Well, my Father passed several years ago and rests in Christ; but my mother sees him often. I'll tell her to ask him the next time she sees him...
;)
Actually, he lived much farther to the south of Athens - down in what we call "deep" East Texas, in what was once known as "The Great Western Wood".
Near Athens, there are tales of ghostly Spanish missionaries who follow the vestiges of the old trails which crisscross the area.
Not far away, one should find the last remains of Trammel's Trace, to the east. There you may encounter the memories of smugglers running guns and goods north and south along the old trail, long forgotten by all but those who still haunt it;
and to the south, go to Hwy 21, to the town of Douglass. There - into the darkened cover of over-arching trees, around the bend and down a nameless road just off the highway - you will see a grassy field open up and drop down into the shadows towards a natural landing on the Angelina River.
I have seen it in the moonlight, in the cold of winter, a wayside for the ghosts of those who stopped before me. Two centuries before, it was a lonely inn, an isolated stop along the way for Spanish travelers when Highway 21 was "The King's Highway".
I could not see quite see them, but I did not have to see them to know they were there. I spent only a moment, before moving quickly on down the road...
Thank you.