Page 6 • October 23, 2013
The Collegian •
www.centralmethodist.edu
Spooky happenings abound on CMU campus The following was written by Cathy Thogmorton and originally published in the Winter 2004-2005 edition of the Talon, the official magazine of Central Methodist University. It has been edited slightly to reflect more recent developments. **** The grand dame of the college campus, Howard-Payne, has three resident ghosts, at least one of whom derives from a true incident. This young lady attended college in the 1940s while the dorm was being reconstructed. Unfortunately for her, as she walked past the construction one day, a brick fell and hit her on the head, killing her. Since that time she is said to materialize out of the fog, trying in vain to reach the safety of the dorm. The other two ghosts associated with HP are less visible to the masses. One young lady disappeared from her room on the third floor of HP South and was never heard from again. Of course it’s possible she got homesick. Soon after, something trashed her untouched room, breaking all the furniture and strewing her possessions around. Oddly, no one heard anything. Suspecting a human prank, the college boarded up the room. The next morning footprints were seen going up to the door. When the door was unboarded and opened, the footprints were likewise found on the inside. Unlike the first one, the second co-ed left no doubt about her departure – she hanged herself from the pipes in her room on the fourth floor of HP North. Even today students hear the creaking and rattling of the pipes as her ghost swings on them; and her shadow, hanging over the floor, is still said to be seen. Brannock Hall Brannock Hall (photo above taken around 1910) offers up the oldest of the campus ghost stories. During the Civil War the Union forces appropriated the lone college building to house men and horses. Little was left of the building when they finally abandoned it in 1864. Legend claims, however, they left one thing behind – the buried body of a young stable boy who had been in charge of tending the horses. One night something spooked the horses, and in their panic they trampled the boy to death. People who stay in Brannock late at night have been known to hear hoof beats, screams, and the grave sound of shovels hitting hard ground. According to Bob Rackley of the Advancement Office, other spirits may also roam the building. After the most recent renovation of Brannock in the early 1990s, Bob’s office was in the northwest section of the third floor. One morning campus security told him that they had seen someone at his window the night before. When they went inside to check, there was no one any-
where in the building. “I think I’d have been happier not knowing that,” Bob laughs. With the violence that enveloped the Civil War, echoes of the past in this old building are not unexpected. Library Ghost Libraries are generally considered havens from the real world where one can get lost in the past (or the stacks). One of CMU’s lesser known but certainly most malevolent spirits may spend time in the Methodistica section. A freshman girl purportedly was cornered by the vile ghost of a worker who died while Cupples was being built. According to legend the librarian heard the girl screaming and intervened; the ectoplasmic intruder vanished. The librarian began a search and discovered the man who had died was wanted in Kansas for seven murders. Needless to say, the girl opted to give up college and return home. Swinney Conservatory Nowhere on campus can ghost stories proliferate better than in the Swinney Conservatory of Music. Perhaps it is the number of tragedies connected with the Con. Perhaps it’s the romantic atmosphere of music and the emotional nature of musicians. Perhaps not. The three most prominent night visitors to the Con are Tom Birch, N. Louise Wright, and Opal Hayes, each of whom spent many happy years of life there. If any ghosts truly roam the campus, odds are good these are among them, admits Tom Yancey, former music student and professor. He says, “I figure N. Louise and Tom Birch are probably over there somewhere because they died in the middle of concerts there.” In fact, like most of Fayette, Tom was at the concert when band director Tom Birch died. “It was terrible,” he remembers, “something that stays with you a lifetime.” His comments were echoed by Collegian Editorial Advisor Jim Steele who has a senior was present that fateful night of May 1, 1964. Professor Birch was conducting the band in the assembly hall shortly after the annual spring tour, playing Moussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” During a passage in the piece known as “The Catacombs,” Birch died and fell off the stage into a set of drums. More than once since his death, students have encountered the good professor under the clock tower. He appears in a tuxedo, smiles, and says, “Lovely evening for a concert, isn’t it?” Then he walks through the locked Assembly Hall doors and disappears. Former Dean of the Conservatory, Ron Shroyer, has his own take on the ghost. He suspects Fayette’s former resident poet laureate, Mather Marvin, who spent much time on campus, foisting his poetry on unsuspect-
ing audiences and modeling for the art department. “I suspect it was Mather Marvin just being himself,” the Dean said, “because he was always hanging around.” Since his passing the question may be, is it Tom Birch or Mather Marvin who students now encounter? N. Louise Wright, first dean of the Conservatory, died during a performance in the Recital Hall of Swinney Conservatory in 1958, much as Tom Birch would six years later. According to the late Helen Throgmorton who attended the concert, Dean Wright, always flawlessly elegant, was playing a long run on the piano. At the end of the run, she simply continued the movement off the keyboard and fell to the floor dead. “What a wonderful way to go,” Helen says, “doing what she loved…she just finished the flourish and was gone.” Stories abound about N. Louise still playing the piano in the Recital Hall. Often she plays a duet with her lifetime companion, Opal Hayes, who also taught piano at Howard-Payne and at Central. Opal is sometimes spotted visiting the old Phi Beta room above the recital hall to rearrange the furniture, singing as she goes. Tom Yancey insists “any story about N. Louise and Opal both would be benevolent” in keeping with their personalities. Students sometimes look into the Recital Hall from the steps of T. Berry Smith and see the two. One spring night a couple walking by the Conservatory heard music coming through the open windows of the Recital Hall, two people playing a piano duet. They thought it strange that people would be practicing with no lights on, so they walked in to check it out. By the time they got down the hall, the music had stopped and no one was there, but the windows were still open. Perhaps N. Louise and Opal were playing a midnight concert. Could the late Dean Luther Spayde, too, be making nocturnal visits? After one night class, the late voice teacher Nancy Jones admits to hearing organ music coming from the darkened Recital Hall. As the organ is kept locked, she said she hopes it was a student with an
unauthorized organ key! Stephens Museum One of Central’s great founders is reputed to wander the rooms in T. Berry. In the Stephens Museum hangs an immense portrait of Bishop Enoch Mather Marvin, who helped Central gain a foothold in its earliest years. As Tom Yancey points out, the painting is fairly elementary to the point that Bishop Marvin appears to be floating on air. Tom explains how this oddity feeds into the story of an apparition. It looks like he’s floating there,” he says, “because there are no shadows. If a person’s foot is on something, you’ve got shadows steadying the figure onto the ground.” “They say years ago, after midnight, they would hear this kind of bumping in the Stephens Museum like someone was walking around with a cane or something, and it would occur usually
after midnight. The story is that Enoch Mather Marvin comes out of the painting, takes one of Bishop McMurry’s canes from the museum, and goes over the whole historical section, making sure everything is in its place. When he’s finished checking everything out, he walks back into the painting.” Tom has been known to don the role of Bishop Marvin himself during Halloween tours given in recent years; however, he has declined such invitations since he nearly scared a child witless. McMurry Hall Not to be outdone, McMurry Hall demands spectral rights, too. One college student, as history records, committed suicide on the fourth floor. The bathroom where he shot himself supposedly was closed because the bloodstains could not be removed. Years later, after massive renovations were completed, the bathroom facility was reopened. Shortly afterwards, though, a young man was reported hearing a shot while he was showering and having blood come out the spigot. In another legend, roommates once died in McMurry, victims of carbon monoxide poisoning; they can be heard choking still by students who reside in their room. The last of McMurry’s restless spirits is reported to be a maintenance man who got trapped under a boiler when it collapsed in the dorm’s basement. Not unlike HP’s aural wanderer, this doomed ghoul bangs on the pipes and radiators all year long, trying still to free himself from his grisly fate.
Homecoming Reflections By TARIN STUDNKEL
COLLEGIAN REPORTER
This previous Friday, I went back to my little hometown for my high school homecoming. Coming from a small town, it’s tradition for alumni to come back and visit old friends and see family. In this way, college and high school homecomings are the same. Parades with school spirit and clubs, family and alumni come back to visit, and of course, the big football game. Colleges celebrate homecoming in different ways. Some celebrate more, some not very much. Comparing Central to Mizzou, it’s completely different. Granted, you still have the big football game on Saturday that everyone gets drunk and rallied up for. The festivities throughout the week are different at MU. Parties every night at different sorority houses, bar specials downtown for the homecoming events. At Central, some house parties might happen, but normally it’s after the homecoming game Saturday. Taking into account the difference in school size, which makes a huge difference.
Comparing high school homecoming to college is a big difference. Seeing my little sister and friends dressing up for spirit week, t-ping coaches, friends, and teammates houses in the middle of the night all dressed in black. Also, pulling pranks on coaches and at school. If you’re a cheerleader in high school, you spend the whole Sunday before spirit week decorating the school. It’s something you see in photos and go back to visit and find that you often miss that part of high school; I know I do a bit. Homecoming in college is always fun. If you weren’t into the spirit week festivities in high school, then you’ll be just fine in college. In high school, I was always one to dress up for spirit days, stay out late at night to t-p and chalk cars, and pull pranks. It always was a long, tiring week, but worth it. College is all about celebrating at the football game and drinking with old and new friends and family. It can be long and tiring, but the memories and stories that come from the experiences and late nights is what homecoming is all about.