he. I took a quick glance at my brother. His face showed that he was also in awe at what was taking place before us. I returned my eyes to the medicine man that had now dug a hole about a foot deep. Then he stopped his digging and seemed to recover from his trance.
In a dazed voice, the medicine man asked my brother to bring a lamp over to him, which he quickly did. Then the medicine man reached into the hole he had just dug, and to all our amazement, pulled out a soil-covered sweater, which belonged to my grandfather! The medicine man said, “Here is what the witch used for her evil medicine against your grandfather, but now I will use it against her. She used this sweater as her only way to witch him. She will no longer be able to have control over him!” After saying this, he sang a song while placing the eagle feather and corn pollen over the head and shoulders of my grandfather. My grandfather took a deep breath and fell to one side. My brother was ready to catch him as he fell. Grandfather said he was tired and wanted to sleep. We left him there in his hogan covered in warm wool blankets. The ceremony was over.
We followed the medicine man outside the hogan as he carried the sweater and placed it on the ground. He asked for a lamp, and emptied the kerosene from it over the sweater. He lit a match and tossed it on the sweater. The fire slowly began to burn and consume the sweater. Then, in the distance, we heard a piercing loud scream, a howl. We turned in the direction of the sound and spotted a ball of light, which rose up high into the sky, then bounced away and disappeared into the desert! The medicine man informed us that what we had just heard and seen was the witch. He said, “She will never be able to recover her strength, I found her power and she will be eaten up by her own evil.”
After that night, grandfather returned to his old self. I am convinced of the powers, which some bad people can use to harm others. So much jealously and evil exits in the world. However, it is good to know that in the end, the power of the Creator always wins. I have seen it.”
Town of Holbrook
Holbrook is on the banks of the Little Colorado River in northeastern Arizona’s Navajo County high plateau country. In 1881, railroad tracks were laid in northeastern Arizona, passing through an area known as Horsehead Crossing. The following year a railroad station was built at Horsehead Crossing and the community’s name was changed to Holbrook in honor of Henry Randolph Holbrook, first chief engineer of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. Holbrook, at an elevation of 5,080 feet, became the county seat of Navajo County in 1895 and was incorporated in 1917.
Holbrook is an important trade center for northeastern Arizona. Its location on historic Route 66 and on Interstate 40 at the junction of four major highways, between the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest to the south and the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations to the north, makes tourism important to the local economy.
The Navajo County Courthouse
This historic courthouse is located at the northeast corner of Arizona Street and Navajo Boulevard. Currently it houses the Chamber of Commerce offices and the Historical Society Museum. In 1976, a new governmental center was established south of the city. All county offices were then moved from the courthouse to this new location. In 1981 the County Board of Supervisors requested that the Navajo County Historical Society open a museum in the old building. Local residents graciously donated furniture, keepsakes and other wonderful items along with written family histories to include in the displays, which are presently on view in the museum. Aside from the many notorious trials that were held in the courtroom, only one hanging took place in the courtyard on January 8, 1900, at 2 p.m. The name of the executed was George Smiley who was hung for the murder of T. J. McSweeney.
The following are reproduced invitations to the hanging of George Smiley, for murder, which occurred at Holbrook on January 8, 1900. Issued by F. J. Wattron, Sheriff of Navajo County.
This first invitation, the news of which was sent out by the Associated Press, brought a letter of condemnation from then President William McKinley to Governor Nathan Oakes Murphy, of the Territory of Arizona. Governor Murphy severely rebuked Sheriff Wattron, and issued a stay of execution, whereupon the Sheriff sent out the second sarcastic invitation.
The following is the deposition of T. J. McSweeney after being shot. Filed on October 4, 1899.
Question: What is your name?
Answer: T. J. McSweeney.
Question: Where do you reside?
Answer: Have been residing at Dennison.
Question: You are employed as section foreman of the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Company at Dennison?
Answer: Yes, sir, at Dennison.
Question: What is the man’s name who did the shooting?
Answer: George Smiley.
Question: What do you think caused him to commit this act? What were his reasons?
Answer: He claimed I ought to give him time check when he quit. I had to go to El Paso to have my wife’s eyes treated and I asked Mr. Crowley to send man down there and this fellow worked one day for Garrity and then quit and then, of course, Garrity was the man to give him his time check. I had no more to do with it.
Question: He worked for Mr. Garrity after you had taken leave?
Answer: Yes, sir.
Question: Go ahead and tell me just what he said?
Answer: He just walked right up to me and either said, “Give me my time check” or “I want my time check,” but before I had a chance to reply, came right up and struck me.
Question: What did he strike you with?
Answer: I do not know; something hard.
Question: Where did he hit you?
Answer: In the mouth and face, just one blow.
Question: What did you do then?
Answer: I started to run and he shot me in the back and I kept running.
Marita R. Keams’ (Navajo) Story
I interviewed Marita at the courthouse, where she was employed as receptionist and information clerk for the Museum and Chamber of Commerce. Marita is a Navajo woman who has had numerous encounters with ghosts at the courthouse. She believes that perhaps one of the spirits that follows her around the property is the ghost of the executed man, Smiley. “I know he’s around here all the time. I can feel him looking at me,” she says.
What follows is a detailed account of something that cannot be contained behind glass cases and roped off rooms. When the lights are turned off at the Navajo County Courthouse and all daily business has ended, another type of activity chooses to begin to stir, an activity of curiously weird noises, voices, and more. Marita can tell you what she has experienced,
