Hi, I'm Holly. And I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Welcome back.
Welcome back. I'm in pain. I didn't do it. I just went staying.
I am hurting. I decided so we had a teacher workday on whatever day that was. My days were already together. We had a teacher workday and I went and taught dance class to a group of middle school students.
Oh, I think we're gonna say middle age. Middle age. Middle school. Middle school students.
It's like, yes, and I was in it and my father. No, I taught contemporary and lyrical dance to them and it was very fun. I had not taught in a while. That was really fun.
But then I decided to stay and kind of hang out to see the other classes where it ended up being this incredible artist. His name was Melvin. And he taught them a hip hop dance. So my white self got out there and took this class with his middle school children which they thought was hilarious and they loved.
I'm sure. So it made me like super cool. Oh. In their eyes or super lame.
I don't know. You're going to be on social media because I went 100% on social media already and I'm not ashamed. You're on the TikTok. But it was really, I was so much fun.
I have not taken an actual dance class probably in like five years. Wow. But like my thighs hurt. My glutes hurt.
Glutes. Well, glutes. Like sitting down to go P is really painful. It could also be a UTI.
But I'm not burning. We are burning but not like that. You know, it's just, yeah, I'm like just touching my leg hurts. Like I'm so smart.
And there was a section of the dance where they had to like get on the floor and then like roll up or something. And I said, I have ancient knees. I'm going to need some help. And he modified it which is a marks of a good teacher.
Yes. That can modify their choreography for the elderly. Compared to these like 12 and 13 year old children. I think we've said this before in this podcast that you are actually physically worse off than I am.
I'm actually better off physically than you are. But it's only physically I'm 82. Yes. It was like an 80.
Like I literally was like all the knees. The time we went to the beach together you were talking about can somebody pop my back and oh gosh, you know, yeah, I remember when my hip went out. Like how old are you? I don't know.
I've walked too much today. My hips clicking. Yeah. And you're like, it's just popping.
Yeah. It's just bad. You. It's bad.
But so I did that. And it was so fun. That sounds really nice. And I had a blast.
That sounds amazing. That's kind of where I'm at today. Well, I'm still glad that you showed up. Even though you're painting.
I've been taking the end of that. I've proven. But then there's a part of me that's like used to take class literally like six hours a day. Yeah.
But once your body's not used to that, it didn't get shipped. Yeah. And putting my body through that, I think, at that such a young age. The good news is tonight I'm not going to make you run any kind of Marathons.
Do any dancing? I appreciate that. I just want to hear the story. That's what I'm here for.
Yes, I'm ready. So I know last week we talked about a witch. Yes. We talked about the witch of Cedar Mountain.
We did that. I was just clarifying you weren't talking about the last time I was with a witch. Well, we're going to go to another witch. You this time.
Me. It's always in me. Okay. So we're going to go to the Tilly.
I think is how you say it. T-I-L-L-E-Y could be Tilly. I'm going with Tilly. The Tilly Bend Church.
Never heard of it. And we're going to the Fannen Mountains, which I believe are in Georgia somewhere. Oh, okay. So we're also going back to Georgia.
Listen, when I write these stories, sometimes I get really excited that I forget years and locations. Do you know your name? Not always. That's terrible.
Yes. I believe we're kind of in Georgia, but we can do some Googling on the Tilly Bend Church to make sure. Okay, but it was established in 1858. And there is a, we know this because there's apparently an old sign in front of the remains of this church, the old wooden structure that still sits on top of the small hill on old dial road.
Old dial road. I like that. There's a gravel winding road, of course. And it's okay to drive on now if you want to go visit, but it's not the best in bad weather.
Lots of really sharp curves, varying levels of elevation. You're making this sound better. Oh, yeah. And it's deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Fannen County, Georgia, maybe.
Also there on the way to this church, there are shared drops. Oh, yeah. Of course. Why not?
And it overlooks the Tokola? Tokola. So, yes. Cross from the church is like the fellowship hall, which I feel like most churches kind of have that.
Like you have your church building and then you have kind of like a community center fellowship area. It's either connected to or, I mean, I guess, in this, they had to build it across the street. Yeah. Like our church is in the basement.
Usually, as the church grows and expands, they realize they need this area and then more space. Like for your, you know, your poor man's suckers that you have. Your potlucks. The potlucks.
Your baby showers. Yes, wedding showers. Reception. Reception.
Yeah. Where everybody goes after the funeral. It went from being really positive. And then when you kick the bucket, this is where your family is going to be.
You gather still eating. Yeah. Because food is everything. Yeah.
That's what you do. So there's this fellowship hall and it's near the cross-wind church. Behind both of the buildings is an old graveyard. And this is where the witch of Blue Ridge is said to be buried.
Oh. According to people who still attend the church, so this church is still in operation. The church is not haunted, except for maybe the Holy Ghost. Oh, the Holy Ghost ain't in your church.
You ain't doing it right. Yeah. So they don't think the church is haunted. But I think they might think that the cemetery is haunted.
But also looking for that churchy. Sometimes church people are weird about ghosts. What do you mean? I think just Christianity in general is weird about supernatural ghost situations.
Well, and I think it goes back to you. You have to have a, when people think ghosts, a lot of them think satanic, evil, you know, kind of thing versus a lot of times I see ghosts as, I mean, yes, there is that. But I also think that ghosts are just like those individuals who just can't cross over. Like they just need some balance that you're okay.
They're back to say hi. Yeah. I think it's kind of cool. And I can say that this has happened to me when my grandparents have passed that they come to me in dreams.
Yeah. I've done now I've dreamt about people. Yeah. And I mean, yes, I'm sleeping and it's a dream.
But do I also think that it was their way of coming to talk to me? Yes. And was it scary or creepy? No.
Well, I did have a friend come to me to dream that was creepy who died. But nonetheless, she didn't know she was actually dead. She died a car accident and she hated me to dream. Yeah.
That was freaky. Yeah. But anyway, it's just a matter of what it was. But yeah, I mean, it does call like, how are you considering this?
Right. So this ghost, though, the witch, the switch that is a witch, this witch that's not the Holy Ghost. The story begins in the 1750s. Whoa, we are taking it back.
I mean, so this is a really old church. So the church was there in the 1850s. So 100 years earlier, we're going to get the story of the Blue Ridge, which is a blue Ridge. Okay.
Okay. So there were the Creek and this article that I write called the Creek Indians, but I don't like to use that word, the Native Americans. The Creek tribe, Native folks, originally lived in that area. White settlers from North Carolina moved alongside the Creek settlement and apparently they cohabitated pretty well.
That's nice to hear. You don't hear it that often. No. And I wonder who wrote this narrative, though.
So it could be that maybe they did not. But it seems like, according to some census records that it seemed like the settlers and the Native people kind of started to co-marry, and produce chirping and hash. So I mean, it could have been, it could have been like that. Yeah, it could have been like a cohabitation area.
Eventually, the Cherokee people moved into the area and they forced the the Creek settlement, like the settlers and the Native people out of that area, since there was some conflict there. Although the Creek were pushed out, the white settlers, with their Creek spouses chose not to leave the area. So they stayed, which feels like would cause some a lot more conflict. Yeah.
Eventually, though, a settlement called Stanley Gap was formed, and they carried their customs and, you know, knowledge with them. So these Native people that stayed kind of helped build this settlement and remains from a settlement can still be seen if you go past the Tilly Bend Church near like a lake. So there's still like, I don't know, structures or sites or things like that. They're still there, like all the way from the 1700s, which is pretty cool.
That's very cool. Okay, so Benjamin Tilly, who is the church just founder, is buried in Elijay, Georgia, which I believe is the where we are, Elijay, Georgia, in the ancient graveyard. Elijay, Elijay, I don't know. In this ancient graveyard, and there are a lot of just stones that are used as grave markers.
So there's not like actual markers that we see now. There's a single very large and very old oak tree that kind of seems to almost stand guard over the graves. I like that. It's just a big tree.
And it's been there for many, many years. Most of the graves in the graveyard are facing east, or no, sorry, most graves, not in this graveyard. Most graves in general, typically face east. What do you think about a graveyard?
Which I, when I read this, I was like, huh? Yeah, I guess I thought about it, but I never thought about it. Yeah, they do face like where my grandfather's buried. They all face east.
Why is it so important to face east? The sun, I guess, not damaging this. I mean, it's been so long. Okay, it's just a stone.
Right. So most of them face east. However, in this graveyard, some of the graves face a list, which is weird. And there's, you know, legend out there that says, supposedly this was done for witch burials.
So if you're a witch, you were buried within west. I'm like, I'm gonna visit you west. West Side. West Side for life.
West Side for death. For death. This is for all me. Don't worry.
She will be haunting. Yeah. So one of these so-called witches was Elizabeth Bradley. And she was a creek witch doctor who was feared by everyone in the settlement.
Which I'm all for her. I'm kind of excited about this. So legend states that she gave birth to two daughters. Each of those within Mary and to a different family.
One went into the Tilly family, which is connected with the church and this pastor and the other to a Stanley. Unfortunately, there was a feud between the two families which escalated into a shooting at the church. So we got some hat-billed of a coiss crab going on here. We're going to shoot it out of the church.
God does not care. He sees down for this. He's like, all right. We've got to work this out.
We're gonna have a problem with this. It might. Okay. So a Tilly preacher and the sister who married into the Tilly family, along with other members of the congregation were all killed in this shootout.
So many innocent lives. So the Tilly's retaliated by sneaking into Stanley Gap in the middle of the night. They killed several men while they slept, including the Stanley that married the second daughter. So that feels cowardly though.
Right. Like, what is these guys did in public? Yeah. I mean, if we're gonna do it, let's have it out.
But that's cowardly to go in and be sleeping. Right. But I'll just kill each other. You don't have to take other people with you.
Like innocent people that were just like attending church. Yeah. I just came for the worship. I didn't realize I was coming for the killing.
Right. That's a lot. That's a lot. So the Stanley family then was struck by even more tragedy.
When the widow, the daughter of the witch doctor died in childbirth. So just really, really terrible. So at this point, because of all this feuding, Elizabeth Bradley, the witch doctor or medicine woman or whatever you want to call her, because I feel like one of those is probably insensitive and culturally incorrect if you want to correct me on that. Yeah.
But that's just where we have the story. The witch doctor told me what to do. She said, okay, well, medicine woman. I mean, I feel like, but I'm also not a native person, but I think it'd be super cool if we could reclaim the witch doctor like title.
I think that's awesome. But again, I'm not of that culture. So whatever is appropriate is what we'll go with. But Elizabeth Bradley, however, wouldn't call her.
She lost both of her daughters at this point. Like one of them. She's dead in the church. The other one down in childbirth.
And she lost the grandchild. That's the child. The baby died too. The baby died too.
Oh my god. So there are some versions that claim that Elizabeth was just angry about the family feud. So she cursed both of the tilly and the family families. And through this curse, all babies born there after for each family were still born.
Oh, but that's not a good curse to give somebody. That's what she went with. No, that's awful. Yeah, but that's what she went for.
Curse the men. Like, you know, you're gonna have a reptile dysfunction. That's a curse. But don't curse babies.
I think she's like, it's a curse. Seems like maybe like wanted to end the line. Like in the face. But again, make them infertile.
Like he can't get it out. He's shooting blanks. Right. That.
But don't kill babies. That was too specific for her. She had to go. I would curse that.
Yeah. Yeah. I'd be like, your soldier will no longer salute the curses down. And then these men are like, where's my purple pill?
Get the purple pill. And it doesn't work. That's a good curse. Women, you're welcome.
You're welcome. So there are other versions of this curse that say that it wasn't just newborns that were impacted. It was all the children of the family. And they would all die either through or like be severely ill or die.
I do not support this. It's alive. As a mother, I do not support this. I mean, I think killing children is never the answer.
No, it is not the answer. Not the answer. No, not the answer. But she did her grief.
This is what she chose to do. The curse she decided to, if like hurt people hurt people, you know. Yeah. And she's hurt clearly.
I mean, but deal with it in the other ways. Like, you know, start taying crack. Yeah. I'm sorry.
The answer. I mean, I guess over the death of children or drugs, I would say, I would say go to drugs. Yeah. Just do a dress.
Start to guess to drugs. And no to killing innocent children. No to cursing children. But you know, I mean, because if she started self-medicating, that would just affect her versus now we're putting a curse on innocent babies.
Right. Right. I'm just saying like that's the alternative. I'm not saying, yeah, please take drugs.
I'm just saying this scenario, it would have been a better choice. About our alternative. Yeah. My gosh.
Okay. So the Tilly family members, they decided that a year of death to their newborns was enough. They had enough to stop. So they forced Elizabeth to the graveyard to be hung from the tree in its center.
Before they dropped the bottoms that she would hang, she vowed she would come back. I'm like, that's a bad, but it's a bad don't. I mean, she's already cursed your family to like, all the children die. I don't think I'd poke at her.
Yeah, she's pretty angry there. Yeah. I think we just let her be and we just say, you know what, maybe children are for us. You know what?
She's clearly unhappy. She's going through a lot. Let's just let her just live over there in her misery. Let's not make it worse.
That's not make it worse. Maybe we will just, you know, we'll be the cool relatives. Or, you know, we're just not going to have kids. And it's okay.
And that's fine. But they said no. Somebody's got to pay. And it's going to be her.
It's going to be her. So they do this. She says I will be back. Okay.
So she is very facing West, which was we talked about before me and that she's witch, apparently right where her body fell. But it also feels like this was 100 years post the Salem witch trials and accusing people of being witches. So take with that, what you will. The South tends to always pick up on things a little bit later.
You know, we were really into like, you know, Satan, we were late to that game. Yeah. We were early and then we held on. It could be.
We just hold on to this. Really? We just really let it go. Civil war.
Can't go. Civil war. Just can't say. Panic, panic.
Hold on. Bibles. Like, wait a minute. Didn't Massachusetts do this?
Oh, they did 100 years ago. But you know what? The time is now. The time is now.
We're about 100 years behind here. Cassley stone. You must be a witch. Yeah.
We're just all they didn't say it that way. Listen, I'm the witch. I mean, which get over there. We're going to make this happen for you.
Yeah. So that's that's kind of where we're at. So they buried her facing West right where she fell. They said, we're not even going to roll this witch.
We're just going to bury her right here. They even dig much of her. I don't know. Maybe they already had the whole buried and she just dropped her.
That would be convenient. Like just cut it and fall and that's kind of where we're at. I mean, that feels efficient. It feels like somebody was prepared for that.
Easy, easy. So the answer for Tatlity continued though. So just killing her did not lift the curse. And we actually thought that it couldn't have may not be a curse.
It may be something environmental going on that's causing the death. So it continued, which made people believe that Elizabeth had a need returned. And some of them believe that she had actually like possessed or inhabited her sister-in-law, Mary Tilly Bradley. So they also hung her.
Cheese! So they're like, you know, let's just go for two for two. See what happens. So they hang her from the same tree a year to the day.
But then if it's the same tree, is it the same trajectory? Like is she going to fall into the same grave? So they're gonna have to have the right kind of be I know, they may have had to actually like roll her away. And she's facing West as well.
No, she's not actually. So she was hanged. Same tree year to the day that Elizabeth was hanged. But she was not given the witch's burial since she was only the host for Elizabeth's evil spirit.
So that's kind of where we're at. Okay, so some people claim to see Elizabeth Bradley's ghost wandering the graveyard at Tilly's vintage. While other people say they actually see Mary. Tilly Bradley.
Interesting. So I see both women. How do you differentiate when it's been years? Like do they come to you and they're like, hey, I'm Mary.
Hey, I'm Elizabeth. What up? How you doing? Sometimes they sneak up on you.
You want a curse? Like you better take that baby out of here. You better just don't bring your children here. Do you not bring your kids here?
Nope. Yeah, that's not family friendly location. I hate to run into them. There's apparently also someone another ghost there named Polly Long.
Don't really know who she is. She's not a witch. But there's people that go there and call for Polly Long around the church. They say they would hear a scream and see a light coming towards them if they say her name.
It's scary. I call for Polly. I'm like, okay. Oh, leave them holly.
Yeah, there's also apparently a boy named Keith Stanley who is said to wander around, wanting to tell his story to guests. If he appears, the witches are said to grab it visitor's legs to try to pull them underground. Oh, he's related. He must be somehow.
So if you see this boy, just know the witches are about. Okay, and side note, if he was buried years later, that goes to prove that the curse didn't continue because he had to have been born. So there you go. I figured it out, folks.
Full shit. But also a ghost named Keith just feels a little weird to me. It does. Like, I don't know what I want his name to be, but Keith just feels weird.
Feels like it's Vinny. Like Billy. Hello, Billy. Even Stanley is better than Keith.
Oh, for a ghost? No. Keith is the guy who plays, you know, the drums in the band. Yeah, as Keith.
I am Keith. Yeah, not a scary name to me. No, no, Keith plays the, like Brad. Brad the ghost.
No. Ghost me. It seems like, you know, I'm Thomas Stanley. That feels more ghosty.
Originaled. Oh, I like that. Oh, that sounds like maybe he was a butler. Ooh, originals.
I'm bringing you your last meal. I'm registered. Ghost. Of course, that's brushed.
Oh my God, we have to go to bed. Okay. So Keith, we've got one more ghost. Okay.
Or two people also claim that they only see these ghostly spirits during the day. Some claims to hear babies crying while walking around the property. And there are. It's not a rat-tating.
Please don't. No, no, no, no. We're trying. We're good.
There are also apparently many, many unmarked inventory. Oh, which is horrible. Yeah, I don't like that. Some also claim to see some unexplained paranormal lights.
So if you decide to investigate, be careful while going there at night. Because apparently there have been after hours of vandals around. So if you're going to visit, you may get, it's probably better to go at night. Well, if you go at night, you might get reported to the police because of the vandals.
Oh, so, but also like a daytime ghost, how cool. I like that ghosts are working like going to vibes. Yeah, I appreciate that. Like this is the day shift.
You know, they're going to give report to the night shift. They're going to let it, you know, pretty busy today. I'm like, all right. That's a lot.
You know, so if you want to take it easy tonight, like we've done a lot for you today, so tonight might be okay. Or vice versa. Hey, we really didn't get our shit done today. So it's on you tonight.
It's on you tonight. Like, well, all right. I was going to have some coffee and donuts, but I guess I have to really han it up. Yeah, but since it's all on you now.
You know, I think I would work the day shift. I'm used to that schedule. Yeah, same. It'd be hard to work at night.
Mm-hmm. But like there's something real spooky about a day ghost. I think so. And I think you could scare the absolute but Jesus out of them.
Oh, yeah. Because they're not expecting it. No. Like if some little child named Keith walked up to me in a graveyard, I'd be like, well, that should too bad.
But then all of a sudden a witch has a hold of me. Your legs. My legs that aren't functioning right now. So good luck.
Like I'll just drop some. I'll just drop some. I'll just immediately just deadweight drop the girl. Does not sound good.
Yeah. Side note, I did Google about, you know, brave-facing East actually. Oh, yeah. And so it says that it actually started with ancient sun worshipers and the practice of burying the dead so that their face would face the rising sun.
It actually goes back to ancient Egypt. And then it also says for Christians that the believer in the resurrection of the dead. So placing the body facing East allow the dead to see the second coming of Jesus. How cool.
Yeah. I like that. So each, you know, have their own reasons why that's why. Each like culture, religion, and I like that.
Yeah. We all chose East. Yeah. Well, don't um folks who practice Islam both they created the East.
Is that right? I think it was. That's America. Let me Google that.
Look at that. Which is weird that like East has such a, I feel like it's East. We were when I was in the Czech Republic, the people that we stayed with, there were most of them practices long. So they would pray during the day and they would all have to face it.
Like they've all faced a certain direction. I got to put direction on it. So yes, they pray five times a day facing East in the direction of Mecca. You are correct.
So there's, there's just something about East. Something about East. I like that though. Like it's all like we're all tied together a little bit.
We are tied together. That's cool. We come Eastward and for Christians it's the coming of Jesus. So the resurrection we all have to be buried East.
East East East. I never even thought of it. I never, so you've learned something new today folks. And so if I am glad you showed up on my doorstep tonight.
You're welcome. Thank you. I came here with my tired legs and here we are. Tired legs, but you have done a lot.
Thank you. You're welcome. That was amazing. That's what I got for us tonight.
Listen, if y'all know about this, if you've been there, if you've experienced it, if you were sipping your coffee at 9 a.m. and you ran into a ghost, we want to hear about it. We want to hear about it. You can do so by emailing us at mountainmysteries.apple.com.
You can find us on Facebook at mountainmysteries.talesroomapplelatcha. Find us on Instagram at mountainmysteries.applelatcha. And if you want more bonus content, you can find us on patreon at patreon.com slash mountainmysteries. Do you have a shout out for our folks today, Hailey?
I do. Let's go. Big Stone Gap. I'm watching ya.
I love it. I love it. Felt, you know, we talked about stones last week. And we talked about Stone Gap, but we were in Georgia.
Yeah, it's a big stone gap. I wonder. There's some connection. We are just going to have to look into that.
Bigger stones. Some rivalry here. Oh yeah. Yup.
Tell me about yoga. I'll tell you about mine. Do you have a roundabout? We don't know.
We don't know. Maybe. I didn't know the story. There was no doubt about where we're going.
No, we're going to win. Or there were no stones. So just the timing. A lot happens.
A lot going on. Yup. That's where we're at. Okay.
Well, I'll see you next week. I'll be here. Eh. That's a threat.
I'll be here. I promise. I'll be here at your loins. Bye.
Careful of your babies. Bye.