Huntsville is known for having several ghost stories. Many have said they’ve felt cold chills, or heard someone whispering to them when visiting one of the haunted sites. Believe it or not, Huntsville is home to many hauntings with very interesting, historical backgrounds.
Noted Huntsville author and historian Jacque Reeves has heard almost all of the noted ghost stories from the area. As the owner of the Huntsville Ghost Walk, Reeves has met several residents who claim they’ve seen or heard spirits.
One day Reeves took a stroll through Maple Hill Cemetery where she met a man who told her he saw a ghost. The man said the ghost sat next to it’s grave site, and just stared off in the distance. Little did she know, that ghost would bring her back to her roots.
“He walks past the grave of a confederate colonel everyday. The colonel was killed in the Civil War. The man said everyday he says ‘Good Morning Colonel’ and the colonel bows his head. The man said the Colonel just wants to be acknowledged. That man then brought me to the grave site and I was quite surprised to see it because it was the site of my great-great-grandfather who was killed in the Civil War,” Reeves said.
Another known story from around the area is the story of the Black Widow of Hazel Green. Reeves brought me to the grave of the widow’s second husband, Phillip Flanagan. The Black Widow was known for her six husbands and their untimely deaths. Flanagan, like the other five husbands met a suspiciously early death while married to her.
“When she married him she discovered he was deep in debt, she thought he had a lot of money. Surprisingly they were married for three months, everything goes fine, the last three months of his life he sees a doctor 45 times,” Reeves explains.
Medical records never proved Flanagan’s cause of death, but it’s said that the Black Widow killed her husband with arsenic, otherwise known as rat poison. Witnesses have told Reeves they’ve met the ghost of Mr. Flanagan before. They say his spirit confirms his death was no accident.
“He says I’m too young to die, he says there are no rats in this house.”
It’s even said that the spirit of the Black Widow herself has roamed around the site of her original home in Hazel Green.
“The house is no longer there it burned down in the early 1960’s. They say that at night you can see someone carrying a lantern, and possibly her in the cemetery,” Reeves continues, “Maybe she’s calling to her husbands or maybe she’s looking for husband number seven.”
Walker Street was another stop on the haunted tour. In the Old Towne Historic District it’s said voices of children are heard singing. Supposedly the children are singing a song about the deadly influenza outbreak that wiped out Huntsville 100 years ago in October.
