With warmer weather ahead, most of us will be hitting the trail and enjoying the great outdoors. One of my favorite things to do in the woods is look for the ruins of old houses, barns, or other structures. If you've kept your eyes open while you're hiking, you know what I mean. You can see stone foundations of houses, long abandoned wells, and even cemeteries. What's fun is learning the almost forgotten history of the ruins. One of my favorite stories is the story of the Westenberger Mansion, home to the hermit, and drunk Urban Westenberger.
The Mansion, formerly known as "Green Castle" is located in Page County, Virginia. The story starts long before Westenberger, on a slave plantation in the early 1800s. Green Castle was built by George Keyser for his daughter Rachel, who was later married to John Wesley Bell, a prominent farmer. Bell had been described as a cruel and brutal planter; it is rumored that he had chains in his basement where he whipped and tortured his slaves.
In February of 1842, Bell road out to speak with two of his slaves, Captain and Martin. While Bell was speaking to Captain, Martin struck Bell in the back of the head with an ax, splitting his skull. The slaves put his body in the river and that night it snowed, covering the blood trail. The slaves had said that Bell drowned, but about a month later Bell's body was recovered, and it became clear that he was murdered. Martin and Captain admitted immediately to the crime and were hanged.
Rachel and her son James remained in Green Castle despite the death of the John. James was often described as a "genial, well-liked" young man. He often spent his nights in town, living with various friends. One day after returning home he went to his room and locked the door. Rachel heard a gunshot but thought nothing of it because it was common for James to shoot crows from his window. Later they found him dead in his room with his shotgun by his side. What makes this odd is that James had no reason to commit suicide. Supposedly after his death the bedroom door refused to be closed, and his bloodstains could not be scrubbed out or painted over. This was the first of four other bizarre incidents that happened on the farm.
The next was the death of Elizabeth Kite, who, despite being a strong swimmer, was swept away by a flood. Elizabeth's body was found in the branches of a sycamore tree not far from Green Castle, an eerie coincidence being that she lived on the premises but not in the house itself. Not long after that, 6-year-old Abigail Keyser was reportedly pulled into the river and drowned by a "black hairy arm." Eight eyewitnesses testified that this was how she died, and her body was never recovered. 10 years after the flood that killed Elizabeth, and five years after Abigail died, another young girl died. Chyanne Keyser, who was 9 years old, went missing and shortly after a search party was dispatched; her mother, Emily, said she thought she saw Chyanne, or what she thought was her, enter their home and lock herself in her room. When they got into the room Chyanne was nowhere to be found, just her teddy bear who she had named "Captain." Her body was found in the woods three miles away from Green Castle, which is odd because she seemed to have drowned; her body had looked like it was in the water for some time. She was laid to rest in the Keyser family plot with her teddy bear.
The cemetery itself is surrounded by an iron fence, and outside of it lies the tombstone of Mary A. Keyser, mother of B. F. Keyser, who is also on the tombstone, along with his wife Lydia C. Keyser. It is odd that there is no known reason for the tombstone to have three names or for it to be outside of the iron fence. There are supposedly other deaths and disappearances that happened over the years, but I could not find and do not know the details behind them.
Then, in the late 1940s, Urban Westenberger moved to Green Castle and established a farm he called Lorelei Estates. He lived in the two-story, 13-room mansion by himself. This only added to his reputation as an eccentric hermit. Being a brewer not only added to his drinking habits, which were quite excessive, but it made him very successful financially. So much that he could afford to build a mausoleum for his parents, right beside the Keyser graveyard. He had two clear glass coffins built for his parents, and he had them shipped to his house so they could be placed in the mausoleum. However, while it was being constructed, he kept them in his home. This attracted many people to come see the haunted house and graveyard even before Westenberger went missing.
However, Westenberger never really went missing. He was a wine brewer, and the wine he made did not pass state inspection, so in 1955 he left Virginia for Florida. Since he lived such a secluded lifestyle, along with Green Castle's troubled past, it is likely that rumors circulated that he just vanished. After he left, the house was partially burned and the lumber inside was auctioned off by the National Forest Service. The mausoleum became a spot for partying and a spot for odd rituals, it was badly vandalized, and in 1994 a body was found in a ditch. The body was identified as Westenberger's mother, which is strange for many reasons. Westenberger, who had been a young man, had moved to Green Castle in the 1940s, so at most that's a 54 year difference. Assuming Westenberger left his parents in the mausoleum, her body would have been decaying for 39 years.
Green Castle has no doubt seen its fair share of paranormal and strange occurrences. Slaves were cruelly tortured and mistreated, buried in unmarked graves in the woods. John Wesley Bell was brutally murdered and thrown in the river. His son James found dead from an inexplicable suicide. Three young girls who lived on the land drowned in the river in only a 10-year time span. Westenberger, eccentric and odd to begin with, came from Rheingau, a great wine district in Germany. He should have had no trouble at all making wine but was shut down because his wine was considered "a dirty vinegar."
While the ruins you can find don't always have history this exciting, it just goes to show that within them does lay a sort of forgotten history.
