Rock-a-Bye Baby Ghost: Near Georgia's Mysterious Mountain

It was late summer in Georgia and stories began to surface of something strange coming from the area of the Summit of Welsh Mountain, between Morgantown and Waynesboro. The story came from Rock Eagle

Just a pleasant outing.....

.  For two weeks, people reported hearing the cries of a child, just off the main road.  

Then on one Sunday evening in August 1875 two men and two women were traveling that way. Robert Gorman reported they heard "heartrending" cries as if someone was shamefully abusing a child.  The cries were terrible and brought the quartet to a state of great fear and unease.  Miss Elle Parker, from near Paoli, spotted the basket hanging high in the branches of a tree just off the main road.  It was swinging gently back and forth and the cries were coming from within.

As all eyes followed where she directed they were greatly spooked and disturbed by the danger facing the child.  Just as they began to plan how to retrieve the basket, the child gave a mighty piercing cry and the basket crashed downward.  Frozen, their eyes wide with shock, they saw the basket falling, saw the child within moving, and then the group saw it....suddenly back up in the tree where it had been and the child once more crying as before.

Totally terrified now, the group watched and basket swinging back and forth. The ladies were definite they saw the child move within the basket high in the branches.

The next day a search party of local officials and interested parties went out to investigate.  Mr. J.S. Peters, of Lancaster City, said he too saw the basket, saw the baby in it move, heard its cries and saw it disappear only be once more in the high branches.

"Welsh Mt." is thought to refer to "Fort Mountain" in Murray County.  One of the interesting things about this story is this is in an area where legends survive of blonde, light skinned and blue eyed Welsh explorers called 'Moon Eyed' because of their night vision.  There is almost a mythic changling element to this ghost story.  It is near an area of a strange rock wall snaking along a summit and is thought related to those Welsh legends.

Sources:

("A Ghost in the Form of a Baby." The Atlanta Constitution, 25 August 1875, pg 2).