Haunted Bellaire

Bedtime stories from three older brothers around Halloween did not make for comforting sleep. And back when we lived in the City of Bellaire, Texas on Saxon Street, their favorite was the story of Kuan-timi-ti. But first, a little background.

Before there was a Bellaire, before Westmoreland Farms (the property on which Bellaire was founded), perhaps even before Texas, an Indian burial ground was said to be in this area. Exactly where no one seems to know (so far), not even Mike McCorkle, co-author of Life and Times Around Bellaire, Texas. According to one of my brothers, however, it was once off Bissonnet. Nevertheless, the burial ground lay somewhere in the city limits, and belonged to a cannibalistic tribe.

As the story was told, a nightly veil of gloomy fog blanketed the cemetery. A mysterious blue light moved erratically about the grounds in a seemingly endless search—for what or who, no one knows. It meandered without really going anywhere, yet never stopping. This was the spirit of Kuan-timi-ti, though nobody seems to remember who he was or how he died. Still, the legend warned that anyone caught in the cemetery at night was decapitated, and their heads randomly left upon gravestones.

If that weren't enough, there are other stories from more credible source. Take Buster Adams, Parks Superintendent with the City of Bellaire, he mentions a story from the old recreation center that was torn down around 1990*. On or about the night before its demolition, some kids broke in to do whatever kids do when they break into a condemned building. As the story goes, one kid never got out—having met his demise along with that of the building.

As a result, it’s said he haunts the current center. “I’ve heard and seen some things that don’t make sense,” Mr. Adams confides.

“It started back in the days when we had Midnight Madness. Afterward, another guy and I walked through the building to clean up and lock it down. We’d start from the back and work forward, turning off lights and securing everything. Toward the back is a water fountain with a trigger that sticks. We came up on it and it was running. We shut it off, as we usually do, and did our sweep back up to the front. 

"Then, we thought we heard a voice and some rustling coming from the back. We went to check and that’s when we saw the fountain running." 

Adams explained the faulty handle meant the fountain couldn’t come on by itself. It had to be manually reset. Also, both men had been in each other’s company, and they knew no one else was in the building.

Adams detailed other incidents, including a night that a surveillance camera captured an apparition. He described a pair of lights, one atop the other, dancing across mirrors. “These mirrors don’t line up with any windows out to the streets,” Adams insisted. “I double checked the angles and nothing panned out.” Again, it took place in the back part of the building. He also reiterated that he and his partner knew the building was empty. “We travel in pairs after hours, and once it’s locked up, it’s locked up,” Adams said.

You might also check Secret Histories for the story on the old haunted convent in Bellaire. And if you have a Bellaire ghost story, leave a comment here.

*Taken from an interview conducted in 2004.

Handbook of Houston features two Falloure entries

The Texas State Historical Association website features two new entries penned by Falloures for the Handbook of Houston (history). One entry is on the City of Bellaire founder William Wright Baldwin. It is based primarily on research conducted by David A. Falloure for his 2012 Eagle Scout project. I am privileged to have worked with him to complete this entry. 

The second entry is about the South End Land Company, the entity responsible for land sales in Bellaire, Tx, as well as what is claimed to be the first master planned community located in Houston, Texas—the Westmoreland Addition in the city's Montrose area.

The Handbook of Houston is an effort by TSHA to highlight Houston area history. The main site can be found at https://tshaonline.org/handbook.  

In Defense of the Electoral College

Some years ago, the late Molly Ivins wrote a column titled, “In Support for Democracy.” In it she put forth the tired idea of eliminating the Electoral College, “a toxic piffle.” in her words, to defend American democracy. I took issue with it then, and I take issue with it now as other voices sound off against our electoral process. First, the Electoral College is a thoughtful methodology developed by our nation’s forefathers to protect the rights of voters in sparsely populated states. For two centuries, the heavily populated districts have conspired to dominate and suppress the vote of states with less congestion. Simply, the metropolitan electorate does not trust nor value the heartland electorate, leading to the second point—America is not a democracy.

Okay, it is, but in the form of a representative republic. The last pure democracies were in the Greek city-states. But in pursuit of “democracy” Ms. Ivins’ argument, like those still carrying that idea, was based on the idea of giving small states a voice in national elections using the popular vote. Ah, but there’s the rub. In a national popular vote, small communities would never have a voice. The major metropolitan centers would be the deciders of every election due to sheer mass in population. That is the reason for the Electoral College: to provide balance and fairness in national elections. If we relied on raw numbers for presidential elections, then a mummified FDR would still sit in office.

Arguments persist that campaigning in non-swing states is minimal at present. Go ahead and eliminate the Electoral College, then watch the money and focus really shift solely to the big cities and states on the East and West coasts. New York City, for instance, has more than 8.5 million citizens, which is about a third the population of Texas (27 million), equivalent to twice the combined populations of Colorado (5-million) and Iowa (3-million), and more than ten times the entire state population of South Dakota (853,000). The state population for New York is over 19-million people. Combined with a California population of almost 39-million, those two states alone account for almost 20 percent of the national vote. Just two states equivalent to one-sixth the national population!

Get the picture yet? 

Without the checks and balances in our electoral process, states such as Iowa and South Dakota would never see their votes have an impact. Their voices and issues would never be heard or raised. The heavy-metro states would forever hoard the national debate. Even now, how much attention is given to the fly-over states? Only during elections do the opinions of the Midwest, South and Southwest matter. Without the Electoral College, those voices could never be heard.

Beyond that, the anti-Electoral College contingent complains that congressional re-elections have created “lifelong positions.” They are dead right on that single point, which is supported by the presence of the long-since-ripened Congressmen John Conyers and Charles Rangel, or Thad Cochran and Don Young. 

That aside, it often appears that when a Republican threatens to win an election, there are those who want to dispense with the Electoral College and go strictly with the popular vote. That opinion always shifts when it’s a Democratic candidate ahead in the polls or in the Oval Office. Certainly the cries against the electoral procedures were silent in 1993 when Bill Clinton sneaked into office with a mere plurality rather than a majority of the popular vote. For Clinton supporters, Electoral College certainly served its function then.

To some, the Electoral College represents a “nightmare scenario.” Why is understandable. Representative government stands firmly in the path of any one political concern’s desire to dominate the national government. That’s frustrating for people who are convinced they know what’s good for other people. Thank God and thank the founding fathers for keeping the electoral playing field at least a little more level so that neither position ever fully rules.