“Since 1878 there has been the picture of a man’s face so indelibly stamped on a window of the the Pickens County Courthouse that it looks as if a photographer had snapped his lens and made the likeness on the glass pane. But it was no human photographer who reproduced that countenance, which reflects the anguish and terror filling the heart of a man who knew that he was face to face with violent death””
Unmoved by Soap, Water, or Modern Cleaning Chemicals…
On April 5, 1865, just four days before General Robert E. Lee surrendered, effectively ending the Civil War, United States Army General John T. Croxton ordered the destruction of the Pickens County Courthouse in Carrolton, Alabama. Why he did it is unknown. The community however, would not be cowed and vowed to rebuild. Yet to their horror, the new courthouse would not last either. On November 16, 1876 the people of Pickens County watched helplessly as their new courthouse, was consumed by flames, just as its predecessor had been– it too was the victim of arson.
Legend, and history, placed the blame for the burning courthouse on the shoulders of Henry Wells, a formerly enslaved man who was said to be not the kindest of individuals and was in fact known to have participated in robberies. Though no evidence pointed to him as the courthouse arsonist, the community believed in his guilt, and it is said played a role in his death. According to legend, his fate at the hands of a lynch mob resulted in the vision of his face, permanently etched, in a window of the Pickens County Courthouse.
ADDITIONAL LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:
Watch Kathryn Tucker Window tell the story of the 'Face in the Courthouse Window.'
Sources:
Aheron, Piper Peters. Pickens County. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2000.
Hauck, Dennis William. Haunted Places: The National Directory. London: Penguin, 1997.
Higdon, David and Brett Talley. Haunted Alabama Black Belt. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2013.
“Mystery of the Pickens County Courthouse Face.” The Haunted Places. Accessed February 1, 2023. https://thehauntedplaces.com/mystery-pickens-county-courthouse-face/.
Norman, Michael and Beth Scott. Haunted Heritage: A Definitive Collection of North American Ghost Stories. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2002.
Reid, Tim. “Alabama Ghost Stories: The Face in the Courthouse Window.” CBS 42 News. October 29, 2020. https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/alabama-ghost-stories-the-face-in-the-courthouse-window/.
Windham, Kathryn Tucker and Margaret Gillis Figh. 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2016.
