The oldest and most highly-embroidered ghost story from the Droop Mountain Battlefield is summarized by Terry Lowry in Last Sleep: The Battle of Droop Mountain November 6, 1863.

The Droop Mountain Battlefield has so many ghost stories associated with it that Terry Lowry, in his 1996 book Last Sleep: The Battle of Droop Mountain November 6, 1863 devotes the final chapter to "The Ghosts of Droop Mountain." He offers this explanation:

While it is fairly common for ghost stories to arise out of Civil War sites, Droop Mountain probably ranks near, or even at the top, of such areas to spawn wild-eyed stories of ghosts, apparitions, headless soldiers, illusions, and the like. Due primarily to its somewhat isolated, rural location, Droop Mountain battlefield has been the scene of many unexplained happenings since the Civil War battle that took place there in 1863. This is not unusual, considering fog "often rolls over the mountain in waves, there one minute, gone the next," creating an eerie atmosphere conducive to tales of ghosts and the supernatural.

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Since I moved to Pocahontas County I've heard quite a few ghost stories. The storytellers have a variety of attitudes about their narratives. Some of them think they're amusing anecdotes about rural superstition, others take them as proof of life after death, but most of them are like me. They aren't sure what to make of it. It could be hallucinations, it could be spirits of the dead, it could be some sort of cosmic trick. I have formed no hypothesis, scientific, philosophical, or religious, to explain these phenomena, but I have experienced a couple of ghostly apparitions myself. I remain puzzled, and therefore, I remain interested, hoping to find an answer.

A very large wishbone to support all that holly and mistletoe!

Postmark: Des Moines, Iowa, December 21, 1907

To: Florence Williamson

Dear Florence,
How are you this Yuletide? You evidently are not coming up this winter.
Well, A Merry Xmas.
L.M.W.

Pretty ladies and pretty birds--I don't know if the juxtaposition means anything, but there's nothing overtly seasonal except the holly and the message. I wonder if this is the beginning of Fox News' perceived "War on Christmas?"

Des Moines, Iowa, December 29, 1909.

Miss Florence Williamson,
Williamson, Iowa

Dear Florence,
I write to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Had a good time at Anna's at the Christmas dinner. Hope you are all well. Regards to all.
Minnie Reagan
939 20th St.

Postmark: Cromwell, Iowa, December 23, 1908

Miss Florence Williamson,
Williamson, Iowa

Merry Christmas to you. Wish that I might have visited with you Thanksgiving--I am kept pretty close at home with sickness.
Lovingly,
Jo Sutton