Mountain Mysteries: Tales from Appalachia · Hailey and Holly

The Brinkley College Ghost

November 6, 2025·41 min·2 clips

Holly and Haley of Mountain Mysteries, Tales from Appalachia recount the 1871 ghost story of Brinkley College for Girls in Memphis, Tennessee. The tale traces the mansion from its construction by Colonel Davey, through his financial ruin when the Civil War derailed his railroad investment, to Colonel Brinkley buying it at a loss and converting it to a women's finishing school. When 13-year-old music student Clara Robertson began encountering the skeletal apparition of Lizzie Davey — the colonel's deceased young daughter buried on the property in a pink dress — the haunting escalated into a citywide sensation. A clairvoyant named Mary Norse organized a public seance during which Clara was apparently possessed by Lizzie, who revealed a buried jar of valuables and threatened to curse the property forever. The jar was found but then stolen before it could be publicly opened, the college closed in shame, and the hosts suspect the whole affair may have been an elaborate money-making scheme.

As heard by us

A chatty Appalachian ghost story that turns a piano room into a place no one wants to stay.

An Appalachian ghost story anchors the episode, and the schoolroom setting does a lot of the work: Clara at the piano, a warm breeze turning cold, sheet music falling, and a young girl in a dirty pink dress appearing.

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Why you'd press play

Want an Appalachian ghost story with two hosts who banter while they tell it?

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