A Ghost Story For The Haunted House

A couple of days ago, I showed y’all some pictures of a dilapidated old house in Boyd, Texas. I thought it looked likely to be a “haunted” house, but told you that I’d have to figure out a ghost story that would work for it. I asked, “Got any ideas for a ghostly tale to match the house?”

I didn’t expect anyone to come up with a story … but I underestimated Joe, or “Spadoman” as he is known on the internet. When he looked at those photos, his mind began to percolate. He started writing a ghost story for me! I love the folks who come to my blog! All of you are just as amazing as Joe.

I want to share the story he wrote (I did too ask permission!).

Here is Joe’s ghost story, with very minor editorial changes. What’s the title for it, Joe?:

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In 1923, right around March, Montana and Nevada became the first states to enact old age pension laws. Old Roland McCallsberg, who lived in a modest bungalow in Boyd, Texas, was thinking how he’d like to have an old age pension as he was certainly up in years. Would there be a way he could collect a pension from Montana while living in Texas? “Maybe so,” he thought, for he had an idea.

Suppose he signed up for the benefits in Montana? He could use the address of a friend who lived in Bozeman, an old friend and a good friend. He was sure Max Slater wouldn’t mind if he used his address. He wrote a letter to Max telling him what he was intending to do.

Max received the letter and sent a wire back telling Roland that he wasn’t
sure if he wanted him to do that. It was basically against the law and he didn’t want to be involved. Roland ignored that and went ahead and traveled up to Montana to get the papers and post them from up there. He didn’t want to raise any red flags with pension request papers coming from a post office Texas.

The train trip was long. Along the way, he met a woman who told him she was a widow. Roland was a single man and had never married. This woman intrigued him so! Before he knew it, he had told her everything about his finances and his plan to accept pension. He formed a relationship with her; her name was Joyce Kensett.

Joyce wanted Roland to take her back with him to Texas and get married. She
would take care of his needs, as far as cooking and cleaning. That’s what happened, and in a whirlwind courtship, engagement and marriage, the two settled in to life of a retired married couple.

The highlight of this encounter with Miss Kensett is that she had a legitimate Montana address. Roland did manage to sign up for pension benefits using Joyce Kensett’s address in Bozeman. The years rolled by and not too long after their third year of marriage, Roland wanted to see the statement that showed the pension deposits from the bank in Bozeman where they were deposited.

Joyce told him she would have to wire the bank and have them sent to them via US Mail and that it would take a couple of weeks. Thinking he was rich, as he would have the illicit pension money and his bank interest on deposits and investments in Texas, Roland planned an elaborate trip abroad for himself and his spouse Joyce.

Joyce left one day to go to the town and accept a postal notice. She told Roland she had to sign for it. She never returned.

Roland waited a while and did all he could do to find out what had happened to his beloved. When all was said and done, Joyce had gone back to Montana and taken all the pension money as she had signed up in Roland’s name, but used herself as a beneficiary.

She knew that Roland would expire as soon as when she left … she made a cake and a pie and laced each of them with arsenic. Roland, who devoured home made sweets in large quantities, ate both the cake and the pie and died. When the authorities found him, it looked like a death from old age.

Joyce continued to get survivors pension benefits in Montana as having been married to Roland. The house in Texas was hers too, except she never wanted it. She sold it.

The buyer, unaware of the shady dealings that Joyce Kensett did to get Roland’s money and house, was not amused when the ghost of Roland McCallsberg came nightly to see if Joyce had returned with the post from the bank in Bozeman. He sold the house soon after seeing and hearing the ghost.

The house went through three owners before finally word got out that it was haunted. The legend of how Roland McCallsberg roamed the house seeking his wife every night raced around Wise County until everyone knew the tale. No one ever thought of buying that house and in 1928 it was abandoned and has sat empty ever since.

Many years later, in 2009, a woman with a penchant for the unusual came by and took some pictures. If you look very closely, you can see Roland roaming around looking for Joyce.

******

Thank you, Joe, for that delightful story! You can bet that I’ll be telling that to students at schools next year. Do you tell scary stories like that to your lovely little grandbabies?

If y’all liked that story, rush over to visit the Round Circle Blog and say “hi.” You’ll meet Joe, and you’ll discover a blogger with a heart as big as Dallas … and a wonderful way with story.

Other posts you might enjoy:

1. Haunted House in Black and White
2. Spooky House Needs Story
3. The Nest … A True Ghost Story
4. Another Verse To The Ghost Story At The Woodbine
5. Haunted by Ghost Radar

Tagged as: Boyd Texas, fiction, Ghostly--Mostly