WHO WANTS TO HUNT TREASURE?

Stories about the old Goodnight and Chisholm Trails have so dominated the writings of Western Americana that many have forgotten that the first great Texas cattle drives ended up at New Orleans rather than Abilene or Dodge City, Kansas. Known as the Opelousas Trail, enterprising men took advantage of the thousands of longhorn cattle, unbranded and roaming.  

Longhorn cattle

In Texas and Mexico, the cattle were worthless. Across the Sabine in the United States, they were worth upwards of a dollar a head. At the time in 1825, it was illegal to drive longhorn cattle to Louisiana. That didn’t stop men seeking their fortune.

Dogwood and other flowering trees
grow wild in East Texas

Don't be fooled by East Texas' beautiful flowers and abundant greenery. More dangerous than the black bears, the alligators lurking in the bayous and rivers, the panthers waiting to spring--this is a story that rivals Alfred Hitchcock's tale of the Bates Motel in the movie "Psycho". This is an account of danger faced by those returning from New Orleans after selling cattle. 

Black bear

Thomas Denman Yocum was born in 1796 in Kentucky to Jesse Ray Yoakum and Diana How Denton. From birth, Thomas learned theft and deceit. He was a veteran of the American Revolution. Joining his father, he and his brothers rode with John Murrell then struck out on their own. Jesse was tried for murder several times in Natchitoches, Louisiana. He was suspected of bribing witnesses and jurors but was never convicted.    

Land Pirate and Slave Stealer John Murrell
supposedly sometimes posed a preacher,
and with whom Murrell once worked

After being forcefully “invited” to leave Louisiana, Thomas Yocum and his family crossed the Sabine River and settled on a Mexican land grant on Pine Island Bayou, the south boundary of the Big Thicket of Southeast Texas, around 1830. Having acquired some wealth and affluence by 1835, the killer and slave stealer became more selective with his victims. He and his family built Yocum’s Inn in Jefferson County, Texas. 

Lots of places to hide a body
in woods like these of the Big Thicket

This part of Texas was then a virgin, sparsely-settled region of prairies, pine barrens, and thickets. Any settler living within ten miles was considered a neighbor. The deep, navigable stream, 100 feet wide and 75 miles long, was a tributary of the Neches River and had already attracted ten or more pioneers who also held land grants from the Mexican government.

Thomas Yocum’s Inn was a combination saloon and lodging house between Beaumont and Sour Lake and stood on the Opelousas cattle trail between Texas and Louisiana. This was not a Holiday Inn or Motel 6. More than likely it was a rough log building with only a few rooms for lodgers. 

Yocum reportedly rode out at the first sound of the herds heading east and invited the drovers to quench their thirst and satisfy their hunger at the Inn. The well-treated travelers spread word of the genial host’s hospitality. When they returned with money belts filled after selling their cattle, they once more stopped at Yocum’s Inn. 

Big mistake, as they were never seen again. Instead, the Yocum’s stock of fine horses grew. Did no one notice this? Perhaps they did and feared voicing their concern.

"Piney Woods" of East Texas

Exactly how many people the Yocum’s robbed and murdered is open to guess. No one knows. The popularity of Yocum's Inn spread far and wide. Yocum soon became the postmaster of Pine Island settlement under the old Texas Republic, supervised the local elections, served on juries, and was widely respected by his neighbors and travelers alike.

Yocum was a slave-stealer, one who stole slaves from owners or captured those on the underground railway and sold them to others. He acquired many slaves for himself and much land, and by 1839 his herd of l500 head of cattle was the fourth largest in Jefferson County. While other settlers rode the wiry Creole, or mustang-size ponies of a type common to Southwest Louisiana, Yocum's stable of thirty horses were stock of the finest American breeds, and his family drove about in an elegant carriage.

A gentleman's life, however, held no attraction for Yocum, a man who literally was nursed from the cradle on murder and rapine. For many years, Yocum's Inn was actually a den of robbers and killers. What is the most startling is the fact that Yocum was able to camouflage his activities for more than a decade, maintaining an aura of respectability while simultaneously committing the worst of villainies, with a murderous band of cutthroats unequaled in the history of East Texas.

Tannin makes the water black in
many places and can hide secrets

How Yocum could accomplish this since he used no alias, is unexplainable, for he, his brothers, his father, and his sons were known from Texas to Mississippi as killers, slave-stealers, and robbers. If any neighbor not a member of the gang suspected that something at Yocum's Inn was amiss, he kept silent.

One account, written by Philip Paxton in 1853, observed that Yocum, "knowing the advantages of a good character at home, soon by his liberality, apparent good humor, and obliging disposition, succeeded in ingratiating himself with the few settlers."

In October 1841, the Yocum’s downfall occurred. A well-dressed man stopped at the inn and asked directions. Thomas agreed to ride with him and show him the way. Thomas returned leading the man’s fine horse.

Yocum’s wife, Pamela Peace Yocum, was overheard to ask, “How much did he have?” When Yocum replied only six bits, his wife said, “Any man who rode a horse like that, wore such fine clothes, carried a gold watch and chain, and only had seventy-five cents on him deserved to get killed.”

Another potential victim staying at the hotel overheard the conversation and went for the Regulators, an illegal but active vigilante group. The posse went to Yocum’s Inn, ordered him and his family to pack up and quit the country, and then torched the building. Shortly after the Yocums left, an elderly man who’d been a witness to some of the goings on at Yocum’s Inn showed the posse the bones of other victims. According to Paxton, the Regulators found the bones of victims in Yocum's well, in the neighboring thickets, in the "alligator slough," and even out on the prairie.

The Regulator posse set out after the Yocums. A day or so later they caught up with the family. No longer willing to trust a Yocum's fate to the whims of any jury, the vigilantes shot Yocum through the heart. In addition, they may have killed other members of his family.

Almost from the date of T. D. Yocum's death, legends began to circulate concerning the murderer's hoard of stolen treasure, because the vigilantes knew that neither the robber nor any member of his family had had time to excavate it before they were driven from the county. Some of them thought that only Yocum and one of his slaves actually knew where the loot was hidden. For years treasure hunters dug holes along the banks of Cotton and Byrd Creeks. Decades later sinks and mounds in the Pine Island vicinity were said to be the remains of those excavations.

Pine Island Bayou

My husband, who I call Hero, is an avid fisherman. He and I have visited these waters on fishing trips. There are many species of fish to be caught, but the waters are eerie and mysterious and abound with alligators and cottonmouth moccasin. I found the place disturbing, and that was before I'd heard of the Yocums. 

If anyone ever found the Yocum's treasure, that fact was never made public. One writer claims it is still there awaiting the shovel that strikes it first. At least the Thomas Yocum family can no longer waylay travelers. But, who knows what other danger lurks in these dark waters and thick woods?

Sources:

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hrp36

TALES OF BAD MEN, BAD WOMEN, AND BAD PLACES, C. F. Ekhardt, Texas Tech University Press, 1999

www.wikipedia.com 

Caroline Clemmons is the award-winning and Amazon bestselling author of over 40 novels and novellas of contemporary and historical western romance. Her latest is CAPTURE HER HEART, Loving a Rancher Series 6 of the Montana Skies Series for Kindle World. You can find CAPTURE HER HEART and her other titles at her Amazon Author Page here.

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JENNIFER STILL HAUNTS HER FORMER HOME

Elizabeth Ayers and I have traded days for October and she will post on the 26th.

With Halloween decorations everywhere and the haunting time drawing near, today I'm sharing a tale of a genuine ghost in Erath County, Texas. Yes, I said genuine—as in real, authentic, actual. Read on if you dare …

There are several versions of the story of Jennifer Papworth, her husband Charlie, their son Temple, and their infant daughter. Although some accounts differ, the ending is the same: Jennifer’s ghost still haunts the area around McDow’s Hole on Green Creek. In most sightings, she carries the body of her infant daughter. I’ve compiled most accounts of how her plight began.

Charlie and Jennifer and their son came to Texas from either Georgia or Alabama to escape an outbreak of malaria in the 1850s. They built a cabin on the banks of Green Creek near a scenic deep part of the creek called McDow’s Hole. Charlie was the nephew of his neighbor, Jim McDow, Sr.

This was near the town of  Harper's Mill, which later became Alexander but which has mostly disappeared (40 residents in 2000). At that time, Erath County was the frontier and home to many who flaunted the law. Charlie and Jennifer apparently had no trouble when they arrived. Charlie worked hard and, according to Jim McDow Jr., the family was successful.

Now Erath County is picturesque and home
to Texas A&M University at Stephenville

Charlie eventually learned that his parents had died and he had inherited their furniture. He had it shipped by train to Texarkana but that was as far as the rail lines ran at that time. Leaving Jennifer, their son Temple, and their infant daughter at the cabin, Charlie left for Texarkana to collect his inheritance.

Jennifer and the children were supposed to spend nights at the home of their neighbors, the Jim McDow family, and return to the cabin and her chores only for the days. When she didn’t return one evening, the McDows feared for her and the children but thought she might have gone to the home of the Beige Keith family, other neighbors.

The next day the McDows and Keiths went to the Papworth cabin and found the cabin interior disturbed and blood, but no Jennifer or the baby. As they deliberated, Temple crawled out from under the bed. He was so traumatized he couldn’t form sentences to tell what had happened.

W. P. Brownlow led the claim that the attack was renegade Comanche. Soon, the recovered Temple told his father that story wasn’t true. He said the men were white and spoke English.  

In fact, there was a group of local thugs who dressed as Indians to rob homesteads and rustle cattle. Because of Brownlow's insistence and the fact that his quirt had been found near the cabin, Brownlow was suspected. He explained the lost quirt by saying he had been by the cabin the day before the attack and stopped to ask if Jenny had seen his stray cattle. Although he was still under suspicion, no actual proof could be obtained.

As new people moved into the area, Brownlow began a campaign accusing Charlie of horse thievery. Soon there were enough new residents who didn’t know Charlie and believed Brownlow. One night in 1857, a group of hooded “vigilantes” went house to house pulling men to receive “justice”. Charlie and five other men were targeted and hanged one by one from a pecan tree on the banks of McDow’s Hole. Charlie was hanged last, near daybreak.

Pecan tree, Texas state tree

The leader suggested eliminating Temple, but the other vigilantes weren’t willing to kill a child. The pecan tree was Temple Papworth’s favorite climbing tree. He cut the rope and freed his father in time to save him. Charlie tried to help the other five victims, but they were dead.

At least two of the other victims were innocent men. Charlie had recognized Brownlow’s voice as the leader of the hooded men. Fearing for their lives, Charlie and Temple Papworth borrowed a horse from Beige Keith and left for Oklahoma Territory. They never returned.

That’s when sightings began of Jennifer carrying her baby.

Over the years, many people have witnessed Jennifer walking in the area. She has been seen standing on the railroad tracks where the train passes through her. Beige Keith and his son saw her when they spent three nights in the Papworth cabin. People stayed in the cabin on a dare, but most left during the night. One was found dead with the door barred, apparently literally scared to death.

Dieletta Hickey recounted stories of her family members seeing Jenny and her baby countless times.  When appearing to them, Jenny appeared a live woman carrying an infant, but would disappear. Once Dieletta asked her mother why she never admitted to seeing Jenny. Mrs. Hickey replied that if she did, someone would tell her there was no such thing as a ghost. If that happened, it would be the same as calling Mrs. Hickey a liar but how could she prove otherwise? She said she knew exactly what she’d seen over the years, but the information was best kept within the family.

One satisfying (to me) sighting was when W. P. Brownlow was on his deathbed. Fearing reprisal from Charlie, Brownlow had moved to Hamilton, Texas. He had two men sitting with him on death watch. 

He screamed, “That woman, that woman! Keep her away from me!”

The men saw Jenny’s ghost standing at the foot of the bed.

Then, Brownlow confessed to killing Jenny and her baby and throwing the bodies down a deep well and covering them with rocks. He said he believed Jenny had heard him making plans with two rustlers. To keep her quiet, he murdered her and her baby.

Although Jenny Papworth's story started over 160 years ago, people still see Jenny and her baby. Sometimes she hovers over McDow's Hole as if walking on water. Other times, she walks among the trees of that lovely setting near Highway 6 and Farm to Market 914. The property is now marked with a “No Trespassing” sign. 

Beware: Jenny doesn’t observe such signs! 

What about you? Have you ever seen a ghost?

Sources:

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/14175240/

http://themoonlitroad.com/mcdow-hole-texas-ghost-story-haunted/

http://www.texasescapes.com/Ghosts/The-McDow-Hole.htm

TALES OF BAD MEN, BAD WOMEN, AND BAD PLACES, C. F. Eckhardt, Texas Tech University Press, 1999.

Caroline Clemmons is the Amazon bestselling and award winning author of numerous western romances. 

Her latest release is MISTLETOE MISTAKE, a Christmas story. Originally this story was included in the anthology Wild Western Women…Mistletoe, Montana. 

Shannon Callahan worked hard to become a physician. In New York, she meets resistance to a woman doctor and feels she is treated as no more than a midwife. When the opportunity arises for her to go to Montana and be the only doctor in the town of Mistletoe, she grabs the chance. 

Riley McCallister is sheriff of Mistletoe, Montana. When he learns the new doctor is a woman, he is shocked and vows never to let her treat him—no matter how beautiful she is. Slowly, Shannon’s skill wins his respect—and more. Shannon’s expertise and dedication during a measles epidemic convinces the town she is a good doctor—but does their acceptance come too late? 

Find Caroline's complete list of books at her Amazon Author Page. Join her mailing list to receive a free copy of HAPPY IS THE HEART.