It’s Halloween season again in Denton, with Day Of The Dead and coffin races and all manner of spooky fun to choose from! This also means its time to share another one of Denton’s nifty ghost stories!! We’ve previously scooped y’all on The 1963 Pecan Creek Monster Hunt, some of Denton’s Ghostly Guardians, and our most famous specter that is said to haunt The Old Alton Goatman’s Bridge… but I’ll bet you haven’t heard about The Phantom Farmer said to still be mulling around the Bayless-Selby House Museum in our Denton County Historic Park! This story has it all: betrayal, murder, scandal, and more’n just a little lingering haunted intrigue since back in the day.
Artist’s rendition of the purported ghost, courtesy of the amazing QuickDraw Joe!
Sam A. Bayless arrived in Denton County from Tennessee with his wife Elizabeth in 1881, purchasing a two-room farmhouse for them and their children in 1884. Bayless operated a nursery and landscaping operation, which was successful enough for him to contract expanding the modest Myrtle Street house into a two-story Queen Ann-style Victorian home for his family in 1898. As was pretty typical of larger operations during that period, Bayless employed several sharecroppers or itinerant laborers to tend, maintain, and move his greenery from the nursery farm. It was in November of 1919 that a heated argument with one of his itinerant workers over payment quickly escalated into shouted threats and then a brawl in the yard of his home. According to court documents, the quick-tempered Bayless stormed into his house to retrieve a shotgun from his second-floor bedroom but, when he returned downstairs, his wife expressed alarm over the amount of blood that was now staining his workshirt. Stabbed during the skirmish and bleeding profusely, Bayless died in his own home before a doctor could be retrieved to minister aid. The grief-stricken Widow Bayless sold the home to friend and fellow-nurseryman R.L. Selby, whose family lived in the house for the next half century. The scandalous murder trial against the laborer made local headlines for almost a year.
Mr. Bayless was buried in Denton’s IOOF Cemetery with many other Denton luminaries… but is his restless spirit wandering elsewhere? Image from FindAGrave.com.
After the Bayless-Selby House was bought at auction and donated to Denton County in 1998, it began a long process of restoration by Bill Marquis into what is now a “representative home” museum for Victorian-era life in Denton. And this is where things get kooky and spooky! According to our very reliable and definitely-not-imagining-things sources at the Bayless-Selby House, there has been some pretty weird unexplained phenomena that happens inside the museum. On several occasions, when the house is empty except for the on-duty docents who lead tours of the place, dragging footsteps have been heard in the upstairs floor, or atop the stairway – where some have felt a firm push as they descend! On at least one very vivid occasion, hearing an unresponsive someone shuffling around upstairs, one spooked volunteer called police to investigate but they found no one else in the building. Others have heard voices or moans up there, reports of rearranged or oddly misplaced artifacts have come from otherwise level-headed sources, then there are the occasional sightings of movement or a face peering down from the attic windows! A couple of volunteers refuse to go upstairs by themselves, even as they overtly disavow believing in ghosts. Like I said, durn weird stuff.
On several occasions, when the house is empty except for the on-duty docents who lead tours of the place, dragging footsteps have been heard in the upstairs floor, or atop the stairway – where some have felt a firm push as they descend!
Are we sure it’s the Phantom Farmer Bayless that still roams the upstairs of his former residence? Not everyone thinks so. Miss Marilyn Stevens and a couple of the tour guides instead suspect that maybe it’s one of the pioneer Daugherty family who may be knocking around the premises. According to these ghost theorists, there’s a vintage photo that hangs on the wall of the dining room wherein the Daugherty siblings eyes follow you as you move around the room! It is true that descendants of the Daugherty clan donated much of the furniture and elegant hand-painted fancy china in the museum, so maybe there are a few haunted artifacts sitting around the place. I’ve checked out the museum for myself, so I can confirm the heebie-jeebies you get wandering the house are darn sure real enough! But you can go have a gander yourself at our Denton County Historic Park some Saturday during the Farmer’s Market.
Bayless-Selby House Museum woodcut, by ‘Quickdraw’ Joe Duncan Illustration.
Think on that as you enjoy an awesome week of Halloween events, Denton, and be sure you come trick-or-treat the Downtown Denton Square this Saturday night (UPDATE: This has been rescheduled to Thursday night due to rain)!! Remember to be neighborly to all the spirits you encounter, living or otherwise.
Shaun Treat is a former professor at the University of North Texas and founder of the Denton Haunts historical ghost tour. Doc has written about numerous local places and personalities at his Denton Haunts blog, and is forever indebted to the great work of our local keepers of history like Mike Cochran and Laura Douglas at the Emily Fowler Library for their tireless work in helping preserve Denton’s intriguing past. Be sure to check out our local museums curated by the fine folks at the Denton County Office of History & Culture, and follow @Dentonaut on Twitter for local happenings.
Shaun Treat is a former professor at the University of North Texas and founder of the Denton Haunts historical ghost tour. Doc has written about numerous local places and personalities at his Denton Haunts blog, and is forever indebted to the great work of our local keepers of history like Mike Cochran and Laura Douglas at the Emily Fowler Library for their tireless work in helping preserve Denton’s intriguing past. Be sure to check out our local museums curated by the fine folks at the Denton County Office of History & Culture, and follow @Dentonaut on Twitter for local happenings.