Madison Shelnut
Reporter
Dr. Pieschel interview by Merry MacLellan
Aside from being the first public college for women in the nation, Mississippi University for Women is also famous for its ghost stories.
Perhaps the most well-known ghost story is the legend of Mary Calloway, for whom Calloway Hall is named.
Calloway was a mathematics teacher at The Columbus Female Institute, a women’s school located here before The W was established in the same location. While she was regarded as a good teacher, Calloway is probably best known for the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death.
The legend goes that Calloway, being grief-stricken at the loss of her soldier lover, leaped to her death from The W’s famous clock tower. The ghost of Mary Callaway supposedly still haunts the fourth floor of Callaway Hall to this day and, for years, students have reported hearing strange noises.
The Calloway Hall clocktower, which is said to be haunted.
Photo by Emma Caroline Brown
Despite being famous, the facts of this story are often disputed.
Dr. Bridget Pieschel, a W alum, former English professor at the university and former director of the Women’s Studies program, is well-versed in The W’s local legends of hauntings and mysteries. She wrote a history of the university titled “Loyal Daughters: 100 Years at Mississippi University for Women 1884-1984.”
Pieschel, however, looks more to the true history of these stories rather than the passed-down stories.
“I think people wanted to create a kind of Romeo and Juliet type story, and whoever decided to make it that story, literally made up that story,” Pieschel said.
Another campus legend is the Witches’ Circle.
“President Fant did a whole lot of planting of different types of shrubs and trees, and his
idea was to beautify the campus. And one of the things he did was plant a little circle of small cedar bushes and then put some benches,” Pieschel said.
Over time, the cedars grew to be very tall and unkempt. Because of the oddness of the overgrown circle of trees, people began to speculate that witches gathered here to practice magic, despite there not being much evidence for this.
Outside of campus, the legends continue. In 1903, A.P. Taliferro, a jeweler in Columbus, shot a traveling salesman named Joseph Sloan. Taliferro apparently shot Sloane because he had tried to kiss his wife.
Sloan’s relatives could not be reached; however, he was buried with numerous diamond rings and love letters from several women. Those who continued to work in Taliferro’s store reported hearing gunshots and sobbing.
The antebellum homes in Columbus also have haunting stories of their own, as does Friendship Cemetery. Southern Spirit Guide, a website with information about supposed Southern hauntings, lists Columbus as one of the most documented cities in Mississippi in regard to ghost hunting. It discusses a Confederate soldier who is said to walk through the section of Friendship Cemetery where military graves are located. It also lists the Princess Theatre as one of the places where a ghost has been seen. It is said that the original owner of the Princess has been seen throughout the theatre. A paranormal investigative team supposedly photographed an otherworldly figure standing in the balcony.
Then there are the antebellum homes themselves. Waverly Plantation, which is located between Columbus and West Point, is said to be home to a female child’s ghost who would cry aloud and whose image has been seen around the house. Temple Heights, which is located on 9th Street North in Columbus, features a ghost that has been seen throughout the house, and occasionally there are said to be unusual voices that visitors hear in the home.
Whether you believe these stories or not, they are a part of The W’s and Columbus’s history.
By telling them, we speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves.
“For me, the dead, as long as they're talked about, a part of them is still living,” Dr. Pieschel said.