Labadie Mansion

The story of Frank and Samantha Labadie is as ironic as it is haunting. The tale takes place in Copan, Oklahoma. We are not for sure when they were wed but considering the seven-year age difference between the two, we are guessing in the early 1880s. But since there are no more Labadie relatives, we are not 100% sure. The story goes like this… Ever since the Labadie’s had been married they could not have a child. Both were heartbroken but more so, Frank. Living with them was Enos Parsons, a loyal black slave who did not want freedom even after the civil war. The story goes in the winter of 1892 when Parsons was 46, he and Samantha Labadie had an affair which ended in Samantha being pregnant. By about April of 1893, Samantha began to show that she was with a child. Frank rejoiced not knowing that the baby was not his. When the baby was born it was obviously black. In the end, Parsons admitted to the affair which caused Frank into a fury. Frank shot his 44 Henry Rifle one time killing Parsons. Frank dumped the body in a creek nearby. Some say the body never floated but sank right to the bottom of the creek, there where it lies today. When he returned to the house that night he told Samantha that he would send the baby down the creek. Then in the spring of 1935, Frank began to go absolutely crazy, saying that he was being haunted by the ghost of Enos Parsons. On April 1, 1935 Frank took out his colt house pistol, shot Samantha four times killing her and then killed himself with one shot. When the bodies were found, the sixth bullet was missing from the gun. When the house was searched, the 44 Henry rifle which he used to kill Parsons was never found. Now if anyone goes out near the Labadie mansion, people say they are haunted by the Labadie family and Enos Parsons. The ghosts of both Frank and Samantha haunt the mansion. Frank has been known to be very aggressive towards anyone who enters his home. Enos Parsons haunts the woods and the creek to which he was thrown, still holding the gun that was used to kill him. Shots have also been heard in the woods which cause the birds to strangely hover in the air above where the shot was. And if you look into the creek, you may just catch a glimpse of the Labadie baby that still haunts it.

While researching this I did find an interesting site. It lists all cemeteries in Washington County and also lists the names of the buried. If you scroll down, you will see that Enos Parsons is listed, but classified as “believed to be buried here”. If a state-run site states this, I think that it adds to the mystery. It truly is one of the best mysteries in the state.

Labadie Cemetery Site

And this is an interesting site regarding Frank Labadie’s family tree.

Frank Labadie Family Tree

Coming to Oklahoma in territorial days, Frank Labadie has witnessed the marvelous growth of the state as its vast resources have been exploited, and in the work of development and improvement, he has borne his full share through his operations as a farmer and lumberman and also in the oil fields. He was born in Miami County, Kansas, on September 3, 1860, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Labadie, the former of whom was of French Canadian descent and spoke the French language fluently. In 1871 the family came to Indian Territory, establishing their home in the northeastern part of Osage County, where the father devoted his attention to farming, conducting his operations on an extensive scale. He was a native of Detroit, Michigan, and in 1851 crossed the plains to California, where he successfully followed mining, later returning to Kansas, in which state he devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits. During the Civil war he engaged in the bakery and confectionery business, in which he also won a large measure of success, and his demise occurred in 1892. He was a man of marked business ability and executive force, in whose vocabulary there was no such word as fail, while the methods which he employed were such as would at all times bear the closest investigation and scrutiny.
His son, Frank Labadie, was educated at the Osage Mission and on starting out in life independently he took up the occupation of farming, devoting his attention to the further cultivation and improvement of the home place of fifteen hundred acres, situated in Osage County. This he continued to operate until 1891 but is now concentrating his attention largely upon the lumber business, dealing in hardwood timber, although he still owns the original homestead, receiving large royalties from oil wells located on the property, while he also owns a twenty-acre truck farm near Big-heart, in Osage County. t He has inherited much of his father’s business ability and his interests are most capably conducted.
In 1884 Mr. Labadie was united in marriage to Miss Samantha Ellen Miller, a native of Illinois, and they have become the parents of four children: Lola, the eldest, is now the wife of A. M. Thurman and they have a daughter, Geneva; John P., who is thirty-four years of age, married Mary Margaret Lunney of Ohio, by whom he has three children: John Frank, Helen Vivian and George Sherman; George V. is a graduate of the law department of the State University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, having the distinction of being the only member of the Osage tribe to graduate in law with all of the degrees, and he is now following his profession at Pawhuska, in Osage County. He married Bessie Bruce and they have two children, G. V. and Cora Jean; Paul F., who completes the family, is also married and is now residing in California. All of the sons have attained the thirty-second degree in Masonry and are exemplary representatives of the craft, while the father is identified with the Elks lodge.
For fifty years Mr. Labadie has resided in Oklahoma and personal experience has made him familiar with the hardships and privations of life on the frontier. While living in Kansas in 1867 all goods were freighted in from Kansas City, and he often relates many interesting experiences of the early days, his memory forming a connecting link between the primitive past and the progressive present. The spirit of the father has descended to the son and the vital and forceful personality which energized his nature is kept alive in the subject of this review, who has lived up to worthy standards and carried on his activities along progressive lines.

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