TRAVEL / LAKE CHARLES, LA

THE HAUNTING OF LAKE CHARLES
By Jim Foster

The Outdoor Writers of America Association (OWAA) selects a different location for their annual conference each year. Some past locations include Madison, Wisconsin, and Spokane, Washington. This past year the members traveled to the coastal state of Louisiana and gathered in the city of Lake Charles.

Now the members of OWAA are not strangers to tall tales but Lake Charles can hold it’s own with tales of the super-natural and spooky anecdotes. To begin, a bit of history is needed.

In the 1760's French settlers came to the area to build homes out of and among the dense pine forests of the territory. Charles and Catherine Sallier were two of the first to settle on the lake. They built the first home on the shell beach where Lake Charles now stands. The town became known as "Charlie's Lake." Later it became "Lake Charles" but still a far cry from the modern city of today.

The English, and Spaniards have traveled through this country, leaving their mark and parts of their culture. The influence of the Cajun people added much more than bayou lore and a rich Carte du jour to the city, parish, and state.

All of these influences melded into those of the Native American and African cultures that were shaped by the land and water. Consider Louisiana a state of the environmental mind. Why? Because the lands and waters have added as much of their influence to the formation of this place as did the cultures of the people who inhabit it.

History has shown time and time again how each culture contributes some of their past. And, as we will see, how the past can and many times does, retain a grip on the present.

The area is rich with the sprits of those who have passed , but have, as some believe, lingered on. Some believe, some don’t. No judgments will be offered here – only those observations of a storyteller and not to convince anyone as to the existence of ghosts and haunting. It’s a good story about a place then and now - it’s about history.

But why Lake Charles?

It seems Lake Charles has a plethora of the spectral happenings and people who enjoy telling the stories.
Two unusual visitors in fairly new structures, The Lake Charles Civic Center and Rosa Hart Theater located within the civic center, join several of the "hauntings" in private homes.

The present banks of Lake Charles are now several hundred yards from the original banks. The land was reclaimed and filled to provide additional lakeside real estate.**** The Lake Charles Civic Center was built on a portion of this land.

A young girl whose name has been lost over the years was having a love affair with an influential and very married man in the shipping business. His offices were situated on the shores of the Lake Charles. As time progressed the girl came to the understanding that her lover would never leave his wife and marry her.

She decided the best way to spite him was to find and marry another man, a mission she quickly accomplished. On her wedding day, only hours from the ceremony and wearing her wedding dress, she located her ex-lover at his office.
She told him she was to be married later that day and her favors would be given to her husband. In a fit of rage he strangled her and then threw her body into Lake Charles. As far as the story goes her murderer was never brought to justice.

Today, and ever since the civic center’s Rosa Hart Theater was built, a half dozen people have seen a young woman in a wedding dress who appears in the theater. She walks slowly across the stage, turns and walks through the theater and vanishes.

Denver Kaufman, in charge of maintance for the civic center has seen her twice. It has always been very late at night when he was working in the theater. "She never looks at me, just walks away and is gone," says Denver.

So why would the specter in a wedding dress be spending time in the new civic center?

Since that time the area around the lake has been filled in to provide more dry land for buildings. The civic center was built almost entirely on land reclaimed from the lake. The stage is located where the edge of the lake was the day she was murdered, maybe even the exact spot.

The Rosa Hart Theater is also the site of another spectral happening in Lake Charles. Rosa Hart was recognized across the state for her art and theater work.

While attending Newcomb College and Tulane University, Rosa became the first female cheerleader in the nation. She returned to her native Lake Charles after Newcomb and founded the Lake Charles Little Theater in 1927.

As the director of the Theater for thirty years, Hart staged many plays for the city and taught many Lake Charles citizens how to act. In addition to her theater work, she individually tutored many students and owned and operated a bookstore called the "3R's Book Shop" The 3 R’s stood for Reading, 'Riting, and Rosa!

Her portrait now hangs in the lobby of the theater and this is where the haunting enters the picture. No pun intended. It seems that her portrait will hop off the wall and be found on the floor leaning against the wall. This happens at all times of the day and night. Maybe Rosa either doesn’t care for the picture or is trying to direct people to relocate her picture - once a director, always a director.

The Lake Charles Civic Center is not the only public building that has been the site for firsts for women in Lake Charles. It may be shocking (groan) but the first woman to sit in an electric chair in Louisiana did so in this lakeside town. Her name was Tony Jo.

The place was the Calcasieu Parish Courthouse; the woman was Annie McQuiston better known to the locals and then the nation as Tony Jo.

Always a wild child, when Tony was 16 she married "Cowboy" Henry from Sulphur, Louisiana. Henry was a lawless person and had been in and out of jails in Texas and Louisiana most of his life. By the time Tony was 19 in 1939, Cowboy was serving a sentence in the Texas state prison in Huntsville, Texas.

Tony and an equally dysfunctional friend, Arky Burke, devised a plan to break Cowboy out of jail. To put it mildly, their escape plans were quite flawed. One major problem was the fact that Tony and Arky didn’t own a car. Their plan was to hitchhike to Texas and breakout Cowboy. Needless to say the lack of a proper plan and an automobile caused the pair to give up and head home.

While on their way back to Lake Charles, James Calloway, a traveling salesman driving a new Plymouth, gave them a ride. Now plan B took effect and the would-be jail breakers decided to get rid of Calloway, steal the car and drive to Texas to breakout Cowboy. They considered it a good plan, but it proved fatal for the unlucky James Calloway.

Forcing Calloway to drive just east of Lake Charles, Tony shot him between the eyes, killing him instantly. Testimony during their trials revealed that Calloway was also tortured prior to shooting.

Instead of heading straight for Texas, Tony and Arky drove to Bossier City. It was party time and the festivities were spread around to several local bars and roadhouses. They both drank to excess. While under the influence they boasted about what they had done and their plans to break Cowboy out of the Texas prison. The problem was that two of the people who overheard their boasts were undercover vice cops. Needless to say, they were quickly arrested and returned to Lake Charles.

Tony Jo became something of a minor celebrity during the three trials. Her partner in crime, Arky, turned state’s evidence and testified against her.

Because of her youth, good looks, and the cold blooded nature of the crime, Tony Jo captured the attention of the national press. She told a sad tale of prostitution, parental abuse, and sexual encounters. It made front-page news in newspapers all across the country.

Tony supposedly gave a pretty good interview and catered to any reporter who would take notice of her or her situation. During her trial, it was said she spent a large amount of her time combing her long hair and fixing her make up. This went on even while her testimony was being given in court.

After exhausting all appeals she was scheduled be electrocuted. She would be the first, and only woman, to be executed by the electric chair in Louisiana.

The Chair was brought in. (Louisiana had a portable electric chair) After testing the chair, additional generators were required to provide enough power.

In November of 1942, Tony was taken to have her long hair cut and her head shaved for the cap and taken to the chair. She was strapped in and the executioner turned the switch. Statements from witnesses present claim that all the Courthouse lights flickered twice and then a distinct ozone-burned hair smell was detectible downtown. Tony was buried in the old Orange Grove Cemetery in Lake Charles.

Some believe Tony sprit still lingers around the courthouse today. From time to time, the courthouse lights will dim twice and an electrical ozone-like smell will be noticed in the courthouse and in downtown Lake Charles.
There are at several private homes in Lake Charles that have earned the reputation of being haunted. Reports and ghostly tales come from upstanding members of the community who have absolutely no reason to "tell ghost stories for either chill or thrill."

The property where the Adley Cormier house now stands was given to William Hutchins as a land grant from Abraham Lincoln shortly before the civil war. From then until just after the turn of the century, the property changed hands several times. The next recorded owner was Sarah Mertins, who later married a German, Paul Greiner, the Maitre D' for the Rigmaiden Hotel.
The property was mortgaged from 1900 to 1906, which is the first time the house was known to exist. A late neighbor of Adley's, Oscar Maxfield said that when his family moved here from New Iberia in the '20's, the house was quite old. Paul Greiner died here in the house about 1947.

Adley referrers to the presence in the house as "he" because Paul Greiner was the only person to have died in the home. Paul manifested himself a couple of different ways. When Adley moved into the house in February, 1977, it had been a rental property. Many objects in the house like chandeliers and gaslights had been removed.

"All that was left was awful wallpaper and the pipes for gas," stated Adley. In '77 strange things began to happen. Adley would leave pocket change on the dresser at night and in the morning the change would be stacked by domination. This happened 6 to 8 times. Then Adley brought a change purse.

In the late '70's early '80's, Adley felt someone was watching him do repairs and construction on the house. Occasionally, doors would open and close for no reason. Often that happens in older homes because of the settling of the house. A couple of times he would be sitting in a chair or walking into the bedroom and the sound of the box springs would make a noise like someone getting on or off the bed. One time while lying in bed, Adley swears that he felt someone sit on the bed. Also he felt that someone was watching him sleep. It was very spooky. The chief reason he believed that the house was haunted was the coin stacking incidents.

On another occasion, his friend who had something of a knack of things occult was going to come over to contact Mr. Greiner and perform a sÈance. When Adley arrived and went into his house, the dining room looked like an explosion of ceiling tiles. It appeared as though the ceiling tiles were ejected out from under the staircase into the other rooms. In addition to be totally unexpected there was no way for a wind to get there. A person would have had to pull down the tiles from where they were stapled into the ceiling. Adley took this as an extremely strong message that Paul Greiner did not want to be contacted.

The house is a craftsman style bungalow, very square. There is German siding on the house that was made in Lake Charles up till 1912. Large double hung windows are in most rooms. There is a large front porch with four brick columns that date it about 1900 because materials are no longer available.

Originally a two bedroom house, it is now a one bedroom house. A bedroom was turned into a library. Adley says he wants to reinstall the stairs. There is a very large attic with gables and windows on 3 sides with enough space to have a second story.
The ghost is mostly in the bedroom and library. When Adley first lived in the house it was very cold and would not heat up. It could have been because of the 12-1/2 ft. ceilings or Adley adds, "It could be a 'specter'.”

There was a barn on the property but it was in bad shape so Adley had it torn down. During the demolition the top half of a human skull was found. Three holes had been drilled in the skull. The skull was given to the City Coroner explaining it had been under the barn. The coroner’s office didn't think much of it at the time, but the next day the whole coroner's office was on the property looking for more bones. They did find more bones but they were not human making it even more macabre. As for the skull, it has never been returned.

The second private home that is said to be in possession of specters is the Ramsay-Curtis House located at 626 Broad Street. It was built in 1885 by William E. Ramsay.

Ramsay was a lumberman who migrated from Michigan after the Civil War. To the local population he was a carpetbagger. Ramsay owned two sawmills but maintained an office in the house. His knowledge about wood and lumber is evident in the beautiful wood used in the house and on the ceilings of many of the downstairs rooms. The house encompasses 8,000 sq. ft., is 2 1/2 stories tall, and has 23 rooms and 100 windows. The house was built to last centuries using top quality lumber and other materials.

In 1989 a couple, Mike and Judy Curtis bought the home from Eleanor Gayle Carmouche who had lived in the house 56 years. He spent the next 7 years restoring the house. The Curtis' began to operate the house as a B&B in 1995. In 1997 they had 1,200 guests and have made friends around the globe, which they say is the charm of running a Bed and Breakfast.

The house is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Curtis' are active members of the Calcasieu Preservation Society. They hope to keep developing the B&B over the next 5 years. The B&B has 4 guestrooms, 2 suites, and 2 traditional rooms; all are different, but in the Queen Ann period.

The most remarkable thing that happened to the Curtis' was 3 months after being in the home, it was mid-July and they had been working on the home and took a break on the front porch. There was no breeze; it was a hot and humid summer day.
Mike and Judy had 2 dogs, a cocker spaniel and a sheltie. Looking to his right, Mike noticed the main entry door opened and thought that it probably was not completely closed - then the screen door opened out on to the veranda. This time both dogs took notice. Mike, again looking over his right shoulder, was expecting someone to be there, but no one was. Instantly the rocking chair to his right started rocking. There was no wind, not even a light breeze.

Cocker spaniel ran and jumped into Judy's lap. The sheltie sat down directly in front of Mike and laid his ears back and showed his teeth. Mike, trying to find something to justify this activity, looked at the flags on the columns to see if they were blowing. They were not!

After eight to ten seconds the rocking stopped. The dogs went over to the chair and sniffed around. Mike and Judy looked at each other wondering what happened. They are not sure, but what they do know is there were no exterior environmental forces that could explain the sequences of what had just happened.

Sometime later working with a tour group, a guest asked about any sightings of ghosts. When they were relating the incident of the chair, the lights went out. Mike went to the breaker box to check, and as he went out to check the breakers with a flashlight, the lights came back on. He had an electrician come check everything out, but he could find nothing wrong. Mike concedes that it might be coincidence, but the timing was peculiar.

When the Curtis' first took over the property they took on university graduate students as long-term renters. One coed from Pennsylvania was awakened about 2 in the morning from a sound sleep. She went down stairs to the dining room area and as she neared the library area, she could see an image of a lady sitting on the edge of a couch and the woman appeared to be looking at a book or magazine. She had a long gown with long sleeves, and her hair was piled up in layers on her head. The coed went in to say "hi" and the lady smiled and just faded away. The co-ed ran up to her room and was so disturbed by the incident that she called her father and woke him up to tell him what had happened. She related her story to the Curtis' the next day and they talked to her father, who believed that what she related was real and frightened her.

Right after the Curtis' moved in they were staying on the 2nd floor. and as he was coming down stairs, he noticed a special nail lying on a dresser. It was obviously hand cut, old and unused. He called to Judy and said, "This is very unique, where did you find it?" She did not know what he was talking about. As far as they know, the nail just appeared. They learned later the nail was the type used in the construction of the home. Later on they took the nail to a psychic in New Orleans who said it was the physical sign of the approval of the reconstruction of the home, and no harm would come about. The house had been abandoned for 12 years.

Since then, the Curtis' have kept their ears open for what guests have to say. They have not had a psychic come visit the house. On Halloween some people will not come near the house, but will ask them to throw candy out to them.

History has proven the city to be well founded and built on hard work and the truth of real people involved in real every day event. However, since many believe in the areas sprits, there will always be tales of the Haunting of Lake Charles.