The Legend of 'Dog Boy'
Ghosts believed to inhabit Quitman house by By Lisa H. Armstrong CONTRIBUTING WRITER | October 28, 2007 at 5:51 a.m.LITTLE ROCK — Some people who live in Cleburne County believe ghosts, including a WWI soldier and a family, haunt a Victorian-era home in downtown Quitman. Why so many restless spirits in a sleepy town like Quitman? It may have to do with the area's past, said Dr. Mike Barnett. A retired physician and member of the Heber Springs Historical Society, he said, "Quitman is much older than almost any community in north-central Arkansas. During the Civil War, it was a popular place for men to enlist in the Army," he said. Until 1870, Quitman was a major trading center, and an important crossroads. "It was a halfway point for those traveling from Memphis to little Rock, or from Batesville to Conway. There were nice big houses and buildings there," he said.
Long-time resident Nelda Kennedy says the Garrett family erected one of Quitman's finer homes about 1890. Another local, Mary Nell Holabird, recalled the Jackson family who lived in the house at 65 Mulberry St.
"Benjamin Jackson lived there with his wife, who died when she was about 28 years old. Their son, Joseph, was born in 1898, served in WWI, and died at the age of about 21," Hola-bird said. She also claims that Jackson's spirit is among those who remain in the house across the street from hers.
In more recent years, the Garrett House has become notorious for its connection to a different family and has become known as the Bettis House.
Floyd and Alline Bettis moved into the large house in the early 1950s. The couple, childless for many years, had a son, Gerald Floyd Bettis, in 1954, according to a local historian and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette archives.
Gerald was a difficult child from early on, reported those who knew of him. "His parents were good people, but Gerald was a brat, vicious and cruel," Holabird said pt1
BOO!