What’s Out In Brock Hollow?

“Hidden History”

Joe Guy

Many a Halloween has passed with a spooky tale told to frighten children and adults alike.  It’s simply part of the “holiday”, and it shows our strange desire to be voluntarily scared out of our wits.  While I’ve always enjoyed the standard yarns involving vampires, werewolves, witches, and ghosts, the local stories were always just a little more spooky to me.  I guess it was the fact that, even though I really didn’t believe the story, it was always a little unnerving to think that it might have happened; and that it might have taken place somewhere close by.

Such is the story of Brock Hollow (properly pronounced “holler”).  This narrow stretch of road just south of Englewood has long been a source of fright, and a tale has been woven over the years that may or may not be true.  I’ll let you decide.

What is now the west end of County Road 480 was once the original site of “Old Englewood”.  A small mill town was once located about two hundred yards from the intersection of Old Etowah Road (County Road 500) along Chestuee Creek, and as early as the Civil War was printing its own “script” or currently for use by the mill employees in the company store.  As was the nature of a mill town, the people worked long, hard hours and often applied their leisure hours to hard living.  Drinking, gambling, and fighting were some of the more favorite sports.

It was supposedly just such activity that led to this story.  One night, several of the men were involved in a poker game.  A stranger, new to the settlement, was winning over big, which caused the others to suspect he was cheating.  They plied him with homemade liquor, hoping to get him too drunk to play, but he only got luckier.  Well after midnight, he had completely won out, and with a sneer on his face he took his winnings, a pocketful of gold and silver pieces, and left.  He headed out into the darkness to the east on Brock Hollow Road, where there was a well-known brothel at the next intersection at Old Federal Road.

But the stranger never made it.  The next morning he was found robbed and  murdered, hung from a tree along the roadside.  With no known identity, he was laid to rest in an unmarked grave, the location of which was lost to time.  The murderer, or murderers were never identified, although a large amount of suspicion was placed on the men who had lost the poker game.

Time went on, and saw Englewood moved to its present site on the railroad.  The brothel on Old Federal Road was closed down and disappeared. The little mill town faded away, leaving only the owner’s home and part of the old mill still standing.  Years passed, but the tale was not forgotten.  And how could it be?  For more than one local citizen told of strange nighttime occurrences along Brock Hollow Road.

Some told of seeing something hanging from the huge oak that still stands by the road today.  Others saw lights moving through the lonely woods, and still others reported seeing someone walking through the quiet hayfields.  Even sheriff’s deputies claim to have passed a strange man walking along the roadside, apparently searching for something.  When the officer turned around to investigate, the man was not to be found.

Is it only a tale?  Or is it the stranger, searching for his stolen poker winnings, or maybe for his lost grave?  Of course, the rational explanation is to blame it all on the fog that often settles in the narrow valley, or perhaps it’s simply someone’s idea of a practical joke.  Of course, there’s only one way to know for sure.

If you’re driving along Brock Hollow Road on say, a dark and foggy October night, you might come upon someone walking.  They say he’ll be a bit pale, with a forlorn look on his face.  If you want to know what he’s doing, just stop and ask.  But if you’re like most people in the area, the hair will stand up on the back of your neck, and you’ll just keep on driving, hoping you’ll make it to the end of Brock Hollow Road