A Moment in Time The Ghosts of Big Spring

Editor’s Note: The Heritage Museum will be focusing on ghost stories that have been told throughout Big Spring and Howard County until the end of October. The museum is one of the historical aggregates in our community that ensures the history remains in tact for future generations.

In 1881, according to I.D. Eddins, the first six to be buried in Big Spring, was attributed to violence. Perhaps, the shootouts, rowdy cowboys and the 13 saloons that fostered these bad boy behaviors, contributed to those untimely deaths. Eddins told John Hutto (Howard County in the Making) that the cemetery was located on the site of the Southern Ice Co. After a smallpox plaque, entire families were buried in the

Courtesy photos unmarked cemetery. This could not be a more unsuitable location for a cemetery as it flooded almost every time it rained. The great flood of 1902 washed up several unidentified coffins.

In July 1890, Nip and Tuck Saloon owner George Bauer, donated land for the “New Mount Olive Cemetery.”

In 1893, W.G. Tennyson platted an addition to the original Big Spring Township. Plans were underway for roads and homes to be built. The Howard County Court ordered on September 22, 1894, “all persons who have relatives and friends buried in the old graveyard immediately north of the railroad, remove the remains of same.” Several families did comply however, many were buried without families or anyone knowing their identity. It is these people that remained buried as the town grew over them. In the 1930’s, some of the

Pictured above is the Ice Company where a cemetery was claimed to have been before the ice company was built. Pictured at right: The tombstone for Edward Richardson