The Ghost that Went to College

A paranormal experience by Jodie Bares

The biggest question that many senior students had when they attended the College Fair at Lewis and Clark Community College in the Spring of 2007 wasn’t “How big are the class sizes?” “What types of degrees do you offer?”  “How much will it cost for me to attend?” No, the most frequently asked question was, “Is this place really haunted?” Or at least, that was my biggest question.  Every time the subject of Lewis and Clark Community College had been brought up around family and friends, the only thing they would talk about it the ghost that haunted the halls and how the library was haunted and to never go up there at night alone.

I had been having experiences with the paranormal since I was six going on seven years old.  I was staying in the same house with my beloved Grandfather when he passed away in his sleep on a cool summer morning in early September 1996.  Ever since then, my eyes have never closed to the possibility of life after death.  When I was twelve, my eyes grew even wider when we had a presentation at our school about this new book that chronicled the fact that Alton, Illinois is considered one of the most haunted small towns in all of America.  They talked about the book Haunted Alton by Troy Taylor and we even had a whole field trip dedicated to the book and its landmarks near the Halloween of 2000.  Being the person that I am, I remember convincing my mom that we needed to go to Walden Books so I could get a copy and be ahead of the other kids when we went on our field trip...

There was one section of this book that really captured my inquisitive little brain, and that section dealt with a fire at a local community college and the idea that a ghostly matron haunted its halls…

For those that are not locals, Lewis and Clark Community College was not always named for the famous explorers.  It began its life as Monticello Female Seminary built by Captain Benjamin Godfrey, for whom the town of Godfrey, Illinois is named for.  The captain had eight daughters and unexpectedly, for a man of his century, felt it was important for women to be able to gain an education.  Captain Godfrey had been dead for six years when the school hired on a female graduate of Yale to become the headmistress that would oversee the school and the girls’ education. Her name was Harriet Haskell.  She would go on to remain in that position for over forty years… and some think even longer than that…

Local historians say that one year during the Christmas festivities, Ms. Haskell wanted to bring some joy to the students and decided to dress as Santa Claus.  As you might well remember, during those days they had no electric lighting so Christmas Trees were lit with candles on their branches.  It is said that Ms. Haskell got a little too close to one of the lit candles and the false beard she was wearing burnt quickly leaving the left side of her face burned and later scarred.  But this would not be the last instance Ms. Haskell had with fire…

There was another fire that broke out in the halls of Monticello Female Seminary during the night in November of 1888 (historians aren’t sure if this was before she set herself on fire or years after) a fire broke out in the laundry area of the school.  Ms. Haskell herself went from room to room to alert the girls and get them to safety, which was the chapel across the street.  For some time later, the school was closed for repairs, but when it reopened, the girls were certain that Ms. Haskell would be there to ensure their education was back on track.  Harriet Haskell did not perish in any of the fire related incidents, but she did have the scars to remind her of her heroic deeds getting her students to safety.  She would take those to her grave when she passed away in 1907.

Harriet Haskell was said to always be shown in profile due to her burns on the left side of her face.

In the Fall of 2007, I began college at Lewis and Clark Community College; the name had been changed in 1970.  As a paranormal believer, I was excited to see if the stories of Harriet Haskell haunting the halls of the school were true.  During the day time I never experienced anything out of the ordinary.  However, the night classes were a different story.  During that year, I was taking a government class that ended around 9:30 pm.  A friend and I were sitting in the student area waiting for our rides when the elevator started to go wonky. We noticed that the lights that lit up what floor the elevator was on kept flickering.  One went out on the left side, another flickered on the right, and the middle two went out altogether.  Suddenly, the lights all turned on and stayed a solid white and the doors opened.  Out walked two students who looked scared to death.  They were clinging to each other and were pale.  One actually vomited in the closest trash can.  I asked if they were okay and the one who didn’t have their head in the can shook their head.  “Something really freaky just happened in there,” they told me.  “The elevator buttons couldn’t decide what floor we were on, so it just kept hopping around.”  I went into the elevator and everything seemed fine to me, that was until I got the hint of lilac perfume from inside the carriage.  It is said that people who come in contact with the lilac scent often see Harriet Haskell or experience her presence in some way.

Not long after that I left school.  I was nineteen at the time and I felt like the classes they put me in were just like another year of high school, but I had to pay for it.  I went to two other schools, I worked, but eventually in the Fall of 2014, I was back in the halls of Lewis and Clark Community College.  I was going to school for a Business Management Degree at the time and I ended up taking a Business Law night class to get it out of the way.  One night, during a particularly boring lecture, I found myself looking out of the window.  It was a warm fall night and I suddenly noticed there was someone sitting out on the stone benches in the courtyard.  I had noted that she didn’t look like the students or teachers that were on campus.  Instead, she resembled someone you see when you go to a Civil War reenactment or see some kind of play with the hats and big hoop skirts.  Her hands were out in front of her as if she were reading something under the light.  I could only see her right profile of her face and she appeared to me to be an older woman.  Her hair was up tight in a bun and she had a hat pinned to the side of her hair.  All of a sudden, she glances up and our eyes lock.  I feel a sense of anxiety wash over me and I quickly turned my head to get back to the lecture.  But curiosity got the better of me and I looked outside again, only this time, she was gone.  Relieved that my eyes had been playing tricks on me, I turned forward and there she was again!  She was standing at the front of the room, same right profile only showing and was admiring the fire alarm.  In my mind I heard myself say jokingly, “you shouldn’t be messing around with it, but hey if you want to save me from this boring lecture, by all means, pull it.” 

Out of nowhere, the professor decided to end the lecture early and I see the specter woman give me a little wink.  She disappeared then, her skirt turning with her body movement.  As soon as I was outside, I went over to the stone benches where I had first seen her and I sat down to wait for my ride. Just then, I hear the fire alarm going off and the lights on all three floors becoming like strobe lights.  One floor would flash, then the second, and so on.  People were running out of the building and the roar of the fire engines were heard in the distance.  I sat back and felt a cold chill next to me and on the wind was the scent of lilac again.  “Thanks Harriet,” I said with a whisper and smiled to myself.  Then it dawned on me… The classroom I had just been in moments earlier was in a part of the building which they named Haskell Hall…