1936: “Belief Advanced That Boy’s Dorm Is Inhabited By Galloway Ghosts, ” Written by Unknown Author
Beware, James McDaniel. The ghost stalks again and more brazen and bold than ever before. What tortured spirit can it be that roams nightly through Godden Hall? Can it be a vampire interred deep in the catacombs below that comes up to creep along the silent halls of its sequested home? Can it be one such creature as Dracula, roaming the cmapus and creeping in windows and stalking boldy about? Perhaps it is some campused ghost trying to scare the big, bad moniter away so that it might use the front door as it is accustomed to do. Maybe it is the spirit of Galloway, too long a antaive of these walls to be banished from them or maybe it’s just the same restless specter this inhabited Hones Jim’s closet last winter.
Whatever it is, we may never know and yet this very night you might hear its feet padding on the floor within your room. You might feel its cold breath across your face, and know that some grave has issued up its dead to come and haunt you. Or else it might flee in terror from you as the one did last year when it saw McDaniel. Who knows what might happen? All I know is you’d bettter put an an ax above your dooor to keep the Harding Swamp Spirit out!
Of course, the moniter tried to console his fears by telling himself it was some late Harding wandereer attempting to creep in unheard but I won’t be kidded. It passed my door and I know it was a ghost. It couldn’t have been human because it only touched it’s feet to the floor about three times coming down the hall and made a keen swishing sound as it rounded the corner and darted into some nearby room. Beware, the place is haunted!
1948: “Galloway Ghost Faces Eviction as Talk of Godden’s Razing Grows,” Written by Al Goldman
The alert and prompt action of an able and efficient Bison photographer has enabled us to print this unusual and striking photo of the campus’ famed “Galloway Ghost.” Rage, the result of the recent ground breaking exercises and constantly recurring rumors of the demolition of Godden Hall, has goaded friend ghost to retaliation.
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Nothing, absolutely nothing has ever been done about ghosts on a national or local scale. Neglect has been our watchword. Some ghosts have given a lifetime of service and, like our Galloway ghost, no adequate provisions have been made for retirement. No wonder there is agitation, cracked mirrors creaky steps sudden chill drafts, toothless bannisters and the like Hospitalisation, housing and Unemployment insurance might help also. The important thing is how to apply these things to ghosts.
The personal history of the Galloway Ghost is a difficult one to track down. Her (we assume it is a her) beginnings are shrouded in mystery and no amount of interrogation will pry them from Faculty members who vacorted with her when she was younger. At any rate old Gallie watched generation after generation of Harding-ites matriculate and graduate and also saw the occupancy of Godden Hall change subly from men to women, Y’know, it would be interesting to know just how many private conversation had been overheard and of the intrigues which lost or won empires.
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The Galloway Ghost is unquestionably worried, and it is not difficult to imagine the furrows lining her tattle-tale grey brown when she contemplates extinction with the demise of Godden Hall or the possibility of renewed life in one of the other dorms. Perhaps she ought to to be retired to the Huts until a final disposition of her case is made. In the meantime if anyone knows of a home for retired ghost please communicate with the president of The Alumni Association or refer it to the senior class for consideration as a term project.
1950: “Erie Story of Galloway’s Female Ghost Unfolded by Scribe” Written by Christ Elliott
I am told, in hush-hush tones, a story that unfolded years ago in the creaky corners of Godden Hall that plunges my blood to icy depths and speeds my pulse to rapidity.
The epic began when Galloway College for girls was in full bloom, holding the position of one of the finest education institutions in the south. The school was young and actively centered around a sweet dame called Gertrude then one late November evening while most of the women were fast asleep, tragedy struck a bitter, terrifying blow.
Gertrude came in from a small party with some friends in town, said goodnight to her date, and climbed the stairs to her room. The white, frilly evening gown she wore swished merrily as she tip-toed down the long corridor. Suddenly she halted listened for a moment as though she heard a sound changed her course and began walking cautiously toward the now abandoned three story elevator shaft. Her long platinum blonde hair rolled across a white neck as she ccked her head to listen again.
A blood-curdling scream rippled through the halls arousing the other girls from slumber, and chaos took command of the dorm. One young lady saw a huge, dark form hurdle by her and disappear down the flight of stairs. An hysterical house mother finally found wits enough to call the police and they found Gertrude at the bottom of the elevator shaft — dead!
The blow had a devastating effect on the students. “Why, Gertie would never get old, much less die,” they had said. “She would always be beautiful, young, and vibrant.” And even in death, associate’s agreed that Gertrude will looked alive. They buried her in her white evening gown.
People began to say things about the college’ parents withdrew their daughters:the school began to collapse and in the meantime police found nothing the supposed killer — finally the case was dropped under the caption “Accident.”
Several years later, just before Galloway closed down, a freshman awake at mid-night and ambled down the hall for a drink, A harvest moon cut ribbons of light across the walkway. The freshman paused at the elevator shaft and peered through the partly boarded area. She stifled a scream, somehow managed to make it back to her room and wakened her roommate. Just before she dropped into a dead faint she told her roomy,. “I could see her in the moonlight, sitting there in a white evening gown, combing her platinum-blonde hair!”
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It is told that she had said to her friends, “I love this place and never intend to leave it never.” But, what are Ghostly Gertie’s plans concerning the immediate housing shortage that goes into effect when Godden Hall is wrecked? Will she move to Patti Cobb? I doubt it. For, with the destruction of Godden, so goes the ghost story.
And in the meantime make the most of her, girls a fourth for rook is hard to find late at night around these parts.
1967: “Hallowed Halls Haunted?” Written by Doug McBride
The girl opened the door to her room and went in. Immediately she turned around screaming and pulling the hair from her head by the roots. Shrieking, she ran back out to the stairwell and fell the four stories to the ground floor. She was dead. No one knows what she saw in the room.
In the summer of 1951, Godden Hall was torn down. Part of the bricks and lumber was used in building the Music Building.
The Pattern continues with the occurences of strange happenings in the Music Building.
Some years ago, a girl was practicing piano in one of the practice rooms on the second floor about 9:30 p.m. The door was closed. She opened the door to see who was there. She saw no one, only the door across the hall opening and closing . No one was there. She left.
On another occasion, Drs. Davis and Moore were working late one night in Dr. Moore’s office. It was after midnight. They were about to leave when they heard a door slam upstairs. Dr. Davis told Dr. Moore to stay downstairs while he went up to see who was practicing at such a ghostly hour.
The ex-Marine mounted the stairs, looked in all the rooms and saw no one. Thinking the person had gone down the other stairs he descended the stairs and asked Dr. Moore who it was. Dr. Moore had seen no one.
On various nights, usually between the hours of 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., sounds like footsteps are heard going down the hall of the second floor usually from the north end to the south end. The “footsteps” go for a few steps then a door wither opens or shuts or both. The footsteps continue and then a door is heard again.
This happens even when all the doors are locked and the rooms are checked to make sure no one is in them. The windows are shut and locked as is the fire escape door. Still the sounds are heard. Doors which are locked at night are found standing open the next morning.
Interest in this type of mystery has led to the formation of a club on campus. It’s not official as the administration is in the process of approving the constitution. Perhaps it will be called the Association for the Study of Unknown Inexplicable Occurrences. It’s main interest will be th4e4 study of UFO’s as well as the Godden Hall Ghost.
More storie about Gertie and campus experiences can be found online at the link.harding.edu or in The Bison archieves through the Brackett Library.
