Questions abound over supposedly haunted cemetery in Wilcox County

Snow Hill Institute in Wilcox County, Alabama.

In this space last week, I shared a couple of old ghost stories from in and around the Snow Hill community. This week, I bring you another unusual story from that same part of Wilcox County, a tale that is clouded in more than a little mystery.

The story begins one day many years ago when a few students from the Snow Hill Institute were driving an oxcart down to some railroad tracks to deliver a load of wood. The road they were on passed through a graveyard that was said to be located on the outskirts of the school property. Their trip took longer than expected and by the time they began their return home, the sun had gone down.

As the oxcart continued down the night-shrouded path, the students eventually reached the graveyard. When the oxen arrived at the graveyard’s entrance, they stopped and nothing the students did could get the oxen to enter the graveyard. The students eventually gave up and decided to leave the oxcart there for the night.

The students continued home on foot, and when they returned to the graveyard early the next morning, the oxen were still there in the same place they’d been left hours before. As soon as the sun rose above the nearby trees, the students finally managed to get the oxen going again and returned to the school with their empty oxcart.

The best source that I know of regarding this tale is the book, “Haunted Alabama Black Belt” by David Higdon and Brett Talley. That book goes on to say that the graveyard near the Snow Hill Institute was “dedicated to the slaves who once worked the land around the school,” and “has its share of tales associated with it. Sudden storms seem to fall upon the cemetery with terrible violence. Ghostly shadows seem to pass between the gravestones, and full-bodied apparitions regularly appear to visitors.”

I’ve tried to confirm some of the aspects about this story, but many of the details remain a mystery. Every modern map that I examined shows no railroad tracks anywhere near the Snow Hill community. In fact, the only modern railroad I was able to find is the track that runs from Hybart, up through Coy and into the western part of the county, many miles from Snow Hill.

Perhaps the old ghost story is referring to an old, abandoned railroad that was pulled up years ago. There was a time when extensive networks of tracks were set down through the woods for logging operations, but those tracks were removed over time to make use of the old iron rails and crossties. Even today, if you know where to look, you can still see where the old railbeds run abandoned through the woods.

One is also left to wonder exactly what graveyard the students passed through in their oxcart. The most prominent graveyard I know of near the old school is the Old Snow Hill Cemetery, but it’s located miles away from the school, really closer to Furman, off County Road 63. Perhaps the story refers to a “lost” cemetery that’s somewhere out in the woods, forgotten by modern residents and visitors.

I’ve heard rumors that there is an old “slave cemetery” that you can walk to from the old Snow Hill Institute school. However, I’ve also heard that it sits up on a hill out in the middle of the woods. If this is true, would it have had a road running through it that you could take to reach the railroad from the school?

In the end, I’d like to hear from anyone in the reading audience with more information about this old ghost story. Where was the old railroad near the Snow Hill Institute? Where was the old cemetery near the school? Who were the students involved in the tale and when did it take place? If you know, please let me know, so we can better preserve this tale for future generations of Wilcox County residents.