Stephenville Story
Here's a tale tochill the blood and make you feel just a little less safe therein the dark -- or wherever you get your fright fix.
This is the complete text of an article I wrote for theStephenville Empire-Tribune (located in bee-you-tifulStephenville, Texas). The story is one of the most popularlegends hereabouts, and is reproduced in full for your readingpleasure.
The article was written to fill a portion of our 250-page "Horizons"special section. The article itself appeared in a portion titled-- appropriately enough -- "Secrets."
Enjoy. :)
THE GHOST OF THE MCDOW HOLE
By BRIAN BETHEL
The Empire-Tribune
We're going to take a trip.
Not a long journey, but hopefully an interesting one. We're notgoing to any far-off place, really. In fact itŐs right here.Close at hand. You could even go there yourself. But somehow,this is ... safer.
Turn down the lights. It'll help. Don't strain your eyes, though.
Imagine stars. Cold, twinkling points of light overhead. Eternal.Blue-white.
Imagine how cold they seem, thrust into an ebony sky.
Feel the night air as it caresses your cheek.
Now pan down.
See the campfire? Nice and warm isn't it? A burning shieldagainst the dark. Our little circle of protection against --well, whatever's out there.
Gather 'round. Plenty of room here.
We're going to tell you a ghost story.
Not scared, are you?
Good.
Let's begin.
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The frontier cabin where she met her fate is long gone, butperhaps ... something of Jenny Papworth still remains at the oldMcDow Ghost Hole about two miles south of Harbin, Texas.
She was a pretty girl, supposedly. No raving beauty to be sure,but the frontier life suited her well, and she was the sum totalof Charlie Papworth's world.
She and Charlie, along with her oldest son, Temple, hadundertaken the difficult trek from Georgia to what would becomeErath County in the 1870s. Charlie had made the journey earlier,and Jenny and her son followed shortly thereafter.
They settled on a stretch of land near Green's Creek, next to awide meadow and near the McDow watering hole. Their neighbors,the McDows and Keiths, came to help build their cabin, and atleast for a time all was calm. Jenny had a another baby, and thefour of them lived happily together.
Then Charlie received a letter and had to go away. Both of hisparents had died, and he had inherited much of their property, Hedecided the best thing for Jenny would be to have her stay withone of their two friendly neighbors during the evenings. He f eltshe would be safe enough during the day, but he feared thegrowing outlaw bands to the east.
Charlie thought his plan was foolproof. After all, the railroadwas a growing thing, and enough track had been laid to make thejourney back to Georgia much easier than their original overlandtrek.
He'd be back before she even knew it.
Thus, Jenny spent each day at the cabin, then she, the baby andTemple would spend the night at the Keith's or McDow's. Thiscontinued for several nights, until one evening -- when she didnot show up at either home.
Both families initially thought she had gone to stay with theother. But when morning came Jenny was nowhere to be found.
Nowhere at all.
The families frantically began a search. They went to the cabinand found it apparently deserted. Blood was on the floor. Athorough search found young Temple, weeping incoherently, underthe rawhide bed in the room.
The search spread out far and wide. Comanche Indians wereaccused, but the suspected tribe, which lived near the site ofthe present-day city of Coleman,Texas, was later found to befriendly. Many of the Indians knew Charlie and Jenny Papworth.
They were upset to hear she had vanished.
So, inevitably, suspicion fell on the man who insisted sostrongly that the Comanches were to blame, a man suspected ofoutlaw dealings himself. Legend names him W. P. Brownlow.
Charlie returned and Brownlow became a certain target. Faced withdoom at the end of Papworth's rifle, he began what can only becalled a smear campaign. Papworth and Jenny had prospered in thetwo years they had remained in the territory. How? Brownlowasserted it was because Charlie was a rustler. Surprisingly, somepeople began to believe him.
The outcome was inevitable. After witnessing the abduction anddeath of his mother, Temple woke again to see a horde of maskedmen coming for his father. Along with six other men, he washanged on a tree near the McDow Hole.
Temple bravely climbed the tree and cut down the men. Six deathhad already claimed, but Charlie Papworth was miraculously alive.They rode off together, away from the horrors they had known.
But Jenny, Charlie's beloved, remained.
The first to see her were members of the Keith family. A droughthad gripped the land, and the McDow was one of the last bastionsof good water left in the area.
Three nights Bill Keith and his 13-year-old son attempted to stayin the cabin, and three nights Jenny visited them, eachapparition more horrible than the last.
On the first night, someone was at the door. It was Jenny,holding her baby. As Keith and his son looked on in terror, shevanished without a sound.
"A dream," Keith told himself the next morning. He wasdetermined to stay. The next evening Jenny appeared again,gliding through the walls of the cabin. Still, Keith thought itwas all only a dream.
And then, on the third night, he knew the visions shared by himand his son had been no dream.
She was there at the door again, so real he could have reachedout and touched her. He asked if it was truly her, if she wasreally alive and had escaped from whatever fate had held her.
She screamed. The terrible sound reverberated through thetwilight, and then Jenny was gone. Only the night remained, coldand unforgiving.
Thereafter, Keith avoided the Papworth cabin at all costs.
After that, Jenny's shade was reported ranging all over the ErathCounty countryside. She would appear holding her baby on nearbyrailroad tracks. The engineer would hurriedly throw the brakes,bringing the thundering locomotive to a stop -- usually too late.Yet, when the panic-stricken crew would leap out to examine thetracks, there was never any trace of Jenny or her infant child.
Tales of Jenny's hauntings continued. Many thought she waslooking for her killer. Others said she wanted to lead someone toher bones.
Perhaps, though, Jenny got her revenge on her murderer and herhusband's would-be killer.
Brownlow had moved far east along the county and lived a secludedexistence. Word came that he was sick, that he had a disease nodoctor could cure.
On his deathbed, Brownlow is said to have confessed to the murderof Jenny Papworth. She had seen him talking to known cattlerustlers, and he had to kill her.
Just before he confessed, Brownlow supposedly writhed under theinfluence of a terrible dream, screaming "Don't let hertouch me!" and "The blood!" over and over again.
After his confession, Brownlow gave up the ghost himself. Mostbelieve it was also Brownlow who led the masked men who tried tohang Charlie Papworth.
Brownlow wasn't the only casualty of Jenny's wrath, though. APennsylvanian coffin-maker had moved into the territory. He wassupposedly a talented fiddle player, and his music could be heardeasily. Then for several days his fiddle fell silent.
Finally, neighbors came to visit the cabin. They found the coffin-makeron the floor, his face drawn into a rictus of fear and dread.
The coffin-maker was suddenly in need of a coffin himself.
Another time, a group of robbers visited the cabin. They sufferedthe same fate, their fright-contorted faces the only testament towhatever ghastly events had transpired.
Far and wide, stories of Jenny spread. One legend says Green'sCreek changed course and some human bones were found in an oldwell. Popular opinion holds that these were the mortal remains ofJenny and her baby, but the validity of the story is questionable.
Even today, though, stories are still told about the McDow HoleGhost.
In fact, so many stories have been told the legend has evenattracted "professionals." Mary Joe Clendenin, a localauthor, says her father, Joe Fitzgerald, told her the story ofJenny many years ago when she was a young girl. It is from herfather's account that many of the "Jenny" storiesspring.
Among the many souls who have attempted to lay Jenny's spirit torest included a traveling medium who came to the area in the 1950s,she said.
The medium said he intended to free Jenny's wandering shade.Clendenin said she wasn't certain he did.
"He stopped at our house to ask directions to the McDowHole," she said. "He claimed he was planning to layJenny's spirit to rest. We never saw him after that, so I don'tknow if he was successful."
Wes Miller of Morgan Mill said he had fished, swam and worked theland around the McDow Hole all of his life, ever since 1927.Often, his mules would become skittish around the watering hole,and he felt a presence around the hole itself.
Once, when he was a young boy, he came there to swim one day. Achill suddenly filled the watering hole. Miller and several ofhis young companions built a fire, but it scattered and went outquickly.
"What would cause a cold like that and a fire to go out sosuddenly?" he asked. "I don't know. I've had a lot oftime to think about that incident, though."
Miller said he felt more-or-less accepted by whatever he felt atthe watering hole. He said he sensed no real danger there, but headded he would still find it hard to spend the night there alone,even at 77 years of age.
So, the question remains: Is Jenny still around?
Did Clendenin's mysterious spiritualist release her soul?
If those bleached bones really were hers, did she slowly weakenand fade?
Or does some remnant of Jenny Papworth even now remain, lost andfated to haunt the darkness?
Clendenin said she didn't know.
"I certainly believe that she was real," Clendenin said."I've never been fortunate enough to see a ghost, though.Something of Jenny may still remain, but I can't say."
Miller agreed, saying where Jenny was couldn't be known.
"Of Jenny's ghost, who can say?" he said. "Whoknows what sort of place she is in here in our world -- or out ofour world?"
A worthy question.
Where is Jenny Papworth?
How long does she have to stay where she is?
And is she alone there in the dark?
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A good story, eh? Thought you'd like it.
Getting kind of cold out here, isn't it? The fire's just aboutout, I see.
So, poor Jenny Papworth, out there all alone. Breaks your heart,huh?
Before you go to bed tonight, just before you surrender to sleep,stop for a moment. Remember the stars we conjured up earlier,cold and icy, our small fire the only protection we have againstthe shadows.
That fire really is getting dim, isn't it? Pretty soon there'llonly be only coals left.
Some chill coming on, eh?
Anyway, just before you go to sleep, think about poor Jenny. Poorlittle lost Jenny and her babe out there alone in the dark. Whereis she out there?
She could be close to home.
Well, there goes the fire. Best you were "heading that way."Thanks for listening. Pleasant dreams.
The rest is silence.
Portions of this article were compiled from Ghost Stories ofTexas by Ed Syers, copyright 1981 Texian Press, and The Ghost ofthe McDow Hole by Mary Joe Clendenin, copyright 1979. Specialthanks to Ms. Clendenin and Wes Miller for all of their help.
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Hope you enjoyed it. Pleasant dreams. And don't worry -- as faras we know, Jenny's reach doesn't extend beyond Texas.
At least, we hope it doesn't. ;)