The story Axe Hill Cemetery and Asylum is part of a forgotten past that has been purposely buried and stricken from many public records. On September 8, 1900, Axe Hill Cemetery and Asylum was destroyed. Galveston Island Texas, was hit by the Great Hurricane of 1900 and destroyed everything in its path.
What can be found in some public records after the storm hit in 1900 was Axe Hill was built around 1892. Public record does not show who built the house but does note that a John and Mary Alexander was in charge up till the time of the hurricane. A few public records that were located in 1983 showed the Alexanders had three people that took care of twenty-three patients. One of the people was a German Doctor named Ernest Klaus. There was little or no information on Ernest Klaus from the census bureau between 1893 and 1900. In 1985 the original public records that was found had turned up missing and we could not go back and review the documents. In 1986 we were instructed to search the county archives again by an anonymous phone call that told us to look up public records for a butchers shop named Ox Hill. We hit pay dirt, we found tons of information on Ernest Klaus along with information on some patients. Before we started digging deeper, we wanted to find out why the records were mixed up. Was it because in the similarity of names? As we went deeper, things became strange and twisted and at times unbelievable. The most extraordinary item that we found was on a patient named Joseph Laskey. We searched for Mr. Laskey but found no record on him or his family. In his patient records it appears many attempts were made to cure him of mental illness. For the sake of the writing I will not go into what was done. All the other patient records clearly show they were mentally ill and the manner for which they treated the individual was horrific. Dr. Klaus became a man of intrigue to us, we attempted to find out why he was referred to as a doctor when his methods were far from scientific. In late 1986, we attempted to go back and finish our work on Axe Hill and once again, found all public records of Ox Hill now missing. The one thing left was something new and it appears it was left for us. A notebook that Dr. Klaus used to keep notes on his patients and his... experiments where found. When we opened the book, it was all written in German so I had a good friend of mine from the University of Texas come down to translate over the few days he had off. When he began to translate, my friend thought this was a complete joke, and thought I was pulling his leg. When pressing him as to why he thought this, he started reading out loud what was written in the pages of this book. As I mentioned earlier about not going into details for sake of the writing, I will continue but will give you a glimpse of the things Dr. Klaus did to the patients and also to himself. One entry that was made described the practice of exposing the full length of on patients spine and wiring it straight, to make the patient sit upright. The entry goes on to show the patient lived like this for over a year. How the person did not die from infection is beyond me. The book also notes about opening the skulls of patients and probing the insides to find sickness and disease for those that had physical deformations. Dr. Klaus went as far as amputating one female patients’ leg and replacing it with a leg from a recently deceased patient. The poor woman lived six month from what the book noted. The book details quite a bit of the horror that took place in the house. After reading through the entire book, some parts pointed out that Dr. Klaus was sending information to a colleague back in Germany. We could never truly identify the other person, but his named was referenced one time as 'Mengele'. We knew it could not be Jospeh Mengele, as he would not have been old enough, but the German name is not common. Again, we searched and found nothing on this person. After inspecting the book and taking numerous notes, we thought this time, that maybe we should take the book due to the fact that every time we left and came back, everything was gone. My research assistant talked me out of it and cited it as stealing. Even though I wanted to take the book and go to Austin and see if something could be done about a tragedy over a hundred years ago, she won and I left the book alone.
UPDATE: September 4th 1997
We received a letter in the mail about Axe Hill, stating that all the public records and the notebook we had reviewed over the years was found in a small house on the east end of Galveston Island. The location of the house was noted to supposedly be the location where Axe Hill once stood. The letter stated that we could come retrieve the documents on the condition that we publish the research we did in the past and currently have done on Axe Hill.
UPDATE: September 12th 1997
I think we are getting to close to something, something I am not sure we really want to be evolved in. Upon arrival to the address we were given, the house was on fire and ambulances out front. When I asked who's house this was, the fireman replied 'John Alexander the 2nd"... You talk about dead silence from me after I heard that. When I asked if anyone was present in the fire, I was informed yes. I left it alone at that and drove off. 3 Days later I received a call from someone speaking in a thick German accent telling me and my assistant to leave well enough alone or I will wind up like the rest of them. The call was quick and to the point and left me rattled.
UPDATE: August 25th, 2004
I was down in Galveston today near the site of the fire and where Axe Hill once stood. It appears apartments have been built on the site. I started to talk to one of the tenants and asked her how she liked living on the island? she replied " I hate it, I see things in my apartment all the time, I am not the only one". I asked her if she meant haunted and she exclaimed "Oh yeah" I pressed on a little further and she told me she has seen this guy that looks like a doctor walking down halls in the building and the sound of people screaming all the time.
I don’t really believe in ghost and goblins, but this seemed to be related. I remember the phone call years earlier and decided to leave my curiosity alone before something bad happened.
UPDATE: October 15th, 2004
Just a few weeks after visiting Galveston, I was received a letter in the mail describing another part of the Axe Hill story. After the house was destroyed in Great Hurricane of 1900, Dr. Klaus did not die. from the letter he moved further inland about 70 miles. It was stated, that he bought an old farm and was never really heard from again. Along with the letter was news paper clippings from the Houston Post around 1920, talking about missing children in and around the Farmers to Market Road 1960 area. After looking at a few area maps of North Houston, I located a road named Ox Hill... I am unsure if there is any link and I am not sure I want to find out.
UPDATE: December 23rd, 2004
With a few days before Christmas, you would think I would be something else rather than be digging up the past on something with such a horrific story. Anyways, after going through the Harris County public records from 1920 to 1934, I stumbled across the farm we think Dr. Klaus lived at. It seems the farm was on the banks of Cypress Creek just north of FM1960. As befor in a previous enrty, we found Ox Hill road and sure enough, Cypress Creek is about 1000 yards to the south.
UPDATE: May 21, 2005
I have spent the last few month trying to understand more about the development of the area around Ox Hill road. It appears that around 1952 the land was bought by a private owner but no name is given or what the land was used for. In 1964 records show it was sold off to a land developer which 4 years later was broken up and sold to other companies. In 1969 the Cyrpess Wood subdivision was started and homes were constructed by multiple builders. Durring the construction county records show 3 areas were unearthed which appeard to be cemeteries but no head stones were found. It is not clear what was done with the remains found. I am hoping I can track down someone from the county that worked back then to see if the can tell me what was found and what was done.
UPDATE: May 21, 2006
A whole year has passed since I have worked on this. In the meantime, my assistant quit and I am left alone to with all my work. Enough of my problems though. Over the past year I found a former county inspector that was involved with land development in 1969. He told me that the county tried to contact all previous owners of the property in order to relocate the remains unearthed. He said, the county did not find anyone and had to make a decision to either remove the remains or dispose of them. I asked what happen and he said he was not at liberty to tell me. At this piont I had a funny feeling that the county did not dispose but left them in place. Only thing going thorugh my mind right now, is I feel bad for all those people living in the Cypress Wood subdivision. Moving along, I asked how the streets got their names, especialy Ox Hill. He remembered this very well. When the land was sold, the company started to clear and demolsh the property. A huge barn was found with an old wooden sign that was mostly rotten that read Ox Hill Dairy. When I heard this, I was not suprised as the information I have collected has pointed to the general location. I pressed the former inspector a little more about how many graves they found. He could not remember the exact number but he said it was in the low 20's... I thought to myself that in the early 1900's they listed twenty-three patients, but in no way could they have been all be alive that many years later. In fact his old journal listed 2 that died.
UPDATE: August 7, 2008
Been a long time since I touched this. I have been reassigned at the college and that is taking up all my time for researching my own interest. I still have a ton of notes that I want to get online for other to read. My old assistent sent me a box of material she had that she forgot to give me. Some of her notes on Dr. Klaus journal I though was misplaced but she had them... thank God... I hope in the next few weeks to get all this up online.
UPDATE August 14, 2008
I hate using college computers... well anyway, someone broke into my apartment and stole my laptop, and a box I had all the Axe Hill information in. Those were the only two items taken. The police think it was someone I knew and called my old assistant questioning her... I talked to her after trying to tell her, I told the cops it wasn't her. She told me right after she sent her notes to me, her house was broken into and ransacked, but nothing was taken. I asked her if the notes she sent me was the only thing and she replied "kind of"... She asked me if I looked in the bottom of the box she sent for a large envelope and I told her "no". She then took the liberty to inform me it was Dr. Klaus journal and she was the one who took it because she had a bad feeling back in the day and was afraid something bad would happen to me... great now I learn she had feelings for me... Anyways.. whoever broke into my apartment knew what they were looking for.
UPDATE: September 21, 2008
I called the police today after I got a phone call Dell computers today saying someone called in for tech support on my laptop. What an idiot... whoever stole my laptop was calling for support on it.. HA!! Well I let them know and they said they would contact Dell and get back to me.
UPDATE: September 29, 2008
Police called today, they said the Dell tech support call did not pan out and that the person who made the call was an old German man that spoke bad english and that the Dell tech heard the serial number wrong... ok, I had a 'what the hell moment' I began to try to tell the cop the whole story, and you know, the further I got into it, the less it sounded believable... I give up.. God hates me...
UPDATE: October 12, 2008
I am no longer suprised by anything that surrounds Axe Hill.... So, today I got a phone call from... guess who... an old German man wanting to know if I would like my laptopn back.... Ugh.... I thought about calling the police but I figured, screw them, I will go get it and have a serious discussion with this guy whoever he is... To be safe, I take my .45 with me, I mean he is an old man right?
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