A Haunting Story Lives Behind One Northeast Texas Gravestone
You know there's a lengthy tale behind every gravestone, and date markers like 1835-1893 just don't cut it. What in the world happened during that little dash?! Our state parks and wildlife folks are telling the stories, and one of those legends from a cemetery in Northeast Texas will make you glad you never crossed Frank Benson.
Texas Parks and Wildlife says on its Facebook page that in the 1800's, Frank Benson was a farmer to the north of us at a place called Fort Sherman.
According to their story, robbers ambushed him one day and demanded that he take them to some hidden gold in the cemetery, and he went along with it for awhile, but eventually, he led them back to the farmhouse where he baited the robbers into following him into a loft, and then killed one of them with an axe. As you might expect, the other two robbers high-tailed it out of there! According to the legend, Benson was always a little freaked out from that point on, and decided to sell his property and move away in 1858.
If you've seen "#StateParkLegends" on the web, it's because Texas Parks and Wildlife wants to tell more of these old tales. They'd love it if you would share your story too, if you have something interesting, scary, and odd to tell about your ancestors.
TX Parks and Wildlife says you can visit the graves of Benson’s relatives in the cemetery, but the gold is gone now, so don't break out that metal detector. The gravestones of the robbers and family members are at the old cemetery at Lake Bob Sandlin State Park in NE Texas.
Was there really any gold in the cemetery? Who would hide gold near dead bodies? Why was Benson afraid of people, when it sounds like everyone had the right to be afraid of him? We might never know. The answers to those and a thousand other questions are hidden in that dash.