From 1952 until his death in 1970, ET Wickham lovingly labored away on a series of statues he displayed near his home on Buck Smith Road in Palmyra, Tennessee. He built Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox, President John F. Kennedy, Patrick Henry, and others in statuary form. Some say he loved his statues so much that even now, after his death, he haunts the area to protect them from vandalism.
Long time residents remember Wickham as a great man and member of the community. Concurrently, reports of his haunting say that the ghost is generally benevolent, and merely wishes to protect the statues, which have suffered at the hands of disrespectful vandals already.
Another legend says that there are bodies buried beneath the statuary. A man killed his wife and buried her there, then killed his son when he realized that the son had witnessed the murder and buried him beneath another statue. Realizing the awful nature of what he had just done, he killed himself. Now all three are said to haunt the statues.
|
|
