|
‹
Page 4
In
the early 1880’s the Texas Central Railroad was established in Erath
County and the town of Alexander
was booming. The train would arrive in the little town, from Stephenville,
every evening and head back toward Ft.
Worth.
Late one night enroute to Alexander,
Engineer Sam Crow, and Fireman John Henson, suddenly stopped the train
to the shock of the crew and passengers. The engineer was obviously
upset and shaking like he had a chill, claiming he had just run over
a woman holding a baby. The entire crew searched under and around
the train for the woman but found nothing.
The following evening, in the same place along the tracks, which happened
to be near the McDow, the woman was spotted by several on the train,
to be once again, on the tracks. From that night on, the apparition
would appear on the tracks time and time again.
One story recounts two boys who had gone fishing at the McDow near
the turn of the century. As the boys sat in the night on the edge
of the bank a misty form began to develop under the water in front
of them. The form began to take on the shape of the woman holding
a baby rising out of the water.
The boys ran like the devil to get as far away from the place as possible.
The next day one of the boys became sick while tending the fields.
He was complaining of severe headache and went home. In a couple of
days, his condition had worsened and the family sent for the Doctor.
The local physician diagnosed the boy with a “brain fever”. Sadly,
the boy died several days afterward.
Mr. Brownlow, the man suspected of the murder of Jenny Papworth, died
in 1885. It was custom in those days for someone to sit with the dying.
Two men were in the room while Brownlow lay on his deathbed ravaged
with fever.
The men reported Brownlow to go into horrific stares and begin screaming,
“that woman! that woman!, keep her away from me”. Then the two men
witnessed the apparition of Jenny Papworth holding her baby at the
foot of Brownlow’s bed. Shortly before he died, Brownlow admitted
to killing Jenny and the baby because she had witnessed him in a discussion
with some known cattle rustlers. He said he strangled the mother and
child then threw the bodies down a seep well near the creek. He covered
the bodies with rocks so no one would find them.
During
the 1930’s some boys were seining minnows at the McDow when they found
a bank about ten feet high. One of the boys, Wes Miller, recounted
the events in the book “Ghost Stories of Texas”, by the late
Ed Syers. ... next page
›
© Bob
Hopkins
More
Texas Ghosts |
|
|
HOME
