1880 was a dry year in Erath County and the McDow Hole, one of the few sources of water at the bend of Green Creek, collected unfenced cattle from miles around every evening. So the area around the Papworth cabin was well known to teenagers sent to drive the cattle home. Charlie Atchison was a cabinet and coffin-maker from Pennsylvania, who moved into the abandoned Papworth cabin. Charlie played his violin every evening and the young men often stayed around to listen, which meant that the boys were late getting home, imagining that Jenny Papworth’s ghost was about to appear from behind every tree. When asked about the ghost, Charlie answered that she had not visited him yet and that he was not much concerned. Charlie did mention that the sound of the Death Watch beetle was a little creepy at night. [the deathwatch beetle, (Xesobium rufovillosum) made a ticking sound as it infested logs in early cabins was so named because in the quiet during the vigil kept beside the bed of the dying or dead], was also thought to foretell an impending death. A few weeks after that remark, cattlemen were unable to rouse Charlie from the latched cabin. On forcing the door open they were shocked to find Charlie dead, with no wounds, but with a horrible expression on his face. Erath County was now firmly imprinted with fear of Jenny Papworth.

Mary Joe Clendenin. The Ghost of the McDow Hole: Based on Stories told by Joe Fitzgerald. New York: Carlton Press, 1979.

Photo: The man on the left is John Gilbreath, the ex-vigilante who became sheriff when Sheriff William Slaughter was assassinated in the Stephenville square. Gilbreath is credited for putting an end to vigilante activity in the early 1880s. Next to him is the Deputy, John Caudle, and the jailer, W.H. Chaney. A Stephenville Historical House Museum photo.