Ghosts along the Texas Coast by Docia Schultz Williams Page A
Authors: Docia Schultz Williams
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Brownsville Museum. The museum director, Bruce Aiken, authenticated it as being a buckle used in some type of harness like a backpack or horse harness. It could have been used anytime from the 1860s to the 1910s, he said.
The ghostly soldiers also bothered another college employee. When John Barham, former Dean of Continuing Education, first arrived in Brownsville, he was given a room in the old commandantâs house until he could find a place to live. Barham, now Provost of Suffolk Community College in Long Island, N.Y., said that for three mornings he was awakened by the sounds of marching feet and of prancing horsesâ hooves. He said he could distinctly hear the hoof beats and the jingling of spurs.
Barham told the college officials he had been awakened by the ROTC cadets marching early every morning. Imagine his great surprise to learn that the college didnât even have an ROTC program! He later learned the old parade ground ran right in front of the former commandantâs house where he was staying.
Gorgas Hall, the former fort hospital, has its share of ghostly visitors, also. Numerous people have reported sighting a lady dressed from head to toe in white in the style of nursing uniforms a hundred years ago. She walks into locked offices and sits behind desks. No one has been able to engage her in conversation thus far.
Several janitors have sighted a woman dressed in black mourning attire. She asks for directions to the hospital and inquires about the condition of her son. Several janitors have seen the same woman, and sometimes the incidents have taken place several years apart! Some of the janitors who saw the lady and didnât realize that Gorgas Hall had been a hospital during the old fort days, directed her to the hospital across town. Only later did they realize they had encountered a ghost!
Then thereâs the puppy story. A little stray puppy has been sighted by many people over the years. He will follow a group of friendly people as they walk from class to class. When they stop and sit down, the puppy literally disappears! Administrators point out that the walkway which spans the length of the campus, connecting all the buildings, is at almost the same location as a similar dirt road that ran the length of old Fort Brown. The similarity was discovered after comparing old pictures of the fort and modern photographs of the college. No doubt, the friendly pup is just trying to find his way home!
Concerts on a Phantom Organ
Some people seem to think a building or house has to be very, very old to be haunted. Wrong! A very modern building can be haunted, too, because of something that happened there, or because of something that happened in that locale before the building was erected. And then, there are the houses and buildings that have been unknowingly built over graveyards. They can really have problems!
No one knows what caused the Brownsville offices of the Community Development Corporation at 833 W. Price Road to be haunted. A June 13, 1982 edition of the
Brownsville Herald
carried a very interesting story about the building by Greg Fieg, a staff writer.
It seems that the building, a very modern office complex with acoustical ceilings, wall-to-wall carpeting, and all modern conveniences, became so wrought with ghostly happenings that many employees quit, and the people in the Community Development Corporation were planning to move at the end of the summer to another location.
Eerie organ music, vibrating furniture, flashing lights, and strange unexplained noises in their offices were bad enough, but Executive Director Nick Ramon also saw a tall, black-hooded figure that stalked the halls of the building. Ramon said when he saw the strange figure he ran out the door, but more than just being frightening, he felt the figure was extremely tragic and was suffering. âI felt sorry for him,â Ramon was quoted as saying.
Other employees at the offices saw strange shadows, as
The ghostly soldiers also bothered another college employee. When John Barham, former Dean of Continuing Education, first arrived in Brownsville, he was given a room in the old commandantâs house until he could find a place to live. Barham, now Provost of Suffolk Community College in Long Island, N.Y., said that for three mornings he was awakened by the sounds of marching feet and of prancing horsesâ hooves. He said he could distinctly hear the hoof beats and the jingling of spurs.
Barham told the college officials he had been awakened by the ROTC cadets marching early every morning. Imagine his great surprise to learn that the college didnât even have an ROTC program! He later learned the old parade ground ran right in front of the former commandantâs house where he was staying.
Gorgas Hall, the former fort hospital, has its share of ghostly visitors, also. Numerous people have reported sighting a lady dressed from head to toe in white in the style of nursing uniforms a hundred years ago. She walks into locked offices and sits behind desks. No one has been able to engage her in conversation thus far.
Several janitors have sighted a woman dressed in black mourning attire. She asks for directions to the hospital and inquires about the condition of her son. Several janitors have seen the same woman, and sometimes the incidents have taken place several years apart! Some of the janitors who saw the lady and didnât realize that Gorgas Hall had been a hospital during the old fort days, directed her to the hospital across town. Only later did they realize they had encountered a ghost!
Then thereâs the puppy story. A little stray puppy has been sighted by many people over the years. He will follow a group of friendly people as they walk from class to class. When they stop and sit down, the puppy literally disappears! Administrators point out that the walkway which spans the length of the campus, connecting all the buildings, is at almost the same location as a similar dirt road that ran the length of old Fort Brown. The similarity was discovered after comparing old pictures of the fort and modern photographs of the college. No doubt, the friendly pup is just trying to find his way home!
Concerts on a Phantom Organ
Some people seem to think a building or house has to be very, very old to be haunted. Wrong! A very modern building can be haunted, too, because of something that happened there, or because of something that happened in that locale before the building was erected. And then, there are the houses and buildings that have been unknowingly built over graveyards. They can really have problems!
No one knows what caused the Brownsville offices of the Community Development Corporation at 833 W. Price Road to be haunted. A June 13, 1982 edition of the
Brownsville Herald
carried a very interesting story about the building by Greg Fieg, a staff writer.
It seems that the building, a very modern office complex with acoustical ceilings, wall-to-wall carpeting, and all modern conveniences, became so wrought with ghostly happenings that many employees quit, and the people in the Community Development Corporation were planning to move at the end of the summer to another location.
Eerie organ music, vibrating furniture, flashing lights, and strange unexplained noises in their offices were bad enough, but Executive Director Nick Ramon also saw a tall, black-hooded figure that stalked the halls of the building. Ramon said when he saw the strange figure he ran out the door, but more than just being frightening, he felt the figure was extremely tragic and was suffering. âI felt sorry for him,â Ramon was quoted as saying.
Other employees at the offices saw strange shadows, as
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