Skip to Content
Search Icon
Issue 08 – Christmas 2021

Features

Wizard Clip

On a Catholic, true ghost story.

image

In the lower Shenandoah Valley there is a village named Middleway. Few people call it that. The name emblazoned upon signposts, brochures, and bumper stickers in town is “Wizard Clip,” derived from a bizarre episode of history, the strangest and truest ghost story ever told.

In 1794 a traveler sought boarding on the outskirts of Middleway at the farm of Adam Livingston. Livingston and his family were hospitable and prosperous people and gladly put the man up in their home. But the very night of his arrival, the unknown man grew gravely ill and asked Livingston to send for a priest. Livingston was a devout Lutheran. Either because he did not understand the urgency of the request or because he found the idea of Catholic clergy in his house distasteful, he did not summon a priest. By morning the man was dead, unshriven and unconsoled. He was buried on the farm.


You must or subscribe to read the rest of the article.

About the author

Alek Schrenk