The Moody Brick and the Tragic Story of Joseph Sanders

One of my favorite chapters in my book Haunted North Alabama is the chapter about The Moody Brick.  In fact,  The Moody Brick is one of my favorite ghost stories.   When I did a presentation on ghost stories at the library,  a lovely lady named Ms. Dorothea came to see the presentation just to discuss the Moody Brick with me.   She had read my book and wanted to share her family history with me.   Although she was no ghost story junky, she collected stories about the Moody Brick because her family was linked to the old house.   This week, she sent me an amazing collection of photographs and information about and of The Moody Brick.  I am honored to share this information.

For those of you who haven't read Haunted North Alabama, The Moody Brick is an old plantation house in rural Alabama.  Its bricks positively drip with ghost stories and old legends.  The ghost stories there are so thick you'd have to shovel them away to see past them.   The stories start with tortured slaves who rise up to kill their masters and enter into the civil war when the house was used as a hospital and keep on going through suicide and tragedies.   Ms. Dorothea added another sorrowful tale to the Moody Brick's history.

The paperwork she sent me told of her 3rd Grandfather, Joseph Sanders.   She sent me information that came from a grave website and was submitted by Gary Sanders.  When describing the family relations to the Moody Brick  he told this story:
     "Joseph Sanders had some rebel neighbors.   The rebel neighbors hung him on a mulberry tree because they thought he was giving information to the Yankees.  There were three of the rebels, one a neighbor by the name of Barbee-after killing him they left with a horse thy were using as a pack mule to carry the things that they had taken.  That evening, not long after the rebels had left, a group of Yankees came down out of the mountain and went after the rebels.   They caught up with them near the foot of the mountain close to the old Moody Brick.  The Yankees killed te horse and made the men dig a grave for it.  When the grave was dug- they killed the men- put them in the hole and rolled the horse on top of them. "

 There seem to be many variations on this story.  In some variations, Sanders is shot and killed by bushwhackers rather than rebels.  Either way, the murderers were killed and buried under the mulberry tree at The Moody Brick, adding to the many ghosts that wander the grounds.

Ms. Dorothea also sent me information on The Harris/Moody Brick Family Cemetery located on the grounds of The Moody Brick.  According to this information there are seven marked graves on the cite and six graves with markers but no inscriptions.  There may be as many as 50 graves on the property outside the fenced in family cemetery area.  There was a clean up of the area in 2005 and they attempted to mark as many of these graves as possible with concrete blocks. 

Other information she sent me included a tour guide for the Moody Brick and farm with its history on it.  The tour guide describes the restoration of this beautiful old home and its significance in the history of the region.  It also described the architectural evolution of the house.  At the bottom of the brochure it states: "We appreciate your interest in this historic home.  Unfortunately for some, it is not a paranormal site- no ghosts here."  It is clear the current owners want to respect the history of their amazing house and dispel the folklore and fascination associated with it.  I respect that and include this information in this post so people know not to travel to the house expecting to ghost hunt there.  Although I love the many ghost stories surrounding the house, I appreciate that the current owners want no part in them and ask people to come and visit to enjoy the rich and interesting history, not the ghosts. 

   The pictures Ms. Dorothea sent me are included in this post. I can not thank Ms. Dorothea enough for all the information she sent me and for coming to talk with me about hr family history and the history of the Moody Brick.  I wish I could write another book and include the wealth of information she has sent me.  It was an honor to meet someone who is a part of the history I love and for them to holds me in enough regard to send me information on their family.     

Kwaidan: Japanese Ghost Stories

It was a good Christmas for me this last year.   I was under the weather, recovering from surgery, but my family filled my stocking with enough haunting books to keep my spirits up.  The first book I got was from my baby sister, Rose.   It is a collection of Japanese ghost stories by Lafcadio Hearn.    The book is absolutely beautiful, filled with Japanese depictions of ghosts and monsters from folklore in rare color.  Just flipping through the book is a visual journey into the dark world of Japanese folklore and it is a beautiful one.   The stories are very different from American ghost stories.  The book is called Kwaidan, which is translated as meaning ghost story.

My favorite story was a story of a Rokuorkubi.  According to Wikipedia,  Rokourkubi "look like normal human being by day, but at night they gain the ability to stretch their necks to great lengths. They can also change their faces to those of terrifying oni to better scare mortals."   The depiction of Rokuorkubi in Hearn's book is an original translation and is different from Wikipedia's depiction and a little more terrifying.   The story in the book tells of a wandering priest who was once a Samurai.  He is sleeping in a forest known to be haunted by horrible ghosts and demons when a kind man comes upon him  He was taken in by the kind man and given a bed only to wake up in the middle of the night to find the bodies of the residents of the house lying on the floor in front o his room without a their heads.  At first, he assumes some dreadful spirit has killed everyone and taken their heads, but upon careful examination he discovers that the bodies are the bodies of Rokuro-Kubi.  The heads of the Rokuro-Kubi had separated from their bodies to do evil in the night.  The Samari hides the bodies from the heads and battles the Rokuro-Kubi only to have one of them attach itself to his sleeve.   He is almost executed because people assume the head is a souvenir he has taken of a someone he has slaughtered, but at the last minute a wise judge sees the markings on the neck of the Rokuo-Kubi and knows the demon for what it is. 

This is just one of the tales gathered by Hearn who was a translator and scholar of Japanese folklore from the turn of the last century.  Although the book I was given was subtitled Japanese Ghost Stories,  I have seen the book in other places called, Kwaidan, Stories: Studies of  Strange Things. Other stories include tales of murdered birds that haunt the murderer and a young woman who makes her betrothed wait for her after death.  They are a beautiful glimpse into another world of death and I enjoyed them all.  This book was made into a Japanese film in 1965 which I am definitely going to try to see.

The Athens/Limestone County Courthouse

The Drive to Athens, Alabama was petulant today.  Tornadoes are expected and a vicious storm is heading our way.   It is preceded by shadow and wind so strong I had to cling to the steering wheel to keep the car on the road.   It was worth the drive.   Athens, Alabama is that kind of quiet, small, Southern town that belongs in old movies and books.   The old courthouse sits surrounded by a square of historic buildings and old churches.  Even in the shadow, it is alive and is the hub of life in Athens, Alabama.

I couldn't find much on the history of the old courthouse.   Athens was one of the first counties in Alabama to get a courthouse and claims to be the oldest county in Alabama.  The land for Limestone county was ceded from the Cherokee Nation in 1806 and from the Chickasaw in 1816.  For obvious reasons, for many years settlers had to fight off the Natives of the area.   Athens was made county seat in 1818 and during the civil war it was the first county in Alabama to be occupied by union forces.   Athens and the courthouse were sacked and burned.   The Col. responsible for the sacking was court marshaled the behavior in Athens was so terrible.

According to courthouse staff, there used to be a prison on the third floor of the Athens/ Limestone County courthouse.  This is where all the haunting activity is usually said to take place.   Locals say that one of the prisoners hung himself in his jail cell many years ago.  They don't know if he was sorry for what he did or just sorry to be paying the price for it, but he couldn't see the point in living any longer.  He hung himself on the third floor of the county courthouse and his ghost has never left.   Employees didn't have any specific stories for me.  They just knew the story and knew the third floor was haunted.