By Taylor Kaiser
This past Saturday, the Corsicana Opry hosted their annual Ghost Walk, led by Dana and Norman Stubbs. The local historians treated purveyors to a spooky tour of Corsicana’s Historic Downtown.
Photo by Orian Gaston
Beginning at the Corsicana Opry, tales were told of ghosts, haunts, murders and suspicious disappearances. The tour spanned several blocks, each spot complete with a haunting anecdote. Corsicana was founded as the Navarro County seat in 1848, and the establishment of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1871 helped bring numerous settlers and merchants.
Such old and rich history offers a hodge-podge of cryptic tales and paranormal profiles.
The railroad ushered in many eclectic, eccentric and odd folks. Uniquely, one of two sanctioned red-light districts in the state of Texas existed in Corsicana during this time, with the Stubbs spinning ghostly yarns about the misfortunes surrounding these ladies of the night, claiming their spirits still haunting these old stomping grounds.
The tour included Napoli’s Restaurant, formerly the Molloy Hotel, which is rumored to be haunted by a mischievous ghost named Sally. Legend claims she was a “sporting lady” who did business in the hotel. She has been known to create mischief for men she encounters in the building by way of flickering lights, powering equipment off and on and creating eerie noises.
The unexplained in Corsicana is not central to ghosts, the Stubbs informed the group of Annie Buchanan, an African American psychic, or to some, a witch.
Known as “The Seer of Corsicana”, Buchanan was famous for predicting where drillers could strike oil. Legend has it, she could read the ground, as well as the blood circling beneath her customer’s palms during fortune telling.
No Ghost Walk would be complete without Corsicana’s famous “Rope Walker”, a one legged tight-wire walker who performed his act across the country. In 1898, he brought his act to Downtown Corsicana. Stretching the rope across Beaton Street from the tops of two buildings, the rope walker tragically fell to his death in 1898. Conflicting reports exist about him dying that day or several later, but no one has been able to prove this man’s identity.
To this day, an old, mossy headstone exists in Corsicana’s Jewish Cemetery whose epitaph simply reads “ROPE WALKER”.
Find me some pictures of Annie Buchanan or Rope Walker – if you can find them.
