Visit any town in Alabama and you will most likely hear a local ghost story. You will hear stories of civil war soldiers, haunted riverboats, spectral visitors at university campuses and many tales of apparitions that either met an early or unwarranted death.
The Pickens County Courthouse in Carrollton is the home of Henry Wells. The story goes that Henry burned down the original courthouse and was immediately arrested by the sheriff. He was held in the attic of what would become the Pickens County Courthouse. During a thunderstorm, a lynch mob formed and demanded that Wells be turned over. Henry was standing at the window watching what was happening below when he was struck by lightening. The flash left his countenance on the windowpane forever. They say that during storms you can still see Henry Wells staring down from the attic window of the courthouse.
Highway 11, between Decatur and Huntsville, is said to be haunted by the ghost of Lonnie Stephens. Lonnie was falsely accused and convicted of the murder of his girlfriend in 1934. He escaped from the chain gang he was working on and was trying to hitch a ride when he was struck and killed by an oncoming car. Years later, another man confessed to killing the girl. Legend says Lonnie can still be seen trying to hitchhike on Highway 11.
Outside of Menton, Alabama is De Soto Falls, where an elderly mountain woman and her dog were said to wander. The old woman Nancy Dollar is reported to have been looking for thieves that stole the money she had saved up for a headstone. She died at age 108 in the early thirties. Knowing her dog would mourn her death, they had the animal put to sleep and buried beside her. After her funeral, so many people claimed to see her and the dog that a collection was taken to buy Nancy Dollar a headstone. She hasn't been seen since, but folks say her dog still wanders the area.
The Auburn University Chapel is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a Confederate soldier. The chapel was built by a Presbyterian congregation but was used as a hospital during the Civil War. In 1864, a British man, Sidney Grimlett, who had volunteered to fight for the South, received shrapnel wounds from a cannon blast. By the time aid arrived, the wounds were already gangrenous, and he died from blood loss during an operation to amputate the leg. Sidney is said to walk the rooms of the chapel, whistle in the attic and tap his foot.
Visit any university campus in Alabama and someone there will tell you about the resident ghosts. One of the strangest ghost stories is the tale of the Captain Norman Staples. Captain Staples designed and built the most elegant riverboat on Alabama rivers and named the boat after his father, James T. Staples. From the moment of its maiden voyage in 1908, the “James T. Staples” riverboat was in trouble. The large riverboat companies at the time were determined to put Captain Staples out of business and succeeded in doing so in 1912. On January 2, 1913, Captain Stapes committed suicide and three days later, his ghost began appearing on the deck of the riverboat. The crew, frightened by his apparition, quit and another crew had to be found. The new crew, although they knew nothing about the former Captain, reported seeing a ghost like man in the boiler room of the ship. Exactly one year, almost to the hour, the boiler of the riverboat blew up, killing the new captain and twenty-five members of the crew. Once the ships sank, local residents reported seeing Captain Staples’s ghost standing guard over the graves of his four children in Bladon Springs Cemetery.
The steamboat “Eliza Battle” still haunts the Tombigee River during the late winter months. A fire aboard the ship caused it to sink, and more than fifty people died trying to escape. Fishermen on the river say that sighting the outline of the “Eliza Battle” is an omen that the river will claim another life soon.
The rich history of Alabama has produced many ghost stories over the last century or so. Whether these stories are fact or fiction is up to the reader to decide.
