Hood County News<\/em> – October 29, 2003<\/p>\n\n\n Aston House in Granbury<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jean and Charlie Cate took possession of the fabled Aston House in 1970. Much to their surprise, the century-old Bridge Street mansion soon possessed them. Talk about a Happy Halloween. \u201cCharlie was an airline pilot, so he was gone a lot of the time,\u201d Jean said. \u201cHis first trip after we moved in, I was in the house with four kids and heard what sounded like scratching on a window. \u201cI thought, \u2018Those must be pecan tree branches. We need to get those trimmed.\u2019 When I looked the next morning, there were no branches near that window.\u201d The Aston House spirits were merely warming up. \u201cThe kids were in school one day, and Charlie was on a flight,\u201d she said. \u201cI was working downstairs and heard footsteps above. I knew I was the only one in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI went up the back stairs, looked to the left and saw the figure of a woman turning the corner to go downstairs. Nobody locked their doors back then. I thought, \u2018I wonder who that was?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI went back downstairs, and nobody was there. After that, I\u2019d hear the footsteps once every couple of weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnother time, I heard what sounded like a skirt brushing the floor. I got so used to the noises that I liked having her in the house when I was by myself.\u201d \u201cShe came there as a young bride. Andy Aston said he\u2019d build her the finest house in Hood County if she\u2019d marry him. He did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe entertained a lot in that house. She was a most proper lady. Even in the heat of summer, she\u2019d wear a fresh dress, gloves and hat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dolly\u2019s dress might have needed laundering by 1970, but she remained a gracious hostess. She even cooked, cleaned and took out the trash. \u201cOccasionally, I would hear the sound of someone rolling a trash can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCharlie heard the trash can one night. He said, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s the darned dogs.\u2019 I said, \u2018Honey, the dogs are in the upstairs sitting room.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A doting type, Dolly watched over the Cate sons. \u201cJimmy said a lady would look in on them at night fairly often. I didn\u2019t say anything about that to my husband or anyone else. I was afraid they might have me committed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their daughter Eileen met a conservatively-attired male spirit at the Aston House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHer bedroom was at the top of the front staircase immediately to the left,\u201d Jean said. \u201cIt had a bay window. We had a toy chest built to fit in that window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne morning, Eileen came downstairs and said, \u2018I can\u2019t decide if the man was sad or happy.\u2019 I said, \u2018What man?\u2019 She said, \u2018The man on the toy chest.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI said, \u2018A man was sitting on your toy chest?\u2019 She said, \u2018Umm hmm.\u2019 I said, \u2018What did he look like?\u2019 She said, \u2018He had a black suit, dark like daddy\u2019s.\u2019 She saw him several times. She wasn\u2019t the least bit frightened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll I can figure is that the gentleman might have been a tenant of a Mrs. Riley, who bought the house and rented out rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was several years later that Ardyce Pfanstiel began composing a ghostly essay and called on Jean in search of material. Pfanstiel had already gathered an assortment of spine-tingling anecdotes from Cissy Wilson, Aston House occupant of that moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI told Ardyce about my experiences and my kids\u2019 experiences at the Aston House,\u201d Jean said. \u201cShe asked if I\u2019d shared the stories with anyone else. I said, \u2018No, of course not.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe looked at me kind of funny and said, \u2018Jean, except for one thing, you told me the same things Cissy told me about that house, right down to the old gentleman sitting on the toy chest.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnother time, Cissy\u2019s family was visiting Granbury, and they decided to see friends in Dallas. The grandmother stayed behind at Aston House. When they returned, the grandmother was asked if everything was okay. She said, \u2018Yes, but who is that woman upstairs?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of Cissy\u2019s friends in Dallas was telling her she could get rid of whatever was there by saying, \u2018If you mean us harm, I command you to leave. If you mean us no harm, you may stay.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSometime later, Bob (Wilson) was doing night rounds at the hospital. Cissy was uncomfortable at the house. She didn\u2019t like being there alone. She announced, \u2018Whoever is here, if you mean us harm, I command you to leave.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA knocking started in the back of the house and got louder as it started moving forward. It really frightened her. She called Bob, who heard the noise over the phone and immediately came home. The Cate family departed Aston House in 1978. Cate has warm memories of the abode. \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful house,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s been unoccupied for two lengthy stretches in its history \u2026 unoccupied except for the ghosts, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Astons sold it to the Shoemaker family,\u201d Jean said. \u201cMrs. Riley bought it from the Shoemakers and gave piano lessons. The house sat empty for 12 years. Not a single window was broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHugh Raupe bought the house. Then he sold it to Joe Nutt. The house stood empty for two more years before we bought it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aston House caused Jean no nightmares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was never frightened there. Maybe it was just such a happy place that the people decided to leave something of themselves behind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Something ghostly. Something other-worldly. Something too real to dismiss as folly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Haunting Experience by Pete Kendall Hood County News – October 29, 2003 Aston House in Granbury Jean and Charlie Cate took possession of the fabled Aston House in 1970. Much to their surprise, the century-old Bridge Street mansion soon … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/astonhouse.jpg\")
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\u201cHer,\u201d Jean decided, was probably Dolly Aston, in life a pillar of polite society and in death an apparently genial and caring spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019d be in bed at night and hear what sounded like pots and pans in the kitchen,\u201d Jean said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe knocking eventually got to the very front of the house. And then it was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n