Sipe Springs
This is my hauntedhouse experience from a few years ago.
A little background here will help this story go smoother. I havean uncle who has small lapses of ESP. One night while sleeping hedreamt him and a friend were driving done some old dirt roadsoutside a small Texas town called Rising Star. They took a roadwhich led to an even smaller speck called Sipe Springs, and afterseveral twists and turns they came to a house. It was your basiclooking haunted house of course: two stories, door right in themiddle that looked like a mouth. In the dream, though, he walkedtowards the house, and as he placed his hand on the door handlehe awoke drenched in sweat. He placed this dream into the weirdcategory and thought nothing of it until about a week later, heand the friend were out driving, and they came to the SipeSprings exit. They took it, and from memory my uncle led hisfriend to the house. They went up to it and looked around andfinally found the name Jessie Jones and the year 1894 on it. Myuncle was of course a little freaked so he went to the countycourthouse to find any records on this house or this name. Whathe found made this even more strange.
The information he found from court records and old newspaperstold the story of Jessie Jones. He had moved to Sipe Springs in1893 and began building this house. It was finished in 1894, andhis wife and twin sons. On the twins 1st birthday (in august Iforgot the exact date) for reasons unknown Jessie killed bothchildren. The next day he killed his wife with an ax. When he wasfound out some of the local men formed a mob and threw Jessie,still alive, into the well behind the house. They then coveredthe well and left him to die. This all sounds kinda fishy I know,but now I can get to the real story.
Now drawn to the house, my uncle, Mike, began to go there quiteoften trying different ways to contact any spirits dwelling thereor find anything that would prove this story to be true. He tooka picture of the well and in it two distinct faces can be seen.This of course can always be dispelled by the shape of the stonesthat the well was made of. A ouiga board was used and spelled outthe name of Jessie's wife, but this can be dispelled by peoplesfingers. Once as they mounted the stairs to enter the children'sroom a black bird attacked the entire party, but the bird coldhave been simply guarding its nest. The true proof came one nightwhen I returned to Rising Star for a visit in the summer on 1994.
Whenever I went, we always went out "ghost-hunting."This consisted of going to deserted houses and graveyards. Thereare many tales of free spirits around this small town. We endedup in Cisco in an old abandoned hospital, and as we sat in an oldoperating room and iron beds that had seen many deaths, Mikeweaved his story of Jessie. We were all exited by this newadventure and immediately headed for Sipe Springs.
Our party consisted of Mike, my aunt Lisa and two of her friends(male and female), and myself. The guy invited us all to hisbirthday party in August on the ride there (this is importantlater). And after a ride that seemed like forever we arrived.
I saw the well and could faintly make out the two faces that wereseen in the picture. We looked around outside and finally went in.The bottom floor was nothing spectacular: broken floorboards,caved in walls, and faded, ripped wallpaper, so we quickly headedupstairs where al the action had taken place. Let me emphasishere that this was Texas in the summer. It was late at night,somewhere between 11-12, but it was still hot, and in this oldmoldy house it was even hotter. I led the way up the stairs, andas I reached the mid-step a small bird flew past my head thenfluttered above us as we quickly ascended to the top. My heartwas now racing a million miles a minute, so we entered what hadbeen the master bedroom of the house. As we entered this room wepassed the door to the nursery where all the murders had takenplace. Jessie had locked his wife in the room after killing hischildren. In the bedroom the heat was even more intense than therest of the house, and after everyone caught their breath weentered the nursery.
Instantly the temperature changed. It was almost ice cold in thenursery. The remains of a wooden crib lie smashed in the corner.Mike said he had never had the nerves to touch the batteredpieces, but I was still not convinced so I knelt a looked throughthe rubble. Buried under the wood, was a small wooden toy carvedin the shape of what seemed the be dog. We decided the best wayto contact any spirits would be to use this item, so Mike placedtwo pieced of wood in the shape of a cross in front of him, andhe then placed the toy on top. He began to ask Jessie to join us,and he asked jessie's wife to join us. The ceiling of the roomwas covered with yellow jacket nests, and as he asked for thespirits of the house to join of the wasps above his head began tostir. Then suddenly the guy that was with us collapsed onto thefloor holding his stomach. His girlfriend took him downstairs andout of the house, leaving Mike, Lisa and me in the room. As soonas the couple left the room, an estatic calm came over me, and Icould tell by their faces Mike and Lisa felt it too. All my fearand apprehension seemed to melt away, and I felt completelyrelaxed. We decided this must be the spirit of Jessie's wifelooking over us as she had done with her children in this sameroom. Then almost as suddenly as the calm had touched us, a greatdread and impulse to run smashed into my mind. I looked up andMike and Lisa were already headed out the door. As I steppedthough the door the small toy flew across the room, and the doorslammed shut behind me. I was struck with the intense heat of thehouse and ran down the stairs and out the front door.
The girl explained to us that as soon as she and her boyfriendleft the house he had felt fine. Mike asked him when he said hisbirthday was. He pulled out his drivers license, and Mike lookedat it with a shocked expression then explained it was the samebirthday as Jessie's children. This is where my belief began tosway. Even though I had experienced the house, this just a littleto convenient, so we drove to the cemetery where the townspeoplehad buried the wife and children and found the same date on theheadstone as on the license.
This sounds far-fetched but is completely true. I have of courseforgotten the exact dates and the wife's name. I never knew thechildren's name even thought I saw them on the headstone, theweight of everything that had just happened has hitting me, and Ididn't even want to know the names. The house has been torn downnow. The couple told several people and it quickly became a partyhang out. The people who owned the land grew tired of beerbottles and the messes that the kids left behind, s they had itknocked down. I always wondered what would have happened had hestayed in the house, or had we stayed in the room instead offleeing. I can honestly say I believe every ghost story I hearnow, because once you go through one, its a whole lot easier tobelieve.