Winter in Adair County's rolling farm land is dismal, bleak and cold. The nights are raw; the days gray, pale and often without sunlight. In the hills and hollows along Sulphur Creek winter is depressing and monotonous. Even the willows reflect the mood.

On such a day last winter, I found myself seated around the pot bellied stove in Jack Burton's store, listening to the boys discuss politics and weather. Finally the conversation turned to some of the local legends that every community has. One of the boys related the following story that has been handed down in this area for generations.

Back in slaved days, a little negro boy was killed by his master up on Campbell Ridge, near present Lovedale Church. It seems that the owner chopped the little fellow's head off and buried it separately from his body.

On moonlit nights for almost 100 years the local citizens have told stories of seeing the slave boy traveling Campbell Ridge at night, searching for his missing head.

About 80 years ago a Mr. Roberts was riding horseback down Campbell Ridge about midnight. Suddenly the headless slave boy leaped up behind him! Immediately Mr. Roberts applied whip and spur and soon was traveling at a high rate of speed, on a willing horse. Apparently the little ghost felt queasy about the wild ride for he dismounted somewhere the Chestnut Corner, a local landmark.

It is said that the ghost could also take on the form of a dog or a cat. A Mr. Judd. once saw him in the form of a shepherd dog. Upon kicking the animal his foot passed through it and it disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.

Mr. Asa Campbell if Campbell Ridge states that he saw it in the form of a cat several years ago and that when he grabbed it his hands passed through it as though it were smoke. His mother Mrs. Antle Campbell, age 92, saw it in 1911 in the form of a headless dog. It walked through dry leaves as silently as if on a feather- bed. Asa's father Jim Campbell had it ride behind him on a horse, and Mr. Otis Campbell once found the ghost sitting by his well.

A few years ago the ghost was seen near the Silvermine Hill, but has not made an appearance for about 10 years now. About that time a small hole was found, about the size of a small boy's head, near the old Allen School House. Perhaps the little fellow finally found his long missing head and is now at rest after 100 years.