The University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss, was founded in 1844, just a few short decades shy of the American Civil War. Not only did the school have to sacrifice many of its students for this cause, it still today is home to some of its victims, traumatized soldiers returning to the comfort of a happier place.
Lyceum at Ole MissThe Lyceum, completed in 1848, one of the original buildings on campus and where all of the students who served in the Civil War went to classes, is the source of reports of numerous unexplained sounds. The Lyceum also served as a hospital for the dying and wounded from nearby battles and they too could be contributing to the odd sounds that may be echoes of the painful past.
Several fraternity houses on campus also claim their own ghosts. The Delta Psi house is supposedly home to a ghost of a now deceased member who died upon returning home from a football game. He is seen occasionally just hanging around the frat house. And at the Zeta Tau Alpha house a young female student who died there is said to be the cause of the sound of footsteps wandering around the house when there is no one visibly there.
The most famous of the Ole Miss ghosts is none other than the author William Faulkner (1897-1962). Although he did not graduate from Ole Miss he lived in Oxford for over 30 years and the University has since purchased his home. The house and grounds are open to the public and there are unexplained noises such as banging, footsteps, men’s voices and man’s cries reported by the staff and public alike. There have also been reports that his ghost has written on the walls.
Further, the previous owner of his home, Colonel Sheegog who built the house in 1848 had a daughter who also supposedly haunts the home. The tale goes that she was eloping secretly one night with her Yankee beau and she slipped, fell and died and is now haunting the property, mourning her loss of a life and love unfulfilled.