Annual Ghost Walking Tour puts spooky twist on local history

JACKSON, Tenn. — We’ve received several reports of ghost sightings in downtown Jackson.

Now over the course of the evening, I’ve managed to make contact with a few of the ghosts we’ve heard from. Tonight the first, well former Jackson Judge Milton Brown Gilmore.

In his lifetime, the judge was close to the Vanderbilt family and was instrumental in getting the early railroad to Jackson.

This move truly made Jackson into the Hub City. His house stood on South Royal Street until it was destroyed by the May 4, 2003 tornado.

The last ghost I made contact with, well that’s none other than Jackson’s first Irish-born Mayor James O’Connor.

Mayor O’Connor, hailing from county Wexford, Ireland, was brought to the U.S. by his parents and originally settled in St. Louis, Missouri.

He eventually moved to Jackson to make boots for both the union and confederate armies.

After the war, he was elected mayor of Jackson but resigned after one year. He heavily invested in child care, especially for those with alcoholic parents.

He told me his first memory as a ghost was seeing all the kids of Jackson lined up from his shop on Shannon Street to Riverside Cemetery to pay respects.

The ghosts have led me back to First United Methodist Church. Let’s go inside and see what they have to show us.

As it turns out, the ghosts are helping out the Jackson Area Business and Professional Women.

Their dinner, catered by Baker Brothers BBQ, is part of their annual Ghost Walking Tour to help the Hub City get into the Halloween spirit.

“These are people that lived here in Jackson and they died here and so it’s a historical type of event and educational for our community,” said Margaret Taylor, president of Jackson Area Business and Professional Women.

After the dinner, the ghosts guided visitors through the Jackson of the past. This was the 16th year of the annual ghost walking tour.

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