Naptbalem Gregory was an early frontier hunter and woodsman whose tragic murder in the 1760s gave rise to one of the most famous supernatural legends of the Greenbrier Valley.
The Hunter of Naps Creek
Long before the American Revolution, Gregory established a seasonal hunting camp on a stream in the Greenbrier Valley, located near where the Westminster Church stands today. Because of his presence, early pioneers and land surveys originally referred to this stream as Naps Creek (or Nap’s Creek). Over a century later, the spelling in official county records gradually evolved into Knapps Creek, matching a prominent family name in the area.
The Frontier Betrayal
In the early 1760s, the Augusta County Court officially reported Gregory as "missing in the Greenbrier". Local history and frontier tradition reveal a dark conspiracy behind his sudden disappearance: Gregory had enjoyed a highly successful trapping season and accumulated a massive haul of valuable fur skins.
A band of ruthless white outlaws discovered his success. To escape frontier justice, the outlaws dressed themselves as Native Americans, ambushed Gregory’s camp, and murdered him to steal his furs. Gregory was killed just as he returned to his camp from an exhausting bear chase.
The Faithful Hounds of Brown’s Mountain
Hoping to conceal their crime, the murderers dragged Gregory's body up the slopes of Brown's Mountain to throw it into a deep limestone sinkhole.
However, they did not reckon on the loyalty of his hunting dogs. While the killers were dragging the body, Gregory’s hounds returned from the bear chase, struck their master's scent, and trailed the party "at full mouth" (howling loudly). The dogs caught up to the outlaws near the edge of the sinkhole and launched a ferocious attack to defend their dead master. Outnumbered and terrified of being exposed by the dogs' baying, the outlaws killed the hounds and threw them into the pit. Gregory and his faithful dogs ultimately shared a common, unmarked wilderness grave.
The Legend of the Hunter’s Moon
According to local folklore, Gregory's story did not end in the sinkhole. For nearly two hundred years, a chilling legend persisted in the Allegheny mountains. It was said that during the autumn "hunter's moon," individuals who were born with a "veil" (a caul) and blessed with the "second sight" could still hear Gregory's spectral hounds.
Witnesses claimed to hear the ghostly pack baying "at full mouth" as they struck the drag trail on the mountain, coursing it all the way up to the sinkhole, where their phantom growls were suddenly silenced by the sputtering, echoing cracks of ghostly flintlock gun discharges.
🎧 This spectral tale of frontier murder and ghost hounds would make a gripping segment in a local folklore audio briefing. Would you like me to create an audio production of these Allegheny ghost stories?
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