1.
Folklore
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Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. These include oral traditions such as tales, proverbs and jokes and they include material culture, ranging from traditional building styles to handmade toys common to the group. Folklore also includes customary lore, the forms and rituals of celebrations like Christmas and weddings, folk dances, each one of these, either singly or in combination, is considered a folklore artifact. Just as essential as the form, folklore also encompasses the transmission of these artifacts from one region to another or from one generation to the next, for folklore is not taught in a formal school curriculum or studied in the fine arts. Instead these traditions are passed along informally from one individual to another either through verbal instruction or demonstration, the academic study of folklore is called folkloristics. To fully understand folklore, it is helpful to clarify its component parts and it is well-documented that the term was coined in 1846 by the Englishman William Thoms. He fabricated it to replace the contemporary terminology of popular antiquities or popular literature, the second half of the compound word, lore, proves easier to define as its meaning has stayed relatively stable over the last two centuries. Coming from Old English lār instruction, and with German and Dutch cognates, it is the knowledge and traditions of a particular group, the concept of folk proves somewhat more elusive. When Thoms first created this term, folk applied only to rural, frequently poor, a more modern definition of folk is a social group which includes two or more persons with common traits, who express their shared identity through distinctive traditions. Folk is a concept which can refer to a nation as in American folklore or to a single family. This expanded social definition of folk supports a view of the material, i. e. the lore. These now include all things people make with words, things they make with their hands, Folklore is no longer circumscribed as being chronologically old or obsolete. The folklorist studies the traditional artifacts of a group and how they are transmitted. Transmission is a part of the folklore process. Without communicating these beliefs and customs within the group over space and time, for folklore is also a verb. These folk artifacts continue to be passed along informally, as a rule anonymously, the folk group is not individualistic, it is community-based and nurtures its lore in community. As new groups emerge, new folklore is created… surfers, motorcyclists, in direct contrast to high culture, where any single work of a named artist is protected by copyright law, folklore is a function of shared identity within the social group. Having identified folk artifacts, the professional folklorist strives to understand the significance of these beliefs, customs, for these cultural units would not be passed along unless they had some continued relevance within the group
2.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
3.
OCLC
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The Online Computer Library Center is a US-based nonprofit cooperative organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the worlds information and reducing information costs. It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest online public access catalog in the world. OCLC is funded mainly by the fees that libraries have to pay for its services, the group first met on July 5,1967 on the campus of the Ohio State University to sign the articles of incorporation for the nonprofit organization. The group hired Frederick G. Kilgour, a former Yale University medical school librarian, Kilgour wished to merge the latest information storage and retrieval system of the time, the computer, with the oldest, the library. The goal of network and database was to bring libraries together to cooperatively keep track of the worlds information in order to best serve researchers and scholars. The first library to do online cataloging through OCLC was the Alden Library at Ohio University on August 26,1971 and this was the first occurrence of online cataloging by any library worldwide. Membership in OCLC is based on use of services and contribution of data, between 1967 and 1977, OCLC membership was limited to institutions in Ohio, but in 1978, a new governance structure was established that allowed institutions from other states to join. In 2002, the structure was again modified to accommodate participation from outside the United States. As OCLC expanded services in the United States outside of Ohio, it relied on establishing strategic partnerships with networks, organizations that provided training, support, by 2008, there were 15 independent United States regional service providers. OCLC networks played a key role in OCLC governance, with networks electing delegates to serve on OCLC Members Council, in early 2009, OCLC negotiated new contracts with the former networks and opened a centralized support center. OCLC provides bibliographic, abstract and full-text information to anyone, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog, the largest online public access catalog in the world. WorldCat has holding records from public and private libraries worldwide. org, in October 2005, the OCLC technical staff began a wiki project, WikiD, allowing readers to add commentary and structured-field information associated with any WorldCat record. The Online Computer Library Center acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification System when it bought Forest Press in 1988, a browser for books with their Dewey Decimal Classifications was available until July 2013, it was replaced by the Classify Service. S. The reference management service QuestionPoint provides libraries with tools to communicate with users and this around-the-clock reference service is provided by a cooperative of participating global libraries. OCLC has produced cards for members since 1971 with its shared online catalog. OCLC commercially sells software, e. g. CONTENTdm for managing digital collections, OCLC has been conducting research for the library community for more than 30 years. In accordance with its mission, OCLC makes its research outcomes known through various publications and these publications, including journal articles, reports, newsletters, and presentations, are available through the organizations website. The most recent publications are displayed first, and all archived resources, membership Reports – A number of significant reports on topics ranging from virtual reference in libraries to perceptions about library funding
4.
Kathryn Tucker Windham
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Kathryn Tucker Windham was an American storyteller, author, photographer, folklorist, and journalist. She was born in Selma, Alabama and grew up in nearby Thomasville, Windham got her first writing job at the age of 12, reviewing movies for her cousins small town newspaper, The Thomasville Times. She earned a B. A. degree from Huntingdon College in 1939, soon after graduating she became the first woman journalist for the Alabama Journal. Starting in 1944, she worked for The Birmingham News, in 1946 she married Amasa Benjamin Windham with whom she had three children. In 1956 she went to work at the Selma Times-Journal where she won several Associated Press awards for her writing and she died on June 12,2011. Kathryn Tucker Windham wrote a series of books of true ghost stories, based on folklore, beginning with 13 Alabama Ghosts. In 2004, she wrote Jeffreys Favorite 13 Ghost Stories, which was a collection of featured stories from the previous books, Jeffrey is a purported ghost that took up residence in the Windham house in October 1966. According to a letter printed in the foreword to 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey, at first, the family heard footsteps in rooms that would later be found empty. A photo of Jeffrey was accidentally taken when young people visiting the Windham home decided to play with a Ouija board in an effort to contact the ghost. When photos from that night were developed, a dark shadowy blot with a vaguely human-like shape was found to be in one image, soon after this picture was taken, Windham contacted Margaret Gillis Figh, who was a noted collector of ghost stories, to ask about Jeffrey. Out of that meeting, the idea for 13 Alabama Ghosts, following an invitation to speak at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, Windham began to gain attention for storytelling. She often appeared at storytelling events, historical meetings and classrooms and she also performed stories and gave commentaries on Alabama Public Radios Alabama Life. Windham is the founder of the Alabama Tale Tellin Festival, which has been annually in Selma since 1978. Kathryn Tucker Windham appeared on stage in a play about Julia Tutwiler. Named They Call Me Julia, it was based on Windhams book of the same name, the Thomasville campus of Alabama Southern Community College is the site of the Kathryn Tucker Windham Museum. Her personal papers and manuscripts from 1939–2010 were donated to the collections department of the Auburn University Libraries. In 1990, Windham received the University of Alabamas Society of Fine Arts’ Alabama Arts Award, on December 14,1993, she was awarded the Honorary Degree Doctor of Literature from the University of Montevallo. In 1995, Windham was honored as the Selma Rotary Clubs Citizen of the Year, in 1995, she received the Alabama State Council on the Arts Governors Arts Awards
5.
Ghost story
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A ghost story may be any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters belief in them. The ghost may appear of its own accord or be summoned by magic, linked to the ghost is the idea of hauntings, where a supernatural entity is tied to a place, object or person. Colloquially, the term ghost story can refer to any kind of scary story, in a narrower sense, the ghost story has been developed as a short story format, within genre fiction. It is a form of fiction and specifically of weird fiction. While ghost stories are often meant to be scary, they have been written to serve all sorts of purposes. Ghosts often appear in the narrative as sentinels or prophets of things to come, belief in ghosts is found in all cultures around the world, and thus ghost stories may be passed down orally or in written form. A widespread belief concerning ghosts is that they are composed of a misty, airy, belief in ghosts is found in all cultures around the world, and thus ghost stories may be passed down orally or in written form. The campfire story, a form of storytelling, often involves recounting ghost stories. Some of the stories are old, with varying versions across multiple cultures. Many schools and educational institutions encourage ghost storytelling as part of literature, in 1929, five key features of the English ghost story were identified in Some Remarks on Ghost Stories by M. R. James. The play Mostellaria, by the Roman playwright Plautus, is the earliest known work to feature a haunted dwelling, another early account of a haunted place comes from an account by Pliny the Younger. Pliny describes the haunting of a house in Athens by a ghost bound in chains, ghosts often appeared in the tragedies of the Roman writer Seneca, who would later influence the revival of tragedy on the Renaissance stage, particularly Thomas Kyd and Shakespeare. The One Thousand and One Nights, sometimes known as Arabian Nights, contains a number of ghost stories, often involving jinn, ghouls, in particular, the tale of Ali the Cairene and the Haunted House in Baghdad revolves around a house haunted by jinns. Other medieval Arabic literature, such as the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity, the 11th century Japanese work The Tale of Genji contains ghost stories, and includes characters being possessed by spirits. In the mid-16th century, the works of Seneca were rediscovered by Italian humanists, senecas influence is particularly evident in Thomas Kyds The Spanish Tragedy and Shakespeares Hamlet, both of which share a revenge theme, a corpse-strewn climax, and ghosts among the cast. The ghosts in Richard III also resemble the Senecan model, while the ghost in Hamlet plays a complex role. The shade of Hamlets murdered father in Hamlet has become one of the more recognizable ghosts in English literature, in another of Shakespeare’s works, Macbeth, the murdered Banquo returns as a ghost to the dismay of the title character. In English Renaissance theatre, ghosts were often depicted in the garb of the living, armour, being out-of-date by the time of the Renaissance, gave the stage ghost a sense of antiquity
6.
Alabama
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Alabama is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Alabama is the 30th-most extensive and the 24th-most populous of the U. S. states. At nearly 1,500 miles, Alabama has one of the nations longest navigable inland waterways, Alabama is nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird. Alabama is also known as the Heart of Dixie and the Cotton State, the state tree is the longleaf pine, and the state flower is the camellia. The largest city by population is Birmingham, which has long been the most industrialized city, the oldest city is Mobile, founded by French colonists in 1702 as the capital of French Louisiana. From the American Civil War until World War II, Alabama, like many states in the southern U. S. suffered economic hardship, like other southern states, Alabama legislators disenfranchised African Americans and many poor whites at the turn of the century. Following World War II, Alabama grew as the economy changed from one primarily based on agriculture to one with diversified interests. The state economy in the 21st century is based on management, automotive, finance, manufacturing, aerospace, mineral extraction, healthcare, education, retail, in the Alabama language, the word for a person of Alabama lineage is Albaamo. The word Alabama is believed to have come from the Alabama language, the words spelling varies significantly among historical sources. As early as 1702, the French called the tribe the Alibamon, other spellings of the name have included Alibamu, Alabamo, Albama, Alebamon, Alibama, Alibamou, Alabamu, Allibamou. Sources disagree on the words meaning, some scholars suggest the word comes from the Choctaw alba and amo. The meaning may have been clearers of the thicket or herb gatherers, the state has numerous place names of Native American origin. However, there are no correspondingly similar words in the Alabama language, an 1842 article in the Jacksonville Republican proposed it meant Here We Rest. This notion was popularized in the 1850s through the writings of Alexander Beaufort Meek, experts in the Muskogean languages have not found any evidence to support such a translation. Indigenous peoples of varying cultures lived in the area for thousands of years before the advent of European colonization, trade with the northeastern tribes by the Ohio River began during the Burial Mound Period and continued until European contact. The agrarian Mississippian culture covered most of the state from 1000 to 1600 AD, with one of its major centers built at what is now the Moundville Archaeological Site in Moundville, Alabama. This is the second-largest complex of the classic Middle Mississippian era, after Cahokia in present-day Illinois, Analysis of artifacts from archaeological excavations at Moundville were the basis of scholars formulating the characteristics of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Contrary to popular belief, the SECC appears to have no links to Mesoamerican culture
7.
Southern United States
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The Southern United States, commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South, is a region of the United States of America. The South does not fully match the geographic south of the United States, arizona and New Mexico, which are geographically in the southern part of the country, are rarely considered part, while West Virginia, which separated from Virginia in 1863, commonly is. Some scholars have proposed definitions of the South that do not coincide neatly with state boundaries, while the states of Delaware and Maryland, as well as the District of Columbia permitted slavery prior to the start of the Civil War, they remained with the Union. However, the United States Census Bureau puts them in the South, usually, the South is defined as including the southeastern and south-central United States. The region is known for its culture and history, having developed its own customs, musical styles, and cuisines, the Southern ethnic heritage is diverse and includes strong European, African, and some Native American components. Since the late 1960s, black people have many offices in Southern states, especially in the coastal states of Virginia. Historically, the South relied heavily on agriculture, and was rural until after 1945. It has since become more industrialized and urban and has attracted national and international migrants, the American South is now among the fastest-growing areas in the United States. Houston is the largest city in the Southern United States, sociological research indicates that Southern collective identity stems from political, demographic, and cultural distinctiveness from the rest of the United States. The region contains almost all of the Bible Belt, an area of high Protestant church attendance and predominantly conservative, indeed, studies have shown that Southerners are more conservative than non-Southerners in several areas, including religion, morality, international relations and race relations. Apart from its climate, the experience in the South increasingly resembles the rest of the nation. The arrival of millions of Northerners and millions of Hispanics meant the introduction of cultural values, the process has worked both ways, however, with aspects of Southern culture spreading throughout a greater portion of the rest of the United States in a process termed Southernization. The question of how to define the subregions in the South has been the focus of research for nearly a century, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, the Southern region of the United States includes sixteen states. As of 2010, an estimated 114,555,744 people, or thirty-seven percent of all U. S. residents, lived in the South, the nations most populous region. Other terms related to the South include, The Old South, the New South, usually including the South Atlantic States. The Solid South, region largely controlled by the Democratic Party from 1877 to 1964, before that, blacks were elected to national office and many to local office through the 1880s, Populist-Republican coalitions gained victories for Fusionist candidates for governors in the 1890s. Includes at least all the 11 former Confederate States, Southeastern United States, usually including the Carolinas, the Virginias, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. The Deep South, various definitions, usually including Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, occasionally, parts of adjoining states are included
8.
Ghost
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In folklore, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living. Descriptions of ghosts vary widely from a presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a person is known as necromancy. The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary, human-like essences, though stories of ghostly armies and they are believed to haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life. Ghosts exist as a concept only, despite centuries of investigation, the English word ghost continues Old English gást, from a hypothetical Common Germanic *gaistaz. It is common to West Germanic, but lacking in North Germanic, the pre-Germanic form was *ghoisdo-s, apparently from a root denoting fury, anger reflected in Old Norse geisa to rage. The Germanic word is recorded as only, but likely continues a neuter s-stem. The original meaning of the Germanic word would thus have been a principle of the mind, in particular capable of excitation. In Germanic paganism, Germanic Mercury, and the later Odin, was at the time the conductor of the dead. It could also denote any good or evil spirit, such as angels and demons, also from the Old English period, the word could denote the spirit of God, viz. the Holy Ghost. The now-prevailing sense of the soul of a person, spoken of as appearing in a visible form only emerges in Middle English. The synonym spook is a Dutch loanword, akin to Low German spôk, alternative words in modern usage include spectre, the Scottish wraith, phantom and apparition. The term shade in classical mythology translates Greek σκιά, or Latin umbra, haint is a synonym for ghost used in regional English of the southern United States, and the haint tale is a common feature of southern oral and literary tradition. The term poltergeist is a German word, literally a noisy ghost, wraith is a Scots word for ghost, spectre, or apparition. It appeared in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the general or figurative sense of portent or omen. In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it applied to aquatic spirits. The word has no commonly accepted etymology, the OED notes of obscure origin only, an association with the verb writhe was the etymology favored by J. R. R. Tolkien
9.
Selma, Alabama
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Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, in the Black Belt region of south central Alabama and extending to the west. Located on the banks of the Alabama River, the city has a population of 20,756 as of the 2010 census and it had been a trading center and market town during the years of King Cotton in the South. It was also an important armaments manufacturing and iron shipbuilding center during the Civil War, the undermanned Confederate forces were defeated during the Battle of Selma. Before settlement by European peoples, the area of present-day Selma had been inhabited for thousands of years by varying cultures of indigenous peoples, the Europeans encountered the historic Native American people known as the Muscogee, who had been in the area for hundreds of years. French explorers and colonists were the first Europeans to explore this area, in 1732, they recorded the site of present-day Selma as Écor Bienville. Later Anglo-Americans called it the Moores Bluff settlement, the city was planned and named as Selma by William R. King, a politician and planter from North Carolina who was a future Vice President of the United States. The name, meaning seat or throne, came from the Ossianic poem The Songs of Selma. During the Civil War, Selma was one of the Souths main military manufacturing centers, producing tons of supplies and munitions, the Selma iron works and foundry was considered the second-most important source of weaponry for the South, after the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia. This strategic concentration of manufacturing capabilities eventually made Selma a target of Union raids into Alabama late in the Civil War, because of its military importance, Selma had been fortified by three miles of earthworks that ran in a semicircle around the city. They were anchored on the north and south by the Alabama River, the works had been built two years earlier, and while neglected for the most part since, were still formidable. They were 8 feet to 12 feet high,15 feet thick at the base, in front of this was a 5 feet high picket fence of heavy posts planted in the ground and sharpened at the top. At prominent positions, earthen forts were built with artillery in position to cover the ground over which an assault would have to be made, the North had learned of the importance of Selma to the Confederate military, and Federal military planned to take the city. On March 30,1865, Union General James H. Wilson detached Gen. John T. Croxtons brigade to destroy all Confederate property at Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Wilsons forces captured a Confederate courier, who was found to be carrying dispatches from Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest describing his scattered forces, Wilson sent a brigade to destroy the bridge across the Cahaba River at Centreville, which cut off most of Forrests reinforcements from reaching the area. He began a fight with Forrests forces that did not end until after the fall of Selma. On the afternoon of April 1, after skirmishing all morning, Wilsons advanced guard ran into Forrests line of battle at Ebenezer Church, Forrest had hoped to bring his entire force to bear on Wilson. The outnumbered and outgunned Confederates fought for more than an hour as reinforcements of Union cavalry and artillery were deployed, Forrest was wounded by a saber-wielding Union captain, whom he shot and killed with his revolver. Finally, a Union cavalry charge broke the Confederate militia, causing Forrest to be flanked on his right, early the next morning, Forrest reached Selma, he advised Gen. Richard Taylor, departmental commander, to leave the city
10.
Ouija
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It uses a small heart-shaped piece of wood or plastic called a planchette. Participants place their fingers on the planchette, and it is moved about the board to spell out words, Ouija is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. but is often used generically to refer to any talking board. Some Christian denominations have warned against using Ouija boards, holding that they can lead to demonic possession, Paranormal and supernatural beliefs associated with Ouija have been harshly criticized by the scientific community, since they are characterized as pseudoscience. The action of the board can be explained by unconscious movements of those controlling the pointer. One of the first mentions of the writing method used in the Ouija board is found in China around 1100 AD. The method was known as fuji, planchette writing, several entire scriptures of the Daozang are supposedly works of automatic planchette writing. According to one author, similar methods of spirit writing have been practiced in ancient India, Greece, Rome. As a part of the spiritualist movement, mediums began to employ various means for communication with the dead, following the American Civil War in the United States, mediums did significant business in presumably allowing survivors to contact lost relatives. Businessman Elijah Bond had the idea to patent a planchette sold with a board on which the alphabet was printed, the patentees filed on May 28,1890 for patent protection and thus are credited with the invention of the Ouija board. Issue date on the patent was February 10,1891, Bond was an attorney and was an inventor of other objects in addition to this device. An employee of Elijah Bond, William Fuld, took over the talking board production, in 1901, Fuld started production of his own boards under the name Ouija. Charles Kennard claimed he learned the name Ouija from using the board, when Fuld took over production of the boards, he popularized the more widely accepted etymology, that the name came from a combination of the French and German words for yes. The Fuld name would become synonymous with the Ouija board, as Fuld reinvented its history, the strange talk about the boards from Fulds competitors flooded the market, and all these boards enjoyed a heyday from the 1920s through the 1960s. Fuld sued many companies over the Ouija name and concept right up until his death in 1927, in 1966, Fulds estate sold the entire business to Parker Brothers, which was sold to Hasbro in 1991, and which continues to hold all trademarks and patents. About ten brands of talking boards are sold today under various names, the Ouija phenomenon is considered by the scientific community to be the result of the ideomotor response. Michael Faraday first described this effect in 1853, while investigating table-turning, various studies have been produced, recreating the effects of the Ouija board in the lab and showing that, under laboratory conditions, the subjects were moving the planchette involuntarily. A2012 study found that when answering yes or no questions, ouija use was more accurate than guesswork. Skeptics have described Ouija board users as operators, some critics noted that the messages ostensibly spelled out by spirits were similar to whatever was going through the minds of the subjects
11.
Rocky Hill Castle
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Rocky Hill Castle, also known simply as Rocky Hill, was a historic plantation and plantation house between Town Creek and Courtland, Alabama, United States. Once famed in Alabama for its architecture, it was a mixing of neoclassical. The house and tower suffered from neglect during much of the 20th century and were demolished in the 1960s. Much folklore surrounds the site, with Rocky Hill Castle being the subject of numerous ghost stories, the most notable story, The Ghost of the Angry Architect, was published in Kathryn Tucker Windham and Margaret Gillis Fighs 1969 work 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey. The plantation at Rocky Hill Castle was founded by James Edmonds Saunders in the mid-1820s, shortly after he, Saunders, born on May 7,1806, was a planters and attorney. He established his plantation 4 miles from that of his father, Turner Saunders, in the years after coming to Lawrence County Saunders practiced law in nearby Courtland. He eventually amassed 640 acres, centered on the hill that his house sat upon, desiring a grander dwelling, Saunders demolished this earlier house and began building Rocky Hill Castle in 1858. The American Civil War put an end to construction in 1861, the house served as Confederate hospital during the war, with several soldiers buried nearby in the Saunders family cemetery. The plantation passed through many owners following the death of James Saunders in 1896, the last Saunders to own it was James Saunders grandson, Dr. Dudley Saunders. Dr. Saunders and his family are alleged to have abruptly abandoned Rocky Hill Castle in the 1920s, regardless of the accuracy of those events, the plantation was purchased from Dr. Saunders in the 1920s by H. D. Tweedy, who used the farmland but did not reside in the house and this started a long period of decline for the house, which eventually became ruinous. It was finally demolished by a new owner, Gordon McBride, in 1961, after he, Rocky Hill Castle was built from 1858 to 1861, utilizing a combination of the Greek Revival and Italianate architectural styles. The architect of the house is unknown, although at least one of the ghost stories alleges that it was a gentleman of French extraction. The two-story house was a stuccoed brick structure over a raised basement. It featured one-story side wings, one-story Doric porticoes centered on the front and rear, connected to the house complex on the western side by a high brick wall was a five-story brick Gothic Revival tower crowned with crenelation. The connecting wall was pierced by a Tudor arch, the wall and octagonal tower have been traditionally linked to an itinerant craftsman from Wales, Hugh Jones. The tower, as well as the brick kitchen building. The interior of the house featured some of the most elaborate woodwork and plasterwork in the state, other features of the house were an impressive walnut staircase, double parlors and Italian marble mantles
12.
Dr. John R. Drish House
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The Dr. John R. Drish House, also known simply as the Drish House, is a historic plantation house in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. It is considered by state preservationists to be one of the most distinctive mixes of the Greek Revival and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. The large stuccoed brick mansion was built at the center of a 450-acre plantation on the edge of town for Dr. John R. Drish in 1837, Drish, a native of Virginia, was among the earliest settlers of Tuscaloosa, settling there in 1822. A widower himself, he married a widow, Sarah Owen McKinney. By that time he had a successful practice and worked as a building contractor. These slaves executed much of the plasterwork in Tuscaloosa. Built for Drish by his slave artisans, the first early incarnation of the house is credited to the influence of state architect William Nichols. The exterior of the house, as completed in 1837, featured full width, monumental Doric porticoes to the front and rear, John Drish died in 1867, reportedly from a fall down a stairway, and Sarah Drish died in 1884. The mansion changed hands several times after the death of Sarah Drish, while it was still a residence the surrounding property was sold, the structure eventually came to be owned by the Tuscaloosa Board of Education, who opened the Jemison School in the house in 1906. The house continued to be used as a school until 1925 and it was during its use as a parts warehouse that Walker Evans took his famous photograph of it in 1935 or 1936, displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1940, it was purchased by the Southside Baptist Church, which added a sanctuary abutting the house on one side, the church retained it for the rest of the 20th century. It was eventually threatened by proposed demolition in 1994, but was leased to the Heritage Commission of Tuscaloosa County instead by former church members when the church became defunct in 1995. The house was in a state of disrepair by 2006, when it was added to the Places in Peril listing by the Alabama Historical Commission and Alabama Trust For Historic Preservation. It was deeded to the Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society in July 2007 and they had the church additions demolished in 2009. In 2012 the Drish House was purchased by Nika McCool of Past Horizons LLC, renovations continued on the exterior and interior of the houses through May 2016, when it will open as an event venue. The house has been the site of purported hauntings since the early 20th century and it was featured in Kathryn Tucker Windham and Margaret Gillis {{proper name|Fight||s 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey, in the short story Death Lights in the Tower. Alleged supernatural events over the years have included people reportedly seeing the tower on fire, when no fire is present. Reportedly haunted locations in Alabama National Register of Historic Places listings in Tuscaloosa County, aL-201, Dr. John H. Drish House,2300 Seventeenth Street, Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County, AL,9 photos,6 measured drawings,7 data pages,1 photo caption page
13.
Kenworthy Hall
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Kenworthy Hall, also known as the Carlisle-Martin House and Carlisle Hall, is a plantation house located on the north side of Alabama Highway 14, two miles west of the Marion courthouse square. It was built from 1858 to 1860 and is one of the best preserved examples of Richard Upjohns distinctive asymmetrical Italian villa style and it is the only surviving residential example of Upjohns Italian villa style that was especially designed to suit the Southern climate and the plantation lifestyle. It has a massive tower, windows of variable size and shape with brownstone trim. The building was designed and constructed for Edward Kenworthy Carlisle as his family residence. It, along some of its surrounding ancillary structures, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2004. The house and a purported ghost are featured as a story in Kathryn Tucker Windhams 13 Alabama Ghosts. Edward Kenworthy Carlisle was born in 1810 near Augusta, Georgia and he migrated with his mother, Susan Curry Carlisle, to Perry County, Alabama as a young man. His mother had family members who were established cotton planters in the area and he married Lucinda Wilson Walthall in 1841. Carlisle eventually became a landholder and also established himself as a cotton factor. In 1858 he decided to build an estate indicative of his familys Black Belt social standing, Carlisle had difficulty in finding labor skilled enough for such an ambitious house, but he finally found a master mason, Philip Bond, in November 1858 and work then commenced. Bond estimated that the brickwork would be completed by June 1859, the family had moved into the house by 1860. The American Civil War arrived in 1861 and Carlisle continued to have success in his business ventures. One of his cotton trading firms, Carlisle and Humphries, actually saw profits increase during the Union blockade and his fortunes abruptly changed after the war, however, and his taxable property was valued at less than $20,000. The Kenworthy Hall property itself was valued at only $9000 in 1867 and he entered into a business relationship in nearby Selma with his son, Edward Carlisle, Jr. and his son-in-law, Alexander Jones. They went on to found the City National Bank in 1871, Carlisle then died in 1873, leaving the property to his wife, Lucinda, who divided her time between it and a home in Selma. She increasingly used Kenworthy as a residence only and gave it to her only surviving child, Augusta Carlisle Jones. Lucinda died in 1912 and in 1914 Augusta sold the property, the property went through a series of owners after that and went into a general decline. The house lost both of the original porches during this period, the house had various times that it stood vacant
14.
Cahaba, Alabama
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Cahaba, also spelled Cahawba, was the first permanent state capital of Alabama from 1820 to 1825. It is now a ghost town and state historic site, the site is located in Dallas County, southwest of Selma. Cahawba was listed on the 1860-1880 U. S. Censuses, although it remained incorporated until as late as 1989, it did not show up on the census rolls after 1880. Cahaba had its beginnings as a town site at the confluence of the Alabama. At the old capital of St. Stephens, a commission was formed on 13 February 1818 to select the site for Alabamas state capital. Cahaba was the chosen and was approved on 21 November 1818. Due to the capital being nothing more than wilderness, Alabamas constitutional convention was forced to find temporary accommodations in Huntsville until a statehouse could be built. Governor William Wyatt Bibb reported in October 1819 that the town had been laid out, the town was planned on a grid system with streets running north and south named for trees and those running east and west named for famous men. The new statehouse was a brick structure, measuring 40 feet wide by 58 feet long. By 1820 Cahaba had become a state capital. Cahabas low elevation at the confluence of two rivers gave it a reputation for flooding and having an unhealthy atmosphere. A major flood struck the town in 1825, causing a portion of the statehouse to collapse, people who were opposed to the capitals location at Cahaba used this as an argument for moving the capital to Tuscaloosa, which was approved by the legislature in January 1826. The town would remain the county seat of Dallas County for several more decades, the town eventually recovered from losing the capital and reestablished itself as a social and commercial center. Cahaba, centered in the fertile Black Belt, became a distribution point for cotton shipped down the Alabama River to the port of Mobile. The addition of a line in 1859 triggered a building boom in the town of Cahaba. On the eve of the American Civil War, more than 3,000 people called Cahaba home, during the Civil War, the Confederate government seized Cahabas railroad and reappropriated the iron rails to extend another nearby railroad of military importance. A large cotton warehouse on the riverbank along Arch Street was stockaded for use as a prison, in February 1865 another flood inundated the town, causing much additional hardship for the roughly 3000 Union soldiers held in the prison, and for the towns citizens. Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Union General James H. Wilson discussed an exchange of prisoners, captured during the Battle of Selma, in 1866, the county seat was moved to nearby Selma, with businesses and families following
15.
Eliza Battle
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The Eliza Battle was a Tombigbee River steamboat that ran a route between Columbus, Mississippi and Mobile, Alabama during the 1850s. She was destroyed in a fire on the river near modern Pennington and it was the greatest maritime disaster in Tombigbee River history, with an estimated thirty-three people killed, out of roughly sixty passengers and a crew of forty-five. The story of the disaster and associated folklore has been fictionalized in several published stories, most notably in “The Phantom Steamboat of the Tombigbee” in 13 Alabama Ghosts. The Eliza Battle was launched in New Albany, Indiana in 1852, a side-wheeled paddle steamer, the wooden-hulled ship had a size of 316 tons. She was operated out of Mobile, Alabama by the firm of Cox, Brainard, one of the most luxurious riverboats plying the states waters at that time, former President Millard Fillmore was entertained during a reception on board the ship in Mobile on April 7,1854. Captained by S. Graham Stone and with Daniel Epps as pilot, by the time that the ship left Demopolis, on February 28,1858, she was fully loaded with passengers and more than 1200 bales of cotton. During an already cold night, a north wind began to blow. At roughly 2 a. m. on March 1,1858, about 32 miles downriver from Demopolis, near Beckley’s Landing, partially attributed to the strong winds, the fire soon spread out of control. The boat continued downstream out of control, cut off from the lifeboat by the flames, the passengers, dressed only in their nightclothes, were forced to seek refuge in the icy river. Some survived by floating atop cotton bales, the Eliza Battle finally came to rest above Kemps Landing, near the modern Alabama State Route 114 bridge over the river near Pennington. The survivors were rescued by the Magnolia and local residents, with passengers having to be retrieved from treetops along the flooded river. All of the casualties were attributed to drowning or exposure to the cold during the night. The ship sank below the waters of the Tombigbee following the disaster, in Kathryn Tucker Windhams 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey the disaster and folklore concerning the ghost ship is recorded as “The Phantom Steamboat of the Tombigbee”. The story roughly follows newspaper accounts of the disaster and it also relates that the sightings are said by river-men to foretell of impending disaster and are an ill omen to ships still plying the waters of the river
16.
Gaineswood
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Gaineswood is a plantation house in Demopolis, Alabama, United States. The house was completed on the eve of the American Civil War after a period of almost twenty years. It is the grandest plantation house built in Marengo County and is one of the most significant remaining examples of Greek Revival architecture in Alabama. The house and grounds are operated by the Alabama Historical Commission as a historic house museum. Gaineswood was designed and built by General Nathan Bryan Whitfield, beginning in 1843 as a log dwelling. Whitfield was a planter who had moved from North Carolina to Marengo County. In 1842 Whitfield bought the 480-acre property from George Strother Gaines, the grounds had been the site of a notable historic event while owned by George Gaines. When Gaines was serving as the US Indian Agent, he is said to have met with the famous chief Pushmataha, of the Choctaw Nation and they were negotiating the terms of the treaty that would lead to the Choctaw removal to Indian Territory. The tree became known as the Pushmataha Oak, Whitfield first named the estate Marlmont in 1843, he renamed it Gaineswood in 1856 in honor of Gaines. Gen. Whitfield sold the house to his son, Dr. Bryan Watkins Whitfield, the second generation of Whitfields maintained Gaineswood as a residence. Mary Foscue Whitfield inherited the nearby Foscue-Whitfield House in 1861 upon her fathers death, in 1923 the Whitfield family sold Gaineswood. After years of use as a residence, Gaineswood was purchased in 1966 by the state of Alabama from Dr. J. D. McLeod. Gaineswood was completed in its current Greek Revival form in 1861 and it is considered to be Alabamas finest neoclassical house and one of Americas most unusual neoclassical mansions. Gaineswood is one of the few Greek Revival homes in the United States that uses all three of the ancient Greek architectural orders, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, built when tastes were shifting to the Italianate style, it features a partially asymmetrical layout. Whitfield is known to have designed most of the house from pattern books by James Stuart, Minard Lafever, Nicholas Revett, much of the work on the house was executed by highly skilled artisan slaves. The exterior has a decorative stucco over brick treatment, intended to simulate ashlar blocks, the exterior features the use of eighteen fluted Doric columns and fourteen plain square pillars to support the three porches, the main portico, and the porte-cochère. The assorted porches surround most of three sides of the structure, parterre gardens off of the main north portico and south porch are surrounded by low masonry and wood balustrades and feature period-appropriate plantings and marble statuary. A rooftop observation ring with a vasiform balustrade surmounts the house and was used for observing the estate, the estate has three surviving outbuildings, a cooks house, a garden pavilion with eight fluted Corinthian columns, and a monumental gatehouse that date to the antebellum period
17.
Pickens County Courthouse (Carrollton, Alabama)
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The Pickens County Courthouse in the county seat of Carrollton, Alabama is the courthouse for Pickens County, Alabama. It is famous for an image that can be seen in one of its garrett windows. According to a version of myth, Wells was arrested for burglary and arson. He was alleged to have burned down the courthouse in 1876. By 1878 this third courthouse was completed, although the windows were not installed until February through March and this time period was one of volatile social tensions. In 1877, the government ended Reconstruction and withdrew its troops from the South. White Democrats had regained control of state legislatures and passed measures to impose white supremacy, Wells was arrested in January 1878 and charged with the courthouse burning two years before. He was held in the new courthouse garret and he was taken out and lynched by a white mob before receiving any trial. Historic sources say that Wells died of wounds after being shot while fleeing arrest in January 1878, but other freedmen were lynched at or near the courthouse, including four black men and a woman shot and killed in their cells in September 1893. White guilt over the lynching may have contributed to the account of Wells cursing the town and this period was one of turmoil, as the federal government was withdrawing the last of its troops from the south, formally ending Reconstruction. White Democrats had already regained control of the legislature and on the local level, white minorities used racial violence to impose. As the 19th century progressed, the rate of lynchings rose, there was no indication that Pierce’s lynching had anything to do with the burning of the courthouse. The whites in town already suspected Henry Wells and an accomplice, Bill Buckhalter, a story in the West Alabamian on December 13,1876 said that Henry Wells and Bill Buckhalter were suspected of robbing a store on the night the courtroom was burned. The story also reported that stolen merchandise from the store was found in their homes, but that supports their part in robbery, not arson. Buckhalter was arrested in January 1878 and he confessed to the burglary, and blamed Wells for the burning of the courthouse. Wells was caught a few days later, when confronted by the police, he tried to flee, and was shot twice. He confessed to burning the courthouse, likely under coercion, and these two events appeared to have been combined into the commonly told myth of how the face appeared in the courthouse window, but neither Pierce nor Wells could have been the face in the window. Both Pierce and Wells died before the windows were installed in the new courthouse, the West Alabamian reported that windows were being installed in the courthouse on February 20,1878
18.
Mobile, Alabama
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Mobile is the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. Alabamas only saltwater port, Mobile is located at the head of the Mobile Bay, Mobile is the principal municipality of the Mobile metropolitan area. This region of 412,992 residents is composed solely of Mobile County, Mobile is the largest city in the Mobile-Daphne−Fairhope CSA, with a total population of 604,726, the second largest in the state. As of 2011, the population within a 60-mile radius of Mobile is 1,262,907, Mobile began as the first capital of colonial French Louisiana in 1702. During its first 100 years, Mobile was a colony of France, then Britain, Mobile first became a part of the United States of America in 1813, with the annexation of West Florida under President James Madison. In 1861 Alabama joined the Confederate States of America, which surrendered in 1865, Mobile is known for having the oldest organized Carnival celebrations in the United States. The festival began to be celebrated in the first decade of the 18th century by its first French Catholic colonial settlers. Mobile was host to the first formally organized Carnival mystic society, known elsewhere as a krewe, to celebrate with a parade in the United States, in 2005 the first integrated mystic society had a parade for Mardi Gras. The city gained its name from the Mobile tribe that the French colonists encountered living in the area of Mobile Bay. The Mobile tribe, along with the Tohomé, obtained permission from the colonists, about seven years after the founding of the Mobile settlement, to settle near the fort. It was founded by French Canadian brothers Pierre Le Moyne dIberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, Bienville was appointed as royal governor of French Louisiana in 1701. Mobiles Roman Catholic parish was established on July 20,1703, by Jean-Baptiste de la Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, the parish was the first French Catholic parish established on the Gulf Coast of the United States. In 1704 the ship Pélican delivered 23 French women to the colony, though most of the Pélican girls recovered, numerous colonists and neighboring Native Americans contracted the disease in turn and died. This early period was also the occasion of the importation of the first African slaves, the population of the colony fluctuated over the next few years, growing to 279 persons by 1708, yet descending to 178 persons two years later due to disease. A new earth-and-palisade Fort Louis was constructed at the new site during this time, by 1712, when Antoine Crozat was appointed to take over administration of the colony, its population had reached 400 persons. The capital of La Louisiane was moved in 1720 to Biloxi, leaving Mobile to serve as a regional military and trading center. In 1723 the construction of a new fort with a stone foundation began and it was renamed Fort Condé in honor of Louis Henri, Duc de Bourbon. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Seven Years War, by this treaty, France ceded its territories east of the Mississippi River to Britain
19.
Sturdivant Hall
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Sturdivant Hall, also known as the Watts-Parkman-Gillman Home, is a historic Greek Revival mansion and house museum in Selma, Alabama, United States. Completed in 1856, it was designed by Thomas Helm Lee for Colonel Edward T. Watts and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 18,1973, due to its architectural significance. Edward Vason Jones, known for his work on the interiors at the White House during the 1960s and 70s. Construction of what is now known as Sturdivant Hall began in 1852, following completion, Edward Watts and his family lived in the house until 1864, when the house was sold and the family moved to Texas. The house was purchased from Watts by John McGee Parkman, a local banker, following the end of the American Civil War, Parkman was made president of the First National Bank of Selma. The bank engaged in speculation and accumulated huge losses. The military governor of Alabama, Wager Swayne, had his Reconstruction authorities take possession of the bank and he was imprisoned at the county jail at Cahaba. Assisted by his friends, Parkman attempted to escape from the prison on May 23,1867, the house was sold at auction for $12,500 in January 1870 to Emile Gillman, a prominent Selma merchant. The Gillman family owned the house until 1957, when it was sold to the City of Selma for $75,000. A large share of the money for buying the house came through a $50,000 bequest from the estate of Robert Daniel Sturdivant, the mansion was turned into a house museum after the purchase and named in honor of Sturdivant. The property continues to be maintained into the present day by the City of Selma, Dallas County, the house is a two-story brick structure, stuccoed to give the appearance of ashlar. The front facade features a monumentally scaled hexastyle portico utilizing 30-foot -tall Corinthian columns, the front portico is accessed from the second floor by a cantilevered balcony with an intricate cast-iron railing. Identical front doorways on both feature elaborate Greek Revival door surrounds with full Corinthian columns to each side of the door. The side elevations of the feature a small cantilevered balcony on one side. Both make use of elaborate cast-iron structural and decorative elements, the rear elevation is dominated by a monumental distyle in antis portico with two Doric columns. A kitchen, smokehouse and two-story servants quarters are set at angles to the rear portico. A low pyramidal hipped roof covers the main block of the house, as well as the front and it is crowned by a small cupola. The interiors of Sturdivant Hall reflect the taste for opulence in the United States during the 1850s
20.
Bill Sketoe
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William Bill Sketoe, Sr. was a Methodist minister from the south Alabama town of Newton, whose lynching there on December 3,1864 gave birth to one of Alabamas best-known ghost stories. Whatever the reason for his murder, a hole dug beneath Sketoes feet during the hanging ultimately led to stories about the hole that wont stay filled. According to witnesses, this hole never disappeared—even after being filled numerous times—retaining its original dimensions for the next 125 years, Sketoes tale became a staple of Southern folklore, and was later immortalized by Alabama author Kathryn Tucker Windham in her 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey. His hanging site remained a local tourist attraction for decades, today the site of Sketoes lynching lies beneath the Alabama Highway 134 bridge over the Choctawhatchee River, and a monument to Sketoe has been erected nearby. While much of Bill Sketoes story is difficult to reconstruct with certainty, he is known to have resided in Newton, Alabama prior to the Civil War, and to have been lynched there on December 3,1864. The main source for his tale is Kathryn Tucker Windhams 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey, however, certain details of this story—such as Sketoes alleged Confederate war service and the precise reason for his lynching—are subject to controversy based upon other available records. According to the legend, Sketoe was born in Madrid, Spain on June 8,1818 and he seemed to be well liked in the community, and chose the ministry as his vocation. While serving as a rider in the Wiregrass area, Sketoe met and married Sarah Clemmons. Sketoe allegedly entered the Southern Army during the Civil War, though government archives contain no record of his service in any Confederate unit or local militia, Sketoe supposedly served until the Fall of 1864, when he received word that his wife had fallen ill. He accordingly resolved to return home until his spouse had recovered—or so the story goes, enraged citizens formed Home Guard units to defend against their depredations, one such outfit was led by Captain Joseph Breare. Breare was a lawyer in Newton, and was described by his partners son as an Englishman who had moved to Dale County in the 1850s. He was an Alabama delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1860, and served as a Lieutenant in Company E, 15th Alabama Infantry, captured at Gettysburg, he was later exchanged and returned home to serve as commander of the local Home Guard unit. Two different versions exist as to the cause of Sketoes death, however, historians have pointed out that the Confederacy had repealed its substitution laws in early 1864, making the legends assertion that Sketoe had hired a substitute questionable, at best. Furthermore, as noted above, no records exist of Bill Sketoe having ever served in any Confederate or state military unit to begin with. An alternative view of the reasons behind Sketoes lynching is provided by historian David Williams in his book Rich Mans War, Caste, Class, Williams indicates that Sketoe was suspected of helping John Ward, the leader of a local band of deserters and pro-Union guerrillas. According to the legend, Sketoe was waylaid on the afternoon of December 3,1864, Breare and his men dragged the preacher into the nearby woods, beating him and forcing him to crawl through the sand while they prepared to kill him. Sketoe was next hauled to a buggy, and a rope was thrown over a Post Oak limb. A friend of Sketoes happened by the scene at this time, unable to dissuade the Home Guard from their intended course, anxious to get on with the hanging, Breare asked Sketoe if he had any last words, he asked if he might pray
21.
Red Lady of Huntingdon College
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The Red Lady of Huntingdon College is a ghost said to haunt the former Pratt Hall dormitory at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama. Her story is told in Huntingdon alumnus Kathryn Tucker Windhams book 13 Alabama Ghosts, according to Windham and historian Daniel Barefoot, there have actually been two ghosts alleged to have haunted Huntingdon College. They first appeared in the nineteenth century, while the college was still located in the town of Tuskegee. She was described as a woman wearing a scarlet dress and carrying a scarlet parasol who walked wordlessly up and down the halls of a womens dormitory late one night. This apparition, according to Windham, ultimately left the residence hall, the alleged identity or origin of this wraith has never been determined, and she was apparently never seen again. Martha did not especially want to come to Alabama, but her fathers fortune was large, although many of her fellow students asked her to explain her apparent obsession with the color red, Martha always demurred. Being a stranger and shy, as well as unhappy in her unfamiliar surroundings and they sensed that she was different from them, and having heard she was wealthy, they mistook her shyness for disdain. Martha sat alone and apart from them in the dining hall, when other girls dropped in to visit, she seemed so cold and unfriendly that they eventually stopped coming. Truthfully, many of them had come out of curiosity to see the red prayer rug Martha had bought in Turkey. Marthas roommate, according to Windhams story, ultimately found the situation unbearable, the housemother granted this request and put someone else in the room with Martha, who became increasingly aloof and irritable. This second girl also left her only a week. This procedure happened again and again as one roommate after another found it impossible to live with the surly girl, Martha had become embittered as well as withdrawn, and she seemed to resent the presence of this kindhearted girl. After all her efforts at friendship had failed and after she found herself growing depressed and despondent, just as she was about to go, Martha, who had not known of her imminent departure, returned to the room. With a look of defiance she said, So you couldnt stand me either - like all the rest of your stuck up friends, I was beginning to think you really wanted me to be your friend but you hate me just like the rest. Well, Im glad to be rid of you, but Ill tell you one thing, my dear, for the rest of your life youll regret leaving this room. The house president was disturbed by this bitter outburst but in the midst of her activities she soon forgot about Marthas prophetic words. Then, with a feeling of alienation from all humankind, she would return to her solitary sleeping quarters, as time passed, she took to walking up and down the halls during the darkest hours of the night. Often she would alarm the girls by opening and closing their doors, as she neared Marthas room at an isolated corridor at the top floor of the building, she is said to have noticed flashes of red shooting out into the corridor from the rooms transom
22.
Grancer Harrison
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William Grancer Harrison, aka The Dancing Ghost of Grancer Harrison, is the subject of several ghost stories about his alleged spirit seen dancing at his grave-site near Kinston, Alabama. The story was featured in the book 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey and is the subject of a song by country band Granville Automatic. Originally covered by a large wood-frame grave shelter, the tomb has been vandalized and rebuilt several times in the last 50 years, the tomb itself was last reconstructed in 2005. Harrison was born in the old Ninety-Six District, Edgefield County, the Harrisons plantation was built on a high bank overlooking Pea River. Grancer and wife Nancy had several children and they included Elizabeth, Mary, Charlotte, James M. Frances, Sarah, John A. William A. Moses M. & Martha Jane. Grancer was a cotton planter and is said to have owned the largest number of slaves in the county. He hosted barbecues, dances, and horse races every Saturday possible and he loved these things so much that he had his slaves build a large dance hall just for the parties he sponsored. Grancer had a pair of clogs, or dancing shoes, that he wore just for the parties he loved so well, the years passed and Harrison was faced with the fact that he would not live forever, so he began to prepare for his final arrangements. Slaves were forced to travel to the kiln in Milton, Florida. Work began on the large above ground tomb he intended to be buried in, in a last act of excess, Harrison was to be buried in the tomb with his dancing clothes and his clogs on, lying on his feather bed. The burial site was within earshot of his dance hall so that he could still be a part of it in some way. The end for Harrison finally came in 1860 and his orders were followed exactly. The Saturday night dances continued for a while but without Harrison it just wasnt the same, then people began to tell tales of passing the Harrison Cemetery late on a Saturday night and hearing the eerie sounds of fiddling and dancing coming from the cemetery. Other stories had passers-by reported hearing the deep booming voice of a man calling out square dances, Grancer Harrison would have been given the name Grancer by his many children and grandchildren. The nickname, Grancer was actually very commonly given to a grandfather in the region of South Carolina from which hailed Grancer Harrison, Grancer was an affectionate term, in common use at the time by immigrants from Western Britain to the Carolinas. The term refers to a Grand Sire—which means Grand Father, another tale concerning Harrisons grave claimed that Grancer had a large sum of gold buried with him and still others claimed that he buried gold near the old dance hall. Vandals solved the mystery of the gold in his tomb in 1964 when they blew it open with dynamite, there was no gold and they succeeded only in destroying the tomb and scattering Harrisons skeletal remains. The Harrison Cemetery along with Harrisons Grave was again vandalized on July 30,2010
23.
The Birmingham News
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The Birmingham News is the principal newspaper for Birmingham, Alabama, United States, and the largest newspaper in Alabama. The paper is owned by Advance Publications, and was a newspaper from its founding through September 30,2012. The next day, the News and its two sister Alabama newspapers, the Press-Register in Mobile and The Huntsville Times, moved to a thrice-weekly print-edition publication schedule, the Times-Picayune of New Orleans, also an Advance newspaper, also went to thrice-weekly on the same day. The Birmingham News was launched on March 14,1888 by Rufus N. Rhodes as The Evening News, newspapers joined with industrial tycoons, academics and real-estate speculators in relentless boosterism of the new city. Rhodes was working as editor of the Daily Herald when he found his campaign for a viaduct spanning the Railroad Reservation dividing Birminghams north and south opposed by his publisher. He determined to out on his own and launched the News with the slogan Great is Birmingham. The News Bridge was dedicated on July 4,1891, deemed by his paper the grandest of all municipal achievements of great and glorious Birmingham. The News circulation grew from 628 in 1888 to over 7000 in 1891, the name was changed from The Evening News to The Daily News and then, in 1895, The Birmingham News. The newspaper continued to grow, reaching a circulation of 17,000 in 1909, staunchly progressive in its political stance, the News supported a straight-ticket Democrat platform in election seasons and championed progressive causes such as prohibition. The News led the drumbeat for the Greater Birmingham movement to annex suburban communities. The successful campaign caused the population of the City of Birmingham to grow from 40,000 in 1900 to 138,685 in 1910 and that same year, Rhodes died and was succeeded by his vice-president and general manager, Victor H. Hanson. Hanson, only 33 years old, was already an accomplished newspaperman, having at age 11 founded the City Item in Macon, Georgia, in direct competition with the morning Age-Herald, the News began a Sunday edition in 1912. In 1917 the News moved to a new six-story Jacobean-style office building on the corner of 4th Avenue North and 22nd Street. At the time of the move, the News published this opinion, The News is proud of its new home, publishers from other cities have been kind enough to say that nowhere in the land was there a more adequate, convenient and efficient newspaper plant. Many thousands of dollars have been expended with that end in view, a year later the paper made good use of its new space by purchasing the rival Birmingham Ledger, increasing the size of its staff to 748 and its circulation to 60,000. In 1927 the Birmingham Age-Herald was sold to Hanson, who continued publishing both papers, the News press printed both papers and handled advertising and subscriptions sales while the editorial and reporting staffs remained independent. The agreement lasted until the Post-Herald ceased publication in September 2005, leaving the News as Birminghams only daily newspaper. In 1956, the Hanson family sold the News to S. I. Newhouse Sr. s Advance Publications in New York for $18 million, the largest sum that had been paid at the time for a daily newspaper
