The light moves slowly along the train tracks, sometimes
getting brighter and sometimes fading to almost nothing. It often sways
slightly from side to side, as if someone was carrying it, but it might stop for brief periods. Hundreds of people have seen it over the years. Some
believe it is a ghost, and others don't know what to think. One legend says that years ago a hobo tried to hop on the
train and didn’t make it. He fell back, some of the railroad cars ran over him,
and his head was severed. Now the man’s ghost carries a lantern at night as he walks up and down the tracks on both sides of the crossing where he fell and searches for his head.
Another account says a homeless man lived here in Early Station in Eastern North Carolina.
He had once owned a business there, but it failed, and he began to drink. He
was likely drunk when he stumbled and fell off the platform where the train ran
over him. They found his body but never his head. Other versions can also be found. One says a railroad worker
ended up being decapitated when he fell under the train. Some curious people have also gone to investigate the light and
run back declaring that it started chasing them. Others have tried to shoot it,
but they’ve never managed to stop it, and the light always returns.
The town of Early Station was named for the Early family. The
town once boasted a post office, several stores, depot, and Early’s Baptist Church.
When the Atlantic Coast Railroad stopped running and the depot closed, the town
began to dry up. The Early Station trains once provided passenger rail service to
Ahoskie, Rocky Mount, Suffolk, and Norfolk, running three trains a day just to
Norfolk. In addition, those trains brought the mail, grocery products, and
merchandise to Bertie County. The station has been closed for years, however, and no trains stop there now.
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Hey Janice, My Great Grandmother (Edna Terry Futrell) was born Aug 17, 1915 and raised in Millennium NC, not far from Early's Station. as a young adult I remember telling my Grandmother about going to see the train light. She told me when she was a little girl sometime around the 1930-40's a train derailed and the conductor's upper body, face and head was severely burned by steam from the engine (not beheaded) causing him to die from his injuries. She said her and her mother went there and helped people and served food to the passengers. From my understanding the conductor was the only death, and I'm not sure if he died there or in a doctors care elsewhere. I cannot find any documentation to substantiate this. However, my grandmother was not known to tell wives tales.
ReplyDeleteThat's very interesting. Thank you for sharing. Legends have a way of developing a character all their own over the years. I am good friends with Melanie and Robbie Futrell of Powellsville/Ahoskie. Are they related?
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