Alabama
Cedarhurst
Huntsville
Stephen Saunders Ewing moved to the Huntsville, Alabama, area in 1810 when he was only twenty-one years old. He purchased the first of many properties in the area two years later in 1812. Ewing married Mary Hutson Carter in 1814. Together they had a total of fourteen children, although a number of them did not survive into adulthood.
Ewing was pivotal in helping Huntsville become a prosperous Alabama community. He helped form the first bank in Huntsville and acted as bank president for several years. He was also actively involved in politics and held several local and regional offices while he lived in Huntsville.
In December 1823, Ewing purchased from Ebenezer Titus several hundred acres of property located near Huntsville, Alabama. Because of the number of cedar trees found on the property, Ewing decided to call his newest plantation Cedarhurst. After buying the land, Ewing cleared a great deal of the land and began to work on a plantation house. Construction of the mansion started in 1823 and was finally completed in 1825.
In early November 1837, Sally Carter, the fifteen-year-old younger sister of Mary Carter Ewing, came to Cedarhurst for a visit. While at Cedarhurst, Sally became seriously ill and died a few days later, on November 28, 1837. After a small funeral service, Sally was buried in the Ewing family cemetery located near the plantation house.
Stephen continued to manage Cedarhurst until his wife’s death in 1849. After her death, he could no longer stay at Cedarhurst and he put the property up for sale. In 1865, Ewing sold the entire plantation to Robert Brickwell. After Ewing sold Cedarhurst, he moved from Huntsville, Alabama, to Aberdeen, Mississippi, where he died in 1867 at age seventy-eight.
After Brickwell purchased the property in 1865, Cedarhurst Plantation was sold a total of five times until finally purchased by J.D. Thornton in 1919. It has been reported that shortly after Thornton moved in and started to make renovations on the mansion, the paranormal events began to occur.
The most notable appearance of Sally’s ghost took place a few months after Thornton purchased Cedarhurst. During the summer of 1919, a teenage relative named Charles Rothan visited from out of town for a few days. One night, Rothan had a dream in which a beautiful teenage girl visited him. She told him that her name was Sally and that she died at Cedarhurst a long time ago and was buried in the family cemetery. Rothan claimed Sally told him that her gravestone had been toppled over during a thunderstorm and that she needed it returned to its upright position.
When Charles told his family the next morning, they went to the Ewing family graveyard and found that Sally’s headstone had indeed been toppled to the ground. It is not known whether Charles helped Sally, but he soon left Cedarhurst and never visited the house again.
After word spread of Charles’s encounter with Sally Carter’s ghost, dozens of people visited her gravesite and claimed to have seen her apparition standing over her tombstone. The apparition seen at the gravesite is identical to an apparition seen in and near the bedroom where Sally Carter died in 1837.
Since 1985, the Cedarhurst Plantation House has been the central office of a private gated housing community. As it is a private housing community, visitors or passersby are not permitted on the property without permission.
When ground was broken to begin construction of the housing community in the early 1980s, the Ewing family graves at Cedarhurst were exhumed and reburied at nearby Maple Hill Cemetery. Out of respect, and because of the legends and stories that surround Sally’s headstone, her remains were buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in the cemetery. It is uncertain if Sally’s apparition still makes an appearance near where her original grave was, but there have been no reports of a ghost at all in the Maple Hill Cemetery.
Although her body was moved to Maple Hill Cemetery, Sally’s apparition has continued to be seen in the bedroom in the Cedarhurst Plantation House where she died. In addition to the apparition, there have been accounts of occasional poltergeist activity in the mansion, including pillows and other small items being moved without explanation.
Dr. John R. Drish House/
Drish Plantation
Tuscaloosa
Dr. Jonathan R. Drish moved to the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, area from Louden County, Virginia, in 1822. Within a few years, Dr. Drish had established himself in the community as both a prominent physician and a building contractor.
In 1835, Drish married a local widow by the name of Sarah McKinney, and to commemorate their union Dr. Drish purchased a 450-acre tract on the outskirts of Tuscaloosa. Immediately, he began construction of a large two-story Italianate mansion designed by architect William Nichols. As was commonplace in the antebellum South, Drish’s slaves provided labor for the mansion, which was completed two years later in 1837.
As soon as Nichols completed the mansion, Dr. Drish immediately began to make several modifications to the mansion’s interior and exterior from 1837 until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. One of the most prominent modifications was the construction of a large three-story brick tower on the front of the mansion, which became the building’s most prominent feature.
Dr. Drish died in 1867 from complications due to falling down a staircase inside the mansion. The viewing and funeral took place at the Drish Plantation House a few days later with family, friends, and other plantation owners coming from all over the state of Alabama to pay their final respects to Dr. Drish.
While Jonathan Drish’s body lay in state, Sarah lit candles in honor of her husband and made certain that they remained lit next to her husband’s body until the funeral services had been concluded. After the funeral service, Mrs. Drish extinguished the candles with the instruction that they were only to be lit again upon her own death.
A few years before her death in 1884, Mrs. Drish became increasingly obsessed with burning candles of all kinds. She would reportedly have dozens of candles burning in several rooms throughout the mansion at all hours of the day and night.
After Sarah Drish passed away, it was discovered by family members that she had not made out a will, or made any plans whatsoever as to what she wanted to do with the plantation. There was a great deal of confusion and debate in regards to how the estate would be divided and what would happen to the property. It was not known what Sarah’s wishes were for her funeral, so her family had to improvise.
In making preparations for Sarah’s funeral, one minor detail was overlooked. Seventeen years earlier, Sarah had requested that the candles that were lit next to her husband would be lit at her own viewing and funeral. The candles lay untouched and were not lit at her viewing, funeral, or at any time prior to her burial a few days later. After Sarah was buried, the mansion remained vacant for several years.
In 1906, Drish Mansion was purchased and used as a schoolhouse for nearly thirty years until it closed in 1935. In 1940, Drish Mansion was purchased by the Southside Baptist Church and was used as a church until the 1990s. After this, the mansion fell into a state of disrepair and was in danger of being lost until the property was purchased by Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society in 2007.
The vast majority of the paranormal activity associated with the Drish Mansion is centered around Sarah Drish and her candles.
A few months after Sarah Drish had been buried, the third-floor tower of Drish Mansion appeared to have caught fire, although nobody was living in the mansion at the time. The blaze was reportedly so bright that it could be seen for several miles. When neighbors and a local fire brigade approached the mansion, they found that the mansion was not on fire and that there was no sign that it had ever been on fire. Over the next few years, the fire appeared two or three more times. Each time the fire brigade and neighbors went to the mansion and found that there was no fire to put out.
After the third appearance, the fires stopped being seen. By this time, the Drish Mansion had the reputation of being haunted, and curious thrill seekers began to walk by the building. When this started, there were several accounts that the ghost of Sarah Drish was seen either in front of the mansion or looking out the third-story window of the tower, which was where the phantom fires had been seen.
When Drish Mansion was used as Jemison School in the early 1900s, the school’s official stance was that no paranormal activity had ever taken place on the property. However, people who walked by the mansion claimed to have seen Sarah Drish’s ghost sitting in the third-floor window of the tower.
After the school closed in 1935, and long after it was purchased by the Southside Baptist Church, there were reports of floating lights, often described as candlelight, through the windows of the entire mansion. It is believed that the light is coming from candles that Sarah Drish lit in memory of her husband.
Forks of Cypress
Florence
James Jackson, an immigrant from Ballybay, Ireland, moved to Florence, Alabama, in the spring of 1818. Two years later, Jackson hired architect William Nicholson to design the large Greek Revival-style mansion and other outbuildings on the plantation. Construction started in the early 1820s and was completed nearly a decade later in 1830. Jackson named the plantation Forks of Cypress because the Little Cypress Creek and the Big Cypress Creek merged near where the plantation house was built.
James Jackson was renowned for his ability to breed the finest thoroughbred racing horses in the nation. From the time he settled in Florence, Alabama, in 1818 through the early 1830s, Jackson arranged to have more than a dozen English thoroughbred horses shipped to Forks of Cypress. Their offspring were largely sought after by the wealthiest plantation owners and politicians in the nation.
James Jackson died on August 17, 1840, and is buried in the family cemetery near the main plantation house. His widow, Sarah “Sally” Moore Jackson, inherited the property and took over all of the work associated with its upkeep, including the continuation of breeding his prized Kentucky thoroughbreds. During the Civil War, Forks of Cypress was used by Union troops as a base camp for several hundred troops.
The original mansion was struck by lightning and burned to the ground on June 6, 1966. Although the mansion was completely destroyed, most of the brick pillars remain standing to this day. The brick columns are likely still standing because they were covered in a layer of plaster that contained horse hair, which acted as a fire retardant. Today, the Forks of Cypress is open to the public and the ruins can be toured throughout the year.
There have been accounts of ghostly activity taking place at the Forks of Cypress Plantation House since long before the mansion’s destruction in 1966. According to legend, a reporter who was a guest at the plantation house a few days before it burned had trouble sleeping. He blamed his insomnia on the sounds of gunfire, footsteps, and a scream heard throughout the night. It is possible that the reporter might to have heard the ghosts of the Union soldiers who used the plantation as a base camp. To this day, there have been reports of similar phenomena as what the reporter claimed when he stayed at the mansion.
In regards to the Jackson family graveyard, since the 1930s there has been a ghost story about an apparition of a tall, thin woman walking among the headstones. The Jackson family graveyard is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence approximately ten feet high, so the possibility of climbing the fence or getting past the locked gate is unlikely. Although not confirmed, most people believe the apparition is that of James Jackson’s wife, Sarah Jackson.
Another graveyard at Forks of Cypress that is said to be haunted is the nearby slave graveyard. This graveyard is not surrounded by a fence, but very few people visit it. Paranormal investigators who have visited the slave graveyard claim to have recorded EVPs of people crying. In addition, an African American spiritual has been heard being sung from within the cemetery.
Finally, the ghost of an African American man can be seen walking away from the Forks of Cypress Mansion. Sometimes slaves were given permission to visit family who lived at neighboring plantations. It is believed that this man is walking toward another plantation not far from the Forks of Cypress to meet his wife.
Gaineswood
Demopolis
General Nathan Bryan Whitfield was a cotton planter from North Carolina who moved to Demopolis, Alabama, in 1834. In 1842, Whitfield bought a 480-acre plantation from George Gaines, who had built a modest yet comfortable log house for his family. When Whitfield moved onto the property, he lived in the log home for a year while he built several rooms, which were connected to the existing building.
Beginning in 1843, Whitfield spent nearly twenty years making renovations to the cabin that transformed it into a majestic Greek Revival mansion. Ironically, Whitfield completed the renovations to the mansion on April 11, 1861, only one day prior to the official outbreak of the Civil War. Several outbuildings, including slave quarters and a detached kitchen, were constructed near the main mansion. Upon completion of the mansion and surrounding outbuildings, General Whitfield christened the plantation Gaineswood in honor of George Gaines, the original owner of the property.
The one architectural marvel that makes Gaineswood Plantation stand out from other plantations is a drainage ditch that Whitfield had constructed near the house. Due to its location, the plantation house and surrounding property was in constant danger of being flooded each spring by the heavy rains common in this area of the country.
Whitfield used slave labor to have a one-mile drainage ditch built from near the plantation house to the Tombigbee River. Construction of the ditch started in 1845 and took nearly twenty years to complete. Throughout the project, the slaves had a difficult time digging the drainage ditch by hand because they often encountered hard clay, which in some areas reached a depth of between twenty-five and thirty feet.
General Whitfield’s wife, Elizabeth, died in 1846. After her death, Whitfield was unable to raise his children by himself because of his many business obligations abroad. After weeks of searching, Whitfield found and hired Evelyn Carter to become a live-in caretaker and nanny for his children. Evelyn developed a strong rapport with Whitfield and his two children. Soon, Whitfield felt comfortable enough to resume his business travel knowing that the children were well taken care of.
One winter a few years after she was hired, Evelyn contracted pneumonia. Although Whitfield arranged for Evelyn to be given the best medical care possible, her symptoms worsened and she realized that she was likely going to die. On her deathbed, Evelyn made Whitfield promise to have her body moved to Virginia to be buried in her family cemetery. Whitfield assured her that he would make certain that her final request was honored. Although Whitfield and his children hoped that Evelyn would recover, she passed away a few days later.
Unfortunately, the winter had been harsh and the severe weather prevented Evelyn’s body from being moved several hundred miles north before it would have started to decompose. General Whitfield had little choice but to break his promise to Evelyn and bury her in his family cemetery at the plantation. He had every intention of exhuming her body the following spring and transporting it to Virginia for burial. Whitfield also knew that Evelyn desperately wanted her father to attend her funeral, but he was in Greece at the time of her death. Whitfield thought that if Evelyn’s funeral was conducted the following spring in Virginia, he would have fulfilled at least this small request.
Evelyn’s death was not the only tragedy that General Whitfield experienced at Gaineswood. Early on the morning of March 1, 1858, one of the most horrific ship disasters in Alabama’s history took place on the Tombigbee River very close to the Gainesville Plantation. A cargo and passenger riverboat called the Eliza Battle launched from Columbus, Alabama, with scheduled stops in Gainesville and Demopolis, Alabama.
The Eliza Battle had made the trip up and down the Tombigbee River without incident and the crew was very familiar with the route. On this particular trip, the Eliza Battle carried over one thousand bales of cotton, forty-five crew members, and approximately fifty-five passengers.
Around 2:00 a.m., a fire broke out among the dry bales of cotton, accidentally set by a crewman who started a small fire to stay warm in the thirty-degree weather. It is believed that a stray spark or ember landed on the dry cotton and ignited it. Most of the passengers were asleep and were unaware of the fire until the entire ship was completely engulfed in flames. To save as many passengers as he could, Captain Graham Stone tried to steer the burning Eliza Battle as close to shore as possible. The closest landing to the Eliza Battle was Kemp’s Landing, near the Gaineswood Plantation.
Whitfield was awakened by a house servant who had seen the fire on the river. The plantation house was about one mile from the Tombigbee River, but Whitfield could still see the flames and hear the screams from the Eliza Battle. It was later told by survivors that some passengers had to choose drowning in freezing water or burning to death on the blazing riverboat. The vision remained with Whitfield for the remainder of his life and was the inspiration of “The Burning of the Eliza Battle,” a painting that is still on display at Gaineswood Plantation.
Between the Eliza Battle fire, Evelyn’s death, and the hard work associated with the drainage ditch, Gaineswood may very well be one of most haunted plantations in the state of Alabama. There have been ghost stories associated with each of these different parts of Gaineswood’s history.
One ghost connected with Gaineswood is that of General Whitfield. In the room that used to be his study, visitors to Gaineswood have noticed the strong aroma of pipe tobacco. It was known that Whitfield would often smoke a pipe in this room when he was working, and the smell of tobacco smoke is believed to be a testament to that. Although there have been paranormal investigations in this room in the past, other than the scent of pipe tobacco, there have not been any apparitions or other ghostly activities associated with this room.
There are two separate areas of the mansion that are reportedly haunted by Evelyn Carter’s ghost. On the main steps or near the birthing room on the second floor, a woman has been seen making her rounds as if she is checking out the room. People who walk past the birthing room have felt a sensation of being lightly pushed. It is believed that this is the ghost of Evelyn Carter, because it was well known that she checked on the children several times each night after they went to sleep.
The second room is the music room on the first floor, where Evelyn could often be found playing the piano. The sound of a person playing classical pieces on the piano has been heard in this room.
The mile-long drainage ditch from the Gaineswood Plantation House to the Tombigbee River has also been rumored to be a hot spot of paranormal activity. The sounds of digging and voices in conversation have been reported and are believed to be from the ghosts of slaves who spent twenty years digging the mile-long drainage ditch.
The final haunting connected to Gaineswood Plantation is not on the plantation itself, but on the nearby Tombigbee River. On certain nights, the Eliza Battle can still be seen on the Tombigbee River. Eyewitnesses have claimed to have seen a large, burning riverboat engulfed in flames. This apparition is often accompanied by the smell of burning wood and the screams of the passengers and crew members. River men who still travel the Tombigbee River claim that if the ghost ship of the Eliza Battle is seen, it is a warning that a disaster or tragedy will take place in the near future.
Kenworthy Hall/Carlisle-Martin House/
Carlisle Hall
Marion
Edward Kenworthy Carlisle was born in 1810 near Augusta, Georgia. As a teenager, Carlisle moved to Marion, Alabama, to help work the cotton fields with his mother’s family, who owned property in the area. Carlisle settled near Marion and saved all of the money he had made from working for his mother’s family. In less than ten years, he had made quite a living for himself and purchased 440 acres to establish a cotton plantation of his own.
In 1843, Carlisle married Lucinda Wilson Walthall. The couple had two children, Edward Jr. and Anne. In order to provide a comfortable household for his family, Carlisle constructed an elaborate Italian Villa-
style mansion, built between 1858 and 1860, on his 440-acre plantation. When building the mansion, Carlisle spared no expense, which was evident in that many of the materials used to build the mansion were imported from Europe.
Carlisle spent a great deal of his money on the mansion, but a few years after the end of the Civil War, his estimated net worth was only between $15,000 and $20,000. The 440 acres, including the mansion, was estimated to be worth only about $9,000. This was only a small fraction of what Carlisle had invested into its construction.
When Carlisle’s daughter, Anne, was a teenager, she met and fell in love with the son of another plantation owner. However, the Civil War broke out and Anne’s beau enlisted in the Confederate army. Before he left, he proposed to Anne and she accepted. She promised her new fiancé that she would look out the fourth-floor window of the plantation’s tower and pray for his safe return.
After hearing nothing from him for several weeks, Anne began to worry and spent more time isolated in the tower. One day, she saw a servant from her fiancé’s plantation approaching on foot. She rushed down to see the servant, who informed her that her fiancé was killed in a battle and was buried near where he died. It was not uncommon for soldiers killed in action to be buried near where they died rather than being sent home to be buried.
Anne fell into a deep depression and isolated herself on the fourth floor of the mansion’s tower. Within a few months, Anne died. Immediately after Anne’s death, her apparition began to be seen in the tower. Her ghost is often accompanied by the sound of crying and the faint smell of sweet perfume. Sometimes, people who have encountered Anne’s ghost claim to have also encountered a strong sense of sadness.
Rocky Hill Castle/Rocky Hill
Rocky Hill
James Saunders wanted to make a name for himself. Instead of simply inheriting Saunders Hall Plantation from his father, Turner Saunders, James purchased 640 acres a few miles from Saunders Hall. He moved to the property shortly after he met and married Mary Francis Watkins in July 1824 at eighteen years of age. Within a few years after moving into a small home on the property, James Saunders became known as both a plantation owner and a successful attorney.
In the mid-1850s, Saunders tore down the small house that he and his wife had lived in and constructed a large mansion built on a hill toward the center of his property. He hired a renowned French architect to construct a mansion for him with orders that it be one of the most beautiful mansions in the area. Although the mansion was a combination of the Greek Revival and Italianate architectural styles, one feature added was a five-story Gothic Revival tower built onto its western side. This particular tower is what gave the mansion its unique appearance and ultimately the name of Rocky Hill Castle.
Ground was broken for the mansion in 1858 and was nearly completed in 1861 when the Civil War began. The French architect stopped working on the plantation and left the area. Some believe that the architect was a Union sympathizer, while others believe that Saunders simply ran out of money and was unable to pay him. In either case, the architect left Rocky Hill Castle unfinished and departed the area just as Union troops reached the plantation.
Noticing what was starting to happen to the entire nation as Union and Confederate soldiers began to fight, Saunders took his family and left the unfinished mansion. After Saunders left Rocky Hill Castle, the mansion was commandeered by Confederate officers and transformed into a field hospital for wounded soldiers. Although Rocky Hill Castle had been spared, most of Saunders’s personal belongings were completely destroyed.
Due to the large number of soldiers treated at Rocky Hill in less-than-ideal conditions, the fatality rate was very high. It is believed that a large number of Confederate casualties may lie buried in unmarked graves on the property, some of which have not been found to this day.
After the war ended, James Saunders and his family returned to Rocky Hill Castle and began to repair the heavily damaged mansion. The property stayed in the Saunders family until the mid-1920s, when it was acquired by James Saunders’s grandson, Dr. Dudley Saunders. Dr. Saunders did not stay at the mansion long before he decided to sell the property. Some sources state that Dr. Saunders and his family left and ultimately sold the property after experiencing a variety of paranormal activity. After Dr. Saunders moved from the mansion, it was abandoned and left to the elements for several years.
Due to Rocky Hill Castle being vacant from the 1920s until the early 1960s, it was apparent that no amount of renovation could restore the house to its original condition. Shortly after it was purchased again in 1961, the plantation house and surrounding buildings were torn down and the ground was leveled. All that is left of Rocky Hill Castle today are photographs and documents associated with the mansion.
The hauntings of the plantation house date back to when the Saunders family returned to Rocky Hill during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War. Mary Saunders herself was reportedly one of the first people to have had a paranormal encounter shortly after returning to Rocky Hill. She was near the main entryway on the first floor of the mansion and noticed a young woman wearing a blue dress standing on the main stairway. When she approached the young woman to ask her what business she had in her home, the woman disappeared before her eyes. Mrs. Saunders mentioned her experience to her family, who initially did not believe her. However, over the next several months, other family members and visitors saw the apparition, which eventually became known as the Lady in Blue.
The Lady in Blue has been described as a young woman with shoulder-length brown hair and wearing a light blue dress. She appears to be oblivious to her surroundings; she does not seem to be aware of any eyewitnesses who have attempted to communicate with her over the last several years. The Lady in Blue can be seen walking in the Saunders family cemetery as if she was searching for something.
The identity of the Lady in Blue was never discovered, although some think that the ghost is of a nurse who assisted wounded soldiers when Rocky Hill was a Confederate field hospital. It is also possible that the Lady in Blue was a loved one of a Confederate soldier who died at the mansion.
Another ghost that allegedly haunts the area where Rocky Hill Castle stood is that of the French architect who designed the mansion. It is believed that he died shortly after leaving the plantation house and that his ghost still haunts the area. Until it was demolished in 1961, the sound of hammering was heard at all hours of the night. Some believe that the sound of construction was of the French architect or the slaves used to build the mansion.
Apparitions of Confederate soldiers have been seen in front of where the mansion stood and at the Saunders family cemetery. Sometimes the medical staff was so busy taking care of wounded soldiers that the dead and dying were unceremoniously buried in shallow, unmarked graves close to the mansion. There have also been the reports of the sounds of gunfire immediately followed by the sounds of screaming or moaning that cease after a few seconds.
A number of slave quarters were built not far from the main mansion on the plantation. Paranormal investigators and other eyewitnesses over the years have reported hearing the sounds of hushed voices that suddenly stop as a person approaches near where the cabins once stood. The sounds of screaming and crying have also been heard in this area, but it is uncertain whether the sounds are coming from the ghosts of the slaves or of the soldiers who died on the plantation. In addition, the smell of cooking food has been noticed near where the slave cabins once stood.
Spring Villa
Opelika
Arthur Yonge immigrated to the United States from Europe in 1812. Starting in Florida, Arthur Yonge moved a few times before finally settling in Georgia. There, Arthur made a fairly comfortable living for his family, which included his wife and his son, William Penn Chandler Yonge.
William was born in 1822. Arthur Yonge died when William was twelve years old and left him absolutely nothing as an inheritance. After Arthur Yonge’s death, it is uncertain what became of William’s mother and siblings. However, destitute and literally abandoned by his family, William was forced to fend for himself from the time he was twelve years old until he reached adulthood. Believing that Georgia had little to offer him, William Yonge soon moved to Alabama, where nobody knew of his past or his name.
Through his teenage years, William took care of himself by working at a variety of jobs. He realized that appearance and attitude made all the difference in making a lasting impression to business associates. By his early twenties, Yonge had established himself as a very savvy businessman. He gave the air of confidence of a formally educated man, though very few knew of his meager background.
When Yonge was twenty-four years old, he met and married Alabama native Mary Ann Godwin. The trust that the two had for one another was crucial because work often required William to be away from his wife for months on end. During the California Gold Rush in 1849, William spent eighteen months in California. When he returned to Alabama in 1851, William had acquired a considerable fortune from his hard work.
Using money from his trip to California, Yonge purchased a large tract of land near Opelika, Alabama. On the property, Yonge commissioned the construction of a large Carpenter Gothic Revival mansion that overlooked a beautiful thirty-acre lake. Because of the proximity of the mansion to the lake, Yonge named his plantation Spring Villa. Today, it is one of the few examples of Gothic Revival architecture still standing in Alabama.
Not long after returning to Alabama in 1851, Yonge started to make preparations for another trip to California to find more gold. However, he discovered that some property close to where he lived had large deposits of natural lime. He purchased the property with the funds he was going to use to return to California. Excavating the lime near his own home was more profitable and less expensive than another trip to California. Once he owned the property, Yonge began to excavate the lime, which was in great demand by many local businesses.
During the Civil War, Yonge remained financially secure, as much of the lime was used to build fortifications for the Confederate army to keep the Union troops at bay. During the economic collapse of the Confederate States of America at the end of the Civil War, Yonge lost a great deal of his fortune. Yonge died in 1879 with only a fraction of the money that he had made during his years selling lime.
It is uncertain exactly how William Yonge died, although records do indicate that he died in 1879. One legend surrounding his death is that a disgruntled servant hid in the shadows of the spiral staircases that led to Yonge’s bedroom on the second floor. After everybody except for Yonge was asleep, the servant crept up behind him on the staircase and stabbed him to death. Although the identity of the killer remains a mystery, some also speculate that it may have been a robber or one of his former slaves who returned to stab Yonge.
Today, the mansion is located on a 325-acre state park with hiking trails, campsites, picnic areas, and other amenities for the public. The plantation house, campground, and shelter can be reserved for special occasions.
The area of the Spring Villa Plantation House believed to be haunted is at the top of the staircase where Yonge was stabbed. In this area, a shadowy figure has been seen and photographed, and there have also been reports of the sound of a struggle on the steps, although when it is investigated, there is no sign that anybody has been on the staircase at all.
At least one paranormal group was able to record a very impressive EVP in a second-floor bedroom of the mansion. The EVP is of a little girl who asks the question, “Can you see me?” This voice was not heard when the room was investigated, but only after the audio recording was played. The identity of the little girl is not known; there have been no reports of a girl who died in the plantation house.
Sturdivant Mansion/
Watts-Parkman-Gillman Home
Selma
In 1852, plantation owner Colonel Edward Watts commissioned renowned architect Thomas Helm Lee to design and supervise construction of a Greek Revival mansion that would become known as Sturdivant Hall or Sturdivant Mansion. Construction commenced in 1852 and was completed four years later in 1856. Immediately after the mansion was completed, Edward Watts and his family moved in.
The Civil War caused considerable financial hardship for the Watts family. On February 12, 1862, Watts sold the mansion and surrounding property to a local banker by the name of John McGee Parkman for $65,000 cash. Once the property was sold, Watts relocated his family to Texas. Realizing that the value of cash he received would likely depreciate due to the Civil War, he immediately used the money to purchase a large piece of property in Texas. When Watts and his family vacated the premises, Parkman immediately moved in.
After the Civil War ended, Parkman became president of the First National Bank of Selma, Alabama. Although he was elated with the promotion, it would eventually lead to Parkman’s ultimate undoing. The bank offered risky, high-interest loans to planters to help rebuild their plantations. Parkman hoped that he could make money from their misfortune. However, many planters were unable to make their payments and the First National Bank of Selma experienced considerable financial losses and was in danger of closing. It was speculated that in order to save himself, Parkman embezzled large sums of money, because he feared that the bank would be closed.
When word got out of Parkman’s apparent embezzlement, it caught the attention of Wager Swayne, acting military governor of Alabama during the Reconstruction period. Parkman was arrested and imprisoned at Castle Morgan, a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp located in Cahaba, Alabama. Throughout his incarceration, Parkman proclaimed his innocence and was adamant that he had been framed. He said that he would never leave Selma until his name was cleared. Although he loudly claimed his innocence, shortly after he was incarcerated Parkman was killed on May 23, 1867 during an escape attempt.
After Parkman’s death, the mansion was vacant for three years until it was purchased in January 1870 by merchant Robert Sturdivant. The property stayed in the Sturdivant family until the late 1950s, when it was sold to the city of Selma, Alabama, for $75,000. The family of Robert Sturdivant donated $50,000 to the city for the purchase of the mansion with the condition that it be renovated into a museum and named after him.
The most prominent ghost associated with Sturdivant Mansion is that of the second owner of the mansion, John Parkman. A great deal of Parkman’s story and related hauntings can be found in Kathryn Windham’s book, 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey.
Since the time Sturdivant Hall became a museum that was open to the public, Parkman’s ghost has been seen inside the mansion on several occasions. Generally, the haunting consists of poltergeist activity in two of the rooms on the first floor. However, visitors to the plantation house have photographed ghostly images of an apparition fitting Parkman’s description standing near the main entrance of Sturdivant Hall.
There are two possible reasons that Sturdivant Hall may be haunted by Parkman’s ghost. Before his death, Parkman claimed that he was not guilty of embezzlement and would not rest until his name was cleared. Another legend associated with the mansion claims that shortly before he was arrested, Parkman hid away a large portion of the money that he was believed to have embezzled.
Sweetwater Plantation
Florence
The Sweetwater Plantation is one of the oldest plantation houses in Alabama. It was designed by General John Brahan, a veteran of the War of 1812 and a member of the Alabama Militia. Brahan was born in 1774 in Virginia and moved to Florence, Alabama, in 1818 with his wife. After settling in Florence, Brahan purchased approximately 4,000 acres outside of the town.
In addition to maintaining Sweetwater Plantation, Brahan became a very well-known fixture in the area because of his involvement in founding the Nativity Episcopal Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as his generosity to the city of Florence, Alabama, and his active participation in a local Masonic lodge.
Construction of the mansion began in 1828, but General Brahan died on June 8, 1834, only a year before the mansion was completed. Upon General Brahan’s death, his son-in-law, Robert Patton, took over the construction of the mansion, which was completed the following year in 1835. Patton named the plantation Sweetwater because Sweetwater Creek ran through the property near the mansion’s building site. Robert Patton would become Alabama’s twentieth governor, serving from 1865 to 1867.
The mansion was exceptional for a number of reasons. The bricks used to build Sweetwater Mansion were made on site by Brahan’s slaves. Using clay found on the property to make the bricks cut the cost of the construction of the mansion considerably and allowed Brahan the opportunity to spend money on other details of the mansion, such as importing marble from Italy and wood from England.
Over the course of several years, Sweetwater Plantation gained the reputation of being haunted by many of the people who lived on the property at one time or another. The sound of children playing and laughing can be heard throughout the mansion. It is likely that the children were those of John Brahan. In addition to these sounds, there have been some reports of poltergeist activity and electrical disturbances on the second floor. Water faucets in the mansion have been turned on by an unseen presence. Finally, the sound of a piano playing has actually been recorded in an empty room on the first floor.
Although these experiences can be considered very interesting in and of themselves, the most pronounced haunting reported at the Sweetwater Mansion is focused in one of the sitting rooms on the first floor. At the outset of the Civil War, one of Governor Patton’s sons decided to volunteer his services for the Confederate army. Shortly after enlisting, Patton’s son was killed in action not far from Sweetwater Plantation. The body of General Patton’s son was returned to Sweetwater, where a funeral was held in the sitting room on the first floor.
Since his death, the apparition of what appears to be a casket has been seen by dozens of eyewitnesses. One of the most detailed descriptions of the apparition comes from a mansion caretaker who had seen the phantom casket. Rather than being frightened, the man was curious enough to walk up to the casket and look inside. Lying inside the casket was a man in a Confederate uniform. At that point, the apparition disappeared.
The hauntings associated with Sweetwater Plantation caught the attention of the producers of Paranormal State, which featured Sweetwater Plantation in an episode called “Southern Discomfort” that originally aired in April 2011 on the A&E Network.