page_title: Bill Sketoe
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Bill Sketoe / Life / Early years
caption_attribution_description: Downtown Newton, Alabama
context_page_description: William "Bill" Sketoe, Sr. 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 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.
context_section_description: While much of Bill Sketoe's story is difficult to reconstruct with certainty, he is known to have resided in Newton, Alabama prior to the Civil War, and to have been lynched there on December 3, 1864.    The main source for his tale is Kathryn Tucker Windham's 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey, which tells the legend of Sketoe's life and death as it has been related for generations in and around Newton.  However, certain details of this story—such as Sketoe's alleged Confederate war service and the precise reason for his lynching—are subject to controversy based upon other available records.  While the legend attributes his death to an ultimately romantic cause (Sketoe's desire to care for his desperately ill spouse), other accounts hint at far more sinister reasons behind his demise, involving Sketoe's alleged (but never proven) collaboration with Unionist local guerrillas.
  According to the legend, Sketoe was born in Madrid, Spain on June 8, 1818, and came to Dale County, Alabama as a boy with his father.  He seemed to be well liked in the community, and chose the ministry as his vocation.  While serving as a circuit rider in the Wiregrass area, Sketoe met and married Sarah Clemmons, with whom he ultimately fathered eight children.  Sketoe allegedly entered the Southern Army during the Civil War, though government archives contain no record of his service in any Confederate unit or local militia.  Sketoe supposedly served until the fall of 1864, when he received word that his wife had fallen ill.  He accordingly resolved to return home until his spouse had recovered—or so the story goes.
caption: Newton, Alabama, where Bill Sketoe lived prior to his murder.
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