Investigator reported strange events in Wilcox County 'haunted house'

George Buster Singleton

Twenty-five years ago, paranormal investigator George Buster Singleton investigated an “abandoned farm house” in Wilcox County and reported having a wide variety of supernatural experiences there.

Singleton, a Korean War combat veteran who served for years as the full-time administrator of the National Guard armory in Monroeville, also wrote a popular weekly column for The Monroe Journal newspaper in Monroeville for over 30 years. More often than not, his columns were about local legends, ghost stories and other unusual happenings, and in the May 26, 1994 edition of The Journal, under the headline “Strange events center around Wilcox County house,” Singleton told readers about an unnerving trip he’d recently taken to an “ancient farm house” in Wilcox County.

Singleton, who passed away in 2007, was invited to investigate the house by an unnamed Camden man, who guaranteed him that he would witness something that would make his “hair stand up on end,” even during the daylight hours. Singleton met the man at a crossroads not far from the Alabama River and followed him a couple of miles farther down the paved highway. Eventually, this road gave way to clay and gravel, and they followed it for another mile before coming to the abandoned lane that led up to the spooky old house.

Singleton’s guide declined to go any farther, saying that he couldn’t stick around because he’d been called in to work to fill in for someone who was sick. Before leaving, the man told Singleton to explore the house for as long as he liked and to call him later to report his experiences. Singleton continued up the lane on his motorcycle, entered the house and searched it thoroughly to make sure that he was alone. He then took a seat and waited for something to happen.

As things go, Singleton did not have to wait long. A short time later, he heard the home’s “sagging” front door close loudly, but when he went to investigate, he found it open. Closer examination of the door showed that the top hinge was not connected to the door facing and that the door “hung at a crazy angle with its bottom resting on the ancient boards of the decaying front porch.” He realized that the door would have to be physically lifted in order to close it.

Not long after that, Singleton heard heavy footsteps on the plank floor of the large room to his left, and they sounded like they were moving towards the rear of the house. Singleton investigated the source of the sounds and found nothing, but a short time later, he began to smell an “unusual odor” coming from the old kitchen, “like food cooking on a wood-burning stove.” Singleton investigated this also but could not find the source of the bizarre smell.

Singleton eventually decided to bring his ghost hunt to an end and passed through the open kitchen door to get to his motorcycle. When he looked back at the house, the kitchen door was “tightly” closed, and he also noticed that the odor of cooking food had disappeared. Lastly, as he strapped on his motorcycle helmet to leave, he was overcome by the feeling that he was being watched and looked up in time to see a “shadow” step across the opened front door “as though it had been standing there, watching me make ready to leave.”

No doubt, this is one of the most unusual haunted house tales to ever come out of Wilcox County, but Singleton was characteristically vague about where this house was exactly located. He indicated that it was northwest of Monroeville and near the Alabama River, somewhere off what in 1994 was a clay and gravel road. A close reading of Singleton’s story does provide more clues about the house.

He noted that the house was of the old dog trot style and indicated that the kitchen was separate from the main house. The house was also surrounded by a “ragged and decaying old yard fence” with an “ancient gate” and that “several huge” mimosa trees shaded the house and kitchen. Singleton also mentioned that there were “two huge fireplaces at each end of the large old log house” and that there was an “old stone chimney that stood above the roof of the aged kitchen.”

In the end, I’d like to hear from anyone in the reading audience familiar with this old, supposedly-haunted house. Perhaps the clues left behind by Singleton will sound familiar to someone who can provide more information about where this old house is located. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that this old house still stands, just waiting for a fresh set of eyes and ears to experience what it has to offer the most stouthearted of visitors.