THE DEVIL'S BABY OF RAVENSWOOD, WV:
THE TRUTH, THE LEGEND, AND THE MYSTERY THAT JUST GOT DARKER
By Ted Derek Cochran
The Ravenswood Cemetery has always been a quiet place — a place of weathered stones, leaning trees, and the kind of silence that makes you feel watched even when you’re alone. Among its oldest graves lies one of West Virginia’s most whispered about markers: the resting place of George Elwood Sharp, the child locals call “The Devil’s Baby.”
George Elwood Sharp was born April 27, 1915, the first child of Louis (Lewis) Sharp and Willa (Willie Mae Siders) Sharp, a young Ravenswood couple making a simple life while Louis worked for the government at the nearby lock and dam. They were not wealthy, not famous, not unusual — just a family who buried their firstborn far too soon.
George died on July 21, 1917. There is no death certificate. No obituary. No church record. Nothing. His passing is a blank space in the county’s history.
For Jackson County in 1917, this wasn’t unheard of. Records from that year were often lost, misplaced, or never filed at all. What remains today is a child’s grave, a name, a date, a porcelain portrait… and the silence of unanswered questions.
As decades passed, nature took its toll on that portrait. Sun, rain, heat, and bitter winters warped the image. And from that damage, a legend was born.
Visitors swore the photo glowed at night. They said the baby’s eyes followed them. Some claimed the distorted features looked demonic. Others felt the air grow colder as they approached, and a few insisted they heard a child crying around midnight.
And so the “Devil’s Baby” entered Ravenswood folklore — not from evil, but from weather, imagination, and our human need to explain what unsettles us.
I wrote the origin story years ago after visiting the grave myself as a teenager. Recently, I learned the porcelain portrait had been removed — stolen. Grave markers, portraits, and cemetery property are protected by law. Removing or damaging them is a crime that can carry fines and even jail time.
Whoever took the photo didn’t just steal a piece of folklore — they stole a piece of a family’s history. And they may have invited more attention than they expected.
With the portrait gone, the grave feels different. Emptier. Still. Silent. Yet somehow more alive than before. People are already asking: Who took it? Why? Was it a souvenir… or something darker? Did removing the image break the legend — or feed it?
Some say the grave looks calmer now, freed from the eerie photo. Others say the air feels heavier, as if something important was disturbed and shouldn’t have been.
My only thought is this: I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of the person who tampered with that grave. Folklore aside, disturbing a burial site has a way of bringing misfortune — the kind that lingers.
George Elwood Sharp was a real child, and his life and death remain a mystery. But legends cling to the forgotten, and with his portrait stolen and his story stirring again, one question lingers in the dark corners of Ravenswood Cemetery:
Cheers.
