by Tony Nalley
There are lots of other tales and ghost stories surroundin’ our town. And I’ve found that while they may seem like they’re entirely made up, they’re often based upon real life! For instance, it’s rumored that a real life ‘witch’ was either burned at the stake or hanged here in the early eighteen hundred's. Though I can’t seem to find a documented record of it, she is said to haunt the pioneer graveyard that rests behind the Old Jail House! A large black cat is supposed to watch over the crypt where her body lies. The cat has been seen many times and over many, many years! Some believe the cat may be the witch herself, disguised in a feline form!
My Grandpa told me stories about how witches can turn themselves into cats! They can probably turn themselves into all kinds of other animals too!
In a town so chalked full of real life history and stories, you’d think it would’ve been more than enough to have filled a kid’s imaginations, right up and until he was all the way fully growed!
But as times were, when I was a kid, I still pretended an awful lot!
Pretendin’ wasn’t “the same as being real” my mama told me. She said that I could “pretend all I wanted to about stuff like jumping off the roof of our house and flying or about playing cars right out there in the middle of the street!” But she said that “in real life that just wasn’t ever gonna happen!”
So there you go! And so I pretended alot!
In the recesses of my mind, imagination and real life often found themselves intertwined. And I guess dependin’ upon how you looked at it that was okay!
***
June 1864
It was just shy of sundown the day Jessie James rode into town. He made his way through the city streets, tipping his hat to the ladies as he passed them along his way. He didn’t hide his face here, there was no reason to. Bardstown was his second home. He was a local hero.
After the Liberty bank robbery in Missouri, his partners Thomas Edward “Bud” and Alexander Doniphan “Donnie” Pence fled to Kentucky. Donnie became the NelsonCounty sheriff and the brothers homes located at Samuels Depot became safe houses for both Frank and Jesse James.
Frank and Jesse had relatives in the area and their mom had gone to a nearby school. One of their cousins had also married the local county jailer! So it was common knowledge that whenever federal marshals were nearby, the James brothers would be made aware of it far enough in advance to make use one of the many caves or safe houses in the area to lay low or to escape!
Jesse James rode his horse straight up to the Nelson County jailhouse; dismounted and met with the local Sheriff who’d come out to greet him.
“Your room’s all set at the tavern Jessie. Arrangements made with the Inn keeper; paid in full.”
“Much obliged Donnie. It’s been a long ride and I could use some sleep.”
“I’ll get your horse to the stables. She’ll be fully rested by morning.”
“I’ll be leaving out pretty early. The law’s been on me hard, and someone’s tracking me.”
“Yeah, they’ve put the word out!”
“I’ve got to be at Stone House by nine, a matter of importance. And then I’ll have need of fresh supplies if you got em’?” Jessie said. “And Donnie, I’ll be headed back to LoganCounty before I make the trip to Missouri if you want to ride.”
“My place is here now Jesse, but we gotcha covered. Bud’s riding in from the depot. We’ll have you ready by first light.”
While officials from the northern government called Jesse James ‘outlaw’, alot of those in the south called him ‘hero’. Alot also depended upon the point of view of the press. If the writer supported the North, the Confederate armies would be called guerillas and bandits. But if those same reporters supported the South, they would be called freedom fighters and heroes.
After a few drinks to quench his thirst at the bar, Jesse checked into his room. The room had been paid for, prearranged with the Inn keeper as suggested be done; and under an assumed name. Jesse hung up his hat; sat down on the bed and emptied the contents of his saddlebags. Loot taken from a stagecoach robbery just this side of Jefferson: watches, rings and jewelry, golden coins along with a finely carved wooden box aligned with gold, silver and pearl inlay; holding a single blood red jewel within its chamber, a Blood Stone.
A Blood Stone is a gem that is generally made of green jasper dotted with bright red spots of iron oxide. In ancient times it was treasured. This stone however, was complete in its color; a deep blood red that held a transparency …likened to that of a crystal when held to the fire.
“What do we have here?” Jesse whispered to himself as he held it to the light turning it back and forth between his fingers.
“Somethin’ is different about this…” he whispered to himself in thought.
Jesse looked deep into the stone as he held it to the flame, mesmerized by its allure.
Sounds from the tavern jarred him back to reality; music, dancing and ruckus! He returned the stone to its box and the loot to his saddlebags and blew out the candle upon his nightstand, leaving a whisper of smoke that danced in the air.
Jesse lay down and rested upon that soft southern bed; kicked off his boots and listened to the sounds coming in from the street. Cool winds blew in through the window bringing with it the smell of a distant rain. Horses and buggies traveled up and down the cobblestone paths. People entering and exiting from the tavern below, conversations overheard as the whiskey made their words all the more louder.
The minutes passed slowly. Thoughts ran through his mind, the war, his home, the blood red stone …but sleep would not find him.
Suddenly!
The street light cast a blatant shadow about his room!
Jessie rose from his bed drawing his Colt .45s and fired!
Shots rang out! Six rounds fired into the darkness at point blank range!
Four bullets lodged deep into the walls! Flashes of light and the smell of smoke! People rushed to his room, finding him in frenzy in the dark; whirling around brazenly with both weapons drawn!
Something had walked amidst the shadows of Jesse’s room that night, something that could scare a man who was fast with a gun! He had seen it! It had looked him squarely in the eye! But no lead could kill it! Had it been a ghost, a ghost of a man? His eyes shone white in the darkness before the light was lit. Images returned again to his mind! Images that sent cold chills down his spine!
***
Legends say that Jesse James shot holes in one of the rooms where he stayed at the Talbott Tavern. It is also said that he shot at a ghost! Bullets from his gun are still lodged in the tavern’s walls as proof of what had happened to him and of what he’d seen!
Many claim that the ghost of Jesse James now walks the halls of the old tavern, searchin’ for somethin’ that he had lost or for that which was taken; vanishin’ into thin air with a smirk on his face!
I’ve heard it said that “Bardstown is like a black hole. Once you get sucked in, you can never get out again!” I surely hope that’s not how it happens, not why his spirit still walks.
I aint seen Jesse’s ghost myself. Heck, I haven’t even been inside of the old Tavern! But I guess I don’t have a mind to go over there anyways!
***
June 1864
Caleb felt the sting of the bullets pierce his flesh! Screams of pain and blood altered him without challenge. And he stared into the face of the gunfighter, wild eyed and snarling!
Rage and fury enveloped him in mere moments of time!
Jesse James dropped to his knees as he looked into the eyes of the beast that towered before him!
Caleb made for the window with target in hand, climbing up and over to the back of the building just as people rushed into the room! He mounted his steed and disappeared into the darkness.
Shadows followed
Three
In the Shadows of a Great Dark Cloud
Grandpa told me that everyone has a voice. The difficult part was learnin’ what to do with it! What t
o say and how to say it! And how to use that voice to find that special callin’ that we all hold deep inside of us, that voice hat leads us down the paths of life we choose to travel! I began to develop my voice in a little white house on Daughtry Avenue. It was located on the north end of town; though it could have been right smack in the middle for all I knew!
At that time in my life, my whole world existed within a twenty foot radius of wherever I happened to be at the moment; where a cool summer breeze and the smell of freshly cut grass would find me playin’ beneath the shade of an old tall tree.
I wasn’t very good with directions then and I can’t say that I’ve gotten any better with em’ now! But I reckon that the best way to tell ya where we lived back then …is just to point out the closest landmark that I’ve got in my memory: St. Joseph’s Church.
People say that St. Joseph’s Church was the first Cathedral built this far west. I can’t say that I know exactly what a Cathedral is, unless maybe it means that it was big! Cause that’s the reason I remember this church in particular. It was the biggest one I’d ever seen! The church steeple towered high over our city! And it’s still there today!
I’ve been told that when people started comin’ to our town to settle in, that Kentucky was still a part of the state of Virginia, and that the settlers that came here …were mostly people of the Catholic faith.
I’ve also read in history books that their Catholic Bishop, Father Joseph Flaget came here in the early eighteen hundreds, and that he helped build a church just a few miles south of Bardstown known as St. Thomas. That was a little while before he helped lay the cornerstone for St. Joseph’s Church.
I’ve further read that Father Joseph Flaget was given several rare and valuable paintings for the church! They were given to him by a few of the royal families of Europe; people like the Pope, the King of France and the King of the Two Sicily’s.
Now …once you’d passed St. Joseph’s Church and circled around our county courthouse, all you had to do then was to head straight up through the middle of town, for about a mile or so, and then take a left at the Burger Queen restaurant. Our house was about four houses down from it on the right.
The Burger Queen restaurant stands out in my memory cause of a grand opening event and an occurrence with a giant “Queen Bee” mascot; the outcome of which I simply choose not to talk about at this time!
Our house sat on about a half an acre lot then, with a front yard big enough for one huge, round elm tree. The tree was so big that I couldn’t get my arms all the way around it! And there wasn’t much room in the yard for anything else. The soft grass was divided into sections by a cracked and broken sidewalk, outlined by a dirty rock driveway.
I didn’t play in our front yard very often, cause I wasn’t allowed to go past that big old tree by myself. I mean …I was five years old after all! But I could go anyplace I wanted to in our back yard! So that’s where you could find me most days! And our back yard went on for what seemed like miles! Green grass for as far as the eye could see! Or at least for twenty feet!
Tall green bushes lined our backyard on either side; with both sides connectin’ to fence posts that separated our land from the apartment houses and open fields in the back.
Our driveway began and ended into a one car garage that was almost always used for storage. It was so tightly jammed packed most days that it could only be entered into, after usin’ extreme caution! I wasn’t allowed to go in there, at least not by myself. Mama wouldn’t let me. But I had already come to the conclusion that I didn’t want to play in there anyways.
And when I was five I’d close my eyes and pretend that…
…I rode through the valley upon my trusted steed; I surveyed the terrain for any hostile entanglements. All that I owned I now carried with me; the guns on my side, the rations in my saddlebags and the clothes on my back.
No one was huntin’ me now.
I had given em’ the slip by sunset, ridden through the rivers by nightfall and I had shaken the dust off of my trail by early mornin’. I wasn’t in the clear yet, not by any stretch of my imagination.
I would have to catch the outlaw and bring him to justice before that would happen.
He was the one who had robbed the bank in Silver Creek not me!
And he had gotten away with the gold! Now it was up to me to bring him in...
“Mama, would you tell Anna to come inside with you? It’s my turn to ride Patches!” I yelled.
“Toby! You had better not be riding on that dog!” my mama said. “Anna come on inside here honey, and let me get you a juice. Toby! You get down off of Patches right now!”
Patches was a good dog. She lived beside the garage in an old whiskey barrel with a cutout doorway and straw strewn about all over its base. My dad had gotten the barrel from down to Barton’s. That’s where my dad worked. Patches lived in it, and she stood about waist high to me.
When she stood up on her back legs she was even taller than I was!
“Okay Mom!” I hollered back. And then I pretended again.
…As I climbed down from my horse I decided to set up camp for the day. It would be too hot to travel with the sun directly overhead in the sky. And there would be too great of a risk of bein’ spotted by the enemy! I had crossed into Indian Territory a few miles back, where every move that I made could be my last.
I had to be careful. Comin’ too close to flyin’ arrows or bein’ scalped by Indians was not somethin’ that I looked fondly upon!
I made myself comfortable beneath the shade of a tall tree, and I fed my horse from the rations I carried in my saddlebags. My horse was the only friend I had out there in that deadly wilderness.
I gave her some water.
I brushed her mane.
And as I sat down in the shade, I polished my guns and began to partake of my rations as well...
“Toby! Are you eating that dog food?” My mama yelled as I tried really hard to swallow. “I have already told you about that once today and I had better not have to tell you again!”
One thing for sure that I knew about my mama, she didn’t cotton to no foolin’ around! When she said somethin’, she meant it! And if you didn’t do what she told you to do, then she was gonna come after you!
So I got on up from the ground, put Patches’ food back in her bowl and I started doin’ somethin’ else entirely!
And I pretended that…
…I was in the times of knights and castles …and I walked to the fence and looked out into the fields that lay before me, where two young maidens frolicked in the grass. The air was crisp and the wind carried loose flowers and daises as it blew through the meadow. I raised my hand in gesture as if to say hello. The maidens blushed and returned my gesture as they walked to the stone wall by which I stood.
“Hello good Knight.” one maiden said. “Of what great fortune does your presence bring?”
I took off my helmet, and held it to my side and took the fair maidens hand.
“I have come to protect you m’ Lady. For is that not the duty of every good Knight?”
The maiden blushed again as she stood beside her protector, her knight in shining armor.
But then …the Dragon that came upon em’ flew in the shadows of a great dark cloud!
It came upon em’ from the sky, breathin’ fire and chaos upon their valleys!
Screams could be heard as their peoples ran in fear! Lives under siege; their world now in flames!
Upon the great wall and drawin’ his magic sword, our brave and fearless knight stood! The light flashed blindingly upon his shield and armor, a hero’s light breaking hard against the darkness.
“Fear not fair maidens for I will protect you from this beast!” I said as I seated my helmet and crossed over the barrier that separated me from the burnin’ fields.
I brandished my weapon and charged at the beast. His flesh met my steel! The dragon and the Knight came together in battle! And the maidens screamed…
You kno
w how girls scream and stuff? Well this one was one of them high pitched shrill screams! You know the ones that just makes your whole spine twist around inside your skin and dang near makes it snap loose and break off from your neck? It was one of those kinds!
“Toby what are doing out here?” A voice from out of nowhere said.
Mama was upon me! She had me by the collar of my shirt before I even knew she was outside! How long she’d been standin’ there I did not know.
“I’m fightin’ a snake Mama!” I said as I continued to slash at the bushes with my pocket knife. “I just saved these girls from a great big old snake!” I continued to slash while my mama held on to me and also while the girls told her about how I had just saved their lives!
