| |
The
McDow Hole Page 4by
Bob Hopkins |
Page
3
About
two or three years later a bachelor by the name of Charlie Atchinson, from Pennsylvania
had come to the county. Charlie was thought to be an educated man with a ruddy
complexion, a bald head, and sporting a handle bar mustache.
Charlie
was his own man not caring much for parties and seldom went to church. He was
a cabinetmaker by trade; however, there wasn’t a large demand for cabinet making
in the region so Charlie soon took up the trade of making coffins. Charlie also
loved whisky and was known to tie one on now and then which was met with some
complaints by others.
Charlie moved into the vacant Papworth cabin as
it afforded him more room to work and the privacy to go on a drinking binge without
the resulting community complaints. He had heard of the ghosts story associated
with the Keith’s as had half the county by this time, but Charlie was no one to
believe such things, let alone be afraid of them.
One hot summer day
some men were searching for their cattle and stopped to ask Charlie if he had
seen them. The cabin was completely shut up which was very odd in such hot weather.
They knocked at the door but got no answer. The door and windows had been barred
from the inside. The men finally used a long pole to pry open the door. There,
lying in the middle of the floor, eyes wide open as if he had been staring up
with a horrified look, lay Charlie Atchison, dead.
Everyone was stunned.
After Doc Harvey, from Dublin,
inspected the body, no bruising or any other signs of trauma were found. The Doctor
reported that Charlie Atchison had died of a heart attack brought on by sheer
fright. All the locals were convinced that Charlie had seen “the ghost”.
By
the 1880’s, the railroad had come to Erath County resulting in the establishment
of the town of Alexander.
The now “ghost town” is located about three miles south of the McDow. One Sunday
afternoon a conversation about the ghost began in a local saloon.
Two
young men in the group, Ruben and James Burrows, known for their reputation as
the lawless type, took up on the conversation and claimed they were not afraid
of any ghost. The bartender said he was willing to bet $200.00 that the two known
train robbers wouldn’t last three nights at the old Papworth cabin. The two brothers
took up on the bet and the money was collected and held by the freight agent in
Alexander.
A group of Alexander
men rode out to the Papworth place with the Burrows to make sure they would stay
at the cabin. Near sundown, the main party took the Burrows’ horses back to town
to assure the two would not flee.
The party returned to the cabin on
the morning of the third day to find no one there. They did, however, count seven
bullet holes in the log walls and several in the ceiling. The brothers never returned
to Alexander.
Years later, James Burrows, found dying of consumption in an Arkansas state prison
where he had been incarcerated for attempted robbery, finally recounted the story
of the night at the Papworth Cabin.
He reported that they saw the ghost
on the first night for a brief moment as they were drinking heavily. The second
night they saw her walk right through the wall into the cabin then float up and
out through the ceiling. It scared them so bad that they unloaded their guns on
the spook then ran from the cabin.
He said they didn’t go back to Alexander
out of fear of being the laughing stock of the community. The Burrows brothers
made a life out of robbing trains. Some reports say they robbed more trains than
the James gang. In 1889, Reuben was killed by a railroad agent while attempting
to rob a train in Alabama, putting an end to their lawless campaign.
In
the 1890’s, The Keith family hired a young man about 20 years old to help them
on their spread. The young man was very fond of the ladies and never was one to
miss a social event.
Late one night he was returning from Alexander
where he had attended a dance. He had to cross Green’s creek near the McDow. As
his horse entered the shallow creek water the ghost of the woman came off of the
bank and stepped upon his horse behind him. Then she seemed to go up in the air
a few feet and land again on the horse’s hips.
The young man reported
that he wasn’t afraid at first until he reached for his gun and fired at the ghost
with no effect. The woman just kept coming at him in the same undisturbed manner.
The terrified young man spurred his horse all the way to the Keith’s place and
never looked back. That was the last time the he ever crossed the creek near the
McDow. ... next page
©
Bob Hopkins | |
|
