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Historic hauntings: Investigating Elon’s ghost stories
Local paranormal
investigators search for
ghosts on campus
Meagan Lynn
Elon News Network | @meaganlynnTV
Every year when Hal
loween rolls around, it
seems old campus legends
run amuck — particularly,
the story of Ghost Mary.
Mary was allegedly a stu
dent at Elon University liv
ing in West Residence Hall
at the time of the 1923 fire.
According to the tale, she
jumped when she thought
the building was on fire and
was killed. She supposedly
haunts the building.
But Walter Boyd, a 1976
Elon graduate and local his
torian, isn’t so sure.
“As far as there being
in something in West, the
answer is yes. There is
something there,” Boyd
said. “The fallacy is that
the ghost has nothing to
do with the 1923 fire. The
ghost, and there may be
more than one, long pre
cedes that fire.”
Boyd has several theo
ries on what or who might
be behind the rumored
hauntings Under the Oaks.
Many stories come from his
grandmother, who gradu
ated from Elon College in
1910 and whose ancestry in
Elon dates back all the way
to 1777, before this area
was even known as Elon.
"She knew everybody
from Dr. Long, and I just
knew of every president
and everything that had
happened at the college
since its founding,” Boyd
said.
According to Boyd, caus
es for potential ghosts at
Elon predate the existence
of the campus. Before Elon
College existed, he said
Williamson Avenue was in a
different location. The road
passed behind what is now
the fire station, Under the
Oaks and straight through
West Hall’s location. He
says this spot is the location
of several deaths, including
a man being thrown from
his horse and drowning in
a pond, a house burning
down with a family inside
and the bizarre death of an
Elon student.
That student was Wil
liam Henry Horton. In
1935, he fell off a fence out
side Alamance building and
died. Horton was set to be
the class valedictorian, and
former university news
paper “The Maroon and
Gold” and “The Burlington
Times” called his death the
“greatest tragedy in Elon’s
history.”
Lee Steele, another Elon
alumnus, is interested in
investigating if Elon is re
ally haunted. He graduat
ed from Elon in 1978 and
now volunteers as an in
vestigator with the local
paranormal investigation
group, “Positively Paranor
mal Team.” Steele and his
partner Matt Shelar both
became interested in the
supernatural after encoun-
Elon alumus Lee Steele and Matt Shelar discuss the history of the West Residence Hall with all their tools laid out in the
tering ghosts when they
were kids.
“We’ve run into some
crazy stuff,” Steele said.
“You hear stuff get thrown,
you see shadow figures,
stuff like that.”
They use a variety of
tools to capture videos of
spirits and even commu
nicate with them. They set
up their wide array of de
vices in West to see what
they could find. One device
called the Ovilus 3 has an
English dictionary’s worth
of words uploaded on it,
and they claim ghosts can
manipulate the device to
answer questions.
Responses recorded in
West include: “Hi,” “Door”
and “Demon.” When Shelar
picked up a bottle of holy
water, the device said
“water.”
But the team’s work goes
beyond just finding ghosts.
They also perform house
blessings and cleansing
if they believe they have
stumbled upon an evil
spirit.
“Jesus gives us the au
thority and the power to
cast out demons,” Shelar
said. “All we can do is to
come in and try to help
you. It all starts with your
self; that’s what attracts a
demon to you if you’re not
in the right frame of mind
and you’ve got everything
else going on except Jesus
Christ.”
While using holy wa
ter, white sage and prayer
to protect themselves, they
MEAGAN LYNN I STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
common room on Friday, Oct. 26.
also look out for each other,
“We consider ourselves
brothers,” Shelar said.
“We’re family. We have
each other’s back if some
thing happens,” Steele said.
Based on their find
ings in West, both of the
paranormal investigators
said they believe they did
find a spirit of some sort.
Steele says that in the fij-
ture, he hopes to conduct a
full overnight investigation
in the building to find out
Book begins new tradition with presidential pingpong
Friendly matches of table ten
nis allow students to mingle
with the president
Chris Morrison
Elon News Network | @chriscjomo
Everybody needs a break from
work, and for Elon Universi
ty President Connie Book, this
downtime comes in the form of
table tennis.
On Friday, Oct. 26, Book
joined some students in a couple
friendly games of pingpong in the
Moseley Center.
Book came up with the idea as
a way to have some downtime on
a Friday afternoon, a break from
her busy schedule.
“You can talk while you play
table tennis, so that’s one thing
that makes it unique in terms of
a sport — that you can actually
have a conversation while you’re
playing,” Book said.
Book saw table tennis as the
ideal way to do this while simul
taneously finding an opportunity
to connect with students.
“I really enjoy hearing about
their experiences and what’s hap
pening during the week,” Book
said. “It gives me a sense of their
interaction on campus and their
academics, what’s challenging,
and then a lot of them are in stu
dent organizations, so I can get
an update on what’s happening in
the student organizations.”
Sophomore Eric Polite had the
opportunity to play against Book.
.■m
OATES TO CHALLOIGE BOOK
1. Nov. 30
2. Jan. 11, 2019
3. Feb. 8, 2019
4. March 8, 2019
5. April 19, 2019
All challenges start at 1:30 p.m,
and take place in the Moseley Cen
ter. No sign-ups are necessary.
Senior Kyle Thomas and freshman Sophie Rosenberg challenged Connie Book and freshman Skvler n»i., I photographer
Ocf. 26. Book and Basis won the game 11-9. iresnman Skyler Bavis to a game of pmgpong on Friday,
He was impressed when he saw
the email from Vice President
for Student Life Jon Dooley an
nouncing the event.
“It’s super cool, I mean, when
I saw the email. I was like. ‘Oh
wow. that’s sick.’ You know, she
actually cares about getting to
know people.” Polite said.
Polite also used this event
to compare Book to President
Emeritus Leo Lambert.
“That was a big reason people
liked Dr. Lambert a lot. just be
cause he was really involved with
II
AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE
UNIVERSIW, IT’S KIND OF
IMPORTANTTHAT YOU’RE
NOT JUST IN YOUR OEICE
ALLTHETIME.
ERIC POLITE
SOPHOMORE
the community.” Polite said. “I
think that as the president of the
university, its kind of important
that you’re not just in your office
all the time and that you’re not
just some mysterious figure that
no one ever sees. It’s cool that
she’s trying to put herself into the
community like that.”
Senior Kyle Thomas also ap
preciated a chance to converse
with the ninth president of the
university.
„ "F®* great.” Thomas said.
You don’t often get an opportu
nity to just chat with the presi-
dent of your university.”
Both Polite and Thomas en
joyed the opportunity to con
nect with Book in a casual way.
For Polite, the chance to chat
about mundane things with Book
helped him to connect with her
and put a face to the name.
“We got to chat a little bit about
how we got into playing table ten
nis, which seems pretty — whats
the word? — bland,” Polite said.
“But you know, just little stuff like
that, getting to humanize some
one like that, that you only hear
about in emails and see pictures
of, it’s cool.”
Through friendly competition
and conversation, Book is off to
a good start in her time as presi
dent and hopes to continue piay-
ing these table tennis matches
more often.
“People should know whos
running things at their school. A
lot of the decisions that she makes
are going to affect us in profound
ways, so we should know who she
is,” Thomas said.