In 2023 I was asked to do an interview to be filmed in the old Masonic Hall in Columbus, Texas. The film crew, which specializes in the paranormal, had read my book, No Hope for Heaven, No Fear of Hell: The Stafford Townsend Feud of Colorado County. The book had inspired them to investigate the possibility of ghosts associated with the feud who might still lingering about in their old haunts. Their search led them to the Masonic building in Columbus which sits right off the court house square on South Milam St and occupies the site of the old county jail where various miscreants associated with the feud had been incarcerated. That provided one connection. Masonic membership strengthened the second connection. The Townsends, especially, were serious Masons. with several having achieved advanced degrees in the order. Asa Townsend, the patriarch of the large and extended Townsend clan, had been a charter member and co-founder of the original Masonic Lodge in the Republic of Texas days and served as Grand Master for many years thereafter. Various people associated with the Stafford family also had strong Masonic ties. Added to these links, the building itself is somewhat foreboding on the outside and downright creepy on the inside, especially when the lights are turned low in the cavernous meeting room upstairs. The room is replete with Masonic trappings that appear evocative and mysterious to non-Masons while the portraits of scores of past leaders, including, I might mention, my own grandfather, John Allen Kearney, stare down at you from the wall with somber expressions on their faces. The final product has been posted to YouTube and has garnered 330, 000 views. It lasts over an hour most of which is devoted to the two hosts conjuring up ghosts in the darkened meeting room and attempting to communicate with them. My interview, also filmed in the meeting hall, only lasted about fifteen minutes. In it I give an outline of the feud and stick to the salient facts.
Because of the astounding success of the first episode, the film makers returned last week (May 2, 2025) to shoot a sequel, but this time in the Stafford Opera House across the street from the Masonic Hall. At the time many considered the two story building, built in 1884 and designed by the renowned Texas architect Clayton Williams, to be the finest such venue in the Texas. The name “opera house” is something of a misnomer. In reality it was a convenient stop for traveling troupes of vaudeville and theater productions, often of national stature, who toured up and down the southern transatlantic railway, the old Southern Pacific line, between New Orleans and San Francisco. Columbus offered a convenient stop between Houston and San Antonio. Robert Stafford, always a visionary and astute businessman, recognized the possibilities and built his opera house (with the Stafford bank downstairs) on his own nickel from the fortune he had already made in the cattle business. His opera house put Columbus on the map. Stafford also built his large two-story house next door and placed the windows in such a way that he could view, so it is said, the productions from his own bedroom. In July 1890, the Hope brothers, Marion and Larkin, gunned down Bob Stafford and his brother and business partner, John Stafford, across the street from the opera house at the Nicolai saloon. The old building also witnessed several other killings and affrays associated with the feud, so that a more fitting location to film a sequel and to look for ghosts from the past would be hard to find. Once again, I did an interview in the upstairs theater, which has now been faithfully restored by the Columbus Historic Preservation Trust, and told the story of the feud with a concentration on the 1906 skating rink affair. The affray began in the upstairs of the opera house, which had been converted to a skating rink in 1906, but which spilled out onto the courthouse square. The sons of murdered sheriff Sam Reese, Walter and Hub Reese, crossed the square with pistols drawn but soon came under fire from Marion Hope, one of the assassins of their father, who had in the meantime ensconced himself in one of the buildings facing the square and had armed himself with a shotgun and pistols. A furious shoot-out ensued. Before law enforcement could break up the affray, one man, Hiram Clements, was killed while Walter Reese was seriously wounded. Several horses that had been tied to hitching posts along the street were also either killed or wounded.
I was not asked if I personally believe in ghosts for either of the interviews. I tend to be skeptical about this sort of thing though I try to keep an open mind. I just related the facts. But I did have the opportunity to plug the book, all the profits from which go to the Nesbitt Memorial Library Foundation. Over 300,000 hits. Wow! and for this I am thankful. One never turns down free publicity.
jamesckearney.com 