Forgotten 'Hang-Man's Grave Yard' was 'a terror' to some in the 1800s

Old Wilcox County Courthouse.

Does a supposedly haunted graveyard remain hidden and forgotten a short walk from downtown Camden?

This was the question I asked myself the other day when I ran across an interesting article in the July 10, 1889 edition of The Wilcox Progressive Era. On Page 2 of that paper, readers saw a seven-paragraph article submitted by 61-year-old Zoroaster Selman Cook, who was Wilcox County’s probate judge.

Cook wrote that at some point in Camden’s past at least five convicted criminals had been put to death on gallows that were located on the lot where an “old factory mill” was located in 1889. He said the gallows were located on the northwest corner, near the intersection of Fail Street and Caldwell Street. Looking at modern maps, this intersection is about 1,500 yards – as the crow flies – almost due west of the old Wilcox County Courthouse. Cook said he determined the location of the old gallows based on talks with older citizens, particularly James P. Dannelly.

Cook went on to write that all five men were buried on the “south side, near the edge of the Claiborne Road, about where this road intersects Fail Street.” If what was then called the Claiborne Road is now what we call Claiborne Street, then this burial site for criminals was apparently located about two tenths of a mile south of where the old gallows were located. No doubt many readers have driven past this spot hundreds of times.

Cook said that this spot was known for years as the “Hang-Man’s Grave Yard” and that there were no houses near this spot in the old days except for the home of Margaret Blakeney. “Subsequently a small cottage house was built over or very near the graves – they having been lost to view and forgotten, except by a few of the older inhabitants.” Cook noted that this graveyard was “a terror” to children and “timid people.”

“Many stories were told of ghosts that had been seen and encountered by persons passing the place at night, and instances are known, where men living in that direction would go the Clifton road and thence down the Claiborne road to their homes, rather than pass this grave yard after dark, particularly if alone,” Cook wrote.

As things go, Cook was an interesting man. In addition to serving as probate judge, he had also served as a sergeant in the Mexican American War, and he later became a prominent amateur historian in Wilcox County. A native of Marengo County, he passed away at the age of 65 in 1893 and was buried in the Goshen Cemetery, west of AnneManie.

I believe the James P. Dannelly mentioned above to be James Patrick Dannelly, who would have been 69 years old at the time of Cook’s article about the Hang-Man’s Grave Yard. He passed away in May 1891 and is buried in the Camden Cemetery, which is off Fail Street. Despite my best efforts, I could find no information about Margaret Blakeney.

In the end, I’d like to hear from any readers with more information about the Hang-Man’s Grave Yard, Cook, Dannelly and Blakeney. Maybe someone out there will know exactly where this supposedly haunted graveyard was located and what is there today. We may be surprised to learn that some people still take the long way home to avoid passing by this supposedly haunted location.