October enewsletter responses
The following are responses to the Question of the Month in the October 2005 edition of What's New @NU:
Around the world, at the end of October and the beginning of November, people observe Halloween, All Soul's Day, and the Day of the Dead. Although these observances draw upon different cultural and religious traditions, all somehow involve the spirits, ghosts or souls of those no longer living. While you were a student (or staff or faculty member) at Norwich, did you ever have a personal encounter with what appeared to be a spirit from the past? Or, did you ever see or hear anything that you could not explain within the realm of what could be considered "normal" experience? In other words, do you have a good ghost story to tell?
If you have a spooky tale to tell but missed the opportunity to do so, please send it to pubrel@norwich.edu, and we may use it in a future feature story on hauntings and unexplained phenomena at NU.
We were students at Norwich from 1996-2000. We often studied in the newly finished science building late at night. One evening walking across the UP in my maroon PT gear with my hood up, I heard the sound of a horse’s hooves running. It was a foggy night around midnight. I never saw the horse, but often have wondered if it was Captain Partridge tucking in his ranks for the night.
Another more humorous experience was the work of one of my civilian friends and I. We knew a girl who was terrified and believed that Norwich was indeed haunted. The week of Halloween we planned to trick her. My friend hid under the bed and ran an extension cord to her desk lamp. When she came in that night he caused the light to blink on and off. We had told her previously that Alden Partridge usually visit the dorms this week. She was so terrified she found the biggest football player on campus and slept on his floor that night.
~Tory Decker Hook ’00
I graduated Norwich in June of 1961. During my four years at Norwich I was in the band and our dormitory was in the old Jackman Hall (nicknamed “the zoo” because of all the bandly sounds emanating from it). This old Jackman Hall was torn town in 1965, along with the building next to it, Dodge Hall, to make room for the new Jackman, now the Administration Building.
Old Jackman Hall had three entrances, each consisting of a set of double doors. One of these was at the front of the building facing the UP, and another was in the rear of the building facing the football field (also where we parked our cars, those that had them). These doors were seldom used at night, in fact, I think they were locked after taps. The third entrance faced East towards Dodge Hall and the bell tower, and was used mostly by cadets coming to and from evening activities on campus.
Sophomore year I roomed on the end room toward the back right by the third set of doors. This entrance was a double swinging door much like a saloon door, only much bigger and full top to bottom. It was never locked. At the time I was a cadet corporal and pretty gung ho and studied quite late at night. Often late at night, around 11:00 pm, midnight or even 1:00 am, I would hear the swinging doors open – they made a very unmistakable and unique sound – and footsteps going down the long hall toward the center of Jackman Hall. Being a conscientious corporal I would open my room door to see who was coming in so late, but nine times out of ten there was no one there. The hallway was quite long, and it would not be possible for someone to disappear so quickly.
After a month or so of this I gave up looking as I seldom saw anyone, but I sure heard the swinging doors open and the footsteps going down the hall. I have no idea who was haunting old Jackman Hall or why, but there was surely something spooky going on. I wonder of the new Jackman Hall is similarly haunted.
This is a true story so help me God on my honor as a Norwich Graduate. I am not saying there might not be other explanations than haunting, but I don't know what they might be.
~William R. Bellerjeau ’61
About 2:00am, I was working in design studio in the recently renovated architecture building (Chaplin Hall, the former NU library) on the UP. I knew I was the only person there (or so I thought). As I as working, I thought I heard a chair move in the space next to mine (arch students had dividers to separate drafting tables, so I couldn’t actually see anyone).
I went around the corner to say ‘hi’ to the person I thought was there – only there wasn’t anyone there.
Given my seating situation, I would have been able to see anyone entering or leaving that person’s design area, and I didn’t see anyone do either. Plus, the desk was approximately five or six feet away, and the chair made that distinct sound a roller chair does when it rolls on a vinyl tile floor, so I thought I had missed the person in the space. I was quite surprised, to say the least, but I had a project to finish so I stayed, though thoroughly awake at this point!
A second example involves yet another chair at the same time frame (same project, different night). Again, early, early morning in studio. I decided to take a break and wander around to clear my head from endless nights of no sleep. I was in the lobby of the architecture building (which is actually the third floor), sitting at the bottom of the granite steps that lead up to the 4th floor. I knew I was alone as I had already taken breaks earlier in the night to revive myself.
Then, I heard the distinctive noise of a wheeled chair moving across a tiled floor, only this time it sounded more like someone had flung the chair across a room and crashed it into something. Plus the sound came from the fourth floor. The only room that had both components – the chairs and the tiled flooring – was the thesis study at the back of the fourth floor. So I went up to see what other person was awake with me.
I get up there, and there’s no one there. The only entrance into the room is the hallway I had come down (the “left” hallway next to the receptionist’s desk; the right was blocked off inside the thesis room). And no one had gone by me in that split second.
There was one other way out, which was the fire escape stairs in the thesis study. However, at that time, the door was extremely loud when it opened or shut, and could be heard on the third floor it was so loud. I never heard that door open or shut.
(At this point I was a little annoyed because it was the second time I had the wits scared out of me and nothing to show for it).
~Joshua T. Kane '95
Sorry, no apparitions - being at Norwich was interesting for me because it has so much history behind it – there are plenty of ghosts, the kind you learn from and build a life emulating.
~Andy Hamelin ’73
My father used to tell a story that I thought was a tall tale until I checked it out with my mother. By the time I checked with my mother, they had been divorced for about 5 years so I figured that she would tell me it was a lie. She didn't, in fact, she corroborated significant parts of the story. Three years later I had an encounter with the same entity.
My Father's story:
In 1943 my father was working a farm on Folsum Hill in Marshfield, Vermont, where he did logging in the winter. He had a Morgan mare that was a pleasure to work with, as she did her job well and without human interference, i.e., she skidded the logs out to the landing and waited until unhitched from them, then returned to the spot in the woods where my father was cutting trees.
She developed colic and died early in the winter, so he had to get another horse. This one, while bigger than the Morgan, didn't seem to have the intelligence required to operate on his own. Someone had to accompany him in and out of the woods.
Late one afternoon, my father threw together the last load for the day and began to hitch the chain. Something startled the Colt and he jumped, throwing the load of logs into my father and breaking his leg. Then the Colt took off for the barn.
My father was lying in pain and not thinking very clearly, when he heard the sound of harness chains. Looking up he discovered the old Morgan mare, in harness, standing beside him. By pulling himself up the harness he managed to climb onto the mare and grabbing the harness, held on until the mare reached the roadside across from the farmhouse.
The Colt had gone to the barn, and my Mother found him and put him into the barn and then went looking for my father. She found him across the road with a broken leg.
When I asked my Mother about the incident, she verified that there were two sets of hoof prints coming out of the woods. One large set that came across the road to the barn, and a smaller set that ended at the roadside.
My story:
Approximately 19 years later, I came home on leave from the Army in November and went hunting in an area about a half mile further up Folsum Hill. Before I left for the Army I was very familiar with the terrain so felt no qualms about hunting alone. Three years and several logging operations later, nothing looked the same. It got late in the afternoon, and I had no idea where I was. It didn't really worry me, I knew I could survive through the night and be comfortable doing it. However, people were depending on me to transport them to a dance that night so I really wanted to get out of the woods.
Just as I was preparing to build a fire and a shelter for the night, a small bay horse in full harness appeared. It looked at me, then started walking away. I figured that a horse in harness this late in the day was headed for the barn and I would be able to follow it out of the woods. After following the horse for about 20 minutes, it turned onto a well used logging road and continued. I was about 100 yards behind it by now, and watched as it turned a corner in the road and went out of sight. Walking to the curve, I discovered that the hoof prints continued about 30 feet and disappeared. However, from where the hoof prints stopped I could see a familiar field and was soon back at my car and on my way.
~Dwight Duke ’85
For my entire four years at Norwich, I did my work-study in darkrooms at both the MCV and VC campuses. For extended lightless periods in buildings such as the Rifle Range, the Communications Building, and even the famously-haunted College Hall in Montpelier, I spent hours upon hours developing film and prints. Many a night under stormy skies, persistent rumors gave me pause before marching into darkness so black that it was impossible to tell whether my eyes were open or closed.
College Hall was the scariest. It was rumored to be an old Civil War hospital. In fact, stories circulated only recently of a security guard on patrol on the uppermost accessible floors who opened a door into a classroom of the past, complete with students and teachers in legacy dress. To say there was no fear during any of my quiet moments of dark solitude in a creepy basement would provide a false bravado.
Nonetheless, I did not have a single otherworldly encounter the entire time.
Fortunately, I was asked to photograph the attic of College Hall before it was to be remodeled into the new Architecture program. Like the fabled security guard, I too opened a door into a classroom of the past. Except there were no ghosts. Only an amazingly preserved classroom of long ago with long dusty desks, inkwells, ornate trim work, and historic graffiti on the walls. One scrawl included a poem dedicated to the first man on the moon while another only a few feet away echoed sentiments of the Titanic disaster. Names and dates ranged from the time of the Civil War all the way to the most recent decade.
Perhaps traces of truth rest behind some of Norwich's classically embellished stories.
~Tiki Archambeau ’93
