Ohio Wesleyan University was founded in 1842. Not one of the oldest colleges in the America, but its age is up there. Most of the buildings on campus are older, some even pre-date the founding of the school in the case of Elliot Hall. Just by looking at the campus, you tell this area has a deep, rich history. Therefore, ghost stories here run rampant, and some may even be true.

In 2007, an OWU Public Safety Officer, John Ciochetty, wrote a book about ghosts on OWU's residential side as well as ghost stories about the Delaware Community. If you're interested, check them out!

Here's a couple of stories from OWU students and bits and pieces from Ciochetty's works.

The Perkins House (The House of Peace and Justice)

The Perkins home was built by Hiram and Caroline Perkins in 1880. Hiram was hired at OWU in 1865 to teach science, and donated a substantial amount of money to build a telescope observatory.

An old picture of the home can be viewed here.

According to Rachel Scherrer, the moderator of the House of Peace and Justice, Mr. Perkins died many years before Mrs. Perkins.Therefore, she was alone in the home suffering from a skin condition. She supposedly died in the house.

Scherrer has had two experiences with Mrs. Perkins.

One day Scherrer was doing her house chores and cleaning the bathroom, and she heard someone in the shower area. She called out to whoever was there; no one answered. She figured the person didn't want to talk. She walks by the shower and noticed the sounds stopped; she looked, and no one was there. She asked multiple of her house mates if they were in the house or in that area at that time. All of them said no.

The second experience was when Scherrer was sick and all alone in the house, in the middle of the day when everyone was in class. She was all bundled up under her blanket, so sick, but wide awake. She felt someone sit down on the bed with her; she assumed it was one of her house mates, since her blanket was over her head. The person pulled up the covers more around her. Scherrer murmured a thanks. The person patted her slightly, in a comforting way, then got up and left. Again, she asked her house mates who knew she was there if it was them that did this. They all said no.

Ciochetty wrote in his book that there have been multiple sightings in the house of a woman wearing clothes from the 1920s period. People have also heard footsteps and the moving on furniture in the home.

Chappelear Drama Center

Anyone in theater department at OWU can tell you about the ghost of Scotty, the theater ghost.

Scherrer is also a theater major; it seems as if she can't escape the ghosts! She told me how Scotty is Scott Chandler, a once alive student at OWU. He was a technician in the theater, but he also did some acting. Here's a picture of Scotty in the production of As You Like It in 1972. I circled him in red.

I can already hear you asking: How did he die!? Scotty graduated, left OWU, and died young. A professor ended up going to Scotty's funeral. Scotty came back with that professor, back to the theater. Soon after, technical problems started to occur.

Scotty is a very mischievous ghost. He is known to mess with anyone who spends an extended amount of time at the theater. Keys go missing. Things mysteriously tumble over. The lights don't always turn on when they should.

A tradition in the OWU theater department is to invite Scotty to their show. If Scotty isn't invited, verbally or a letter on the back of the As You Like It picture, then Scotty will wreck havoc on the show and the shows following.

Scherrer once forgot to invite Scotty to a show. The show went okay, but not smoothly.

Scotty has also been known to trap people in the bathroom. Two theater majors confirmed how Scotty would trap them in the bathroom stall for a couple minutes until letting them out. Scherrer was one of these people. She told Scotty she had enough and the door swung open, and no one was there.

During Scherrer's freshman year, she was sitting alone in the theater, waiting for someone. All of a sudden Scherrer hears a man's voice right over her shoulder that said, "What are you doing here?" She stopped, terrified, and answered, "I'm just running lines..." She was about to leave when the person she was waiting for walked in.

Ohio Wesleyan has many, many more legends and ghost stories. These aren't even the scariest ones! More to come!