What Wittenberg ghost stories do you know? As prospective students, visiting Wittenberg for the first time, we are only told of the one famous Myers Hall ghost. The story of the general’s horse, remaining loyal to his general. But there’s more than that. Many stories get swept under the rug. Placed under lock and key, begging to be recited yet again to students who decide to brave the telling of the tales.
Myers Hall has more of a history than simply a general and his noble steed. Then called Old Wittenberg, the building was everything for about forty years until Recitation Hall was constructed. That includes the campus residence. Typhoid fever was affecting many people. Including students and faculty of Wittenberg College. Even our founder, Ezra Keller, who passed because of the illness at the age of 35.
According to a story recited by a student living in the same room as the following events, two male students told their fathers that they wanted to go off to college and further themselves at Wittenberg. The boy’s fathers told them that they would not be sending the boys to college and the boys ran away from home. In search of their light to pass on to others. Sometime after they arrived at Witt, both boys fell ill with typhoid fever. The two hardworking students became too ill to help each other and a few days later, they both succumbed to their illnesses in the same night. Neither of the boy’s fathers, out of anger, claimed their bodies. So, on a beautiful fall afternoon, Ezra Keller decided to respectfully bury both boys on the site of the current science building, northwest of Myers Hall.
The next occupant to the room was another very intelligent fellow. He performed at the top of his class and came to Witt to do the same. Sadly, the student became the butt end of many pranks staged by students of Witt’s fraternity.
Due to the amount of hazing the student had been subject to, he became subject to random fits of insanity. Many early mornings, the student could be found sleeping in a spot in the northwest corner of campus: the same corner the two boys who passed away in Old Wittenberg reside, the same two boys who lived in the room the new student then occupied.
One tragic night, the student could be heard screaming from within his room. That same room as the two other unfortunate souls. Rushing into the room to check on the student, the other students were in shock to see him huddled in the corner covered in blood and dead. The third person to pass away in that room. All three lost souls are said to haunt the building, the Old Circle, and the Hallow behind Myers to this day. And yet, nobody knows the true location of the ‘unluckiest room’. Could you be the next occupant?
