DeFuniak Springs Haunted History (full series)
Does Dr. Dye haunt Circle Drive?
“I don’t believe in that sort of thing,” said DeFuniak Springs Police Chief, James Hurley. “But I was at Marion Shultz’s house one day standing on a ladder to change a light bulb when I felt someone touch my waist above my hip, like they were trying to steady me on the ladder. When I told Mrs. [Marion] Shultz about it, she said, ‘Don’t worry, it was just the doctor.”
Dr. A.A. Dye, who built the Circle Drive home where Shultz lives, has been seen many times throughout the years by friends, family and neighbors.
Dye and his wife moved to Florida from Wisconsin and built the house on Lake DeFuniak in 1915. Unfortunately, Dye’s wife was not in good health and passed away soon after moving into the new home. Dye continued to live in the Circle Drive residence and eventually remarried. But after the doctor’s passing, Mrs. Dye returned to Europe to be near her family. And that was when William and Marion Shultz bought the house where Marion still lives today.
After moving into the home, Shultz began having vivid dreams and mentioned one of them to the late W. Paul Thompson, who was a local attorney at the time. He told her that the dream was a recollection of an actual event.
“Things like that would happen quite often,” she said. “Then one day I was out in the yard, and the neighbor’s little girl said that she had seen a man in a nightcap. Her mother later told me that she knew the doctor had worn a nightcap because she had seen it hanging on the clothesline many times before he died.”
Retired Library Director, Dan Owens remembers tales of Dr. Dye from time spent in the DeFuniak Springs Writers’ Group with Shultz where she would share stories with the group about things that happened in the house.
He recalls that after moving into the house, William Shultz attempted to clear a closet and tossed out Dye’s medical bag that contained his stethoscope and some vials of what appeared to be medicines. Marion protested and told him to bring it back in the house, but it was too late because the trash had already been collected for the week. Two days later Marion opened the closet door and found the bag back in its usual place on the floor.
While Shultz was accustomed to Dye making occasional appearances, her granddaughter was surprised to see a strange man standing at the top of the stairs. When she asked Shultz about him, Shultz replied, “Oh, that’s just Dr. Dye. Come on back to the kitchen, and I’ll get you a cookie,” attempting to distract the girl from further questions about Dye’s appearance at the head of the staircase.
Neighbors were also occasionally greeted by Dye. One actually apologized to Shultz for not speaking to her the previous afternoon when the neighbor had been jogging around the lake and saw someone standing on the upstairs veranda. Shultz explained to her, “That was probably Dr. Dye. None of us were home yesterday afternoon.”
Shultz continues to report unusual noises and things misplaced in the house, but she and Dye have an understanding, and both still reside in the home on Circle Drive.
Haunted library, spirits in the stacks?
“I remember going to the library and hearing stories about Alice Fellows,” said DeFuniak Springs native Ruby Vaught. “It was never scary. In fact, it was nice to think that the spirit of the original librarian was keeping watch over the library. I think that’s one of the reasons I’m interested in the paranormal today.”
Although there’s never been a paranormal investigation in the Walton-DeFuniak Library, stories abound about books falling from shelves, phantom footsteps, and ghostly apparitions. The spirit is rumored to be that of Alice Fellows, the city’s first librarian who took the position very seriously.
Prior to being the city’s first paid librarian, Fellows worked with the Ladies’ Aide Society, a volunteer organization that founded the library in 1886 with the goal of “elevating the moral and intellectual standing of the community,” according to minutes of their early meetings. Fellows enjoyed her work with the library so much that she traveled to Chicago to take classes in Library Science. And when she returned, she assumed the position of librarian.
Fellows was a stern woman who never married and served as librarian from 1896 until the week that she died of influenza in 1926. During her reign, no horseplay, loud noise or foolishness was tolerated in the library, and some believe that she continues to wander the stacks occasionally making her presence known.
“Anytime something unusual occurred, such as the front door coming open without anyone being near it or a book falling from the shelf, the staff would say, ‘It’s just Alice,’” said former Library Director Dan Owens. “But the front doors have had to be replaced because the building’s foundation has shifted so much that the frames are bowed, and patrons often push a book back on a shelf without realizing that the book they are putting back is pushing another book on the opposite side of the shelf.”
“I still like to think of Alice Fellows protecting her library whenever I visit,” said Vaught. “And when I take my daughter for the first time, I’ll share those stories with her because they filled me with wonder and lit a fire in me for all things spooky and unexplained."
Magnolia Cemetery shares secrets
The Buried American History Tour featured a Florida Governor; an early Chautauquan and Consul General to Edinburgh Scotland; a slave reported to have fathered more than 100 children; A Ripley’s Believe It or Not “human flag;” and a doctor who impacted national medical culture.
Florida Governor Sidney J. Catts was inaugurated on January 2, 1917, and was the first Florida governor since 1877 to represent a political party other than the Democratic Party. Catts was a member of the Prohibition Party and his was the first political campaign to utilize cars instead of the traditional horse and buggy making him able to visit more rural communities and garner more votes.
Gravesite of Florida Governor Sidney J. Catts
Catts has been interred in Magnolia Cemetery since his death in 1936.
Consul to Edinburgh Scotland from 1889 until 1893, Wallace Bruce was instrumental in bringing the Florida Chautauqua to DeFuniak Springs and was its president until his death in 1914. Born in New York in 1844, Bruce was a scholar, author, poet, lecturer and visionary who saw great things for DeFuniak Springs.
Gravesite of Wallace Bruce
Tom “Big” M. Stockman was a slave from Angola Africa who is reported to have fathered 136 children, one of which, Carrie B. Oates, is buried beside him. Stockman was brought to Mobile Alabama aboard the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to arrive in North America.
Gravesite of Tom Stockman
Descendants of Stockman attended the cemetery tour to honor their ancestor and learn more about his life. Stockman died in 1936 and is interred in Magnolia Cemetery.
Perry Biddle was known at age 90 as Ripley Believe it or Not’s “Human Flag,” and could perform incredible physical feats well into his nineties. His home, “The Biddle House,” at 203 Scribner Avenue was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 and features a largely symmetrical design, a cross gable roof and a frieze.
Gravesite of Perry Biddle
Biddle has been interred at Magnolia Cemetery since his death in 1945 at age 98.
Dr. Ralph Spires came to DeFuniak Springs as a youth and attended Walton Senior High School graduating in 1923. He later attended the University of South Carolina and received his medical degree from Columbia Medical School. Spires returned to DeFuniak Springs to begin his medical practice in 1929 and went on to open Lakeside Hospital in 1939 bringing up-to-date medical practices to the local area and pioneering the modern concept of birthing centers.
Spires has been interred at Magnolia Cemetery since his death in 1966.
To learn more about Magnolia Cemetery, its residents, events and/or volunteer opportunities, visit the City of DeFuniak online at DeFuniakSprings.net. or email Coordinator Chris Mitchell at cemeterycoordinator@
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