If ghostly phenomena derive from incorporeal remains of those dying with unfinished business, or in abject misery and horror, it's easy to make a case for the Drish House being the most "haunted" in Tuscaloosa.

Kathyrn Tucker Windham thought so, including the Drish House in her "13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey," under the title "Death Lights in the Tower." The Tuscaloosa Paranormal Investigation Group, founded in 2004, has visited the mansion several times beginning in 2008 and returning again post-2016, after the building's purchase and its two-year, $460,000 renovation by Nika McCool. 

Saturday, the all-women-led Southern Ghost Girls, founded in Birmingham by Lesley Ann Hyde, will bring dowsing rods and electronic devices to seek out and potentially communicate with various Drishes, or other spirits who might be inhabiting.

A Tuscaloosa haunting?: Drish House finally gets a chance to yield its secrets

Hyde says she has experienced the inexplicable since childhood and began investigating 20 years ago, before starting the Southern Ghost Girls in 2018, with like-minded Christian professional women. There is no contradiction in being a believer, she said and exploring what lies beyond.

"The Bible speaks of the Holy Ghost," she said, in a call from a business trip to Las Vegas, for a 100th-anniversary convention of State Farm agents, her day job. "It speaks of angels."

Like Hyde, all the team's women have had experiences they've struggled to explain. Some she met on earlier tours, such as Sherri Hankey, then brought them into the fold.

"I do believe that my abilities, that I've been given, are for the good," she said. "God would not have given me the abilities otherwise. I've warned people of dangers, seen things before they happened... Sometimes I meet people at the tours and help them reach out to loved ones.

"It's really awesome being able to help people. But we don't do anything whatsoever with witchcraft," she said, laughing. "We don't do evil. We don't do spells."

What they will wield, for the four-hour investigation Saturday, are spirit boxes, which scan AM and FM radio signals; electro-magnetic field detectors; and the afore-mentioned copper dowsing rods, better known as folk divination tools for water.

"Through the spirit boxes, through radio frequencies, we will get audible answers, sometimes, that comes through," Hyde said.

Copper rods are probably their favorite tool, she said. People joining the investigation -- this weekend's event is sold out, but the Southern Ghost Girls will return Oct. 8 for another Drish visit, again at $50 per person — can also hold the rods.

"So in the Drish House, we might ask 'Is Mr. Drish here with us? If you are, can you please take the rods and cross them?' " Hyde said. "Without manipulation, people holding them can tell, if (the rods) cross, they are not making that happen.

"We may ask spirits to give us a hug, and the rods will open outward, and touch our shoulders. They may point to a corridor or another place in the room."

If reactions are happening, the Southern Ghost Girls or its guests can ask other, more pointed questions.

"When customers participate, when they ask the questions," Hankey said, "we won't know all the answers, so we can't anticipate the reaction. That way everyone can get a true feel for the investigation."

Copper's considered a highly effective conductor.

"We encourage everyone on the tours — it's extremely interactive — but a lot of times people don't even want to touch them; they're scared. 'Oh my gosh, these rods are moving by themselves,' " Hyde said.

The Southern Ghost Girls dresses are appropriate to the highlighted era of whatever space is being chased, so Saturday they'll be in the best Victorian garb. Women of the SGG are also history buffs and well-versed in the Drish's background. A portion of ticket sales goes to places and spaces, as a way of giving back.

"We feel like we can get better communication when dressing of the time period," Hyde said. "But sometimes, you get communication from spirits recently passed."

Most Drish tales date to the 19th century, and its physician-gentleman-farmer founder, Dr. John R. Drish. It grew south of the city when completed around 1837, sitting amid 450 acres of planted fields. In years before the Civil War, it was remodeled into a Greek Revival/Italianate villa, adding columns and the distinctive central tower.

Drish married wealthy Sarah McKinney. He invested in railroads, cotton mills, and more, but on his death in 1869, at 71 (some reports give his age as 75), his estate was found to be insolvent.

He'd bolted out of bed one night, tumbling down the double elliptical staircase to his death. Drish was said to be sick, though he may have been drunk and distraught, or suffering from delirium tremens.

Candles burned around the body in the state, in the tower. Sarah set aside the half-burned stubs, reiterating often that she wished the same around her coffin.

But when she died in 1884, the candles weren't lit. Either someone got stingy, wanting to save the expensive tapers, or her wishes were simply disregarded.

Not long after, fire brigades rushed out to the house, answering reports of lights blazing in the tower; once inside, they saw the room remained bare and dark.

Family tragedies compounded. Drish forced their daughter Catherine to marry a man she didn't love. While in New Orleans on their honeymoon, standing on a balcony, Catherine saw her beloved below. She's said to have gone mad, and was declared so by her husband, who brought her and their two sons back to the Drish House, where she lived out her days playing piano, but only when no one was listening. In later years, a servant kept watch night and day, the door of her room locked, windows fastened with heavy screws.

Drish's beloved niece Helen Whiting picked her own husband but chose poorly. Mr. Fitch was a jealous drunkard. Approaching him in their Newtown house — roughly where Tuscaloosa Country Club later stood — she attempted to bridge gaps in their relationship. He'd been on a days-long bender.

Historian Matt Clinton wrote what happened next: " ‘Now you wouldn’t harm a hair on my head, would you?’ she asked. Fitch replied ‘No my dear,’ and seizing her hair, he bent her head back and drew his razor across her throat, killing her instantly."

Some of her property remained in or was returned to the Drish Mansion. Servants were said to be superstitious of touching anything of hers, believing the ghost of Miss Helen would haunt them if they moved her effects.

Like many in the South, Hyde grew up reading Windham's "13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey," and its sequels and follow-ups.

"It's Alabama folklore," Hyde said. "This book was so popular, full of ghost stories, yet they were also history."

As Windham, herself said: "The good ghost stories do not require that you believe in ghosts."

For more on the company, and its Oct. 8 return to the Drish House, see www.southernghostgirls.com. As that falls during Halloween season — what Hyde calls paranormal-palooza — patrons are encouraged to buy tickets early.