Monday, December 27, 2004
The Legendary Greeting Ghosts of the (Bonilla, SD) Railroad.
For years, the Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad passenger trains were greeted by an old man and his faithful dog at the Bonilla, South Dakota station. Both man and dog took pride in greeting the CM & SP RR passengers as they disembarked from the trains in all kinds of weather and at all hours of the day and night, often staying up into the wee hours of the morning to greet a late arriving train. With his dog at his side, the old man would go to the Post Office in the old James Hotel in search of information on late passenger arrivals, knowing that the Postmaster was waiting for the mail to arrive with the passenger train that was overdue.
With no family of his own to speak of, the old man was lonely and longed for the companionship of others. In reality, his dog was the only family he had and the two of them were inseparable. Even in death.
To lessen his loneliness, the old man would, with his constant companion at his heels, often spend time playing cards and socializing at the two story Old Elevator House with the crews of the town’s grain elevators who lived there. Other times he would visit with the guests or residents of the old three story James Hotel and talk with them about the latest news in and around town over a meal served up by the hotel.
On the long and bitterly cold nights of January with the strong Northwest winds and blowing snow making it unfit for man nor beast to be outside, the old man would occasionally remember his family and wish he could be with them. Sometimes he would remember the ladies who had been in love with him and showered their affections on him, and the ladies he had been deeply in love with. Other times he fantasized of being with one of the town’s prostitutes, but never had enough money, or one of the wives of the local well to do businessmen or town leaders--several of the married and well to do ladies would go to bed with a man who showed an interest in them to satisfy their frustrations brought on by their husbands indifference in bed--as a way of reliving his loneliness. At the Old Elevator House, which by the way had a reputation for being excessively cold in winter, the old man would bundle up in winter for warmth as he conversed with the men living there, while his dog laid in front of one of the wood stoves to keep warm as he slept. Their conversations touched on many subjects in and around the towns of Bonilla, Wolsey, Hitchcock, and Tulare, especially when one of the trainmen visited the Old Elevator House.
Sometimes the old man would buy a train ticket to one of the surrounding towns when he had the money, and sometimes he was allowed free passage on one of the trains as a favor from one of the trainmen he was friendly with. These out of town trips, sometimes with his dog riding in the baggage car, were a welcomed relief from his loneliness as he saw new faces and got to meet new friends while visiting with old ones. When the old man couldn’t bring his faithful dog with him on the train, his dog would stay very close to the train depot waiting for his master’s return.
The death of the old man and his dog was hastened when the railroad’s passenger train service faded into history. The last passenger train to stop at Bonilla was like a knife being thrust into the old man’s heart. From his friends on the railroad, the old man was one of the first to learn of passenger trains being discontinued and that his life on earth was nearing its end. While his friends knew of his love of greeting the passenger trains with his trusted and faithful dog, they never knew just how much this meant to him or of his well hidden loneliness. Deep down inside, the old man wanted no one to know how lonely he really was and did everything he could to hide it from the rest of the world, especially his friends. As the last train sat at the Bonilla depot waiting for the last passenger to disembark, the old man found it difficult to hide his sorrow, but put on a brave act in his greeting the passengers. As the last passenger got off the train, the old man could feel the tears welling up in his eyes. As the last train faded from view on its way to the next town, the old man stood there and watched the death of an era that meant so very much to him with his beloved dog at his side, knowing that his beloved passengers had forever forsaken them both against their will, to never return.
The old man’s dog had the feeling that things were not as they should be as the old man bent down to hold him tightly with a strange look on his face and tears in his eyes. Wagging his tail and licking the old man’s face, the dog did his best to let the old man know he was not alone and that the two of them would be together forever.
With no more passengers to greet as they disembarked from the trains, the old man became more and more depressed. Friends tried to cheer him up as best they could, but would often bring on the memories of the old days and depress the old man even more. As time passed, the old man spent more and more time at home with the only family he had, his beloved dog.
With the loneliness slowly eating away on his heart, the old man’s health deteriorated with the passing of time. No longer did he leave home to eat, but left home only to buy food to have at home. Many times the loneliness was so unbearable that he could not eat, even if he wanted to, only nobody knew of this because the old man had become a recluse. Not knowing what he did to cause the railroad to discontinue it’s passenger service, the old man would often blame himself and, occasionally, his dog. One day the old man could stand the depression no longer and in attempt to forget his loneliness, closed his eyes to sleep. He never awakened in this life, but some believe he awakened in another, to eternally search for his beloved passengers and to frequent the places he and his dog used to find comfort in while trying to seek out a new friend who could understand him.
No longer among the living, the old man and his dog have been seen walking the railroad tracks in Bonilla at night with the old man carrying a lantern in search of the passenger trains that are now a thing of the past.
Footnote.
Some old timers of Beadle, Spink, and Hand County’s in South Dakota, still remember the old Bonilla of years past when it had a reputation for being a wild and woolly town of 300 or so residents and the old James Hotel, Peterson’s Grocery, Bonilla Lumber Yard, and the Old Elevator House as local landmarks. Some may even remember the old man and his dog and their greeting passengers of the old Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad.
Bonilla, now a near ghost town with fewer than a dozen households, still has a few of the old buildings remaining and perhaps, the ghost of the old man and his faithful dog. Gone are the Bonilla Lumber Yard and the old three story James Hotel with it’s first floor Post Office--the front door of the old Post Office has been rescued along with some artifacts and parts of the old James Hotel. Still remaining are Peterson’s Grocery on the NE corner of 1st Ave. and Main Street, the original one story Land Office on the NW corner of 3rd Street and 1st Ave. and next door to the west, on 3rd Street, the two story Old Elevator House where a number of strange and unexplained things have happened in recent years.
Still structurally sound with it’s original wood shingle roof of nearly 100 years, the Old Elevator House (built about 1901) was a local haunt of the old man and his dog for many years. For nigh on 100 years now, the Old Elevator House has been through many good times and bad, survived all kinds of sever weather from the dust storms of the dirty thirties to record blizzards with twenty plus foot snow drifts, and has many secrets of the past within it’s walls. With the number of strange things that have happened here in recent years and not fully explained, could it be the past has found refuge in the present with an old man and his beloved dog still seeking the companionship of old friends he can no longer have by trying to communicate with possible new ones and still be cautious enough to avoid the possible rejection and heartbreak from those of us who are skeptical of such things as ghosts and things unexplainable?
Copyright © 1998 Ben Bartell
