With Halloween almost upon us, it's a fine time to have a look back at some spooky happenings in this area.
Let's start with the resident ghost of the Beckham Hotel in Mineola. Her name is Elizabeth. She has been seen on the stairs and in the hallways. The reports say that she is a pretty woman in her thirties with light brown hair pulled on top of her head.
There were reports that strange noises have been heard throughout the building. The story is that during the last century, a woman died when she fell down the stairs leading to the hotel's lobby and that woman was Elizabeth.
Here's another story. Just outside of Mineola on private property, there are graves supposedly belonging to the Jackson family. The land is fence and gated. Many years ago, people told a story about a "singing" tombstone. The stone was close to some pine trees and one explanation given was the wind blowing off the top and sides of the marker, although it was also reported that the stone sang on days when the wind was calm. Today, only the footstone and base remain. The headstone has disappeared. Also, it was said that the spire on the grave could be rotated and it sounded like someone moaning in pain.
Off of FM 1804, near the home where Toby McClenny grew up, there is a small cemetery called the Molnari Cemetery. It has been reported that at night, people nearby reported they heard the sound of a baby crying.
Here's yet another cemetery story: During the Civil War, a prisoner was to be executed on the grounds of a property belonging to a family by the name of Jaco. The prisoner was directed to dig a grave. It was to be his own.
However, two of the men present became engaged in an argument, subject unknown, which ended with one of the men, a Mr. Jaco, being shot and killed. During the confusion of the argument, the prisoner escaped and the grave that was prepared was used for Mr. Jaco.
At Quitman, according to an obituary from the 1940s, a Mr. Shoemaker was coming home from Winnsboro after selling some cotton when he was robbed and killed by a negro man, Ike Taylor. Taylor was arrested and taken to jail. However, according to an old newspaper clipped, a group of local citizens, names unknown, came to the jail very early the next morning and hung Ike Taylor by the water town on the Square in Quitman.
Finally, according to legend, there was a Crying Bridge south of Mineola. I had heard of it but never knew where it was until very recently when I talked to Joe Dodson, who lives in the area.
He told me his grandmother told him that when the Caddo Indians inhabited the area where the Mineola Nature Preserve is today, they slaughtered some women and children. She was not sure why.
It is said that, at night, if you are driving down the road and stop there and roll your windows down, you will hear woman and children crying.
He said the ford or bridge is believed to be located on the road going to the nature preserve, or somewhere on the nature preserve property.
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