Looking Back

Looking Back
by Margaret Toal

Orange County has some ghost stories but no enduring ghost legend like Sarah Jane Road near Port Neches.
Halloween season is here, so it’s time to bring out the spooky tales. I always say ‘there’s no scientific proof of ghosts.’ The definition of ‘ghost’ is a spirit of a dead person. I haven’t seen one, and don’t want to. However, I enjoy a good story.
One story is ‘blood road.’ If I recall correctly, a pool of blood would appear on Childers Road out by the Port of Orange. The appearance came at night. I need some help getting this one straight. Someone help me with ‘blood road.’
Old cemeteries are always scary. Evergreen Cemetery is one of the oldest in the county and served as the city burial place for white people for 160 years. I like looking at the old markers and mausoleums, but I have never seen anything ghostly about it. I have not walked through it in the dark, though.
A few weeks ago I wrote about street names and said that perhaps Jackson Street, next to the cemetery, was named for the president. Mike Louviere wrote and says he thinks it was named for Robert Jackson, who donated the land for the cemetery.
Mike’s grandfather, Charlie Mosier, was the sexton at Evergreen in the 1950s. Mike said he grew up there. Mike also passed along the knowledge that the oldest is Margaret Ann Ochiltree, the first wife of Hugh Ochiltree, who lived along the Sabine River. She died in 1855.
I think I’ve heard the most ghost stories about Wilkinson Cemetery in Little Cypress. I have two cousins who to this day will swear they saw a werewolf there.
It was in the late 1960s and we were in high school. Cousin Lonie Beth was visiting and Cousin George got her a date. They were double dating and drove out to the cemetery. The werewolf ran away.
I have also heard about green floating lights at Wilkinson Cemetery. I’ve forgotten about the some of the other tales around that cemetery.
I’m sure lots of houses around town are also ‘haunted.’ When I was a child, I thought my great-grandmother’s house was haunted. I grew out of believing it, but two different families who have lived in the 1905 house have stories about the ghost(s?).
Let me know your spooky tales or stories from Orange County. Email me at backwhen1600@gmail.com