After their initial meeting in El Paso they met again in Ciudad Juárez that same day. The Texas State Historical Association has a decent write up about the event.

In 1834, the price of Silvia Hector Webber’s freedom was written down on paper, and that paper still sits in an archive at UT Austin. #RootedInATX #AtxHistory

Video: Today news and UT Austin

Sources:

• Webber, Silvia Hector — Handbook of Texas    
• Webber, John Ferdinand — Handbook of Texas    
• Webberville, TX — Handbook of Texas    
• Freedom Papers: Evidence of Emancipation — Briscoe Center    
• Freedom Papers podcast page — UT Austin    
• NBC News on Silvia Hector Webber    
• Webberville Ebenezer Baptist Church marker — THC Atlas    
• FM 969 Highway Designation File — TxDOT    
• Webber Family Research Guide — UTRGV

There is absolutely nothing left of this old 2 mile speedway. I actually stopped there last night to check it out and took a few sad photos.

Whew…where we live at on the coast, it definitely did NOT feel like autumn yesterday. It was hot, humid, rainy. Yesterday morning while walking the dog, I could even hear the whine of a million mosquito wings in the air (and that’s not an exaggeration, got a million bumps to prove it).

I figured a good October chill was in order again. Another true origin Texas ghost story, that I personally had a hand in discovering. Hold on tight folks, this one is crazy!

This story takes us again to the greater Fort Worth area. To a suburb twenty-five miles northwest called Springtown and a muddy stream christened as Walnut Creek. Within a long row of houses on the murky ditch, sits a smaller estate that has been resided in since the 1960s.

The author of the 2020 Facebook post, whose name I will redact, claimed that he had a real haunted house terrorized by two bank robbers who had both been killed just behind the home. He was looking for advice on how to try and get rid of the ghosts, because he was constantly having tenants breaking their leases due to everything from cold spots to full bodied apparitions pounding on the exterior doors.

Me being me, I offered to help him at least prove the validity of the story. He accepted and privately messaged me that his grandfather, the original owner of the house, had told him that one of the crooks was named Norris. A few database searches later, and I discovered one of the most intriguing forgotten stories of Texas History that I’ve ever happened across!

Gene Paul Norris was not the type of person you would want lingering around your house and banging on your doors. Especially as a ghost. He was a hired killer in late 1950s Texas and had, admittedly, murdered a husband and wife in Houston in cold blood.

Norris had devised a plot to kidnap the young son of an Air Force officer, hold the kid at the threat of death, and force the boy’s dad into surrendering an entire base’s payout. Fortunately, someone knew about Norris’ plan and had the decency of ratting him out to the Fort Worth Police just hours before he and an associate were going to show up at the kid’s school’s drop-off area and start the heist.

A wild police chase ensued through Fort Worth which ended with a fiery crash into Walnut Creek on a rainy April night in 1957. Norris’ companion died in the wreck, but the outlaw himself decided to try his luck in a shootout with law enforcement.

Norris did not die in the gunfire, and instead, was able to get out of the vehicle and make a mad dash into the creek. He seems to have thought that, in the raging storm and darkness, he could get away. That didn’t happen. A hail of bullets tore through his spine, and the crook toppled backward and died in the mire of Walnut Creek.

I found a whole plethora of articles on Gene Paul Norris and sent them to the owner of the house that is supposedly haunted. He was astounded! He told me that his grandfather had said the shootout happened just a few yards from the back porch, and even had some spent shell casings from the scene itself.

I couldn’t offer any advice on how to get rid of Norris, unfortunately, but I did tell him to make sure he never opened the doors for him! I don’t think anyone would want to offer that dead crook any kind of help.

Till next time, stay Spooky!

I put together a narrated map of the Texas Revolution. You can listen to a 20-minute audio guided version or just scroll through the events:

https://whistlestop.guide/features/texas-revolution

It covers the main sites and events (Gonzales, the Alamo, Goliad, Washington-on-the-Brazos, San Jacinto, etc.) laid over a modern map. Best on desktop but mobile browser will work as well.

I'm working on other maps similar to this that focus on historical markers within specific cities. Looking for feedback!

Santa Anna’s incompetence at San Jacinto is staggering and its not impossible to envision another timeline where a Mexican victory occurs in absence of said incompetence. What would it take for Santa Anna to win, and if he did what would it look like afterwards?

The Moore Family A Notorious 🅱️🐶 Family in Fort Worth Stop Six could be the very late 70s