He sat tall in the saddle, extra tall.
Dressed in the darkest black, his chalky white and stone-like face
contrasted starkly with his very fine formal suit and high silk hat.
He sat straight as the sighing pines around him as he rode slowly
along on a large, sleek black horse.
His gaze was always forward. He never gave the slightest indication
he saw or recognized anyone he met in the road or trail,or who might
stand by his wayside.
He always appeared on Easter Sunday. It might be at daybreak, high
noon, or at twilight, but for years, not an Easter passed on
Mt.Sherman but that someone reported a sighting of the strange black
rider. He followed no
certain pathway. He might be on the country road,
down a back lane or trail, or riding thru open fields or
in the deep woods.

His dress alone was enough to send shivers down brave spines.
As one lady put it, nothing outside the graveyard looked like that
in the area at the time, and not many in the graveyard were dressed
that way.

Once, a Methodist minister met the black-dressed rider on a lonely
back trail. Thinking he must have met another man of the cloth,
maybe even a bishop, he called heartily to him.
Almost instantly, both the sleek black horse and its equally
black-dressed rider rose straight upward into the air.
When about tree top high they suddenly disappeared. That
preacher quickly rode on, hoping to reach home before dark!
It was years and long after the black-dressed rider was no longer
seen at Mt.Sherman, before he told of his strange experience.

Over the years it became more apparent that what at first was
thought to be an eccentric stranger passing thru the country, was
indeed something not of this world. Many folks stayed in all day
Easter Sundays hoping to avoid seeing the ghostly rider. Others who
scoffed at such fear, went along trails and roads most of the day
hoping (they said) to catch a glimpse of the tall horseman.
But it was noticed that such persons usually went in groups of a half
dozen or so.
But the phantom traveler never appeared to those who looked for him.
He was only seen by chance travelers who were usually alone at the
time of encounter.

But the "hant" served a useful purpose or two.
Half grown "youngins" were told that if they didn't behave, the
old black-dressed rider would get them. And young folks who were
overly concerned with courting often heard the admonition,"Be shore
and git in afore dark falls or the old black-dressed rider may ketch
ye along the road sommers,even iffen hit ain't Easter Sunday".

On least on one occasion, Ab Phillips, a noted Methodist minister
of the area (great uncle of this writer), was mistaken for the
dreaded black-dressed horseman. He had preached that Easter Sunday at
Low Gap, but was to have dinner with a family that lived near present
Mt. Sherman school.

A neighbor lad of that family was strolling in the woods that morning
near their home and close by the country road.
At the sound of hoof beats, he looked up to see a straight-sitting
and black-clothed man, riding along on a sleek black horse.
That lad bolted thru the woods like a chased deer, raced across an
orchard and lunged wildly into the neighbor's yard.
Most of the family had gathered on the long, narrow, front porch to
await the arrival of the beloved old mountain preacher, and of
course, were in anxious anticipation of the chicken and dumplings
which simmered on the kitchen hearth.

Jumping onto that porch and dashing quickly on thru the dog trot
(open hallway) the terrified lad called out that the
"old black-dressed rider was jist ahind him." Well, that boy
soon had all that family "jist ahind" him as they all tore across
the backyard thru the garden, and into the thick bushes beyond it.

When Uncle Ab Phillips arrived at the front gate, he was greeted by a
friendly dog and the tantalizing smell of hot chicken and dumplings.
But strangely enough, there did not seem to be a soul around.
Finally though the father of that family,peered thru the brush, saw
and recognized the expected Sunday guest, and realized that the
preacher had been mistaken for the black-dressed rider. With red face
he gathered and led the family back to the house. He quickly, and
somewhat nervously explained that they had been inspecting a
gooseberry patch while they awaited the guest's arrival.
(That wasn't the first face-saving lie ever told and it surely
wasn't the last!)

The old minister seemed to enjoy that meal very much but he
couldn't help but notice that some of the children were a bit
nervous and kept looking down the trail which led from the road up
to the dwelling.

Over the years rumors arose as to the cause of the ghostly,Easter
appearances of the black-dressed rider. For one thing it was
observed that he always appeared within a short distance of a certain
farmstead in the area, and from whatever direction,he was always
headed toward that place.

A family from McMinn County,Tennessee had bought and moved onto that
farm at about the time of the first appearance of the ghostly
horseman. That family kept mostly to themselves, never socializing
with their mountain neighbors.
But a certain man in the neighborhood, who always went in autumn
to the Atkins bottoms in Pope County, Arkansas, to pick cotton
happened to strike up an acquaintance with the man, also from
McMinn County, Tennessee, who knew the new-comers on Mt.Sherman.

He told how the wife of that family was a daughter of a tenant
farmer who lived on the plantation of a very wealthy and aristocratic
citizen of Athens, Tennessee (county seat of McMinn,County).
That prominent land owner always dressed in the finest black and daily
rode his sleek black horse over his plantations while supervising
his sharecroppers.

In time his wife had sickened and died and he had hired a daughter
of one of his tenants as a nurse for her.The wife had died soon after
the girl was hired.
Not long after that, the wealthy widower professed his love for the
hired girl and sought to win her hand in marriage. But alas, she was
already engaged to her father's stepbrother. However the bereaved
but romantic widower, persisted in his efforts to win the object of
his devotion, much to the chagrin of her fiance.

Finally, in an angry confrontation, the old gentleman was killed
by the engaged suitor. The murder had occurred on an Easter Sunday.
Soon after that, the young girl and her fugitive beau had fled from
the state.

It was that couple which later settled on Mt.Sherman, and near whose
farmstead the strange black-clothed rider always appeared.

That migrant cotton picker neighbor of the McMinn County couple soon
returned to Mt. Sherman but he kept his secret until long after the
young bride was dead, and her husband had moved on to an unknown
destination.

Sometime up toward the following spring after the return of the
migrant worker from Atkins, the young woman from McMinn County,
Tennessee sickened and died. A distant neighbor came later to her
wake(sitting up with the dead). As he tied his horse to the fence
near her cabin, another horseman drew up by his side. As he looked
to see who had arrived, his blood froze in horror. Sitting tall and
straight, and clearly visible in the bright moonlight, was the
dreaded black-clothed rider.
It was his only known night and non-Easter appearance. He looked long
and intently toward the dimly lighted cabin, then turned and rode
slowly away.
And back thru the stillness of that late winter night, came the sound
of bitter weeping. He was never seen on Mt.Sherman again.

ADDED NOTE: Dear reader, pity not the tall dark stranger who,time
and again, rode forth from his grave, seeking the object of his
affection.
Rather pity those, the living dead, who because of crushed hopes
and bitter disappointments, wander about over the trails and roadways
of life in despondency and despair.
They ever hope, but know there is no hope.
They ever seek, but never find.
The sun never rises to dispel their gloom, nor does warm spring ever
break to thaw the frozen crust of their embittered hearts.

They too may pause long at the locked gate of long dead hope and
ambition, then ride on in their gloomy night of frustration and
futility,weeping bitterly as they go.