The remains of an antebellum home, once the seat of country society, surrounded by flowers, shrubs and cotton fields, and filled with all that money could buy, lie deep in an alcove of trees one mile east of Hazel Green. Elizabeth Evans Dale is no longer the hostess of the home her fifth husband built her. She is no longer the vivacious beauty who longed to be the toast of society. Eerily, to this day, she is remembered as the Black Widow of Hazel Green and the home built to appease her taste for the refined is a charred, haunted reminder of what occurred in the life of a greedy woman between 1812 and 1850.Routt house was built on an Indian mound where Indians burned ceremonial fires and are reported to be buried. Today, stories circulate among young and old about the auburn-haired beauty who wed again and again, only to bury each husband by lantern light in the dead of night with the help of her frightened slaves.
Elizabeth Dale Evans began her odd journey in Tennessee on a warm day in 1812, the day she was born. Her father, Adam, was an aristocrat with a taste for politics, her grandfather a Revolutionary soldier. With ancestral ties to Lord Baltimore and Cecil Calvert, she was a blue-blooded vixen with unusual beauty, posing a threat to women everywhere when men were scarce and a woman was defined by her husband.
• At 17, she married Samuel Gibbons, a Baptist preacher. That marriage lasted until 1830 when Samuel died of yellow fever, ‘black tongue’, producing swollen, distorted features.
• Her second husband, Mr. Flanagan, (barely anything is known about this man other than the fact he was a wealthy plantation owner), lasted three months before he succumbed to a strange malady.
• In 1835, Elizabeth married Alexander Jeffries, a widower with older children. Alexander was infatuated with his new wife and took her away from Tennessee to his 500 acre plantation in northern Alabama and the four room log cabin he’d built upon an Indian mound. The placement of his cabin provided a panoramic view of the vast landscape he owned. Elizabeth bore him two children, a son and daughter, who died at 7 years old and was buried in a cemetery next to the house. Unfortunately for Alexander, one day his body was found lying in the barnyard after he succumbed to a strange malady that left his body so swollen he was buried the same day, in the same cemetery next to the house.
• Widowed for the third time, Elizabeth, still the vivacious beauty, garnered the attention of dashing widower, Robert A. High, a former member of state legislature, who tried in earnest to hide his balding head. They married in 1839 but spent more time apart as Robert traveled extensively until he died suddenly in 1842.
• On March 16th, 1846, Elizabeth found wedded bliss with Absalom Brown, a New Market merchant. Her fifth husband adored her so much that he built the plantation house that earned her the cruel moniker of the Black Widow of Hazel Green. The house was built on grand scale. Facing east to view the morning sun, it boasted 8 large rooms (4 upstairs and 4 downstairs), 2 stairways and an enormous front door. To stand out from the trees, it was painted white. The L-shaped architecture boasted two broad entrances enhanced by large impressive staircases. It was the most expensive and luxurious home of its time, making Elizabeth the envy of everyone. Sadly, Absalom never enjoyed the home he’d built his wife. He died before the paint dried.
• Life was lonely in the large mansion. Soon Elizabeth married Willis Routt to ease her burdens. But wedded life seemed to constantly elude the dear widow. Willis died shortly after saying ‘I do’.
What does a woman with a mansion do when life has thrown her lemons? She opens her home to boarders and spurns rumors started by a neighboring plantation owner, who decreed that she was a woman ‘around whose marriage couch six grinning skeletons were hung’.
He also complained that her bridal chamber was ‘a charnel house’. Elizabeth filed suit and a large court case inflamed the rumors.
At 60 years old, Elizabeth’s beauty still had not faded. Neither had her desire for another husband, which brought her closer to a local school teacher, D.X. Bingham. Bingham went so far as to spread rumors that her neighbor had murdered two traveling salesmen from Tennessee, to aid her cause. Filing a $500,000 civil suit, her plan to redeem herself backfired. She was accused of killing her husbands and forced to leave town.
Did Elizabeth move to Marshall County, Miss., to live with her son? Locals say she still visits the graves of her husbands, who were buried by lantern light in the middle of the night in unmarked graves among the holly bushes. Many people have seen her auburn-haired wraith gliding in and out of the trees which have long since invaded her distinguished abode after an arsonist burned it to the ground in 1868. All that remains of Routt House is the front staircase and vandalized gravestones, to include the gravestone of Elizabeth’s father, who came to live with her shortly before his sudden demise.
Time has ravaged the once pristine antebellum mansion. Locals believe the area to be haunted. My own son and his friend visited the site one night and came back shaken to the core. When asked what they’d seen, they replied their flashlight revealed glowing eyes 5 ft. off the ground and a dark mass which threatened to approach through the trees if they ventured closer. Imagine a 17 year old literally shaking all over as he told this horrifying tale. Something scared him, there was no mistaking that.
What do you believe? Did, and do, Indian spirits roam the mound Routt House was built upon? Did Elizabeth encounter Indian spirits in her time? Do the spirits of six dead husbands, Elizabeth’s daughter, her father, and countless frightened/abused slaves, inhabit the woods encapsulating the mansion? Would you go see for yourself?
Wow! Never heard of her but believe me, I want to see those ruins! Interesting blog Kathy. It would make a good book!
ReplyDeleteI had an old maid aunt who lived in our family home for her entire 90 years of life. It was a big home with about seven bedrooms and she only lived in three rooms -her bedroom, the kitchen and the ladies parlor on the right side of the house. When she died none of the relatives wanted the big old house so it was sold. The minute the people started making renovations, she started rattling the mantle in the parlor. When they moved the kitchen, she started toting things back to the other kitchen, now a bedroom. She walks down the front hall at night and has been seen a couple of times in her bonnet. I would dearly love to spend the night there (but have been afraid to ask the people) just to be able to see Aunt Maude. I think those ladies set a great store by their houses and she still does.
Cheryl, I have all the research because I'm using it for a book I'm already writing. :D I still haven't been to the ruins but, as I already mentioned my son has, and he could take us when he gets home at Christmas. Every time I pass the alcove of trees sitting in the middle of a farmer's field, I wonder about Routt House. Time has certainly changed the scenery around it but Routt House, secluded within those trees of Holly and Hazelnut, stood for another 100 years before it was destroyed. The Indian mound and slave cemetary stand to provide enough paranormal activity. Add in the unmarked graves of Elizabeth's husbands and you've got the basis for some very intensely scary stuff. ;)
ReplyDeleteI've talked to a few people who actually lived in Routt House when it was made into 4 rental homes. It was full of paranormal activity. I've yet to speak to the family member who has all the dish on it but I'd love to. :D
I love old homes! They have personality. They tell a story about the people who have come before us. I guess that's why castles are so appealing to me as well.
Cool story! I think she must have helped those husbands along on their journey, by the way. Sounds awfully fishy.
ReplyDeleteHey Lynn! Yep, the story is she poisoned them. I think what stirred up the contraversy was that their nails had turned yellowish and they were bloated. All signs of arsenic poisoning.
ReplyDeleteArsenic was used quite a bit in those days because it was nearly untraceable as long as the body did not start to decay. In fact, there's a story about a slave who worked for a family in north alabama not far from where you live. She meant to poison her master by putting arsenic in his soup but ended up poisoning the entire family. The wife and 2-4 children all died, but the master survived. The slave woman was immediately hung. It was a very big story at that time. I think it is related in the book, Madison County's Sins. I'll check the title when I get home and give you the author's name. :)
Sorry, I meant to say that was probably the reasoning behind Elizabeth burying her husbands at night by lantern light so no one could see their bodies. She also ran her household with a very stern hand. Any slaves that disobeyed her or spoke to anyone about what went on in Routt House were dealt with severly. (Very sad!)
ReplyDeleteKathy,
ReplyDeletewhat a great story! Scary but good.
Agree with Lynn that the poor widow must have had a hand in helping those husbands along to an early grave. Isn't it interesting that she never married a poor man?
I would not want to go visit this home site. I am not much on scary movies or stories so a scary field trip is probably not something I would enjoy. Plus it would be outside.
Stephanie
Hey Stephanie! Whazzz upppp!
ReplyDeleteYou're so right to notice Elizabeth's desire to wed wealthy men. She wanted the best, the latest fashions, extravagent coaches, the finest trappings and was famous for them. Hers was the first house built in Hazel Green with the high porch and decadent staircase. She wanted everyone to know they were wealthy and sought to deepen her purse with the right 'kinds' of men and associations.
I've always wondered if Elizabeth's neighbor, Abner Tate, was a spurned lover or jealous suitor she would not accept. He was married with a family of his own and a large amount of property adjoining hers. Odd isn't it that their aggression toward one another began with the fact that cows were on the wrong side of land. Their clash of wills ended up with accusations of murder on both sides. Elizabeth sent her housekeeper, who had visited the Tate's household and spent time there (to spy no doubt), to the sheriff to report a horrid tale of two visiting salesman's bodies being burned in the large walk in fireplace of Abner's kitchen. (Those particular men were never found again, by the way. So their disappearance is oddly coincidental or true.)
And to further heighten the drama, the salesmen were on their way back home to Tennessee with a large amount of money stashed in their pockets. That money was never seen again, either. ;)
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I have a question that hasn't come up. What did she have? She must have had something that most women do not for all these men to keep marrying her. Looks like by number three, people would have started to get a clue. I bet she killed her daughter too.
ReplyDeleteI might go on that field trip. Maybe. If it was daytime.
Kathy, I would love to go on a field trip to the ruins. How neat that would be. And I must cast my vote, too--she certainly gave her wealthy husbands a hand entering the afterlife. No one has such a naturally occurring bad run in love that ends with that many dead husbands. Nope, she influenced their demise.
ReplyDeleteI've also maintained that it is bad juju to build on a burial ground. You just never know who you might disturb.
What did she have, Jean? Good question. She was a well-propertied woman without a man, in search of a man, with a charisma and beauty unmatched. What guy could resist that? With her blue-blooded connections, perhaps some of her husbands thought to venture further up into society.
ReplyDeleteThis is something I've wondered about constantly. Why didn't anyone suspect her? For the very reason that women weren't supposed to kill their husbands. All of her husbands were very healthy prior to marriage. Two died in Tennessee. Jeffries brought her to Alabama where no one could suspect her, and then two more husbands died before people started getting suspicious. It wasn't until Abner actually wrote a book and had 53 of them published and spread around town, that people began to doubt her sincerity. (Yes, this was one major blood feud!) And, the library has a book, dated 1847-ish, describing the trial of Elizabeth and Abner Tate. It was so cool to hold it in my hands and read it. ;)
Crystal, the movie Poltergiest comes to mind, doesn't it? You don't build on burial grounds, upsetting spiritual resting places. Very bad mojo!