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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
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