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| Old Scotland Presbyterian Church in Monroe County, Ala. |
(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator
George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere
in Time.” The column below, which was titled “Ghosts of woman, baby await
travelers on bridge” was originally published in the Jan. 14, 1993 edition of
The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)
During these rather cool days of January, when the mists
hang over the valleys and the dark clouds cover the sun, many memories come to mind.
The tales of the local folks from the back country have a certain feeling of
realness this time of the year, more so than any other time.
As on many other occasions, I have been asked not to mention
names because the teller of this story has chosen to remain anonymous for reasons
he did not disclose. By doing this, it by no means causes me to think the story
is not true. I appreciate the fact that he thought enough of me to share his
story with me.
Not far from the old community of Old Scotland, there is a
stretch of public road that is no longer in use. The road cannot be traveled due
to the fact that gates have been built across the old stage route and the
surrounding land is under lease by a hunting club.
As the old road winds this way and that, seeking out the
high ground, it comes to what used to be the crossing of a large creek or stream
in the area. Not much is left of the old bridge but a few rotten timbers that
have survived the many years of use and weather. It is here at this old bridge
where strange happenings and goings on used to take place.
The friend who told me the story is getting along in years
now. As a small boy, he was told this story time and time again of the
travelers who came this way during the late evening hours and during the times
when the moon was full. He also on two or three occasions witnessed this
strange phenomena himself, as he and his father traveled this stretch of road
during the late hour of the evening.
Only those who were traveling in a northwesterly direction
experienced these strange goings on. As one descended the sloping hill that led
down to the large creek, one might hear the loud scream of what appeared to be
a woman in distress.
The story is that if one was traveling by horseback or by
wagon or buggy, the animals always became nervous and almost impossible to
control. By the time the animals were quieted, the loud screaming would stop.
Only the soft sounds of a sobbing woman could be heard from
the tall grass and weeds nearby. And, any who were brave enough to leave their
wagons or buggies to search for the distressed woman would always return to
find a small woman standing in the road about 10 yards in front of their team
and wagon.
The woman would always be standing with her left shoulder to
the wagons. She appeared to have something in her arms as though she was
holding a very small baby in a tightly wrapped blanket or quilt.
Slowly she would turn and begin to walk toward the high
bridge that crossed the creek. Her steps would quicken as she neared the tall
bridge. There she would stop and turn around once more, facing the buggy or the
wagon that had stopped on the edge of the bridge, waiting to see what was about
to take place.
Pausing for a moment in the center of the high bridge, she
would quickly turn and step to the lower side of the bridge. Here she would
stop again and look in a southeastwardly direction, back up the road from which
she had come. Then, quickly she would step off the bridge, down toward the swift
waters below.
There would be no scream or a sound of a splash as she
disappeared from the bridge into the waters below. Only the quietness of the
late evening or the bright light of the full moon gave evidence as to what had
been witnessed by those passing this way.
My friend stated as he remembered, that all was quiet there
on the bridge as though nothing had happened. Only the bewilderment and the
excitement experienced by those who had witnessed this hair-raising event gave
any indication of what had gone on, here on the old road and now abandoned and
decaying bridge.
The story goes on to say that many who came this way and
witnessed the lady on the bridge spent many hours of their time researching the
happening and the facts surrounding this strange event. No one ever knew the
name of the lady on the bridge, but sometime during the middle 1800s, this
traveler and his family were going in the direction of a riverboat landing on
the Alabama River. This landing might have been the one known as Bells Landing.
As they approached the high bridge over the creek, robbers
or highwaymen jumped out of the tall weeds and brush and grabbed the reins of
their horse that pulled the buggy they were riding in. The story goes on to say
that the man of the family resisted the robbers who were seeking money or the
horse and buggy in which they traveled.
Upon seeing her husband shot down in cold blood, the woman
with the baby jumped down from the buggy and ran toward the high bridge. The
large creek was swollen from recent rains; the terrified screaming woman took
one last look back in the direction where her slain husband lay face down in
the road.
The robbers, not knowing that the family gold had been wrapped
in the heavy blanket alongside the infant, made no effort to seize the
frightened woman. Looking once more at the lifeless body of her husband, the
lady with her baby grasped tightly in her arms stepped from the high bridge
into the raging waters below.
The few now living who remember this tragic story say that
no evidence has ever been found of the woman and her baby. Perhaps, somewhere
in time, she has joined her loved one who fought so bravely that dreadful
evening there at the bridge.
(Singleton, the author
of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of
79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime
resident of Monroeville, he was born to Vincent William Singleton and Frances
Cornelia Faile Singleton, during a late-night thunderstorm, on Dec. 14, 1927 in
Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School in 1946, served as a
U.S. Marine paratrooper in the Korean War, worked as a riverboat deckhand,
lived for a time among Apache Indians, moved to Monroe County on June 28, 1964
and served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from
June 28, 1964 to Dec. 14, 1987. He was promoted from the enlisted ranks
to warrant officer in May 1972. For years, Singleton’s columns, titled “Monroe
County history – Did you know?” and “Somewhere in Time” appeared in The Monroe
Journal, and he wrote a lengthy series of articles about Monroe County that
appeared in Alabama Life magazine. It’s believed that his first column appeared
in the March 25, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal. He is buried in Pineville
Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns are
available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County
Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week
for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work
and memory alive.)
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