Centenary University

Reader's Digest named Centenary one of the 10 most haunted colleges in America. In 1886, an 18-year-old kitchen maid named Tillie Smith was murdered in a field behind the school. The case was never fully resolved.

On the evening of April 8, 1886, eighteen-year-old kitchen maid Matilda "Tillie" Smith left the campus of the Centenary Collegiate Institute in Hackettstown to attend an entertainment at a hall on Main Street. The college enforced a strict 10:00 p.m. curfew, after which the doors were locked. Tillie had arranged with the school's janitor, twenty-nine-year-old James Titus, to let her back in upon her return. She left the hall around 10:10 p.m. in the company of Charles Munnich, who walked her back toward campus and heard her footsteps going around the side of the building -- the last anyone saw her alive. The next morning, April 9, a man named John White discovered her body in a field behind the school while walking his dog at 8:40 a.m. She had been assaulted and strangled.

Titus, who had worked at the institute for more than eleven years, was arrested on April 29, 1886. His trial began on September 28 of that year, drawing intense public attention. Found guilty, Titus was sentenced to hang. He avoided execution by confessing to the rape and murder, and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He served nineteen years before his release, after which he returned to Hackettstown and lived there quietly until his death in 1952 at the age of ninety-five. A marble monument was erected at Tillie's grave in Union Cemetery bearing the inscription: "She died in defense of her honor." The case remains controversial -- some accounts note that the prosecution disregarded several pieces of evidence that may have supported Titus's innocence.

Tillie's spirit hasn't left the campus where she was killed. Students and staff have reported seeing a woman in white walking among the tall oak trees on the college grounds, particularly on spring evenings around the anniversary of her death. Her ghost has been reported floating near the ceiling in South Hall, the main dormitory building, accompanied by moaning sounds and lights that flicker without explanation. The theater backstage is another frequent haunt -- the Centenary Stage Company has leaned into the legend, sponsoring "Tillie Walks," theatrical reenactments where actors retrace her path through town depicting the events of her final night, and performing a play about her story researched and written by Jeanne Walker.

Beyond the campus, Tillie wanders the roads around Hackettstown as a hitchhiking phantom. A girl in a white dress has been seen walking along nearby roads and has reportedly gotten into cars before vanishing from the passenger seat. She's also known for mischievous pranks inside dormitory buildings -- opening and closing doors, moving objects, and turning on stereos without explanation. Perhaps the most unsettling legend involves a sorority photograph allegedly taken sometime after Tillie's murder. When the photo was developed, the image of a young woman who had not been present appeared among the group. The photograph was reportedly kept under lock and key by the college, though its current whereabouts and authenticity remain unverified. The campus coffee shop was named in Tillie's honor, and her story has been featured on the "Unsolved Mysteries" podcast, ensuring that the tragedy of 1886 continues to draw visitors and investigators to Hackettstown.