The All State

Media Credit: Patrick Armstrong Cumberland University, in Lebanon, Tenn.,is said to bo home to two or three ghosts. A student is said to have fallen out of one of the windows in the far right of the building. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Patrick Armstrong The former home of The Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, has at least three ghosts of its own. [Click to enlarge]

There are many tales of ghosts, goblins and ghouls in the Deep South. During the Civil War, many battles occured in Tennessee. Thousands of soldiers died in makeshift hospitals and that is where a lot of "supposed" hauntings originate. There are numerous hauntings all across the state. From Memphis, to LaVergne, to Knoxville; there is a ghost story waiting to be told.

In the very top northeast corner of Tennessee lies the city of Bristol with a high school that is occupied by at least three ghosts. Tennessee High School was built in 1939 and looks more like a college than a high school.

According to the book "Haunted Tennessee," one of the ghosts that inhabit the school is named "Agnes." During class night, where juniors were installed as seniors and the seniors said their farewells, a rowdy party was said to have taken place. The next morning she was found doing the "dead man's float" in the swimming pool.

Agnes has been seen walking up and down the school hallways late at night. People have heard footsteps behind them, but when they turn around, no one is there. She also likes to materialize in the auditorium during late night work for plays. At midnight, she emerges from the attic entrance and sits on a beam, swinging her legs.

The second ghost is of an unknown athlete. According to the Haunted Tennessee Web site, (www.hauntedtennessee.com), he was a former athlete who was run down by a car while walking home from a game. He is not seen as much as Agnes though.

The last, and most unusual ghost, is not that of a person, but of a train. According to the Ghosts & Spirits of Tennessee Web site, (www.johnnorrisbrown.com), eyewitness accounts say that the train appears in the auditorium and travels down the hallway into the old auditorium where it disappears. It is said to sound like an old steam engine and that the school was built where old train tracks once lay.

The next haunting comes from the Middle Tennessee town of Lebanon. Cumberland University, established in 1842, has been at its current site since 1898. There are two or three ghosts said to reside there.

The first ghost is of a young man who fell to his death. He was waiting for class to start in Memorial Hall in Room 301 or 302. While leaning on a window pane, it gave way and he fell three stories to his demise. No one knows for sure when this happened, there is no record of it, but the story has been told for years, maybe as early as the 1940s, (www.johnnorrisbrown.com).

The next ghost is of a science teacher from the mid 1980s. He was teaching a late class at the top floor of Memorial Hall when he started to experience chest pains.

When the class ended, he had a hard time getting down the very steep steps inside the building. Eventually, he made it home, but then died. His ghost is said to haunt those steps which slowed him down, (www.johnnorrisbrown.com).

The last one comes from the Mary White Dormitory where a girl's roommate was murdered. According to the Haunted Places in Tennessee Web site, (www.theshadowlands.net), the roommates were staying a few days before leaving for Christmas break. Just a few towns over, a murderer had escaped from prison and the girls were told to keep their doors locked.

One of the girls had to use the bathroom so the girls developed a secret knock so they would know it was one of them. After 30 minutes had passed, there was a knock at the door. It was the wrong knock so the girl did not open the door.

Hours later she went out into the hall to see the hall covered in blood from her roommate's dead body. The girl's ghost is said to still haunt Mary White Dormitory where she plays tricks on the residents by trashing rooms, slamming doors and tearing posters off walls.

In downtown Nashville, the former home of The Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, is said to be the home to at least three ghosts. According to the CMT Web site, (www.cmt.com), Captain Thomas G. Ryman opened the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892. He wanted it to be used for religious activities.

When Ryman died in 1904, the building was renamed in his honor. During the early 1900s, there was a risqué musical performance and Ryman did not like it.

He was said to have made so much noise that the audience could not hear the performance because of his thrashing about.

There is another ghost that does not make any noise: The Gray Man. Employees and artists have said to have seen him in the Ryman sitting but when someone goes to see who it was, no one is there.

The most famous ghost of the Ryman is the one of Hank Williams, Sr. Several employees have seen white apparitions, but few claim to have seen Hank Sr.'s ghost. Some have seen him backstage while others have seen him singing on stage.

These are just a few of Tennessee's ghosts but check back next week for the most famous haunt from Tennessee; The Bell Witch of Adams.

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