The Haunted History of OldTown

Editor's note: This is the fourth and final part of a series of reportedly haunted locations in Coffee and Dale County. 

There are a few well-known reportedly haunted locations in Coffee and Dale County but there are also many less known locations like that of the reportedly haunted OldTown Cemetery outside of Kinston.

The tale of Grancer Harrison may be the most well known ghost story in Alabama but OldTown carries even more history.

About one mile down an old dirt road, Coffee County Road 456, sits at the end a very old cemetery – once known as “Teel Cemetery” – at the location of what was once an old pioneer settlement called OldTown. The cemetery is broken up into two different cemeteries, the original “Teel Cemetery” and “OldTown Cemetery.”

OldTown was one of the first pioneer settlements in what is now known as Coffee County. The first settlers arrived in the 1830s and quickly OldTown became a bustling settlement with a tavern, two churches and a number of residents that worked at the sawmill. The lumber from the timber in Coffee County was what made OldTown a successful settlement. In 1878 a post office was also established in OldTown, one of the first in Coffee County.

OldTown was also home to a number of Confederate soldiers – many of which are buried in the old cemetery – and reports have suggested that as many as two hangings may have been committed during the Civil War to punish Confederate deserters.

Eventually much of the timber in the area had been depleted and the sawmill moved, effectively killing the area. Still, to this day reports have suggested that visitors to the graveyard hear unexplained sounds surrounding them.

According to the Pea River Historical Society’s Pea River Trails, reports of two men potentially being murdered in or around OldTown exist. In the first, a drifter that came into OldTown and Alberton selling goods went missing one day. A local man named “Brock” was suspected to have killed the man and thrown him into a well on his property. Brock refused to allow anyone on his property to investigate that possibility and reportedly eventually left the area completely.

Reportedly, a man named J.I. Pierce – who lived just a few miles away from the old cemetery – employed the man to work on his property. One day Pierce discovered the man digging around an old nearby house claiming to be looking for “hidden money.”

Pierce reportedly told the man he could only look for it on his own time and if he found anything he had to share it. A few days later the man went missing but supposedly an old iron pot was found empty near a hole that was dug near the house’s chimney. The man was never seen again in either community.

The cemetery rests on the bank of Teel Creek, which feeds into the Pea River. Across the old dirt road from the cemetery was once a church and old general store but now only woods reside there.

A large ditch that runs alongside the cemetery was actually the original pioneer road leading into the settlement. There are also marked graves in the woods next to the cemetery and an old slave graveyard is reportedly located a half mile below the main graveyard at OldTown.

Unfortunately, the cemetery has also been the victim of grave robbing and vandalism. In the early 2000s, a woman’s remains were actually dug up and jewelry stolen from her body as well as headstones that were smashed.

Much like nearby Harrison Cemetery, OldTown Cemetery is closed from sun down to sun up, so any curious visitors should make sure they depart before the sun goes down.