Pickens County Courthouse

There are several variants of the story behind the ghostly face that appears in the Pickens County Courthouse's window, but they all revolve around the death of a man alleged of wrongdoing. Local legend has it that one Henry Wells, a freedman living in Carrollton, was accused of having burned down the local courthouse in 1876, just 12 years after Union soldiers had done the same to the court that previously stood on the grounds. Rightly or wrongly he was convicted of arson, but Wells fled authorities and remained on the run for nearly two years, until he was eventually caught in January of 1878. He was arrested in Fairfield and died from gunshot wounds shortly thereafter, either while fleeing authorities or a lunch mob. Wells is said to have vowed to haunt his accusers before dying, and his face has regularly appeared in one of the new courthouse's windows ever since.