Haunted Austin by Jeanine Plumer

Author:Jeanine Plumer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2012-09-08T16:00:00+00:00

Convict labor working on limestone pillars for the Capitol. Courtesy of the Austin History Center.

During those six years of construction, thousands of people contributed to the new Capitol. Everyone was working toward a common goal: to build the largest Capitol building in the United States, even bigger than the nation’s Capitol in Washington D.C. And they succeeded.

Since the completion of the original building in 1888, many changes have taken place, including a restoration and expansion following the fire in 1983 that began in the lieutenant governor’s living quarters. During that fire, 102 years after the fire that destroyed the Old Stone Capitol, a man died when he was overcome by smoke. Instead of running out of his bedroom door to safety, he wasted precious minutes and energy struggling unsuccessfully to open a window that was nailed shut.

Does this young man’s spirit still linger behind the walls of Texas’s Capitol? If so, he is not alone.

It was an assassination in 1903 that has resulted in the most identifiable ghost centered around a man who was such a dedicated public servant, he still walks the Capitol halls.

At ten o’clock in the morning on June 30, 1903, the state comptroller, Colonel R.M. Love, was sitting at his desk in the east wing of the Capitol talking with Rev. Cowden when in walked Mr. W.G. Hill. Mr. Hill was an unemployed former state employee. Later it would become apparent that Love was responsible for Mr. Hill losing his job. Unaware of the intruder’s intentions, the two men greeted Mr. Hill and continued their conversation until Rev. Cowden bade his farewell, leaving the remaining two men alone. As he left, the reverend saw Mr. Hill hand Love a piece of paper that read:

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