A short history of my current home.
The house itself, I know very little about it's history. My parents purchased this house in the late 70s. I was raised here, and my parents gave Brad and myself the house as a wedding gift as they were moving. Free house, even a haunted one, is not something to turn down.
The previous owner was an elderly man who died in one of the bedrooms. Mom and Dad bought this house from his children, and moved it to it's current location in a tiny community outside Kilgore. One of the hauntings in this house is a residual. A man in gray walk out of the back hallway, into the front hallway. He then goes to the living room, paces the room, and kneels in the corner as if praying. His routine never varies, and it occurs at random times.
As to the history of the land, I have a little more. In the 1850s our little corner of nowhere, Leverett's Chapel, was settled by the Leverett family who traveled here from Savannah, Georgia. They built a cabin and started a plantation growing cotton and sugar cane. Eventually a Colonial mansion was built around that cabin. It's a beautiful old house, which has finally been getting the renovation it deserves. Anyway, the land our house is on was once part of the Leverett plantation.
Adjacent to the plantations (there were a few) was a Native American settlement called Mt. Tabor. This settlement was founded by the Thompson family. Benjamin Franklin Thompson, his wife Annie Martin (daughter of Judge John Martin, the first Chief Justice of the Cherokee Nation) and their son John Martin Thompson. The Thompson family had ties to the Cherokee Ridge Party. In 1844, the Thompsons and other Ridge Party supporters left the Cherokee Nation and settled in Rusk County. B.F. Thompson purchased 10, 000 acres near what is now Laird Hill. The community later became known as Mt. Tabor. Sometime after the Civil War, the community moved away.
The community had a small cemetery, and during the East Texas oil boom, that cemetery was desecrated. Tombstones pulled down and thrown away. One tombstone was found in an oil drum in 1969. The level of disrespect shown to this final resting place is truly disheartening. These are people left to rest by their loved ones, in faith that they would not be disturbed. It makes me sad to know that these graves were not left in peace.
Many of us here have the opinion that cemeteries have guardians, a watcher spiritual who protects the resting place of the departed. I've begun to wonder, what happens when a cemetery is so thoroughly disrespected? What effect does that have on the guardian? Does that formerly protective spirit become angry? Does it seek justice for the disrespect? And does that corruption attract even more corruption?
The cemetery, as best I can figure from looking at maps, is near the border of the Native settlement and the plantation which was here before our house. It's close to where we currently live. I can't help but think the defiling of that sacred place has caused the negative energy and feelings of evil and fear these woods give off.
Although this wasn't a ghost story exactly, I hope to get some opinions from you all on the effects of disrespecting a final resting place.
Mostly, I just want others to know about the forgotten graves, and that maybe, just for a moment, the departed could be once again remembered with respect.
Read 
Loading comments....
❤