William Sketoe, Sr. (June 8, 1818 – December 3, 1864) was a Methodist minister from the south Alabama town of Newton, whose lynching there on December 3, 1864 gave birth to one of Alabama's best-known ghost stories. While locally-told stories of his life usually say that he was hanged on trumped-up charges of desertion from the Confederate Army, other sources show that he was killed for allegedly aiding pro-Union renegades in the area. Whatever the reason for his murder, a shallow hole dug beneath Sketoe's feet during the hanging (to accommodate his large frame) ultimately led to stories about "the hole that won't stay filled." According to witnesses, this hole never disappeared—even after being filled numerous times—retaining its original dimensions for the next 125 years.
Property |
Value |
dbo:abstract |
William Sketoe, Sr. (June 8, 1818 – December 3, 1864) was a Methodist minister from the south Alabama town of Newton, whose lynching there on December 3, 1864 gave birth to one of Alabama's best-known ghost stories. While locally-told stories of his life usually say that he was hanged on trumped-up charges of desertion from the Confederate Army, other sources show that he was killed for allegedly aiding pro-Union renegades in the area. Whatever the reason for his murder, a shallow hole dug beneath Sketoe's feet during the hanging (to accommodate his large frame) ultimately led to stories about "the hole that won't stay filled." According to witnesses, this hole never disappeared—even after being filled numerous times—retaining its original dimensions for the next 125 years. Sketoe's tale became a staple of Southern folklore, and was later immortalized by Alabama author Kathryn Tucker Windham in her 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey. His hanging site remained a local tourist attraction for decades, and continues to attract visitors even though the hole itself recently disappeared due to flooding in the area. Today the site of Sketoe's lynching lies beneath the Alabama Highway 134 bridge over the Choctawhatchee River, and a monument to Sketoe has been erected nearby. (en) |
dbo:thumbnail |
wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/Bill_Sketoe's_Hole_07.jpg?width=300 |
dbo:wikiPageExternalLink |
http://advrider.com/index.php%3Fthreads/south-alabama-tag-o-rama-including-nw-florida.435531/page-4 https://web.archive.org/web/20110716160258/http:/xmb.stuffucanuse.com/xmb/viewthread.php%3Ftid=3275 |
dbo:wikiPageID |
22641758 (xsd:integer) |
dbo:wikiPageLength |
21933 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger) |
dbo:wikiPageRevisionID |
1050525668 (xsd:integer) |
dbo:wikiPageWikiLink |
dbr:Camping dbr:Monument dbr:Battle_of_Gettysburg dbr:Deserter dbr:Debris dbr:Lieutenant dbr:13_Alabama_ghosts_and_Jeffrey dbr:15th_Regiment_Alabama_Infantry dbc:History_of_Alabama dbc:People_murdered_in_Alabama dbr:Confederate_States_Army dbr:Confederate_States_of_America dbr:Outlaw dbc:Deaths_by_strangulation_in_the_United_States dbr:Epitaph dbr:Ghost dbr:Confederate_Home_Guard dbc:Lynching_deaths_in_Alabama dbr:Madrid,_Spain dbr:Democratic_National_Convention dbr:Horse dbr:Horse_and_buggy dbr:Paranormal dbc:1818_births dbc:19th-century_American_clergy dbc:American_ghosts dbr:Wiregrass_Region dbr:Last_words dbr:Leave_(U.S._military) dbc:American_murder_victims dbr:Alabama dbr:Dale_County,_Alabama dbr:Bridge dbr:Ozark,_Alabama dbr:Cemetery dbr:Summary_execution dbr:County_seat dbc:1864_deaths dbc:19th-century_Methodist_ministers dbr:Choctawhatchee_River dbc:People_of_Alabama_in_the_American_Civil_War dbr:Kathryn_Tucker_Windham dbc:1864_murders_in_the_United_States dbc:People_from_Dale_County,_Alabama dbr:Highway dbr:U.S._Civil_War dbr:Circuit_rider_(religious) dbr:Guerrilla dbr:Minister_(Christianity) dbr:Newton,_Alabama dbr:Lynching dbr:Rock_(geology) dbr:Unionist_(United_States) dbr:Longleaf_Pine dbr:Methodist dbr:Riprap dbr:Post_oak dbr:Confederate_Army dbr:Flooding dbr:Reportedly_haunted_locations_in_Alabama dbr:File:Downtown_Newton.jpg dbr:File:Bill_Sketoe's_Hole_07.jpg dbr:File:Bill_Sketoe_Monument_02.jpg |
dbp:wikiPageUsesTemplate |
dbt:Lynching_in_the_United_States dbt:Clear dbt:ISBN dbt:Reflist |
dcterms:subject |
dbc:History_of_Alabama dbc:People_murdered_in_Alabama dbc:Deaths_by_strangulation_in_the_United_States dbc:Lynching_deaths_in_Alabama dbc:1818_births dbc:19th-century_American_clergy dbc:American_ghosts dbc:American_murder_victims dbc:1864_deaths dbc:19th-century_Methodist_ministers dbc:People_of_Alabama_in_the_American_Civil_War dbc:1864_murders_in_the_United_States dbc:People_from_Dale_County,_Alabama |
rdf:type |
yago:WikicatAmericanMurderVictims yago:CausalAgent100007347 yago:LivingThing100004258 yago:Object100002684 yago:Organism100004475 yago:Person100007846 yago:PhysicalEntity100001930 yago:YagoLegalActor yago:YagoLegalActorGeo yago:Unfortunate109630641 yago:Victim110752093 yago:Whole100003553 yago:WikicatPeopleMurderedInAlabama yago:WikicatPeopleOfAlabamaInTheAmericanCivilWar |
rdfs:comment |
William Sketoe, Sr. (June 8, 1818 – December 3, 1864) was a Methodist minister from the south Alabama town of Newton, whose lynching there on December 3, 1864 gave birth to one of Alabama's best-known ghost stories. While locally-told stories of his life usually say that he was hanged on trumped-up charges of desertion from the Confederate Army, other sources show that he was killed for allegedly aiding pro-Union renegades in the area. Whatever the reason for his murder, a shallow hole dug beneath Sketoe's feet during the hanging (to accommodate his large frame) ultimately led to stories about "the hole that won't stay filled." According to witnesses, this hole never disappeared—even after being filled numerous times—retaining its original dimensions for the next 125 years. (en) |
rdfs:label |
Bill Sketoe (en) |
owl:sameAs |
freebase:Bill Sketoe yago-res:Bill Sketoe wikidata:Bill Sketoe https://global.dbpedia.org/id/bHGx |
prov:wasDerivedFrom |
wikipedia-en:Bill_Sketoe?oldid=1050525668&ns=0 |
foaf:depiction |
wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/Downtown_Newton.jpg wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/Bill_Sketoe's_Hole_07.jpg wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/Bill_Sketoe_Monument_02.jpg |
foaf:isPrimaryTopicOf |
wikipedia-en:Bill_Sketoe |
is dbo:wikiPageRedirects of |
dbr:The_hole_that_won't_stay_filled dbr:William_Sketoe,_Sr. |
is dbo:wikiPageWikiLink of |
dbr:13_Alabama_Ghosts_and_Jeffrey dbr:Alabama_in_the_American_Civil_War dbr:The_hole_that_won't_stay_filled dbr:Newton,_Alabama dbr:William_Sketoe,_Sr. |
is foaf:primaryTopic of |
wikipedia-en:Bill_Sketoe |