Ohio University

At the end of the war both Cutler and Putnam found they had "an abundance of liberty but no property, and their occupation gone." Hoping to emigrate to the vast Northwest Territory that the defeated British would have to forfeit, Putnam petitioned the Continental Congress to honor its promise to pay soldiers for their military service with grants of land. Three years later, Congress still had not drafted a satisfactory plan for distributing land and governing the Northwest Territory. Putnam decided on a new tactic. He would try to buy land in the Ohio territory, specifically in the Muskingum valley, which he had been told was fertile. Consequently, he placed an "Information" in Massachusetts newspapers, inviting veterans of the Revolution who had been promised land in "the delightful region" of the Ohio Country to send delegates to a meeting at Boston's Bunch of Grapes Tavern, where they would form an association to purchase lands from Congress.

Though seventeen years passed before the founding of the university, Manasseh Cutler and Rufus Putnam did not waver in their determination to see it become a reality. By the spring of 1788, Putnam had gathered fifty laborers, surveyors, and boat builders and proceeded to the mouth of the Muskingum River, near Fort Harmar, where he founded Marietta, the first settlement in Ohio. The following year, the Ohio Company's directors urged Putnam and Cutler to seek "the establishment of Instructors in the university," to "procure a charter for that Seminary," and to "Fix the townships which the Directors are obliged to Set apart for the support of a University." However, it was not until 1795, after General Anthony Wayne's devastating campaign against Ohio's Native Americans the Shawnee, the Miami, and the Delaware that Putnam could complete a survey and select the two centrally located townships for the university's land. When he persuaded about twenty "substantial men" to pole their way up the Hocking River in 1797, the slow settlement of the area began.

Paranormal Claims

• The statue of an angel in the cemetery on West State St which is said to be crying on occasions.
• The spirit of a civil war veteran called Michael Ward, who chants names of the university's students.
• There were reports at the Delta Tau Delta house of poltergeist after a tombstone was taken from Simms Cemetary. Once the stone was returned, the activity stopped.
• The Sigma Phi Epsilon house located at 24 E. Washington used to be a stop for the Underground Railroad. It is reported that a former slave named Nicodemus, who was killed in the building, haunts this location.
• At the Contemporary History Institute, which was formerly the Brown House, there is sometimes seen an apparition of Millie Brown looking out her window and the sounds of children splashing in her swimming pool which no longer exists.
• In Jefferson Hall there was an apparition of a school teacher dressed in 1950s clothing spotted in the attic.
• In Jefferson Hall lights turn on and off by themselves.
• In Jefferson Hall toilets flush by themselves.
• In Jefferson Hall toilet paper in bathroom stalls unroll by themselves.
• In Jefferson Hall sounds of hundreds of marbles being dropped on the floor are heard.
• In Washington Hall an entire basketball team haunts the whole building including the arch that connects Washington and Read Hall. It is said that a girls basketball team, which was killed in a bus accident, returns to one of their favorite locations.
• In Bush Hall there is a poltergeist that pulls pranks such as turning on and off water faucets and playing with lights.
• In Bush Hall there are the sounds of falling marbles and dripping liquid.
• In Perkins Hall voices have been heard in the RA’s room.
• In Perkins Hall lights have turned on and off by themselves.
• In Perkins Hall a TV has turned on by itself.
• In Perkins Hall a refrigerator door opens by itself.
• In Perkins Hall, students have reported cold chills and the feelings of uneasiness.
• In Voigt Hall students have reported seeing the apparition of a woman dressed in black standing in their room. Also, items on their desk were strewn all over the floor. One of the student’s even reported hearing the woman tying on her laptop computer… which was off.
• In Crawford Hall an apparition of a student named Laura who fell to her death from her fourth floor window is seen late at night.
• In Crawford Hall lights will flicker and doors will either slam or open.
• In Crawford Hall CD and tape players will not play the Bob Marley song “Laura.”
• In Wilson Hall there are several reports about shadowy ghostly figures in the hallways.
• In the dorms of the “Convo”, a ghost of a student who died in her sleep embraced another student who slept in her same bed.
• Another room in the “Convo” has a haunted closet, whose door opens and closes on its own and from which books and clothes fly.
• On the West Green you can hear a river that once ran near and the chants of native Americans.
• On the West Green, there are reports of a headless buffalo roaming the grounds.

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