Ghosts of Mount St. Mary's University
Haunted Maryland Catholic Institution: Otherworldly Activity
Sep 10, 2008
Mount St. Mary’s University was founded in 1808. According to Father Daniel Nusbaum, campus historian, in 1805, a circuit-riding priest, John DuBois, became tired while on a road between Frederick and Emmitsburg. He saw a light on a mountain and thought it was a farmhouse, so he rode toward it. He couldn't find the house and decided to sleep. When he awoke, he discovered a majestic scene of hills and fields. DuBois decided to stay to build a church and school. Today, its grounds are haunted.
Brute Hall, Room 252 Poltergeist
The dorm was named for the Rev. Simon Brute, a college president. Legend has it that he glides on the campus wearing a long black robe. He normally smiles, nods and moves on.
A priest lived in Room 252, actually, a suite with bedroom, sitting room/office and bathroom, when many of the professors lived on campus. One night he straightened his room, went out for a few minutes and returned to find everything in total disorder. Lights and the television flashed on and off at random times. He moved out. Another priest moved in. When his cat began hissing at strange times and scurrying under the bed in fear, he moved out.
Father Daniel lived in the room. When he was sleeping, objects were moved around. A mantle clock would move from one end to another and, sometimes, to the middle. The bed moved. Interior doors mysteriously opened and shut. At night, he heard the bathroom door squeakily open, saw the light turned on and the door shut. He wasn’t afraid of the phenomena.
After he moved out the room was turned into one for students. In 1997, three students moved in. They witnessed a falling mirror and flushing toilet.
Brendan McMahon lived in 252 and experienced weird happenings. He and some friends were watching TV and sometimes, for no reason, the TV began jumping from channel to channel. He said the school put a bookshelf on the place where Brute died. Glasses fell off the shelves by themselves in the middle of the night.
McCaffrey Hall
Leander, a slave, worked for the college in the mid-1800s and lived on the first floor. He was accused of stealing. Because of this, his left hand was cut off and buried in the quadrangle. While Leander was eventually freed, he stayed at the college. When he died, he was buried in the college’s cemetery. Residents of the hall have reported seeing a severed hand and hearing fingers scratching on dorm windows.
Civil War Soldier
He promised the woman he loved that he would think of her while in battle. They agreed to look at the sky and gaze upon the same star every night. When the soldier was killed at Gettysburg, he was buried, face down, in an old well. His ghost wanders about Mount Saint Mary's, tapping people on their shoulders as if he wants them to turn him over so he can see the sky.
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
She was the first American-born person who was canonized. Her ghost appears dressed in a floor-length cloak and bonnet with a Bible in one hand and rosary beads in the other. Her apparition is often seen walking beside a man who appears to be, by some, her father, a doctor. She was seen by wounded Civil War soldiers when the school was used as a hospital and she helped doctors heal the patients.
Related articles:
Ghosts and Legends: USNA Annapolis
Source:
Haunted Heritage, Michael Norman & Beth Scott, (Tor, 2002)
