Superstitions surrounding Friday the 13th have been passed down for generations, but should Ohio University students be on the lookout for spooky things happening year-round?
It’s no secret that OU is rich in history; however, much of its morbid history may provide an explanation for some strange happenings both in the past and today.
Many notable suggestions of this can be found in the Ohio University Archives in Alden Library.
Located in the hilly terrain of Appalachia, Athens County’s history of eerie nature coincides with the long-held religious and mythical belief that mountains and areas of high elevation tend to be catalysts for a certain mystical energy.
In fact, the article explains that Mount Nebo, located in Dover Township just six miles north of Athens was intended to be just that.
In the 1850s, Jonathan Koons set foot on Mount Nebo under spiritual command to build a seance room full of musical instruments. According to local legend, neighbors often heard and witnessed the sound of a full orchestra coming to life from within the seance room. The article states that the spirits known to lift and play the instruments during seances supposedly identified themselves as 165 “pre-Adamite” men, meaning spirits from before the existence of the biblical Adam, who is thought to be the first human on earth.
Although these accounts seem no more than folklore, they do offer some explanation for the so-called spiritual encounters Athens residents have so long experienced not too far from the site.
A few of these accounts are found in a 1995 article in The Post, “Two reporters explore stories of hauntings” by Sean Gorman, a self-proclaimed skeptic of all things paranormal, and Markkus Rovito, a self-proclaimed believer.
The first is of Terry Gilkey, a 42-year-old worker for the Athens water service department at the time, who shares an experience from when he was a student in 1972 with Gorman.
On a snowy December day, Gilkey and his friend Rocky took turns sledding down the steep sidewalks of Jefferson Hill with 30 or 40 other students. It was while making the trek back up the hill, Gilkey said, that Rocky claimed to have seen the ghost of Millie Brown, who used to live at Brown House.
Taking a look for himself, Gilkey claims to have seen what appeared to be an elderly lady in a “1940s style dress” and a hairnet, however, as he continued his hike up the hill, she seemed to have disappeared.
“‘She looked like an older lady who looked dressed up and ready to go out,’ Gilkey said, ‘Why would a cleaning lady be dressed up?’”
Another article found in the archives titled “Strange tales of a strange town” (1973) shows that upon further investigation, much of Athens’ paranormal history can be connected to the five cemeteries on Peach Ridge.
One of the sites, Bethel Cemetery, sits on the West border of Athens County where a dozen of the graves extend north-south, facing the north.
“For centuries, the church has followed the tradition of burying the dead looking east following the custom of facing the rising sun while in the attitude of prayer,” the article says, “All other graves in the cemetery are buried east-west.”
According to the article, another one of the sites, Hanning Cemetery, is linked to the experience of a former resident of Shively Hall.
The resident reportedly felt an unknown power pulling her in a certain direction, leading her to a dead-end of the hall’s basement. However, the force returned later when she was outside, pulling her in the same direction, what her friends confirmed to be Northeast. According to the article, the direction she was headed, when plotted on a map, would have led her directly to Hanning.
There are even more legends of Peach Ridge to be found in the article, including one regarding a resident in Biddle Hall who, during a seance, allegedly began screaming ‘Fire! Fire! My baby is on fire!’ Afterward, the incident was deemed to be connected to the burning down of a house on Peach Ridge in which a husband, wife and their children perished.
Another archival article from Athens Magazine, “The Legend of Peach Ridge” (1972) by Jay Strafford, details a seance in 1970 following the death of student Dave Tishman.
“The medium and several of her friends set up a burning black candle next to an antique Ouija board,” Stafford wrote, “After several minutes of trying to conjure up a spirit, the participants noticed that the candle’s wax had dripped onto the letters D, A, V and T and the numeral 4.”
According to Stafford, the significance of the number “4” was never figured out, however, the letters themselves were convincing enough for those involved.
If these local legends aren’t a clear sign to be extra cautious this Friday, the 13th, try plotting the five cemeteries of Peach Ridge on a map. According to several sources, they make the clearest sign of them all, a pentagram.
