Proctor Academy - The Ghost of John Proctor

By Oliver Moore, '10

Jonathan Proctor, the man who our school is named after, has great importance to the town of Andover. For a journalism assignment, I gathered all there was to know about this historic man. John Proctor left Andover, his hometown, in 1822 to pursue his fortune as a sledgehand. He found success in the screw business, and returned to Andover 35 years later to build the town up. He founded Proctor Academy and was buried in the cemetery across the street from Proctor Academy when he died in what is now Proctor's dormitory Carr house.
In my visit to his grave site a few days earlier, I felt a very strange presence around the gravestone of Jonathan Proctor, as if something was trying to contact me. After taking a few photographs, I left. Later that night when I looked at the pictures, something shocked me. Look closely at the middle left side of the picture of his grave.

This unexplainable whitish blur is what ghost experts call a “ghost orb.” Several other witnesses also reported seeing something very similar, so it cannot simply be an error of the camera. Another unsettling aspect of the above photograph is the text is backwards on the gravestone. No other picture taken with my camera reversed the writing like this one did. Eerie, but not the strangest part of my interaction with John Proctor.

On my next visit to the graveyard, which was around dusk the following night, the paranormal presence I felt the other day was significantly greater. The temperature in the cemetery seemed to be ten times colder than anywhere else on campus. And then, I heard what sounded like a whisper, papers rustling maybe, coming from what seemed like thin air. I looked around and no one else was in the graveyard. The whisper became louder, and then the words became clear...

“Oliver, you must warn others not to trespass in the graveyard this Halloween.”

I would like to say that I may have just imagined the whole thing, but that is just not the case. I am positive that I heard those exact words from no one else but John Proctor. After this chilling experience, I will not be returning to the cemetery again and I strongly advise against visiting his grave site at night, especially not Halloween night.

Oliver researching apparitions

Jon Proctor in his earthly days.