A Ghostly Visitor Climbs the Dark Stairs & Other Tales

Moose Roberts recalls good times growing up in La Grange

Does Richard “Moose” Roberts of La Grange believe in ghosts? You’re darn right he does.

“I was 10 years old when my cousin, Second Lieutenant Alfred R. Eilers Jr., was killed in action during World War II. He was serving with the 68th Tank Battalion, Sixth Armored Division of Patton’s Third Army when he died on Feb. 22, 1945, in Germany. I’d known Alfred all my life because our families lived in La Grange,” Moose says.

Alfred’s mother, Exa, and Moose’s mother, Evelyn, were sisters. Evelyn and her children, Florice, Billy Mike, Moose and John C. “J.C.,” lived with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Mennike, in a big, old, two-story house on South Main Street.

The home served as the gathering place for the extended family. That included another daughter, Leila Kainer of Port Arthur, a son, Max, of Houston, and their spouses, plus about 18 grandchildren and 17 greatgrandchildren.

The Mennike house was an impressive structure built by La Grange merchant Amzi Bradshaw in 1904. There were four columns on the front porch and eight-foot tall double wooden front doors. Just inside, next to the stairs, stood an antique wooden hall tree where the family hung its hats and coats. A wooden staircase curved partway up to the second floor. At the top, there was a bedroom to the left and three more to the right.

“I slept in the bedroom to the left and by 10 o’clock almost every night we’d all be in bed. The house would be quiet,” Moose says.

“That is until I guess it was about a month after Alfred Jr.’s death. We heard slow footsteps coming up the stairs.

“Thump, thump, thump.

“Everyone in the house heard those footsteps. That sound scared the devil out of me as a kid,” Moose recalls.

“After the noise reoccurred several nights running, we flipped the light switch on outside my bedroom, but there was nobody on the stairs. After a couple more nights, we figured out that if we made a noise, the steps would stop. So that’s what we did.”

Members of the family were perplexed by the unprecedented nocturnal activity. They discussed one theory after another, talking of little else.

Moose recalls his Aunt Exa, Alfred Jr.’s mother, heard the same eerie footsteps at her home near the library a few nights later. It frightened Mrs. Ehlers so badly that she lost her balance, fell and broke her shoulder.

After that incident, the footsteps were never heard again in the Mennike or Ehlers’ homes as far as Moose knows.

The family concluded that the ghost of 22-year-old Alfred Jr. had been climbing the stairs in both houses.

“Thinking about it still gives me goose bumps,” Moose says.

Although he never had a ghostly encounter himself, Moose always gave the large two-story Studemann-Duncan home down the street a wide berth. It had a reputation of being haunted.

Growing Up in La Grange

Moose was born at Fayette Memorial Hospital in La Grange in 1934 to Evelyn Mennike and Mike Benjamin Roberts. His earliest memory is of the fire that destroyed an old barn behind his grandparents’ home. Moose watched as the old structure that still contained some hay went up in flames quickly before the fire department could arrive.

“My grandparents rented it to a guy who parked his car in there. Maybe he dropped a cigarette or something.”

Starting at about the age of seven, Moose began mowing neighbors’ lawns for 25¢ each. That year his mother bought him a brand new bicycle. It cost $4, a substantial sum of money in the waning years of the Great Depression. Moose kept it polished like a new car that had just rolled off the showroom floor.

Moose also recalls in the 1930s when floodwaters from the Colorado River rose all the way to the chicken fence at the back of his grandparents’ property. Small animals like rabbits and skunks fled past the Mennike house in search of safety at higher ground.

Grandparents

Moose was very fond and proud of his grandparents.

His grandfather, William Mennike, was appointed to serve an unexpired term as Fayette County Tax Collector before successfully running for election in 1906 on the Democratic ticket. Part of Mr. Mennike’s responsibility was to visit the different towns in Fayette County annually on a published schedule. This gave poll taxpayers an opportunity to pay their bills without having to make what was sometimes an arduous trip to the county seat in La Grange.

A Dec. 5, 1907, news article in the The La Grange Journal reported that Mr. Mennike had completed his rounds for the year. The story noted “heavy rains made traveling by vehicle quite burdensome, as some of the roads were badly washed, and the creeks rather high. The citizens at the various towns in the county were on hand and promptly settled the taxes for the year.”

When Fayette County Commissioners Court passed special tax assessments, Mr. Mennike acted on its behalf. In April 1920, he was ordered to proceed at once after a special $5.00 road tax was levied. People on the tax rolls were told, “Promptly remit a check or money order at once, as the road funds of the county are in urgent need of money.”

Mr. Mennike served Fayette County as tax collector for 18 years before joining the Texas State Comptroller’s office in Austin. For many years, he served under George Hartfield Sheppard, who was Texas State Comptroller from 1930 until he died in office in 1949. In fact, Mr. Mennike purchased reelection campaign ads in The La Grange Journal and urged his Fayette County friends to vote for his boss in 1934. Mr. Mennike held his position in state government for 30 years. He finally retired at the age of 87 following injuries suffered in a fall.

Mrs. Mennike, an ardent gardener, saw to it that the front and back yards at the family’s La Grange home were beautifully landscaped.

“Grandma had a huge wisteria on the north side of the house that must have been 12 or 15 feet tall. The limbs hung to the ground with long purple blooms every spring. The vine towered over a little shed that we used as a playhouse except when the wisteria was in bloom. It was filled with bees and we couldn’t get near it without getting stung!” Moose recalls.

An archway across the front sidewalk was covered with another vigorous plant, a blue moon vine that bloomed at night.

“I can still smell it,” he adds.

Mrs. Mennike’s prolific rose beds lined the front walk and she filled numerous flowerbeds. In the Mennike’s backyard was a hothouse that was set partially into the ground where she raised her own bedding plants and kept her tender potted plants from freezing in the winter.

The Mennikes built a full two-story wing on the house heated by two wood fireplaces.

“There was a wood box on the screened back porch that was as big as a kitchen table. A cord of wood cost about $2 and it was sawed on the spot,” he recalls, adding the windows opened wide to catch any breezes during the heat of the summer.

Although Moose’s grandparents both spoke German, they never encouraged their grandchildren to learn the language. Moose regrets that they didn’t pass along their Mother Tongue.

Good Old School Days

Moose and his siblings walked six blocks to school in La Grange where he made good grades. Books were fine, but starting sports at an early age was what fired his imagination.

“When I was 10 or 11, I came up with a homemade pole vault using a chinaberry tree limb for a pole,” he says.

Before he was old enough to play in high school football games, Moose would hang around when the buses were loading before hitting the road for out-of-town matches. If he was lucky, a bus driver or coach would tell him to get on at the last minute and away he would go. Often his older brother, Billy Mike, would be playing.

“He inspired me,” Moose says. “I wanted to be like Billy Mike.”

When Moose hit his stride, he thoroughly enjoyed every game or match he ever played.

“If there was a sport, I was part of it,” he recalls, counting off football, baseball, track, tennis and volleyball on his fingers. Moose earned the distinction of lettering in every sport in which he participated during high school.

What was his favorite? A thoughtful expression rolls across Moose’s face.

“I guess it would be football, but that’s a really hard choice.”

Moose started working with Frank Hanacek in the back shop at the La Grange Journal during high school. He did everything from making the forms to creating ads and running the press. (He kept that up all through high school and worked for the Journal six years after he graduated.)

Despite his demanding work schedule, Moose followed his coaches’ advice and practiced two hours of football in the late afternoon followed by two hours of tennis.

Moose got his nickname when he was in high school. Billy Mike was talking to G.B. Mueller in his florist shop on West Travis when the teenager walked by.

“Your brother looks like a moose with those big shoulders,” Mr. Mueller told Billy Mike, who brought home the news. Moose’s moniker came into being that day.

Gridiron memories

If you search for Moose’s name in the Fayette County newspaper collection in the Portal to Texas History online, you’ll find an astounding 516 entries. Search for Rick Roberts and there are another 107 entries.

So let’s look back at The Fayette County Record’s football game coverage 67 years ago this month, Oct. 20, 1953, during Moose’s senior year, a fantastic evening of Lep football unfolds.

La Grange Lads Play Aggressively During Whole Game - The La Grange High Leopards playing before a near capacity audience here Friday night on Lep Field recorded their finest performance of the season, defeating the favored Lockhart Lions 19-6 by aggressive, alert, “heads up” football.

The Leps, who looked like young collegians against the invaders and who kept driving throughout the fracas, were just not to be denied their win. They wanted it, they worked for it, and they got it.

The locals’ first tally came in sensational fashion. In the first canto, Buddy Kallus, who alternated between the backfield and the line and who starred all the way, stole a pitch-out from Lockhart and raced 72 yards for a Lep marker. Richard Roberts kicked the extra point and it was 7-0.

In the second quarter, Terry Brugger, who also looked excellent for the winners, ran to the 20. A play later, the Leps fumbled and the Lions recovered on the 21. A few plays later with Lockhart on the 32, the invaders juggled the oval and La Grange recovered. Dickie Ehlert, who zipped passes with astute accuracy through the melee, rifled a pass to Richard Roberts for the second touchdown. Try for point failed and 13-0 was the halftime tally.

Charlie Hengst, who registered yeoman service during the fray, went to the 22 after an aerial from Ehlert in the third chapter to set the stage for the third touchdown. Ehlert aerialed again to Ralph Rosenberg for a neat gain and two plays later, Dickie Ehlert rammed the Lion line for 5 yards for a TD. The kick for the extra point failed and La Grange led 19-0.

The Lions in the final quarter, eventually worked down to the 19-yard stripe, from which point Howard Grantham passed 18 yards to Dawson Perry for a touchdown. Try for point failed and it was La Grange 19, Lockhart 6.

Picking individual standouts is difficult; all of the Leps hustled during the entire fracas. Buddy Kallus, Terry Brugger, Dickie Ehlert, Richard Roberts and Charlie Hengst all were tops offensively, while Mike Smith, Milton Von Minden and Edward Weeren were among the defensive standouts.

From the viewpoint of entertainment – not because of a local win – the game was one of the best ever seen here. Both teams were in there tussling all the way and gave grid fans a real show.

“There were some fantastic players on our team,” Moose recalls. “Those were good times!”

As much as Moose enjoyed his high school sports career, managing the La Grange Jaycee Demons baseball teams to win its league in 1967 and 1968 is every bit as sweet. Here’s what the championship meant to the city.

La Grange Jaycee Demons Win South Central Texas Amateur League – If La Grange had a tower that lit up like that of the University of Texas when the Longhorns are victorious, it would surely have glowed more brilliantly this week than ever to radiate the glory and excitement of the La Grange Jaycee Demons, the 1967 SCTAL champs.

The thrilling climax to the season came Sunday in Weimar when the charges of Richard Roberts pounced on the Vets 15 to 9 in the third and final game of the league playoffs. Roberts, who is comparatively younger than most amateur league team managers, brought the championship back to La Grange in his first year as leader.

Moose wouldn’t trade those memories for anything!

If you’d like to read more of Elaine’s stories, visit www.elainethomaswriter.com/blog/ and sign up to receive new posts twice a month. You can also call Elaine at 979-263-5031.