so slow that you would pile everything you sold on one trip to save time,” Hatchet said.

We talked about his life as we looked out the windows on the third floor. He said, “I have always loved the view of the rail yard back here.” We stood side by side looking at the aging trains and cars parked behind the Golden Rule. He talked about his last days at the Golden Rule before going to work in the mines. He mentioned that being a coal miner had been the best thing he could have done for the pay and retirement. He had made enough money to buy a house and a couple acres of land when he was in his 50’s and had put plenty away for retirement so he could keep rebuilding old cars.

We talked about how Belington had changed and how he used to drag race through town on Saturday nights and go to the movies in Philippi. He said that everyone for miles around shopped at the Golden Rule. He listed some of the things he bought for his mining job. Finally, he asked me if they were going to save the old elevator or if it was going to scrap. I was excited to tell him that the old water-powered elevator was staying and that we would be looking for someone to work on it soon. I asked if he wanted to see the elevator and if he had any idea how it worked. He was happy to take a look at the old mud covered basement and tell me a little bit about how it worked. He remembered swabbing the piston and waiting on the elevator to slowly carry its cargo up the shaft.

Finally, after about an hour of visiting and laughter, he said he should go. That he needed to get back to the house; it was getting late and dinner would be ready soon. I realized that it was about 5:00 and I would need to leave for home too. He walked to the door and said, “Thank you so much for showing this to me, it looks like she is in good hands.” He stepped down the stairs to the ground and I waved out the door and said, “Hatchet it was a pleasure to meet you, I hope you come back to visit soon.” Locking the glass door behind him I watched out the door for the classic blue car he had told me about. Soon a blue 1970’s Chevy drove by the building heading south towards Junior. I couldn’t help smiling the rest of the night thinking of my visitor.

A couple weeks later my boss and I found another person who had worked in the building operating the elevator for several years. We invited Charlie to lunch at a local cafe and planned to talk about the mechanics of the elevator and how it worked and if it could be made to operate on just the basement and first floor. Charlie was happy to meet and talk about how the elevator worked. As we ate and visited I casually told Charley and my boss that I had met another man who worked at the Golden Rule. I said I had met Hatchet and that we had talked for about an hour about the building and elevator. Charlie started shaking his head violently and making a throat noise as he tried to swallow his bite of potatoes. Clearing his mouth he blurted out, “You did not meet Hatchet! He’s been dead 25 years! There is no way that is who you met.”

Being surprised by his tone of voice I replied, “If it wasn’t Hatchet then maybe it was his brother Don.”

Charlie’s face grew grave and serious leaning into the cafe table and said, “No, it wasn’t Don either, he has been dead 30 years or more.”

At this my poor boss about choked on his sip of coffee. Charlie continued to ask me questions about how I had heard of Hatchet and Don. I told him that I learned their names from the man who visited me at the Golden Rule. A short white-haired man who wore a railroad cap.

“That’s impossible!” Charlie said. “You must have met someone else!”

I gave a description of the white-haired man that I met and told about him leaving the Golden Rule for the coal mines. I shared his love of the old cars that he often worked on.

My boss and Charley looked at me as if the world had ended. Confused and in disbelief of my description they looked at one another. Finally I said, “I have no idea how I would know this information any other way than from the source.”

I joked that I gave a ghost a tour at the Golden Rule and both men laughed at the silliness of the statement. They blew off the strange story I had told them over our lunch. They were both ready to think that I had somehow gotten the information from some other old man around town and that I couldn’t have met Hatchet. Neither one wanted a haunted job site and no one wanted to share gossip of a stranger at the Golden Rule for fear of scaring off contractors and laborers.

My experience with the Ghost of the Golden Rule was not one that anyone would call scary. Hatchet is happy to see his workplace coming back to life and seemed content to look the place over with me. He made me aware of several things about the building and the town of Belington that I did not know. So if you ask me if I had seen a ghost at the Golden Rule before that lunch date my answer was, “No!” In my mind, Hatchet is as real as anyone else. But after that lunch date with Charlie, I still find myself wondering who I met that afternoon and if he meant it when he said he would come back to visit me when the building was finished. I just hope he is as happy to see me as I will be to see him!

Please visit JoLynn’s original post of this story to see the comments and opinions about it at the end from others who knew Hatchet and his family.

The Golden Rule Project is complete now, the apartment units are full of families and life, and the first floor space houses regular community events.