Cedarhurst

Sally Carter was the sister of the owner of Cedarhurst. I can’t remember her sister’s name. Anyway, her sister and brother-in-law owned the place. And she came for a visit. Well, she became very ill and died there. She loved it. She loved the place, so they buried her out in the back yard. And apparently, according to the legend, she walks the halls.

One night, there was sort of a family reunion. And she lived somewhere down in Central Alabama, but I don’t remember where. Anyway, they had a big family reunion, and that night, there was a bad storm, a very bad storm. One of the young men in the party the next morning had gone out and visited the graveyard and said something about Sally’s tombstone was--no, before he went out, when he first got up, he said somebody had visited him that night and told him that Sally’s stone had been knocked over. Well, when the family went to breakfast, he told them that. They made fun of him, so after breakfast, they went outside, and sure enough, her tombstone had been turned over. Now whether he dreamed it or she appeared to him or what happened, I don’t know.

But then the other story is that many many years later--in fact, during our lifetime--the owner of the home had seen Sally many times and didn’t think a thing abut it; she was not afraid of her--she was not an evil person. And one day, a friend of hers came. She [the owner] said, "Well, take your coat and put it in the upstairs bedroom." Which she did. And when she came back down, she said, "Oh, who was that lovely young lady I met on the stairs?" And she [the owner] very nonchalantly said, "Oh, that was Sally" and went right on.

And that’s really all I know. Now they did exhume Sally’s grave and put her in Maple Hill Cemetery. Now where in Maple Hill has been kept a guarded secret because the teenagers had got to the point where they were driving this lady crazy. And they would come in at all hours of the night and visit the graveyard, and it was terrifying her. She was elderly. So she put up a security light, and that didn’t help. So finally, they just moved Sally to Maple Hill Cemetery.

Cedarhurst is now used as a clubhouse. No one that I know of has noticed anything out of the ordinary there, but the people who are there now probably wouldn’t take about it if they did. I have never been to Cedarhurst. I felt like I would have been one of those unwelcome guests. I didn’t know the lady, and I didn’t think it would be the right thing to do to knock on her door and ask to visit the graveyard.

Last updated 07/24/01

Cedarhurst by Dorothy Johnson

Cedarhurst
by Dorothy Johnson