Haunted Shelby County, Alabama by Kim Johnston

Author:Kim Johnston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-12T16:00:00+00:00

The Rajah Lodge that once stood next door to Farrington Hall. Courtesy of the Shelby County Historical Society, Inc .

Farrington Aldrich. Courtesy of the Aldrich Coal Mine Museum .

In the summer of 1908, at the age of nineteen, the dedicated and hardworking Farrington decided that a coal mine reservoir near the house needed to be cleaned out. His mother had forbid him from going because she knew it would be mosquito-infested. Farrington disregarded his mother’s wishes and cleaned the pool anyway. Not long after, he was burning up with fever. The doctor was called. Mrs. Aldrich begged for the doctor to place her son in a bath of ice to save him, but nothing could be done. Farrington had caught typhoid fever from the mosquitoes at the reservoir, and there was no cure. He passed away on July 7. Everyone was heartbroken, especially little sister Josephine. When the garage and recreation hall was completed, Mr. Aldrich had it named Farrington Memorial Hall in his honor. Visitors today can get a glimpse into a day in the life at the mining village, as well as what it was like to be a member of the Aldrich family. While Rajah Lodge no longer stands, you can get a sense of the lavishness that must have existed by observing the decoration of Farrington Hall. You might also get a little more than you bargained for, like I did. My experience at this place still keeps me up some nights, despite being an experienced paranormal investigator.

Actually, I am not the first person who has left Farrington Hall a little rattled. Mr. Emfinger’s pastor’s wife came by for a social function once and experienced the bathroom door flinging open by itself. She was so startled that she left and has never returned. For years before Rajah Lodge was torn down, it sat in disrepair, and many said it was haunted. Mr. Emfinger, who has lived in Aldrich all his life, never believed those stories but does believe Farrington Hall is haunted. In addition to the doors opening on their own, the old Victrola that sits in the back office started up on its own one afternoon while he was in the room working. He also tells the story of how his wife once smelled lilac in the recreation room when she was setting up for a birthday party. She thought it was odd because there were not any lilac bushes around anywhere. She laughed it off and said maybe it was Mrs. Aldrich. A week later, her daughter smelled it too. Several months passed, and Mrs. Aldrich’s descendants came to visit the museum. Mr. Emfinger’s wife asked them if they knew anything about the lilac smell in Farrington Hall. They confirmed that lilac was Mrs. Aldrich’s favorite flower. In fact, they did not grow well in Alabama, so she had a greenhouse dedicated to only growing lilacs at one time. Another visitor to the museum told Mr. Emfinger that she also had grown up in Aldrich and was present during the time that Farrington passed away.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.