APSU Graduate student explores the ‘Ghost Stories of Austin Peay State University’

Clarksville, TN – It gets chilly around this time of year at Austin Peay State University (APSU). As the crisp autumn air slowly swirls with falling leaves, there’s nothing better than gathering around a fire to hear a hair-raising ghost story.

And Austin Peay State University has its ghost stories.

Graduate student and adjunct instructor Melissa Arrington is compiling and investigating these stories in a documentary to answer the question, “Do ghosts create the stories or do the stories create the ghosts?”

“As humans, we want to know the unknown,” Arrington said. “And one of the biggest unknowns in life, is death. So, of course, we want to know what happens after death.”

Arrington – who earned her bachelor’s in communication at APSU and is pursuing her master’s in the same field – teaches in the Austin Peay State University Department of Communication. The documentary, “Ghost Stories of Austin Peay,” and an accompanying research paper will complete her master’s degree work.

“The question that we’re asking isn’t necessarily are ghosts real without a shadow of a doubt, but where do the stories come from?” she said.

Arrington interviewed Austin Peay State University Police Officer Charyl Ramsey, Printing Services graphic designer David Johnson and the Department of Communication’s Cindy McElroy to share their paranormal stories on the documentary. Arrington focuses on ghost stories from the basement of APSU’s Felix G. Woodward Library, Harned Hall and the Memorial Health Building.

The ghost of Harned Hall

“You hear the stories here and there on campus,” Arrington said. “The big one is always about the girl who killed herself in Harned Hall. That’s one of the reasons I picked Harned Hall. At least two of the people I interviewed brought up Harned Hall.”

Completed in 1931, Harned Hall was a girls dormitory until the 1980s. The legend goes that a young woman hung herself either on one of the railings in the stairwell or on the railing of the second story balcony. The woman’s reason for killing herself is not a part of the ghost story, and Arrington has been unable to verify if anyone actually killed herself there.

But Harned has all the creaks and groans of an old building, and the tales of haunting persist.

The documentary asks, “Are all the weird things that go on at Harned because a girl killed herself there or have people just created the story to explain something inexplicable?”

“You come up with a reason why you’re hearing these sounds,” Arrington said.

Civil War soldiers tread here

Famous paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren visited campus in 2009 and reported visions in the bottom floor of the library. She said she saw a Civil War hospital in the bottom floor of the library.

“She said she had to get out,” Arrington said. “She said she could see Civil War soldiers.”

Research conducted by Clarksville author Carolyn Stier Ferrell supports the history. In one of her books, Ferrell mentions Stewart College – which operated from 1855-1874 where Austin Peay State University is now. The college was evacuated in 1862 because Union soldiers were marching from Fort Donelson to capture Fort Defiance. The Union Army used buildings on the campus as a hospital, Ferrell said.

“They did evacuate Stewart College to put soldiers here,” Arrington said. “When Lorraine Warren was here, she said that she could hear them screaming, she could see them on beds.”

The ghost mule at Memorial Health

One ghost story centers on the reported sounds of hooves clopping in the Memorial Health Building on campus.

While the building was under construction, a farmer lent his mule to the builders, the story goes. The mule also gave rides to children in nearby Castle Heights neighborhood, the namesake of the current Castle Heights residence hall.

“Supposedly this mule was loved by everyone and it died before Memorial Health Building was finished,” Arrington said. “The story goes that they buried the mule under center court. People have claimed to hear hooves in the building. People have said they’ve seen a white mule around campus.”

Why ghost stories are important

Arrington is fascinated with ghost stories and thinks they help explain what it is to be human.

“I think there’s a lot more to the world,” she said. “Have I ever seen a full body apparition? No. Are there times when I’ll go somewhere and feel something weird that can’t be explained? Yeah. Is it a ghost? Who knows?”

Humans perhaps tell ghost stories for the reasons all stories are told and retold, to keep the memories alive. And ghosts keep the people in the stories alive as well.

“If there are ghosts then that means when we die, we don’t just get erased,” Arrington said. “I think that is why ghost stories are so important to people.”

 

Harned Hall ghost hunt

Arrington wants to maintain the integrity of her film.

For the documentary, Arrington and her team performed a ghost hunt during the summer in Harned Hall using electromagnetic field meters, which yielded several responses. Whether it was interference from the building or paranormal activity is up to the audience to decide.

“Anytime we got something that looked like responses, one of the first things we would do is we would start looking around for something near us that could have set the EMF meter off,” she said. “I don’t want my personal beliefs to influence someone. I want you to see what we do and then form your own opinion.”

While the debate continues over what happens to people after they die, Arrington believes the tradition of telling ghost stories will continue.

“On some subconscious level, we all want to know what happens after we die.”
A compelling answer to that question is immortal.

To learn more

• For more information about the Austin Peay State University Department of Communication, go to www.apsu.edu/communication.