In 1919, one of the first recorded and well-known legends about Carter came when a 17-year-old boy from Dothan, Alabama, was staying in one of Cedarhurst’s upstairs bedrooms. He awoke from a dream in which he witnessed a dark thunderstorm shake the estate—so much so that gravestones in the family cemetery were being knocked down. The boy then saw in his dream a young girl who asked him to please pick her tombstone up from the ground and set it in its proper place.
The boy rose the next morning, disturbed but thankful he had only had a dream. The dream was so real, however, he decided to walk to the family cemetery to make sure everything was standing upright. He was shocked to find that Carter’s headstone was indeed face down on the grass. He decided to go back to Dothan and never came back to Huntsville again.
As with many ghostly legends, when the story became a popular tale, children and adults alike were desperate to get a glimpse of the house and cemetery. Unfortunately, Carter’s grave was repeatedly vandalized, and it was eventually moved to another location. However, it is said that her ghost still roams the halls of Cedarhurst. The property is closed to the general public.