Author | Kathryn Tucker Windham Margaret Gillis Figh |
---|---|
Language | English |
Series | Jeffrey |
Genre | Folklore |
Publisher | Strode Publishers |
Publication date | 1969 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardcover) |
Pages | 120 pp (1st edition) |
ISBN | 0-8173-0376-6 |
OCLC | 16834379 |
Followed by | Jeffrey Introduces 13 More Southern Ghosts |
13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey is a book first published in 1969 by folklorist Kathryn Tucker Windham and Margaret Gillis Figh. The book contains thirteen ghost stories from the U.S. state of Alabama. The book was the first in a series of seven Jeffrey books, most featuring ghost stories from a Southern state. Jeffrey in the book's title refers to a ghost that allegedly haunts Windham's home. [1] [2]
The foreword of the book describes how Windham came to be interested in ghost stories. It began with ghostly incidents in the Windham family home in Selma that Windham attributed to a spirit she dubbed "Jeffrey". At first, the family heard footsteps in rooms that would later be found empty. A supposed photograph of Jeffrey, included in the book, was taken inside the home. On the night the picture was made, some young people visiting the house decided to play with a Ouija board, trying to contact Jeffrey. When they developed the photos taken that night, a shadowy vaguely human-like shape was seen beside a girl in the photograph. Soon after it was taken Windham contacted Figh, who was a noted collector of ghost stories, to ask about Jeffrey. Out of that meeting, the idea of 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey was born. [3]
In the preface to the book, Windham says that although there are many ghost stories in Alabama, she wanted to choose stories for her book that had "entertained many generations" and were "a treasured part of Southern folklore". Windham sought stories from which she could describe not only the ghost, but also the community and lifestyles of the people who first reported the haunting. Windham spends as much time describing the people and places around the ghost stories as she does the ghost itself. [2]
Despite being very popular in Alabama, the book attracted some controversy from certain Christians in the state who said that the book promoted beliefs incompatible with Christianity. In fact, Windham said that she had received letters from people telling her she is doomed to hell for writing the Jeffrey books. [2] In an interview with The Birmingham News , Windham responded to these claims, saying "If I'm going to hell — and I can't deny that, because it's not for me to judge — it won't be for telling ghost stories; I have far greater shortcomings than that." [2]
13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey has been adapted into a stage musical by Don Everett Garrett and Kevin Francis Finn. [4] Kathryn Tucker Windham gave her blessing for the adaptation and saw the premiere at Red Mountain Theatre Company's Cabaret Theatre in October 2010, prior to her death. The musical is now available to schools and arts organizations from the authors.
Huntingdon College is a private Methodist college in Montgomery, Alabama. It was founded in 1854 as a women's college.
Cahaba, also spelled Cahawba, was the first permanent state capital of Alabama from 1820 to 1825. It was the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama until 1866. Located at the confluence of the Alabama and Cahaba rivers, the town endured regular seasonal flooding.
Kathryn Tucker Windham was an American storyteller, author, photographer, folklorist, and journalist. She was born in Selma, Alabama, and grew up in nearby Thomasville.
The Auburn University Chapel is the second-oldest building and oldest building in its original location on the campus of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.
The Pickens County Courthouse in the county seat of Carrollton, Alabama is the courthouse for Pickens County, Alabama. Built-in 1877-1878 as the third courthouse in the city, it is noted for a ghostly image that can be seen in one of its garret windows. This is claimed to be the face of freedman Henry Wells from 1878.
Kenworthy Hall, also known as the Carlisle-Martin House, Carlisle Hall and Edward Kenworthy Carlisle House, 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 Upjohn's distinctive asymmetrical Italian villa style. It is the only surviving residential example of Upjohn's Italian villa style that was especially designed to suit the Southern climate and the plantation lifestyle. It has a massive four-story tower, windows of variable size and shape with brownstone trim, and a distinctly Southern division of family and public spaces. The building was designed and constructed for Edward Kenworthy Carlisle as his primary family residence and the centerpiece of his 440-acre (1.8 km2) estate. It, along with some of its surrounding ancillary structures, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2004. The house and a purported ghost are featured as a short story in Kathryn Tucker Windham's 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey.
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, with the most recent vandalism at the cemetery in 2010. The tomb itself was last reconstructed in 2005.
William 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 Alabama's best-known ghost stories. While locally-told stories of his life usually say that he was hanged on trumped-up charges of desertion from the Confederate Army, other sources show that he was killed for allegedly aiding pro-Union renegades in the area. Whatever the reason for his murder, a shallow hole dug beneath Sketoe's feet during the hanging ultimately led to stories about "the hole that won't stay filled." According to witnesses, this hole never disappeared—even after being filled numerous times—retaining its original dimensions for the next 125 years.
Sturdivant Hall, also known as the Watts-Parkman-Gillman House, 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. 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 architectural work on the interiors at the White House during the 1960s and 70s, called it one of the finest Greek Revival antebellum mansions in the Southeast.
The Chapel of the Cross is a historic Episcopal church in the Mannsdale area of Madison, Mississippi. The brick structure was built circa 1850–52 by enslaved people. It is noted for its Gothic Revival architecture, which draws heavily from 14th-century English country churches. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
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 Windham's book 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey.
The Eliza Battle was a Tombigbee River steamboat that ran a route between Columbus, Mississippi and Mobile, Alabama in the United States during the 1850s. She was destroyed in a fire on the river near modern Pennington, Alabama on March 1, 1858. 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 disaster and its aftermath saw the Eliza Battle enter southwestern Alabama folklore as a ghost ship, with numerous purported sightings of the burning ship from just north of Pennington to Nanafalia downriver. The story of the disaster and associated folklore has been fictionalized in several published short stories, most notably in “The Phantom Steamboat of the Tombigbee” in 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey.
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 an unusual mixing of neoclassical and picturesque aesthetics in one plantation complex. The house and tower suffered from neglect during much of the 20th century and were subsequently 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 Figh's 1969 work 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey.
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 Italianate styles in Alabama. First recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1934, it was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on July 31, 1975, and subsequently to the state's "Places in Peril" listing in 2006. It was listed as Jemison School-Drish House on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
"Heart of Darkness" is the 16th episode of the American fairy tale/drama television series Once Upon a Time, which aired in the United States on ABC on March 18, 2012.
Annandale Plantation was a cotton plantation worked by enslaved laborers in what is now the Mannsdale neighborhood of Madison, Mississippi.
James T. Staples, officially registered as the Jas. T. Staples and also known as the Big Jim, was a Tombigbee River sternwheel paddle steamer that ran a route between Mobile and Demopolis, Alabama, during the early 20th century. She was destroyed during 1913 in an explosion while docked on the Tombigbee roughly six miles (10 km) north of the current Coffeeville Lock and Dam. It was the last major maritime disaster involving a steamboat in Tombigbee River history. The disaster saw the ship enter southwestern Alabama folklore, with tales that its sinking had been foretold by supernatural occurrences.
The Boyington Oak is a historic Southern live oak in Mobile, Alabama. In a city with many live oaks that are famous for their age and size, the Boyington Oak stands out as a singular example of one famous for the folklore surrounding its origin.
Minder Pettway Coleman was an American artist. She was one of the Gee's Bend quilt-makers, along with her older sister Delia Bennett and her daughter Minnie Sue Coleman.