Midnight Snack for a Ghost

Midnight Snack for a Ghost

Centre College (Danville, Ky. : 1918- )—Anecdotes
Centre College (Danville, Ky. : 1918- )—Buildings
Centre College (Danville, Ky. : 1918- )—History
Centre College (Danville, Ky. : 1918- )—Students
Ghosts—Kentucky—Danville
Haunted places—Kentucky—Danville
Haunted universities and colleges—Kentucky—Danville

An oral history interview and subsequent research about paranormal activity at Centre College, especially surrounding Breckinridge Hall.

Morgan, Beth

2021_01_19

Russell, Olivia

All Rights Reserved

MP4

English

Oral history (literary work)

Russell, Olivia

Morgan, Beth

Centre College, Danville, KY

Olivia Russell 0:08
Okay, so we're recording now. And so just what's gonna happen is I'm
going to give a short introduction to like, cue us in, I guess, and
then we can start the interview.
Beth Morgan 0:22
Okay, sounds good.
Okay, so my name is Olivia Russell and today I'm interviewing Beth
Morgan who works in Cataloguing and Special Collections in the library
at Centre college. Today is January 19, 2021, and we're recording the
interview over zoom. And today we will be discussing paranormal and
unexplained experiences at center. Okay, so before we start, I just
want to like get some context. So can you just explain your work and
your connection to Centre college?
Yeah, sure. So, as you said, I'm the cataloguing, and Special
Collections librarian, slash archivist at the Grace Doherty library at
Centre, and I have been working there for... I guess, seven years now,
it'll be eight years this summer that I started working at Centre. So
that's how I work at center. And I also graduated from center. So I
was a student at Centre from 97 to 2001. I graduated in 2001. So those
are my two connections. I graduated from center, and now I work at
Centre.
Olivia Russell 1:36
Yeah, so you're an alum. But what responsibilities do you have in your
job, like on a day to day basis?
Beth Morgan 1:45
Yeah. So, I have full kind of double duty as most of us librarians do,
we have sort of dual roles. So as the cataloging librarian, I am
responsible for the cataloguing of all materials that come through the
library. So all the books, DVDs, CDs, you know, whatever we receive,
that's to be circulated throughout the collection. I usually touch
those first and apply all the mark data and the Library of Congress,
you know, subject headings, call numbers, do all that kind of stuff,
so that the materials can be discoverable in the catalogue, and then
help with the physical processing that helps people locate them on the
shelf. So that's sort of a very basic breakdown of what I do is to
cataloguer. And then for Special Collections and Archives, I help
maintain the archival collection. And I work with professors on an as
needed basis to incorporate primary source materials into their
coursework. So I'll host classes in the archives to talk about how to
do archival research, how the finding aid works, that sort of thing,
how to handle the materials, and then assist students with their
research. And I also will go into the classroom, you know, if that's
more appropriate to teach some that way. And then we're also open to
the public, the archives, so I get quite a bit of requests from
community members, not just locally, but across the state and have

even received some from Europe before asking about materials from our
collection, and, you know, scheduling times for them to come in to use
those materials as well. Or providing digital surrogates, you know, if
that's the case, if they can't physically come in, so, so it's fun.
It's, you know, a lot of, a lot of little nuggets of history that, you
know, I learned that way about center that I didn't know, and about
Danville as well. So that's my most favorite part of my job, I think
is working in the archives.
Sounds like really interesting work. So if you don't mind, we're gonna
switch gears to the unexplained experiences. So, what strange or
unexplained experiences have you had on Centre's campus?
So, um, I have not had any strange experiences since I've been working
here. And, you know, I work during the day, you know, I'm never, you
know, by myself or anything like that. So, um, you know, so I never,
you know, really have encountered anything as an employee. Um, but
when I was a student, I did have one incident in particular. That
happened to me when I was a sophomore, and living in Breck. And so
like I said, this is really short and kind of boring. But it really
creeped me out at the time. And so I lived on I lived in Breck for
three years, I lived there as a sophomore, and a junior and a senior.
And I lived on the first floor all four years, so different rooms, but
on the first floor, so, um, and, you know, one night I was sound
asleep in my bed, my roommate was on the volleyball team. So she was
gone quite a bit on the weekends for volleyball games, away volleyball
games. And so this was a weekend when she happened to be out of town.
So I was in my room. And I woke up because I heard like a bag of chips
being like, opened and you know, you know that sound that a bag of
chips will make when you're opening and sticking your hand in to get
chips out. So I heard what sounded like that, and it woke me up. And
you know, at first, I didn't think anything of it, because I thought,
well, maybe, you know, my roommate has returned early from her
volleyball game, and you know, she's hungry. So she's just over there
with our food, getting a midnight snack or something. So, you know, I
didn't, I didn't sit up or look over or anything I just, you know,
woke up and I was like, oh okay, and then I, you know, tried to go
back to sleep. But, um, I heard it again. And so then, uh, you know,
honestly, I got kind of grumpy. I was like, I'm trying to sleep over
here, like, so I sat up, and I looked over, you know, and there wasn't
anybody there. So I was like, Well, what, what was that? You know? So,
my, my husband, my husband and I were dating at the time, and he was
staying over. And so he was in the room with me. And so I woke him up.
And I was like, "Did you just hear that?" And he was like, "Well, I
mean, I don't know, I heard something." But you know, he was still
kind of half asleep. So he didn't really, you know, he heard
something, but he didn't know what really what it was. So I was like,
well go check it out, you know, I was on the top bunk. So I made him
get down and go, like, looking in the room, like, look under the bed,
look under the bottom bunk, open up both of the closets, you know, and

see if anybody was in the closets. And he didn't see anybody. And we
checked the door, and the door to the room was locked. So no one could
have come in. So it was just us in the room. And so, you know, I don't
really know what it was, we kind of looked all around, we didn't see
anything, nothing had fallen onto the floor. You know, like, later, we
wondered if it could have been, you know, like, a mouse or something.
But I, I don't know, I, you know, like I said, I lived in Breck for
three years and never saw a mouse never saw any signs of a mouse.
There had never been any signs of a mouse in our room. Like, none of
the bags had been like chewed, or, you know, none of the food had
looked like it had been, you know, attacked by a mouse. So, I don't
know, you know, we never did figure out what it was. And, you know,
like I said, it was just, it was just like, you know, just, we don't
know.
So I was kind of creeped out for the next couple of days, because it
really sounded like somebody was in there like rummaging through the
food. And I don't know, so it creeped me out for a few days. And then
I just went on and forgot about it. And never really thought about it
again, until this class came up, you know, when people were talking
about different things that had happened to them on campus. And I was
like, you know, I did have that weird thing in Breck that one time.
Um, but another thing that I will say about Breck is that it always
creeped me out at night to go to the bathroom. I always found the
bath, the bathroom particularly creepy. And I would always try to just
like, you know, get down the hall and, you know, get in the bathroom
in and out as quick as I could. And I'm not sure what the setup in the
bathroom is now, but when I was a student there, there was an area
that had sinks on opposite sides of the wall. And both walls were had
mirrors. So if you you know, you had that effect of if you were
standing in front of one sink, looking in the mirror, then you can see
your reflection behind you as well. And sometimes when I would be in
that bathroom by myself in the middle of the night, I would just swear
that I would see something in the mirror out of the corner of my eye.
And you know, so... but that was probably just my mind playing tricks
on me because I was already creeped out about you know, having to go
to the bathroom at night. So anyway, that's kind of kind of silly, but
it did always creep me out too. So, um, and I had always heard stories
about Breck. I think there are a couple of you know, stories
associated with Breck. Wayne King would tell his ghost stories, you
know, even back when I was a student, and I went to a time or two and
I remember him talking about workman during the summer, when there
were no students on campus, seeing someone walking either into or out
of one of the rooms. And I don't know if one of those rooms was the
room that I had, but it was really close. It was either right next
door, or it could have been that room, I'm not sure. So I will always
remember that story. And then I remembered, I could be getting the
details wrong, but something about the on the second or third floor
seeing a face in the ceiling. So I had always, I had heard that story,
but I never really went up on the second or third floors, because all

my friends were downstairs. So um, so that's just my personal story,
and just kind of a few things that I had heard about Breck. So, I'll
turn it back over to you now.
Olivia Russell 11:08
So, yeah. Wow, that's actually such a good story. It's just very
eerie, you know, and mysterious, but it didn't really like, scare you
for the room or anything like that? It was just kind of that weird...?
Beth Morgan 11:22
Yeah, it was just that weird, one thing, you know, because I, you
know, I hadn't gotten like a weird vibe from the room, you know, when
we moved in. And by that time, we had been living, you know, for, I
would say, a month or two we had been in the room. So, you know,
nothing had felt weird prior and nothing felt weird after you know.
And, you know, I have I've never asked my roommate if she ever
encountered anything odd in any of our rooms. I should check in with
her and see. But, um, you know, as far as I know, neither neither one
of us ever got a bad vibe from the room or anything. It was just that
one time, you know, so? I don't know.
Olivia Russell 12:05
So yeah, I was gonna say, I actually lived in Breck for two years,
too. So I know exactly what you're talking about with like, the
bathrooms and yeah. But do you like what do you think of ghost
stories? Like in general or ghosts? Especially like, around Centre?
And...
Beth Morgan 12:27
Yeah, well, so, um, I am a person who... I love ghost stories. I love
listening, hearing them, you know, from other people. And, um, you
know, I and I also, and that's one thing that I like about this class
is that I like, like, hearing the story, and then trying to figure out
what what, you know, I mean, is there something there, you know,
trying to learn the history of a place and what you know, could be
left behind, you know, or have provided the basis for stories as they,
you know, grow over time kind of thing.
But, I have had several creepy things happen to me, throughout my life
at other places. So I don't, I don't discard you know, people's
stories when they say something like this happened to them. Because
I've had lots of way creepier things than, you know, sounding like
somebody was rummaging through the food, happen to me before in other,
you know, locations and places. So, um, I definitely, um, you know, I
guess, I guess you could say, I'm a believer, you know, in people's
stories, I definitely don't discard them. And I, like I said, I also
just really enjoy trying to figure out, you know, like, what, what,
you know, what, what could have been here, you know, what was here
before? What's the story of this place, you know, so like you, even if
you don't, I think, believe in ghosts or ghost stories, you know, if

you blow things off as it was just the wind or whatever, I still think
it's fun to just try to, you know, learn that history of a place. And,
you know, it's just fun, I think.
Olivia Russell 14:20
Well, thank you so, so much for sharing your story. And that's, I love
hearing ghost stories like that like with a little eeriness and
creepiness, but I'm going to go ahead and stop the recording.
Beth Morgan 14:32
Okay.

MP4

14:34