John Cook and his family live in a two-story
semi-Victorian home in Manvel, Texas.
Manvel is a city in Brazoria
County, Texas, United States. The population
was 3,046 at the 2000 census. It was originally
named Pomona; however, because there was already
a town in West Texas called Pomona or Pamona,
the name was changed to Manvel, after a man
who became president of the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe Railway. The first group of settlers
in the region was the family of W. R. Booth.
They settled on Chocolate Bayou in July 1857.
In 1877 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway
built through the area on its way from Galveston
to Arcola. A townsite was formed in 1890 at
the railroad crossing, and businesses began
to be established there. In 1892 the community
had a post office and by 1895 a population
of 350, a grocer, a general store, a real
estate agent, a physician, and two telegraph
and express agents. Snow in 1895, a tornado
in 1899, and a storm in 1900 destroyed local
orchards and crops. In 1906 Manvel had a school,
a teacher, and twenty-nine students. During
the early and middle 1900s the town stayed
roughly the same in size and population. On
September 8, 1931, the Texas Oil Company struck
oil on property in Manvel, and it became a
rich oil-producing community. In 1936 local
rice production began. In 1975 Manvel had
twelve businesses and 110 inhabitants. It
had fifty-seven businesses and a population
of 3,549 in 1985; in 1988 it reported a population
of 4,441 and sixty-eight businesses. In 1990
its population was 3,733.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: James
A. Creighton, A Narrative History of Brazoria
County (Angleton, Texas: Brazoria County Historical
Commission, 1975). Kathleen E. and Clifton
R. St. Clair, eds., Little Towns of Texas
(Jacksonville, Texas: Jayroe Graphic Arts,
1982).
They been in this house
for over five years now. To their knowledge..no
one has died
in this house. They only know that the original
owner fell from the roof and
broke many bones, but as far as I know..he
didn't die.
Here is
his Ghost story in his own words.
When I moved into this house
a little over 5 years ago, I knew that it
was built in 1985 or thereabout. I knew the
story of the owner falling from the two-near
three story steep roof and landing on his
back. The original owners built this house
as a " show " house. They threw
lavish parties and guests from all over the
neighborhood would come and go. I actually
met a few of the neighbors that knew the house
quite well, they said nothing about a death.
Since the original owners left (as far as
I know... they just moved away)...the house
has been the home of many despised people.
This has lead the neighbors on this quiet
country street to dislike the owners of this
house almost as a tradition.
The most notorious was
a big shot attorney from Houston. He was said
to be a very foul and corrupt man. He was
actually a renter, not an owner. He stole
a few things such as the tractor from the
barn, etc. when he moved out. The last owner
was a chinese OR vietnamese lady with a son
that came from New York who was into a cult
and ran the streets. When he came knocking
on her door one day, she let him in as family
and let him stay at the house. They did quite
a few strange things.
When I moved in, the room
that was his, it had strange ("almost
bizarre") poems written all over the
walls. The room was painted blue and bright
white..as if it was the sky. They had built
a hot tub into the downstairs guest bathroom
that wasn't meant to large enough for a tub.
They constructed a half ass and very poorly
built bar room behind the house. We of course,
bulldozed that heap. It was creepy enough
as it was. So like always and being from a
Catholic background ("not that I really
am") we had the house blessed by a friend
who had close ties with the church. She left
holy water in a vase on the mantle. That is
long since gone now.
The first week we were in
the house I was alone in the house (during
broad daylight) while my wife was at work
and family was coming and going with things
from the old house. I had all of the windows
open and the wind was blowing throughout the
house to get the musty smell out of it. I
was downstairs when I heard a door slam. I
went upstairs to find that the door to the
room with the strange poems on the wall was
slammed shut. I thought...ahh, its nothing
it was a draft. Then I saw the second bedroom
door slam shut while I was standing there...I
nearly shit my pants. Naturally....I ran.
When I got outside I realized what a pussy
I was being , so I went back in and opened
up the bedroom doors...I hadn't opened any
windows upstairs and the doors shut from the
inside out. They had to have been closed from
within the rooms. The AC wasn't\'t on and
there was no draft or breeze upstairs at all.
Over the first year of being
in the house, nothing out of the ordinary
really happened. During the second year my
wife saw a dark clothed figure ( like the
preacher in Poltergeist II and III). That
kind of figure walking through the office
and later on the stairs. This figure was seen
by my wife; as well as myself.
Then nothing again,
until this year. The dogs (we have 2 chihuahuas)
would periodically bark at the staircase for
no damn reason at all. I fell asleep on the
couch one night and awoke to see my dog standing
on the ottoman staring at the staircase. He
wasn't barking or anything, just staring.
I peeled myself away from the couch to look
at whatever he was looking at and thought
for sure I saw something white floating next
to the stairs.
Over the past few weeks
I've been awaken in the middle of the night
with whispering in my ear ( usually my name
) A few nights ago ( about a
week ) I heard a two syllable word, but
couldn't make out what it was.
About a week prior to that, my wife had
stayed home from work and was
upstairs watching tv and laying in bed.
She said she saw the upper torso
of someone coming toward her from the sitting
room. She said it was
wearing a white shirt and that it was a
man.
Until this morning...I
had thought nothing of these things.
My wife just had surgery
last Friday and I was able to take this
week
off to be with her. She has been having
trouble sleeping at night
without reason. Could be the meds, but she
is only taking over the counter
headache medication. Anyway, I fell asleep
about 1 in the morning. She
did not, because when I awoke she was downstairs
asleep on the couch.
I was having a dream about
something completely crazy...had something
to do with Leatherface and his mother. I had
just escaped my own house
and was headed to the main street where stores
were to call the police.
Leather was waiting for me by a fence...anyway...I
awoke. I looked to my right and my wife wasn't
there and then something scared the shit out
of me....
I had turned my head to
the left towards the clock that was sitting
on top of the satellite receiver above the
tv and something was standing in the way.
I blinked my eyes and looked closer to see
it was the head of a person. The hair was
reddish, brown and what I was looking at appeared
to be the back of the head at second glance.
Notice I said...second glance. As I looked
harder I noticed the white..almost silk shirt
( like a nightgown ) It started to fade from
the bottom up as I reached for the hanging
chain of the ceiling fan light above my head.
Of course, when I pulled the chain...it was
gone.
I came downstairs to find
my wife fast asleep on the couch with the
tv on. I haven't woke her up yet, instead..I
took the dog outside for a minute and then
sat in this chair to get online to get this
shit out of my head. It isn't working....I
feel a cold shiver down my spine.
So for the non-ghost believers,
there could possibly be a simple and scientific
explanation for this sighting, I rule out
nothing.
But yeah....if I wasn't
a believer before....I am definately one now.
Nothing could've gotten any more real than
that for me. The head in front of the television
set was actually " blocking " the
light from the clock behind it. That is what
still gets me when I think about it.
JOHN
COOK
Born
in Houston, Texas on April 10th, 1973. 33
years old and married. He has 2 step sons
and his mother lives in guest house on the
back of our 2.5 acre property in the heart
of Manvel, Texas. He work in the oilfield
business based out of Houston.
Also
see A Haunting in Jackson, California
A
Haunting in Jackson
By Paul Dale Roberts
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