A Spooky True Story From the Past

My grandmother always passed down stories at Halloween time and all the grandkids have sat in her lap and had the "bejesus" scared out them at least once. I want to share one of the stories she told me and the family all swears that it's true.

My great grandfather, William ST. John was a steamboat captain in the early 1900's and when he wasn't captaining the steamboat down the Ohio river, he enjoyed helping the less fortunate. Most of the Paducah, Kentucky area was woods at that time and he had a big wagon that he pulled through the woods to take supplies to people who were down and out. Every week on his days off he would go and buy flour, meal, shortening, coffee, sugar, and whatever else he thought might be needed to help them make it a few more weeks. And at the same time, he made a lot of good friends and enjoyed a conversation and a nice glass of cold water.

One day as he made his way with his wagon filled to the brim through the woods close by his house, a little girl ran out on the path in front of him, almost causing him to topple his wagon. He had never seen her before. She had long blonde hair, platted on both sides into long braids and seemed to be in a hurry to go somewhere, but at the same time she was cautious and kept stopping and turning around and giving him a look that he could  only assume was fear. He said, Little girl what is your name? She turned around and gave him the look again and said nothing.
Every time he got close enough to make out her features, she would turn and skip away faster.
He wondered if maybe there was something wrong with her, or maybe she couldn't speak. Maybe she was lost?

Finally they got to the clearing and the little girl ran up the steps of an old house that appeared to be about to fall down. It looked to be abandoned. There were no one around, no mother coming out to see what the noise of footsteps was about, no dogs barking, no one was there at all, and the little girl turned abruptly to Willie and threw up her hands as he drew closer as if to stay STOP, DON'T COME ANY CLOSER! Before he could say a word, she was GONE.

Grandpa Willie rubbed his old eyes and couldn't believe what he'd just seen. After a few moments he decided that he must have imagined it and went on to this destination, and as he waited for the old widow woman to put up her groceries, he told her about the little girl and asked if she had ever seen her.

The old woman stood there and her mouth dropped open. She said, now Willie are you sure you saw a house over there? And she pointed in the direction of the old house he'd just described, and to his amazement, there was nothing there but a few stumps and a pile of wood and debris.
Now he just knew he'd lost it.
The old woman assured him there had to be a reason for him seeing this vision. It must have been that the little girl's spirit needed to be at peace and no one had known for sure how she had died. But it was believed that the old porch had fallen on her and killed her while she played.

When Willie left there, later that afternoon he went to the county courthouse and looked up the address of the old house he'd seen. Sure enough, it was listed. He also talked to some of the clerks who were about his age that knew about the history of the house and what happend. Ten years before it had finally been torn down after the porch fell and killed a child. So now he knew for sure that he had seen a ghost. This story has been passed down from generation to generation and there are a lot more stories like this one from Steamboat Willie.
Keep watching my blogs and I'll share more later.
Rebecca Beasley