Dr. Lynn Rainville was the speaker at Oxford Presbyterian Church’s forum Sunday, April 26. The topic this day was fascinating and unusual: ghosts.
For more than a decade, Rainville has studied historic cemeteries, gravestones and life in the early enslaved communities. She has written three books on the subject of graveyards and hidden histories, and has a new one coming out in 2027 called “Ghostlore: Virginia’s Haunted History.”
Her forum lecture concentrated on this history - including a discussion of ghosts and the research that she has conducted. Sometimes she refers to herself as a mortuary detective.
Her first story this day centered around an area called Browns Cove - looking at old graveyards and collecting local stories, and where she was accompanied each day by a dog who helped her find the gravestones of many Blacks. After a few days she began to wonder if the dog itself might be a ghost. Ghost stories accumulated profusely in the Black community back then – yet ghost stories are common and widespread with all groups throughout history. Even the Romans had them.
In Lexington her first ghost story focused on a local character named Phil Nunn - a large African American (6 feet, 4 inches) who did odd chores for citizens of the town. He was well liked but always carried his savings with him - mostly in coins that “jingled” when he walked. He continued to walk the streets of town even after his death and was noticed by townsfolk when he passed from the sound of his loose coins jingling and his heavy step (he made his own shoes from carpet and old tire treads). Another haunted house was the RobersonPhelan House on South Jefferson Street – a place of odd noises and mysterious lights.
Some other sites or “Haints” occurred on the W&L campus- in early Payne Hall. When students conducted research and consulted a Ouija Board for information, the board directed them to an exotic collection of old animal bones and skeletons long hidden in the former and abandoned basement of the campus science building. There are even ghost stories connected to Robert E. Lee’s horse -Traveler, The legend claims that his horse “still roams the campus- and always returns to his stable at dawn” (and where the door is always left open).
