Laura Wright 
The community of Middleway, West Virginia, has been known by several names over the years.
Smithfield.
Wizard Clip.
And sometimes simply Clip.
The unusual names are connected to an eighteenth-century haunting involving a farmer named Adam Livingston and an unseen presence that became known as the Clip Wizard, Mad Shearer, or Phantom Clipper.
A Stranger Comes to the Livingston Home
In 1794, Adam Livingston was living on his farm in Middleway when a stranger arrived at his house one evening.
The man asked Livingston if he could stay for a while.
Livingston agreed.
Within only a few days, however, the stranger became gravely ill. His condition deteriorated until there seemed little possibility that he would recover.
Realizing that he was dying, the stranger made one final request.
He begged Livingston to send for a priest so that he could receive the last rites.
Livingston Refuses
Livingston was a devoted Lutheran and had little tolerance for Catholics.
He refused.
No Catholic priest, he declared, would enter his house for any reason.
The dying stranger continued pleading as his condition worsened, but Livingston would not change his mind.
Eventually, the man died.
And almost immediately, strange things began happening around the Livingston farm.
Phantom Horses in the Night
That night, the occupants of the Livingston house heard something approaching.
Horses.
A group of them seemed to be galloping toward the house.
The invisible steeds approached the property, circled the house several times, and then faded into the distance.
No actual horses could be found.
The same thing happened again.
Night after night, the Livingston family heard the sound of phantom horses galloping around their home.
But the horses were only the beginning.
Disaster Comes to the Farm
The Livingston barn burned.
Then the family’s cattle were stricken with a fatal case of murrain, killing nearly all of them.
Next came the chickens and other fowl.
They were discovered around the property with their heads removed.
The wounds were remarkably clean, almost as though the animals had been decapitated with scissors or a surgical knife.
Then Livingston’s savings disappeared.
The strange force seemed determined to destroy nearly everything the farmer possessed.
Soon, it began targeting people as well.
The Mad Shearer
The attacks against people were not known to cause serious physical injuries.
Instead, the entity developed a bizarre specialty.
It began cutting things.
The Livingston house became haunted by what witnesses described as a Mad Shearer or Phantom Clipper.
At all hours, family members could hear the unmistakable sound of scissors:
Clip. Clip. Clip.
Fabric was mysteriously cut into pieces.
Clothing was damaged.
Furniture and other household items were clipped.
Even boots and shoes were cut while people were wearing them.
Visitors could approach the Livingston house only to discover that their clothing had somehow been cut from their backs.
No one could explain how it was happening.
The Hidden Piece of Silk
One woman decided to test the mysterious clipper.
She brought a piece of silk with her when she visited the Livingston home.
Rather than carrying it openly, she carefully concealed the silk inside a cotton handkerchief, which she then placed inside her bag.
If the stories about the Mad Shearer were true, she wanted to see whether the entity could reach something deliberately hidden from it.
Nothing unusual happened during her visit.
The woman left the Livingston house believing her experiment had failed.
Then, on her way home, she checked the bag.
The cotton handkerchief was completely intact.
The silk concealed inside it had been clipped to pieces.
Even the Horses Were Clipped
The phenomenon wasn’t limited to people or objects inside the house.
Horses also became targets.
Saddlecloths were mysteriously cut while they remained beneath the saddles.
The cuts themselves had another peculiar characteristic.
They repeatedly appeared in crescent or half-moon shapes.
By this point, stories of the strange events had spread well beyond the Livingston farm.
Visitors arrived from different directions hoping to investigate the mystery.
No one could solve it.
Livingston became increasingly despondent.
He began to believe that no one would ever be able to help his family.
Livingston Turns to a Priest
Eventually, Livingston did something that would have been unthinkable when the dying stranger first arrived at his home.
He sought the assistance of a Catholic priest.
The priest agreed to visit the Livingston house.
There, he performed what was described as a “bell, book and candle” ritual.
A hand bell, Bible, and candle were used during the prayers or rites performed inside the house.
Then something remarkable happened.
The Clipping Stops
After the first Mass was performed inside the Livingston home, the activity ceased.
The phantom scissors stopped.
The attacks ended.
The strange phenomena that had tormented the Livingston family disappeared.
There were rumors of occasional activity afterward, but these incidents were described as harmless and were eventually forgotten.
The terrifying period of clipping had ended.
The Clip Wizard of Middleway
The story left a permanent mark upon the community.
The strange force had supposedly destroyed livestock, burned a barn, stolen money, summoned the sounds of phantom horses, and cut clothing and fabric without ever revealing itself.
But the strangest aspect of the story may be its symmetry.
A dying Catholic stranger begged Adam Livingston to bring a priest into his home.
Livingston refused.
After the stranger died, the haunting began.
Livingston endured the phenomena until he finally did the very thing he had once refused to do.
He brought a priest into the house.
The priest performed Mass.
And the Clip Wizard stopped clipping
About the Author
