Weird Western Maryland

Here's another supernatural "token" described in Florence Harris Abel's entertaining book The Beitzel Family. To the old-time Beitzels, remember, a token was what others might call an omen: A token was the sign or signal of someone’s death, often occurring with the manifestation of the person’s image or a symbolic occurrence. Just as a ghost is often not recognized as a ghost until it is gone, so a token frequently is not recognized as a token until after the person has died. Some think that as the spirit begins to loosen itself from the earthly body, it enters the presence of persons it has known in this life. … The older generation frequently talked of seeing tokens. Abel titles this story "The Bee in the Cupboard." One night in April 1930, in Henry J. Beitzel and Cynthia Beitzel's kitchen at Keyser's Ridge, all the family members present heard a buzzing in the cupboard, like a bee trying to free itself. Abel continues: Upon inspection, the buzz...

  Too many family histories read, to the outsider, like a litany of birth dates, marriage dates, death dates, the dates of everyone’s descendants and everyone’s ancestors and everyone’s cousins, all the small-print data that my mother, no genealogist, dismissed as “the begats” – “like the parts of the Old Testament you skip.” My mother wanted stories. She would have enjoyed Florence Harris Abel’s 1986 book The Beitzel Family, an unexpected treasure in the stacks at Frostburg State University’s Ort Library. Yes, Abel includes all the begats of her sprawling Garrett County subject, but like Deuteronomy they are easily skipped to get to the wealth of good stories. Abel even includes stories on a theme most family histories shun: the supernatural. Abel titles one “The Midnight Visitor.” One night in spring 1930, not long after their marriage, while Beitzel descendant Clarence Sell peacefully slept, young Mrs. Sell* beside him was abruptly awakened. Looking up she saw a strange el...