William Wortham Pool

Who was William Wortham Pool?

William Wortham Pool was an American bookkeeper. His name and burial site became synonymous with legend and folklore surrounding the supernatural due to a railroad tunnel cave-in that occurred in the Richmond, Virginia, district of Church Hill on October 2, 1925.

He was born in Mississippi, the son of Samuel Pool and Nancy Rose Wortham. His siblings were John R. Pool; Thomas Pool; Albert Pool; and Dirdus Pool. His father was a merchant and, in 1860, William was a clerk in Jackson.

In the 1860s, Pool moved to Virginia. He was a clerk in a tobacco factory in Manchester, in 1870. In 1880 and 1900, he was a bookkeeper. He was working as a private secretary in 1910; then as a bookkeeper again in 1920 in Richmond.

In c. 1866, he and Alice Purdue were married. They had four children, Lawrence P. Pool; Annie W. Pool; Samuel Pool; and Mary L. Pool. His wife and children were all born in Virginia.

William W. Pool died at age 80. He is interred in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond.