Old Stagecoach Inn ( Moore-Hill House) located on Jackson's Military Road near Sulligent, Alabama in Lamar County, Township 14, Range 15 West, SE 1/4 Section 3.
Old Stagecoach Inn ( Moore-Hill House) located on
Jackson's Military Road near Sulligent, Alabama in Lamar County, Township 14,
Range 15 West, SE 1/4 Section 3.
This house was built for Mr. James Moore and was finished in 1834, by Jesse Little Taylor, a carpenter, who later became a doctor. Mr. Taylor wrote his name on a a brick in the fireplace of the chimney upstairs, which can still be seen.
James Moore was a veteran of Andrew Jackson's army. This house was owned by the Hill Family for 114 years (since 1881). Mrs. Darnell Hill sold the house in 1995 to Lt. Col. and Mrs. Dean Wilson who are restoring the house.
The Hanging Tree
In the front yard is the "hanging tree", where a black man was hung in 1881 after he killed Mrs. Armstrong with a gantling hook. Because of the killing and the uneasy aftermath, the Armstrong women no longer were comfortable living in the house, so a swap was made. Mr. A. A. Hill swapped houses with them in December 1881 for a like house across Bogue Creek.
The Upping Block
Also in the front yard is the "upping block" from which it was easier for women to mount a horse or climb into a buggy.
Legends of the house
Glowing ball of fire
It is said that a glowing ball of light comes into the front yard at dusk and lights up the yard, hovers from here to there and fades to an eerie glow before disappearing.
Front Door Slams
The front door has been known to stand open for 5 or 6 minutes and then slam shut.
Mrs. Armstrong Murdered
Mrs. Armstrong was killed by a black man with a gantling hook on a chain. The cook ran out to the back of the house and to the men who were some distance away slaugthering hogs. They came and shot the crazed man and then hung him in the cedar tree out front.
Nowadays on a dark still night when all is quiet, you can hear someone (Mrs. Armstrong) coming slowly down the steps rattling the chain. When she gets to the bottom of the steps the door slams shut and quietness settles over the house.
Missing Tax Collector
A man who was a tax collector was mysteriously missing after visiting the house to collect taxes. His body is supposedly buried in the front yard under the goldfish pond. On a still evening just after sunset, a fireball has been seen hovering over his grave.
Facts and Fantasies of the House
Fact: Rube Burrow hid from the law in the root cellar.
Fantasy: Slaves were smuggled out to freedom through a tunnel in the root cellar.
Fact: A black man killed Mrs. Armstrong who was in her bed with her new baby. He killed her with a gantling hook. He, afterward, walked around and around the house twirling the hook around, above his head singing. He was hung from the cedar tree out in the front yard.
Fantasy: The ghost of Mrs. Armstrong walks up and down the steps to the second floor. Footsteps and the rattling of chains can be heard.
Fact: When the wind blows, the front screen door will blow open and stay open for as long as the wind blows, and then it will slam shut with great noise.
Fantasy: At dusk on clear days a glowing ball of fire comes around the corner of the house near the goldfish pond and hovers there casting an eerie glow for 10 or 15 minutes before darting back around the house and fading completely away.
Fact: The resident cats can push the screen doors open and enter the house at will. This causes the screen doors to slam shut when they enter.
Fantasy: The house is haunted.
Fact: One past tenant, upon hearing his wife diagnosed as having cancer, chose to shoot himself in the head. The bullet passed through his head and also all the way through the door to the living room. The irony of the whole situation was that it was a misdiagnosis; the wife did not have cancer and lived another twenty years.
Fact: If upon going upstairs you wedge the door open against the ceiling, the door will stay open for an indeterminate period of time, and then when you are least expecting it, the door will slam shut and chains will rattle.
Fantasy: The house is haunted.
Fact: The windows rattle when there is no wind.
Fantasy: The house is haunted.
Fact: One tenant lived in the house for 12 hours. He got up in the middle of the night, put his wife and daughter on his tractor and left right then, because a ghost was "after" him.
Information for this site courtesy of Mrs. Darnell (Beulah) Hill and Pat Buckley.
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