Texas Poltergeist Case

Family Terrorized by Bizarre Events: Knockings, Objects Being Thrown

Aug 5, 2007

The Woodson family of seven had no idea as to what caused the paranormal phenomena in the cabin they built. Fortunately, it ceased within a month.

The year was 1877. B. G. Woodson moved his family into a small cabin near the small town of Cisco. The soil was rich and crops grew successfully. The cabin they moved into was too small for the farmer, his wife, their 17 year old daughter and four sons ages 28, 13, 12 and 10. Woodson and his sons replaced the structure with a log cabin with a main room, kitchen and bedroom upstairs for the three sons. Mrs. Woodson felt uncomfortable in the house, but did not know why, so she said nothing.

The Poltergeist and Its Shenanigans

In March, 1881, someone knocked on the door. Woodson answered it, but no one was there. The knockings continued and were preceded by a cat’s mewing, so Woodson killed that family’s cats, but the mewing continued. The outside dogs did not react to the eerie rappings that usually ended at midnight with a noise like the flapping of wings.
The boys told their parents that before the rappings started, the saw and animal run into their room and hide behind a chest, grinding its teeth. Woodson thought they were telling tall stories.
Another time, Mrs. Woodson found a man’s shirt that belonged to eldest son, Sylvester, lying on the staircase, with a glove on either side and a hat on top.
Tales of the spooky events spread and, soon people were coming from miles away to experience the phenomena.
The poltergeist had a new trick. It threw rocks down the ladder from the boys’ bedroom onto the floor near the kitchen, terrifying Mrs. Woodson. Each stone had a letter imprinted on it, but no message could be spelled out. Woodson suspected the three youngest sons were playing a prank, but he didn’t believe the sons would try to scare their mother. He checked the roof and there were rocks up there. What was throwing the stones inside of the house? The boys were not usually in the house when the rock throwing happened. The family could hear the stones hitting the outside of the house when they were in the barn.
Next, dinnerware, kitchen equipment, sharp knives and flatware were being tossed.
As the Woodsons were cleaning up shards of dinnerware, the front door flew open. The pin that secured it was on the floor.
A brooding hen was in the chicken coop on a cold night. Woodson feared she would freeze, so he took her and her nest into the house and placed them in a corner. The family saw and felt raw eggs seep down the cracks from the floor above. No one was upstairs and the nest was empty, although the chicken did not appear to be disturbed.
Mrs. Woodson had spells of indigestion and chewing tobacco helped her. One night, she was ailing. A plug of tobacco dropped into her lap.
Columbus, the oldest middle brother, and a friend were talking by the fire after the family went to bed. While they were talking, they saw a shadowy child appear. The child did not speak and suddenly disappeared.
Twenty-nine days after the knockings started, a rock was thrown down the staircase. That was the end of the poltergeist activity. For years, succeeding generations did not talk of the phenomena out of they would be ridiculed.