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| General Braxton Bragg |
(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 old Southern mansion
are mischievous” was originally published in the March 11, 1993 edition of The
Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)
As I parked in the driveway of the Denmark house near the
community of Belleville, a certain air of mystery seemed to hang over the
place. I had been given an invitation by Luther Upton, who lives there, to
visit the old Southern mansion built in 1834 and witness for myself some of the
unusual happenings that took place there.
The full-length front porch stretched across the entire
house with the usual swing and a couple of rocking chairs. The unusual front
doors numbered three instead of the usual two found on most of the old
plantation homes that yet remain throughout the South.
The front yard was filled with the usual flowers of the old
South, such as azaleas, camellias and various other kinds too numerous to
mention. A very large hydrangeas grew close to the long porch as though planted
there for some special reason. Perhaps, so that it could be viewed as it
bloomed and grew from year to year from the swing or from one of the large
rocking chairs. As we sat there on the old porch, I thought I detected someone
smoking a pipe. The smell of burning pipe tobacco was heavy in the afternoon
air. There was only three of us on the porch: my wife and I, and over on the
swing, sat Luther.
Smoking a pipe
I knew that I wasn’t smoking a pipe, and I was reasonably
sure that my wife wasn’t. I looked toward the swing to see if Luther had
lighted a pipe. He did not have a pipe either. Then, I noticed a smile on his
face; he knew what I was about to ask. Yes, he and my wife were smelling strong
tobacco smoke.
Then he told me that this was quite common to smell a
smoking pipe on the porch and inside the house. I then asked him if he had a
fire going in one of the large fire places; I had also smelled wood burning
before coming up on the porch. Luther stated that this was quite common also.
As we sat in one of the large rooms discussing the unusual
goings on in the house, a noise on the stairway was noticed by the three of us.
“That’s them,” stated Luther. “Sometimes they get so loud until I yell at them
to get quiet. It is not unusual for my television to come on during the late
hours of the night. Most always, the volume will be turned so loud that it will
almost shake the whole house. One time, after giving them a piece of my mind
about the loud noises and their playing with the television, I returned home
from work to find several pictures had been taken off the wall and thrown down
in the floor. Also, a jelly jar had been thrown across the kitchen.”
As we continued our conversation, there in the large room,
more mysterious noises were heard toward the back of the house. “You should be
here during the night hours,” stated Luther. “That is when the noises are the
worst. Doors in the upstairs rooms can be heard opening, then to slam shut with
great force. My two pet dogs, Thelma and Louise, are harassed all day long.
They won’t hardly come up on the porch in fear of being bothered by whatever
that is here.”
Walking around the old house, we stopped at the large
soap-rock chimneys. There in the soft stone was carved numerous initials of
those who had perhaps visited this old plantation home during the early years. The
name “Luke Bragg” stood out in bold letters. The words, “J.D. Elder lived here,”
were also carved in the soft stone. Due to the age of the old soap-stone, many
of the initials could not be read.
I had heard at an earlier date, when I first became
interested in the old house, that President Jefferson Davis had spent the night
here in April 1865. Confederate General Braxton Bragg had also stayed here for
two days.
It is believed that the community of Belleville was named by
Jefferson Davis during his stay here because of many beautiful young ladies he
had seen while visiting here. President Davis stated that he had never before
seen a small community as this with so many beautiful young ladies living
within and around it.
Used as a hospital
Luther stated that he had information that the old mansion
had been used for a hospital for Confederate soldiers during the closing days
of the war. In one of the upstairs rooms is an old hospital bed from the middle
1800s. This probably bears witness because Luther also stated that he was told
that several of these type beds had once been in the upstairs rooms. Over the
years, they had been hauled away by unknown persons, prior to his getting the
place.
As we continued our conversations, what appeared to be the
sound of heavy furniture being moved came from across the hall. “There they go
again,” stated Luther. “This goes on at all hours of the day and night.”
As I glanced across the hall and into the other large room,
there was no evidence of anything being moved or out of place. As I returned to
my chair and sat down, the sound of footsteps could be heard in the hallway.
Again, no one was there.
As our rather exciting visit came to a close, I began to
experience an unusual and strange feeling that I had been in this house before.
I mentioned it to my wife as we rode toward Belleville and Highway 84.
As we had visited each of the rooms of the old plantation
home, I became aware that there was nothing strange about the place; all the
rooms seemed familiar. I was seeing everything just as I was expecting to see
it.
My friend, Luther, had stated that he too had experienced
this same feeling, the first time he had entered the old house. There are not
many feelings that I have had that I can’t explain, but here was one that had
me stumped. I had never entered the old house before until this day. I had
viewed it from the road several times when passing this way. But until today, I
had never even entered the front yard.
Who are these spirits that roam the old Denmark plantation
home near the community of Belleville? Could it be the spirits of dead
Confederate soldiers who departed this life in rooms of the old house when it
was used for a hospital? Or perhaps it could be the spirits of some young
children who had lived and played and romped the house and grounds here many,
many years ago.
What secrets lie beneath the old house at the end of that
hidden staircase? Or, perhaps the spirits of President Davis or General Bragg
have returned to the old plantation for reasons not known, perhaps in search
for someone or something known only to them.
But as for now, whoever they are, or whatever it may be, the
true mystery remains.
(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 on Dec.
14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School, served in
the Korean War, lived for a time among Apache Indians, moved to Monroe County
in June 1964 (some sources say 1961) and served as the administrator of the
Monroeville National Guard unit from 1964 to 1987. For years, Singleton’s
column “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. Some of his earlier columns also appeared under the heading of
“Monroe County History: Did You Know?” 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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