{"id":328,"date":"2018-11-02T18:37:44","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T18:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/religion\/288-2018f\/?page_id=328"},"modified":"2018-12-18T21:11:18","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T21:11:18","slug":"guilford-college","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/religion\/288-2018f\/greensboro-spirits\/guilford-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Guilford College"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Guilford College is known throughout Greensboro as being spiritual. Whether that be for their Quaker roots and values or for the presence of something supernatural, there is no doubt that something makes the campus special. Students, staff, and faculty a like have had experiences and have heard the stories. This is a comprehensive page of those tales and the history behind them. For a list of these events view the timeline at the bottom of the page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucas<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, the Greensboro Library, with assistance from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, compiled a list<\/a> of some of the documented soldiers who fought and\/or died in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse (“Guilford Battle,” 2012). There is no \u201cLucas\u201d in the list of documented dead– but there is a \u201cLewis.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
The Battle of Guilford Courthouse, as depicted by H. Charles McBarron<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One<\/strong> name is featured and again throughout many of the aforementioned articles detailing Guilford\u2019s hauntings: Frank Massey. A former interfaith coordinator, now a part-time lecturer in the Religious Studies department, Frank generally is, and indeed was, in our case, the go-to name for information regarding Guilford ghosts.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with Frank, cross-legged in the grass outside of Dana, he detailed a primary rule in dealing with spirits: \u201cFor the most part when I talk about this, I use the word spirit as opposed to ghost\u2026. \u2018Ghost\u2019 has a negative connotation.\u201d When interacting with these spirits, <\/em>the goal is to \u201cbe in relationship with them, to talk to them.\u201d Frank exhibited this belief during the interview, in addressing the spirits evidently watching us from the steps of the auditorium. \u201cOkay another one– here, as of right now, there\u2019s a little girl up on the steps right here, leaning up against the second column.\u201d Frank pointed at what was, to us, empty space. And a few minutes later, in describing Dana\u2019s \u2018paranormal\u2019 inhabitants: \u201cThis little girl can get a little nasty at times, the one here on the– excuse<\/em> me, you do<\/em> have an attitude at times!\u201d (addressing the spirit). \u201cShe\u2019s very protective and so she\u2019s made fun of, yadda yadda, so she\u2019s a little nasty.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many spirits are here, according to Frank, to help the students– \u201cWhen you start working with spirits, you can\u2019t see only the good spirits– there\u2019s good and there\u2019s not so good; there\u2019s good and then there\u2019s really not good.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

It<\/strong> is essential to acknowledge that the common skeptic may lose interest here. Regardless of one\u2019s belief in living image, Casper-esque \u201cghosts,\u201d it is undeniable that, at the very least, the belief<\/em> exists. These beliefs represent cultural fear, the intrigue of the \u201cparanormal,\u201d the lust of thrill. However, many stories, again, beg<\/em> to be true.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example– Frank also told of several living in the quad outside of Guilford\u2019s art building. At the time of the conversation (October 5, 2018), there was parked in the grass a large trailer, a \u201cchicken coop on wheels,\u201d intended to advertise the prophesied growth of the Guilford Farm at a recent campus event.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOutside, about fifty feet out from Hege Cox, there\u2019s a little Native American encampment. Somewhere between four and six– it\u2019s almost like a family unit\u2026. I\u2019ve had a lot of conversations with them, and they don\u2019t appreciate the invasion of that trailer there. Now, whatever that thing is, they don\u2019t really appreciate it, there was no asking for permission to bring it in there. And so it\u2019s sitting right there, right on top of their encampment. Okay i\u2019m getting really weird\u2026.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, about a week later, Hurricane Michael broke land in Greensboro, cancelling classes and tormenting Guilford for a long weekend. Only two trees were felled by the storm– one, ancient, dead, and understandable, near the library; the other, ancient yet alive, thick and thriving, by Hege-Cox, utterly destroying the chicken coop on wheels that had constantly harassed the spirits reportedly living there.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Some<\/strong> of the most intriguing information Frank offered was first provided as a minor detail. In telling us of the spirits in Dana, Frank stated, \u201cThere are four: Lucas, the one upstairs– Lucas doesn\u2019t sound right, but anyway, he\u2019s willing to go buy Lucas\u2026<\/em>.\u201d (Frank went on to describe Lucas and three<\/em> little girls, not two, as commonly believed: the little girl on the steps, who has a temper, a little girl on the stage, a \u201ctypical spirit,\u201d i.e. \u201cvery shy and it\u2019s hard to see her,\u201d and a little girl in the choir room).
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This passing comment, the ambiguity of Lucas\u2019 name, later served to solidify our research into the \u2018true\u2019 identity of Lucas, the original life and legend that birthed the spirit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"A
The Ricks Family Seal in 1545, prior to their departure to America<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Greensboro<\/strong> Library\u2019s compiled list of soldiers in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse held but one name resembling \u201cLucas\u201d– Lewis Ricks.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lewis Ricks was born in 1741 in Nansemond County, Virginia. According to a book of family genealogy compiled by Guy Scoby Rix in 1908, based off of research by Joel Ricks from  1893 and 1896, one of the earliest known ancestors of the Ricks family was Quaker. Isaac Ricks (then spelled Rickesis), born in England in 1638, settled in Warrasguyeake, Virginia (what later became Nansemond County), a land \u201cpeopled largely by Puritans and Quakers.” Isaac Ricks \u201cwas a Quaker, and was a member of the Quaker Church.\u201d Furthermore, descendants Abraham and Robert Ricks \u201cbuilt a Quaker Meeting house on the Western branch of the Nansemond River, and were paid 32,000 pounds of Tobb (Tobacco) which was the medium of exchange,\u201d (Rix, 1908).
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lewis Ricks\u2019 parents were Benjamin Ricks and Patience Helty. Of Benjamin, Guy Rix writes: \u201cHe had good property [400 acres], but was not wealthy,\u201d (Rix, 1908). Lewis was the third oldest of thirteen children.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1768 or \u201869 (the exact date was lost), Lewis Ricks married Nancy Ann Joiner, and over the next decade they had four children: Charity, born October 13, 1770, who had three children; Jonathan, born February 18, 1772, who had five children; Mourning, born October 26, 1776; and Michil, born September 17, 1778. Later, \u201cLewis was drafted into Army of the Revolution, and it is supposed he was killed at the battle of Guilford Court House Mar. 15, 1781,” (Rix, 1908.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
One of Lewis Ricks’ grandsons, also named Lewis Ricks<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"A
One of Lewis Ricks’ grandsons, Joel Ricks<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The battle itself \u201cproved pivotal to the American Victory in the Revolutionary War\u201d (History.com). British troops, under General Charles Cornwallis, numbering roughly 1,900, faced off against some 4,400 Americans, led by Nathanael Greene. The fighting lasted about two hours and ended with American retreat, although Greene\u2019s troops, not drastically diminished, managed to kill, wound, or capture around a fourth of the British. This great casualty supposedly resulted in Cornwallis\u2019 abandonment of his campaign in the Carolinas and led him into Virginia, where he was forced to surrender weeks later.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The great battle, however, was a few hours preceded by a smaller one, left nameless and overlooked until 1977 when Guilford alumnus and long-time professor Algie I. Newlin dubbed the conflict \u201cThe Battle of New Garden,\u201d and produced a book by the same name, subtitled \u201cThe little known story of one of the most important  \u201cminor battles\u201d of the Revolutionary War.\u201d It began around sunrise, when British scouts spotted American soldiers near New Garden Meeting House. Soon after, German troops joined the British and for around three hours a series of clashes and skirmishes were fought along New Garden road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The<\/strong> death of Lewis Ricks is somewhat vague. All accounts cite that he did indeed perish close by on the Ides of March, 1741, but nowhere states which<\/em> battle. Or, for that manner, the precise wounds he suffered that brought on his demise. All we are left with is an eerily picturesque description of the scene by his brother, William, retold here by Guy Scoby Rix:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe [Lewis] was a Quaker and did not believe in shedding human blood, and it was said by his brother William, who was in the battle with him, that he stuck his gun into the ground and went into the battle without his arms, and that was the last seen of him by his brother.\u201d (Rix, 34).
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He stuck his gun into the ground and went into the battle without his arms, and that was the last seen of him by his brother.”<\/strong><\/p>Guy Scoby Rix, Genealogy<\/em>. 1908<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Yet again, the details of this story beg for the myth to be true– a man with a name similar to that of the modern lore, the absolute<\/em> Quaker in life and (especially) death, now haunting the site of his last battle, providing guidance to young Quaker students finding their paths\u2026
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An
Map of the Battle of New Garden<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But this could only be the case if Lewis Ricks indeed fought in the Battle of New Garden, not the Battle of Guilford Courthouse– for his death to mark the site of his “haunting,” he must have had to perish during the initial battle. However, these two were often lumped together– prior to Newlin\u2019s 1977 publication, \u201cIt [had] never received the attention which it deserves in the general history of North Carolina or in the history of the Revolutionary War in that state; nor [had] it ever been honored with a name,\u201d (Newlin, 1977). Lewis easily could have been killed in the Battle of New Garden without it being known, as it was included in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse until the past few decades.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, as far as Dana Auditorium being built on the site of a field hospital– maybe! Dana Auditorium (or the land on which it would be built) was<\/em> in the general vicinity of the violence. After the Battle of New Garden, the horrified Quaker community was left to tend to the injured and dying– New Garden Meeting House was converted to a hospital and several of the family homes nearby took people in (Newlin, 1977).
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Illustration of New Garden Meetinghouse shortly after the Battle of New Garden.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Although no clear documentation of these homes exists, Newlin says, \u201cThe two-story log house which stood near the Cross Roads has been referred to as a hospital for the wounded and is reputed to have been filled with casualties from the battle at that place,\u201d (Newlin, 1977). Although the \u201cCross Roads\u201d marked on the map (see image left) is up the road from today’s Dana Auditorium, located today at the intersection of Ballinger road, Fleming road, and the curve of New Garden (ironically making Eagle Medicine the approximate modern-day location of this log house hospital), the point still stands: these houses were frequent, and their locations not exact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the aftermath of the battle, Newlin writes:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs the Battle of New Garden shifted from one place to another the two contending military forces left their dead and seriously wounded lying where they fell. The grounds around New Garden Meetinghouse and at the Cross Roads must have been grim pictures after the fighting ended and the two forces had moved on to the next scene of conflict. Many dead and seriously wounded were scattered over these grounds.\u201d (Newlin, \u201877).
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps needless to say, fields of dead and dying do not an un-haunted campus make.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addison Coffin, Levi Coffin\u2019s cousin, wrote that, in 1830:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[people who had] taken part in the battle of in burying the dead and caring for the wounded pointed out mounds in the burial ground at New Garden that contained 21 bodies of the wounded who died in the old meetinghouse, from the battle near by, and the pit near Tate\u2019s grave, in the woods, had 20 of the dead buried in it, while the Hessians were buried in the open field where they fell, like animals,” (Coffin, 1892).<\/em>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, Newlin goes on to state that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the past twenty-five years, gravediggers have found parts of human skeletons while digging graves in the New Garden cemetery. Two of these were near the east border of the present graveyard, and one was on the gently sloping hillside above the northwest corner of the cemetery. These parts of the present cemetery were in the woods adjoining the graveyard in 1781.\u201d (Newlin, 1977, 52)
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This all said, aside from the ambiguity of Dana\u2019s previous purpose as a field hospital, is it really that much of a stretch for the spirit occupying the current campus to have died there? Practically a stone\u2019s throw away, random, unmarked bodies were discovered not too far in the past. And, if \u201cHessians,\u201d or Germans, were buried \u201cin the open field where they fell,\u201d couldn\u2019t Lewis Ricks have easily been mixed up among them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n