Published by Haunted America
A Division of The History Press
Charleston, SC 29403
www.historypress.net
Copyright 2013 by Joel P. Rhodes
All rights reserved
Front cover: Courtesy of Jeanie Rhodes.
First published 2013
e-book edition 2013
Manufactured in the United States
ISBN 978.1.61423.970.3
Library of Congress CIP data applied for.
print edition ISBN 978.1.60949.759.0
Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
PREFACE
I must admit that I was more than a little reluctant to take on this project with so much of my research on children in the Vietnam era just now starting to take shape, but my wife and muse, Jeanie, convinced me that writing about haunted Cape Girardeau would be thoroughly enjoyable. As usual, she was right on the money.
This book has indeed been a real pleasure to work on, and I would first like to thank Ben Gibson at The History Press for offering me the gig to begin with.
A great deal of the book grew out of two radio programs I was fortunate enough to have collaborated on with Jacob McCleland at KRCU. Working with Jacob and his staff on The Ghosts of Cape Girardeau and The Ghosts of the Mississippi (which, by the way, won the 2011 Missouri Broadcasters Associations First Place Award in the Documentary/Public Affairs Category) was such a great experience, and I owe a lot to Jacob for how I conceived this project, how the topics were ultimately framed and which of the interviews I included. I want to specifically thank Jacob for allowing me to use excerpts of his first-rate writing from those original scripts for Haunted Cape Girardeau.
I also want to especially thank Christy Mershon in Southeast Missouri State Universitys continuing education program for graciously sharing her considerable knowledge of Capes haunts and spooky stories. Christy and Tom Neumeyer, her fellow expert on all things haunted in Cape, were invaluable to me in laying out the parameters of the book, and I am indebted to both of them. If you are interested in touring some of the haunted sites highlighted in these pages, I highly recommend taking Christy and Toms excellent haunted tours of Cape Girardeau offered each fall.
Likewise, the expertise of the Paranormal Task Force informed my research considerably with its analysis and narratives. I specifically would like to thank Greg Myers, the president of the Paranormal Task Force, for granting permission to use photographs from its website, which I must say is a great resource for anyone interested in paranormal investigations throughout the region.
At the inevitable risk of forgetting someone, I would also like to extend my sincere appreciation to Chuck Martin and all my friends at the Convention and Visitors Bureau for being such jovial storytellers and for allowing me to use several photographs from the website (and, of course, to Stacy Dohogne Lane for scanning them at the precise resolution). Thanks, also, to Lisa Speer and her outstanding staff at the Southeast Missouri State University Special Collections and Archives for their invaluable support with the historic photographs. Thanks, as well, to Katherine Webster, Dan Bryant and Frank Nickell, but particularly to two outstanding former students, Sam Sampson-Kincade and Kathryn Vangilder, for all their help.
As with all my writing, my wife Jeanies inspiration and guidance is integral to the process. As we talk through each page, her stories and enthusiasm always shape the finished product. One of my all-time favorite memories will be the Saturday afternoon we spent with our daughters, Olivia and Ella, driving around Cape Girardeau taking pictures of haunted houses (Ella is the little girl at the Pike Lodge), drinking chai tea and stumbling onto a Sprigg Street monkey. Thanks kiddos.
Portions of Neumeyer, Nickell and Rhodess Historic Cape Girardeau: An Illustrated History (Lammert Publishing, Inc., 2004) have been used with permission from the Historical Publishing Network. Additional excerpts from The Ghosts of Cape Girardeau and Ghosts of the Mississippi are used with permission of National Public Radio, KRCU.
INTRODUCTION
Cape Girardeau is a river townat the same time both on and of the Mississippi. For nearly 250 years, the communitys deep roots have run directly back to the Father of Waters. On its muddy banks, eighteenth-century traders located a rough riverfront outpost near the stone promontory jutting out over the Mississippiby todays Cape Rockprecisely because it was an easily identifiable landmark for river traffic. Jean Baptiste Girardot, a French marine stationed at nearby Kaskaskia in present-day Illinois, lent his name to this frontier trading post he helped found, and as early as 1765, French maps clearly show Cape Girardot. Clinging to the river on the very edge of western civilization, the isolated little village grew sporadically during the colonial era but slowly established itself as the trading, milling, ferrying, meeting and legal center for one of the five Spanish districts in the Louisiana Territory. For trappers to the south, who brought furs and hides out of the largest wetlands in North America, and for farmers to the north and west, bringing produce and livestock from family farms, Cape Girardeau became the regions economic and commercial lifeline.
Beginning in the 1830s, steamboats tightened Cape Girardeaus relationship to the river, as virtually the entire townwarehouses, businesses, courthouse, seminary and homesintimately faced the Mighty Mississippi. The regular comings and goings of steam-powered packet boats with names like the Tennessee Belle, Piasa and Cape Girardeau set the rhythm of life along Cape Girardeaus levee. Each steamboat announced its arrival with its own distinctive signal, a combination of long and short blasts from the steam whistle. These signals, heard all over town, sent merchants and citizens swarming to the levee to pick up merchandise, greet passengers or simply enjoy the spectacle. As many as six boats could be tied to the levee at any time, and in a carnival-like atmosphere, the riverfront teemed with humanity whenever the huge vessels arrived. After tying up on the steel rings embedded in the levees cobblestone, sweaty roustabouts jumped off the gangplanks to unload merchandise stacked on the first deck and load local produce and commodities waiting for them by the river. These roustabouts, most always African American men hired in St. Louis, sang as they toiled, and since few could read, they created an elaborate system of nicknames for local merchants to help them remember what cargo went where. Amongst the crates and bundles, the curious milled about to check out what new merchandise local stores would soon be offering and if their neighbors had made any major purchases.
