The Ghost of Yoney Albright

Vintage postcard of Meyersdale

In 1916, a family from Somerset County was reportedly tormented by the ghost of a deceased Civil War veteran named Yoney Albright.

After the death of Jonathan Albright in December of 1915-- better known to those in the east end of Meyersdale as "Yoney"-- his children and grandchildren moved into the house he shared with his second wife, Sarah. According to Yoney's widow, the old man was dead scarcely a week before he returned as an apparition.

One account of the haunting, which appeared in the March 16, 1916 edition of the Meyersdale Republic, described the ghost thusly:

On one occasion several weeks ago, the family averred, he came and stood at the head of the stairs and ordered them all out of the house. They were so frightened by his austere manner and stern command that they all ran to the home of Andrew Lehman nearby and told the Lehman family about their supernatural visitor and his extraordinary conduct.

Of course, the Lehmans and other members of the community were skeptical and, upon further investigation, it was discovered that the haunting was just a cruel hoax perpetrated upon an old, grieving widow by children... and that the "ghost" of Yoney Albright was nothing more than a poodle dressed in human clothing: