Don't miss this year's performance of "The Face in the Courthouse Window," April 20-21, at the Historic Pickens County Courthouse - just steps from where Henry Wells was standing when lightning struck on that fateful day. The performance will be held at Pickens County Courthouse Square, Intersection of Hwy 86 and Hwy 17 (205.792.2978). General Admission Tickets are $25.
All proceeds from the play will benefit the Pickens County Courthouse Preservation Foundation, Inc., a non-profit, 501(c) (3) dedicated to the preservation and restoration of this historic landmark.
For anyone still not familiar with the legend made famous by Kathryn Tucker Windham in her book "13 Alabama ghosts and Jeffrey" (1969), the story follows:
The tale revolves around Henry Wells, a former slave freed at the end of the Civil War. Legend holds that he was accused of burning the Pickens County Courthouse to the ground. The county's original courthouse had been burned during Wilson's Raid through Alabama and Georgia in 1865. It was replaced after the war, but on November 16, 1876, the new courthouse burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances.
It was not long, the tale continues, before the blame was focused on Henry Wells. Arrested but pursued by a lynch mob, Wells is said to have fled into the attic or garret of the third courthouse, which was by then being completed. As the mob searched for him below, Wells peered out a window to watch. To his shock, however, lightning suddenly struck the window and forever etched his image into its glass. It is widely believed to this day that the ghostly face of Henry Wells continues to peer down from the courthouse window, fulfilling his promise to haunt his accusers for the rest of their lives.
Like most ghost stories, the legend of the Face in the Window has its skeptics. The basics of the story, however, do have a foundation in truth. The courthouse did burn exactly as the story relates and the Daily Inquirer, a Georgia newspaper, reported on February 6, 1878 that, "Henry Wells, a notorious colored outlaw, has been captured and confesses to burning the Court House at Carrollton."
Read more about this haunting tale at http://courthousewindow.com/the-story.html or http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/faceinthewindow.html'
The tale can also be found in: 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey by Kathryn Tucker Windham or Ghost Stories from the American South by W. K. McNeil.
