HGB Ep. 522 - General Morgan Inn and Old Greene County Jail

Moment in Oddity - Death Crowns

On this episode, we are featuring a couple of locations in Appalachia and while researching the area we came across a creepy bit of folklore. There are these things called angel crowns or death crowns. These things are usually discovered by family members of a loved one who has recently passed away in their bed. A death crown is created inside of a feather pillow. It's usually noticed when a bereaved family member clutches the pillow and hugs it to themselves. They'll feel a weird clump or lump of feathers. When they open the pillow, they find a crown of feathers tightly wound together. All the quills of the feathers point to the center of the crown. Appalachian folklore claims that these death crowns are signs that a deceased loved one has made it to heaven. The death crown symbolizes that a person has been absolved of their sins. So if you had a family member that perhaps was a little on the bad side, this would bring you comfort. Finding a death crown is a great omen, but only if it's found in this way. If, for example, you find a death crown in your pillow, it means you are not meant to have a long life. Or it could also be an evil omen that a witch has cast a curse on someone. The best way to deal with that is to cast the crown into the fire. Appalachian tradition holds that family members are to put the death crown on display and most are stored in shadow boxes. Many families will share pictures with the local paper as well. Many times, these are passed down through the family. This is an interesting tradition and bit of folklore, but it also certainly is odd!

This Month in History - The Canning of Beer

In the month of January, on the 24th in 1935, canned beer made its debut to the American public. The Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company made 2,000 cans of their Finest Beer and Cream Ale available to the public in Richmond, Virginia. The consumers gave an approval rating of ninety-one percent, motivating the Brewery to continue their production. Cans had already been widely used for food items starting in the late 19th century. In 1909, the American Can Company experimented with canning beer but they were unsuccessful. Two years of research went into the development of a can that could contain the pressurized liquid with a special coating to keep the beer from chemically reacting with the tin. The major beer companies were not keen on marketing their brews in cans initially. However, after Krueger took the leap of faith, their sales soared with eighty percent of distributors carrying their product. The market blew up in three short months and following Krueger's success, the 'big three', Anheuser-Busch, Pabst and Schlitz jumped into the game. By the completion of 1935, over 200 million cans of beer had been manufactured and sold.

General Morgan Inn and Old Greene County Jail (Suggested by: Ivy Johnson)

Greeneville is part of what is referred to as the Tri-Cities in Tennessee. This is a region that comprises the bigger cities of Kingsport, Johnson City and Bristol and smaller towns in Northeast Tennessee. This is part of Appalachia, a place known for its legends and spirits. Two locations here add to that reputation: The General Morgan Inn and the Old Greene County Jail. Join us as we share the history and hauntings of these two Tri-City locations!

Greeneville, Tennessee was home to the 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson. This is a smaller town at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains and is the county seat for Greene County. Both the county and the town are spelled with an E at the end in honor of General Nathanael Greene. He was one of the most respected generals of the Revolutionary War and was a great military strategist. Before settlers were here, there was a large indigenous village. This was during the Woodland Period, which was dated from 1000 BC to 1000 AD. Eventually, the Cherokee used the area as their hunting grounds. Euro-Americans arrived in the late 18th century and the first was Jacob Brown, who had moved from North Carolina. He leased a plot of land from the Cherokee and he named it the Nolichucky Settlement. Another settler, Daniel Kennedy, decided to break free and his group formed Greene County. This area was still a part of North Carolina. In 1784, several counties decided to break away and form their own state, which they planned to name Franklin. This group was called the Franklin Movement and it eventually collapsed and North Carolina took back control in 1785. Greeneville officially became a town in 1786 and Tennessee became a state in 1796. Many Quakers moved to Greene County and so there was a strong abolitionist movement in the early 19th century. Andrew Johnson arrived in the city in 1826 and his home is now the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site.

Taverns were the precursor or grandfather to the saloons that would spread across America into the Old West. These were social gathering places to hear music, to dance, to drink and to find a simple room. DeWoody Tavern was no different. This tavern was built by William Dunwoody in the early 1790s and offered a spot for travelers along the Great Wagon Trail, which is today parts of U.S. Highway 321 and State Highway 11. The Great Wagon Road stretched for 800 miles between Philadelphia and West Virginia and broke off into the Wilderness Road to arrive in Kentucky and Tennessee. The early stages of the trail could only be traversed by horseback because it was so narrow and rough. After the French and Indian War, it expanded as it became the most heavily traveled road in America. This would have been a beautiful path, as it is today, but one can only imagine trying to get through it with a Conestoga wagon packed full with supplies and possessions and a trail full of mud and animal waste. Taverns and inns offered a respite from that and a place to water animals. 

The DeWoody Tavern was a wooden structure described as "janky." It offered food, supplies and lodging and had plenty of water because of Greeneville’s Big Spring. By the 1820s, the tavern was being called the Bell Tavern and was owned by William K. Vance and was advertised as a "Public House at the sign of the Bell in Greeneville." During the Civil War, the inn was owned by Joshua Lane and he called it the Lane House for himself. This establishment didn't choose sides during the war and served both Union soldiers and Confederates. And while being neutral during a war seems like a safe bet, it didn't work out for Greeneville because the soldiers themselves can't be trusted to keep the peace. One of Greeneville's most infamous skirmishes occurred on September 4th, 1864. 

There was a Confederate General named John Hunt Morgan, but everybody knew him by his nickname, "The Thunderbolt of the Confederacy." Morgan was from Kentucky and attended Transylvania College in Lexington until he was expelled for bad behavior. He turned to the military after that and enlisted with the 1st Kentucky Cavalry and joined the fight during the Mexican War. At the Battle of Buena Vista, he conducted himself gallantly and headed back to Kentucky in 1847. Morgan got into hemp manufacturing and formed a militia he dubbed the Lexington Rifles. He armed the entire militia at his own expense. Kentucky wasn't quick to join the cause of the Confederacy at the beginning of the Civil War, but Morgan was and he led the Lexington Rifles to Bowling Green where they fought under General Buckner. By the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, Morgan had become a colonel. A couple months later, he began running raids all on his own with his cavalry and in July 1862, Morgan began a thousand-mile ride through Kentucky, acting like a thunderbolt destroying everything in his path. Railroad and telegraph lines were destroyed and they took Union soldiers as prisoners. They seized supplies too. Newspaper headlines documented the raids and people feared Morgan. So now you see how he came by his nickname.

Morgan continued under his own lead through the next year. His leadership ordered him to not conduct any more raids, but he rode along the Ohio River and terrorized southern Indiana and Ohio for three weeks until he was captured at West Point by the Union cavalry. Morgan was shipped off to the Ohio State Penitentiary, but he managed to escape. Morgan had a friend who lived in Greeneville named Mrs. Catherine Williams and she had invited him to stay at her mansion in the middle of the town. The property had quite a bit of vegetation and trees and a vineyard, so it provided a bit of secrecy. Despite this, some Union troops had been tipped off that Morgan was in town and they surrounded the mansion in an ambush. The Williams family tried to help Morgan escape, but there was no hope. Morgan was shot and killed as he ran from the yard to the stables. The soldier who is said to have shot him had served under him during the Mexican War. The Union cheered the end of a man that had terrorized everyone.

The landscape changed for Greeneville in 1886 when the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad built a new train depot in the town. A local entrepreneur named Colonel John Doughty decided the city needed a new hotel, so in 1884, he tore down the Lane House and built the Grand Central in its place. This was a four-story brick building with marble belts at each floor and window level. This was said to be the finest hotel "from Chattanooga to Roanoke." The interior featured wide hallways and luxurious furniture and sixty rooms. The lobby featured a warm fireplace, 35-foot ceilings, a hand-painted canopy and ornate chandeliers, that have been recreated for the modern era hotel. An upper balcony stretched across the front of the second story. There were several shops on the street level of the hotel and a flight of stairs lead out onto Main Street. Several spaces in the hotel were designated as "sample rooms" where salesmen could ply their wares. 

Grand Central Hotel not only rented rooms for a night, but people could rent them for a month. The hotel tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Humphris Reaves who were newlyweds that married in December of 1892. They spent their first six months of marriage renting three rooms for $30 a month and they got three meals a day as well. As the seventh month rolled around, Mrs. Reaves told her husband it was time to end their extravagant living and they rented a house for $12 a month until they built one of their own. Three other railroad hotels joined the Grand Central and all four hotels were connected on their second floors with bridges. 

Mrs. E.J. Brumley bought the Grand Central in 1920 and she reopened it as the Hotel Brumley. In 1925, William Jennings Bryan, who was a well-known orator and three-time presidential candidate, stopped at the hotel for lunch on his way to the Scopes trial in Dayton. In 1928, the Brumleys began an extensive remodeling of the hotel, adding the Crystal Ballroom on the second floor, where formal events such as balls, dinners and wedding receptions were frequently held. Judd Brumley, who was the son, took over operating the hotel and he opened the General Morgan Room in 1948. This was a supper-club style private dining room on the first floor of the hotel where the elegant Crystal Ballroom had been. He purchased azure-etched mirrors for the space that hang in the Brumley's bar today. It was a hit and was soon known for being a prestigious location to hold an event. Mrs. Brumley died in 1964 and Judd followed her soon thereafter and other family members took over operations. The Brumley family ran the hotel until it closed in May of 1981 and then sat vacant for several years. 

A local development group formed a new board called Olde Town Development Corporation and their goal was to buy up historic buildings. The Hotel Brumley became one of their purchases and after nine years of planning, fund-raising, and construction, they opened the General Morgan Inn and Conference Center in 1996, named for the Confederate general who came to his end in the town. A friendly foreclosure sale was held on November 29, 2000, and the hotel was sold to the Morgan Inn Corporation, which still runs it today. The General Morgan Inn was added to the National Trust Historic Hotels of America and the National Trust For Historic Preservation. It is a popular wedding venue today and has 51 guest rooms, a luxurious suite and a corporate apartment. The inn also boasts the signature restaurant and lounge Brumley's. This space features the bar, the Club Room, the Greene Room and the Library. And it's a favorite space for a ghost or two.

Many of the articles written about the General Morgan Inn claim that there are dozens of ghosts in the hotel. Possibly as many as forty. One of the spirits is said to be General Morgan himself. Perhaps he was attracted to a place that had been named for him. We aren't sure how close the mansion was to the hotel, but he more than likely didn't die on this property. Although he did once tell a group that was investigating Room 207 that he had been shot in the back and died on the premises. So perhaps he did die here. His favorite area to hang out is on the second floor and he loves the suite since it is the finest room at the inn. General Morgan was a handsome man and was thought to be quite vain. He wouldn't allow anyone to photograph him unless he had his general's hat on his head. This vanity has lead the General to be quite attached to his picture, which hangs in the suite. Guests have called the front desk claiming to hear screaming coming from the suite, even when nobody is staying in there. The staff usually says they'll take care of it, even though they know the room is empty. They're used to it by now.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, a waitress worked in the inn and her name was Grace. She was good at what she did and clearly liked the hotel enough to stay on in the afterlife. The staff affectionately refers to her as Greene Room Grace. She is seen nearly daily and even if not seen, she tends to do some kind of mischievous thing in the Brumley Restaurant. Her favorite thing to do is to steal silverware with a particular fondness for spoons. And she usually takes those spoons out of the Greene Room, which is where her nickname comes from. Grace is pretty possessive of the spoons as well, meaning that she never returns them. No one knows where she puts them.

Beverly Murzyn was a server at Brumley's Restaurant for several years and she told WJHL Channel 11 in 2019, "You'll walk through and you'll notice a spoon is missing. So we have to order spoons all the time. We're always out of spoons, it's crazy. Why spoons, I don't know. Where she puts them, I don't know." Beverly also confirmed that Grace likes to make the pictures in the restaurant go crooked. They constantly have to straighten them. A dowser came in to investigate the hotel and thought they were speaking with Grace who said she had been haunting the building for 75 years and that Grace claimed to have nine ghosts with her. Beverly believes that she saw one of these spirits as a full-bodied apparition out of the corner of her eye while she was filling salt and pepper shakers. When she turned, she saw the outline of a body walk away. It was so quick she assumed it was one of the dishwashers. She went around the corner to see who it was and there was nobody there. She said to herself, "'It's time to go.' I'd never seen a full-bodied apparition just go across the kitchen." 

And the kitchen is pretty active itself. Heavy objects move by themselves in the kitchen and occasionally go flying across the room. One time, huge cookie sheets went flying off the top of the oven and across the kitchen. Another spirit in the restaurant is a man who sits at a booth in the clubroom and drinks coffee and reads the newspaper. And the elevators are haunted, moving up and down on there own and opening on floors where they haven't been called. During an investigation near the front desk, a ghost named Bill was contacted. He claimed to be very happy working at the front desk and he claimed to have 26 ghosts with him. He is now known as Front Desk Bill. 

Another haunted location in this city is the Old Greene County Jail. The jail is the oldest jail in the state of Tennessee and is located at 115 Academy Street, but it didn't start at this location. The jail was built in 1804 in the middle of Depot Street and it was very close to Richland Creek, so it was thought it would be better to move it to prevent flooding. And this was done, brick by brick, in 1838. It has been in its current location for over 180 years. This location is behind the current day Greene County jail and courthouse. The jail was a dark place and prisoners would live in semi-darkness. Originally there was only one floor, but a second was added in the late 1800s. The first floor had one cell and a place for prisoners to relieve themselves by sitting over a hole in the floor and the second floor was more modern and had four cells where there was at least a platform for prisoners to sit on to do their duty. There was no running water and no heat for a very long time until the second floor was upgraded. Some prisoners were executed. The last legal hanging took place in 1890. The jail ran until 1987. At Halloween time, the jail is turned into a haunted house attraction, but there are those who claim that there are real hauntings here. 

It's said that the local police refuse to enter this location after dark because it is so haunted. Josh and Jon head up Southern Afterlife and they investigated the jail in 2021. They heard a humming sound coming from a corner cell, kinda like a ringing sound. Possibly something bouncing off the metal of a door? They set up a spirit box and it was really weird because they first got what sounded like a baby crying and then a very clear child voice asking, "Play?" Then it said, "This is Pat's block." A female voice answered that her name was "Marissa" after being asked. The name "Thomas" came through and they asked if this was Thomas and it said, "Yep." And then "Thomas here." Multiple voices came through and said, "Help us leave." There was a scream and then a voice said "Quit screaming."

They were told multiple times to leave and get out. They weren't sure if it was a request for them to leave or if they were being asked to help the spirits leave. A cell door slammed on its own. It was pretty startling. They tested the door to see if it would slam on its own,  but they couldn't find any way that it would do that. They heard disembodied steps coming down the hallway. They also caught a couple of little figures on the SLS camera. Were these kids again? Another group of paranormal investigators were in there in 2021 as well. They were told to get out. They said they would leave the cell if they were told a name and they got the name "Peter." And they caught a few strange sounds. 

There is also a bridge that is reputedly haunted in Greeneville called Little Chucky Creek Stone Arch. It is a stone bridge and its lasted many years. We didn't find any stories on it so we don't know why they claim its haunted. But the jail and inn seem to have something unexplained going on. Are they haunted? That is for you to decide!