The Ghostly Tales of Galveston

By Kathleen Shanahan Maca

Welcome to the spooky streets of Galveston!

Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms.

Did you know that the worst natural disaster in American history happened here, leaving behind thousands of ghosts? Or that the spirit of the famous pirate Jean Lafitte still roams the Galveston coast? Can you believe that a tourist attraction that claims to be haunted (just for fun), is really haunted?

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see Galveston, and have you sleeping with the light on!

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: May 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781439672396

Kathleen Shanahan Maca

Kathleen Shanahan Maca lives in Clear Lake, Texas, and works on Galveston Island writing about its history. A graduate of Sam Houston State University, she is the author of Galveston's Broadway Cemeteries from Arcadia Publishing, and a member of the Texas Chapter of the Association for Gravestone Studies. A fan of ghost stories and legends since she was a child, she uses her experience in historical research and genealogy to add dimension to local folklore. ??????????????????????????????????????????????

Book preview

Introduction

Galveston is an island along the coast of Texas, just twenty-seven miles long and three miles wide. Over seven million visitors come to the island every year, and most of them want to play on the beach, tour the old Victorian homes, go shopping, or visit the many museums. But what very few of them know before they arrive is that Galveston is one of the most haunted places in the nation! Need proof? Ask just about anyone you meet there, and it’s likely they will have a ghost story to talk about.

Before the city was founded in 1839, the island had already been home to the Karankawa Native Americans, Spanish and French explorers, and countless seafarers, including the infamous pirate Jean Laffite. Laffite wasn’t the first pirate to come to the island, but he’s definitely the one most people still talk about. He and his men sailed up and down the Texas and Louisiana coasts, capturing Spanish ships and stealing their cargo. Treasure hunters still have never found the loot he supposedly buried beneath three oak trees on the western end of the island. Truth be told, you have a better chance of discovering the ghost of Laffite himself, as you will soon read.

As a port city, Galveston became so prosperous that soon mansions lined Broadway Boulevard, which today is the main drag of Downtown Galveston, just sixty miles south of Houston. However, it could not avoid the peril of the American Civil War. During the Battle of Galveston on New Year’s Day in 1863, Confederate troops retook control of the city from Union soldiers. Hundreds of soldiers from both sides of the conflict were captured, wounded, or killed, and their bodies are buried in the cemeteries on Broadway Boulevard.

By the late 19th century, Galveston had grown into the largest city in Texas. The Strand was the city’s center for international trade, and merchants shipped and received goods from all over the world. The access to water made a lot of businesses successful, but it could also bring danger. Being right on the coast of Texas, Galveston was hit by many hurricanes. The worst one struck on September 8, 1900, and is known as the Great Storm. Even now, over 120 years later, that hurricane is considered the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. It killed thousands of people and destroyed two-thirds of the island’s homes and businesses. There were so many bodies scattered across the island after the storm that it was hard to know what to do with them. Some were buried where they were found, which means almost anywhere you walk today in Galveston might actually be someone’s grave! It’s one of the reasons people call Galveston a cemetery with a beach attached. Other bodies were carried to the Strand, where the dead who weren’t recognized by family or friends were