The Strange Light at the Church

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
​In 1977, an article was written about a strange light and ghostly sightings occurring at a 150-year-old Virginia church. Even after 40 years no satisfactory explanation has ever been supplied as to what really transpired there.

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Olive Branch Methodist Church c. present day

Bowie Goodman, a parishioner of the church died two days after the article was published in 1977. He claimed it was an affront to Christianity to believe it was haunted. He had been attending the church since childhood.

However the stories must have had validity, since several church members conducted an investigation to find the source. No plausible explanation was ever given as to their findings, or lack thereof.

Could the source be the graveyard around the church? One of its earliest burials dated back to 1853.

Excerpt of an article written by Tom Tiede about the Olive Branch Methodist Church (1977):

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For as long as anyone can remember there have been strange doings at the Olive Branch Methodist Church. In the dead of the night, when conditions are right an eerie light glows in the window of the hilltop tabernacle. The cause is unknown, but some people here think a ghost is at play.

Undeniably, the church is an ideal location for a mischievous spirit. Constructed in 1833 it is isolated on the bend of a lonely road and sits hard by a seedy cemetery. Believers reason that one of the graves is open ended, that is to say it has access to both worlds, and its restless inhabitants comes back and forth at will.

This seems melodramatic, residents admit, but how else to explain the phenomenon?Kenneth Dean who lives down the road from the church, swears he has not only seen the night light, but 'once when I came by I saw this white thing floating across the road. Scout's honor', Dean says, 'Ask my mother, she saw the same thing.'

Assuredly, many people have seen and heard the doings at the Olive Branch Church. On the weekends here, cars full of witnesses line the road. Currie Moore, a miner, says people see the light almost every evening now: 'When the light appears, the people get noisy, then they quiet down again and wait for it to come back.'

For all its regularity, the light is variously described by those who've experienced it. Some say it's a blue light, which squares with the color of the tint in the church window. Others, however, insist the light is white. And 15-year-old Fred Coble says the glow is yellow.

Whatever its color, arguments concerning the light's origin are equally confusing. Some believe the glow is an effect of the church furnace, but others point out the furnace is in the basement and the light is on the first floor. Similarly, many feel it's some kind of prank by children, but night after night for decades?

Aquia Church with graveyard in the foreground

This is not the only Virginia church with a reputation for being haunted.

In 1667, Aquia Church was built and named after a nearby creek. It would be one of several, smaller churches built to allow parishioners to get to church easily since good roads were a scarcity. The site was right off the main road from Fredericksburg to northern Virginia. In those years, Church attendance was mandatory by law, and failure to show would lead to fines.

Before 1700, the Aquia Church burned down and was replaced with a wooden chapel. By 1745, it was decided to remake the structure out of brick.

Lawrence Washington, George Washington's elder half-brother who owned the nearby iron-works Accokeek Furnace, was involved in the petition for the new structure. Having contracted tuberculosis, in 1749 Lawrence Washington left for England, and then Barbados in hopes of outrunning the disease. He died in 1752, at the age of 34. Others took up the mantle in getting the brick church erected.

A silver communion set was made on the orders of one of its ministers. The set was hidden during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War.

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Interior of the Aquia Church c. mid-19th century

Whether it was coincidence or a curse, misfortune seemed to follow the church at Aquia. The new structure, and the old wooden one near it burned down two days from completion.

Mourning Richards, the architect was almost ruined by the fire, and he rebuilt the new church without pay and turned it over to the vestry in 1757.

The Revolutionary War caused rifts in the church, and a new law allowed churches without rectors to be taken by the government. Aquia Church did not have a rector for 13 years. During this time the church had fallen into a wretched condition, with a dirty interior and broken windows . In 1817, local families started to clean it, but of three Episcopal churches in the county only Aquia had services, but not on a regular basis. It wasn't until 1853, that Aquia Church was thoroughly repaired.

Allegedly it was repairmen who discovered a woman's skeleton, with long blonde hair still attached to the skull. The congregation had no way of identifying her, so she was buried in the church graveyard. Brownish stains on the wooden floor which many believed was dry blood, was not covered up until the 20th century with new concrete flooring. This story might be more urban myth than actual historical fact. 

Folklore tells this murder probably occurred around the time of the Revolutionary War, when the roads were unsafe. Highwaymen stopped a carriage, and killed all except the young woman who fled into the nearby church which was empty. The church was not in regular use, and they hid her body in the belfry where it remained for decades.

The haunting at the church are the sounds of a reenactment of the crime. Steps are heard running up and down the belfry stairs. There is also a woman sighted at a window; a terrified expression on her face. In modern times, she's been dubbed Blonde Beth.

The Civil War was not kind to Aquia Church. Its once convenient location off a main road proved to be a liability, since it was used as a supply route for different armies.

In 1862, the 4th Texas regiment headquartered in the church. By February, 1863 the 9th New York Cavalry took over.

After the war, Aquia church had been defaced, the marble floors in the chancel were torn up and the pews were damaged. The Union Army has stabled their horses inside. It wasn't until 1870 that the church was renovated. Present day it is an active church.

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In October, 1933 a memorial was unveiled at the Old Aquia Cemetery

The area is replete with important history. There is an old Aquia cemetery, which received burials from 1698 until 1800. This was the site of the first Catholic settlement in Virginia. An annual field mass would take place in October to celebrate the feast of Christ the King. It was the Declaration of Independence that gave Catholics equal rights with their Protestant neighbors.

The burial ground is also known as the Brent Family Cemetery, and is considered the first Catholic burying ground in the English-speaking world. It's located near the Witches' Pond, behind the Aquia Episcopal Church. The oldest grave dates back to 1681, and it's the resting place for members of the first English Roman Catholic settlement in the New World. 

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Jane Doe's body was found close to the crucifix at Brent Family Cemetery in 1998

The morning after Halloween, 1998, Russell Lewis the self-appointed Brent Cemetery caretaker came across something white lying in a tangle of poison ivy and greenbrier. This was along one of the paths leading to the cemetery. Considering the date, he thought it was a plastic skull, but then after closer inspection he realized there were fillings in the teeth.

Anthropologists determined the skeleton belong to a woman who was in her late 30s. She measured 5'9" in height, was wearing all her clothes, which consisted of a Redskins shirt, shorts, dark pantyhose and blue jeans. On her feet were canvas platforms with buckles, size  8 1/2. A yellow metal earring shaped like a leaf, and brown sunglasses were found with her. She wore her hair in brown braids, she had a black onyx pentagram ring on one of her fingers. She might have been a smoker since a lighter was found with the remains, and she had a healed rib fracture. 

Examination could not determine how she died, but she had been dead for about a year. Efforts through the years have been made to identify her, and despite recreating her face in clay, not even her name has been discovered. Her DNA is on file.

Perhaps it's no coincidence the remains of this Jane Doe was found close to The Witches' Pond, which has always attracted those involved in the occult. The waters are said to turn blood red in late spring. The story told is that the area around Brent Cemetery was dubbed the "Witch's Circle" due to three witches who were said to have lived there.

According to the county historical society the place has some kind of "satanic hook". Its reputation along with the isolated and creepy atmosphere adds to its allure. The fact that its been accepting burials since at least 1670 adds another layer of mystery.

A stone altar was dedicated by a Catholic women's group in 1933. Among occult websites it's been called a "sacrificial table." The woman's skeleton was found about 400 feet from the pond. Was she killed as a sacrifice?

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