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Peter Pelham Dromgoole

Peter Pelham Dromgoole came to Chapel Hill in January 1833, failed the university's entrance examination, studied under a tutor and vanished that spring. Students later turned his disappearance into a legend of a fatal duel, and in 1889 formed the Order of Gimghoul, which completed its castle at the site in 1926.

Source: NCpedia: Dromgoole, Peter Pelham

1815– · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

4 works about Peter Pelham Dromgoole are indexed here.

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Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineGimghoul Castle at Piney Prospect, 1923–19311923–1931 · 8 events · In 1923 the Order of Gimghouls gave the University 35 acres next to Battle's Park in a land exchange and began selling house lots whose deeds required approved house plans. With money from those lot sales, the order built a stone castle on the crest at Dromgoole Rock near Piney Prospect, at the spot where legend placed Dromgoole's fatal duel and burial. Members and alumni agreed unanimously in June 1924 to build the lodge, and the Weekly put the likely cost at $35,000 to $45,000. Some 1,300 tons of stone were hauled in, stonemasons came from the Waldensian settlement at Valdese, and Charlie Lee Martindale was general contractor. The order first gathered in the castle in May 1926. After repeated break-ins, apparently by students, it had wrought-iron grills fitted over the windows and added heavy doors and bolts by 1931.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Peter Dromgoole disappears from Chapel Hill Peter Pelham Dromgoole came to Chapel Hill in January 1833, failed the university's entrance examination and studied under a tutor. That spring, after bitter letters with his father, he vanished from his lodgings, leaving most of his belongings and a debt to a Chapel Hill merchant. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · NCpedia: Dromgoole, Peter Pelham
  2. Students found the Order of Gimghoul after hearing the Dromgoole story Five undergraduates founded a secret society after hearing university president Kemp Battle tell the Dromgoole story. They first called it the Order of Dromgoole and later shortened the name to Gimghoul. People: Kemp Plummer Battle Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: GimghoulIn the index: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · UNC-Chapel Hill: Carolina ghost stories: Gimghoul Castle
  3. The Order of Gimghoul completes its castle at Piney Prospect The Order of Gimghoul completed a gothic castle at Piney Prospect, the spot where legend placed Dromgoole's fatal duel and burial. Place: Gimghoul Castle, Chapel HillSearch the index · NCpedia: Dromgoole, Peter Pelham · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 21, 1926, p. 3; Chapel Hill Weekly, November 12, 1926, p. 3; The Daily Tar Heel, August 28, 1986, p. 13

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Peter Pelham Dromgoole, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Indexed works

Works about or by Peter Pelham Dromgoole. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Dromgoole, twice-murdered: unraveling a Southern legend of duels, disappearance, Seminole Wars, secret societies,mystery, castles, & Flagler's millions

Malone, E. T. · 2017 · Literary Lantern Press

E. T. Malone's biography of Peter Pelham Dromgoole, born 1815, the University of North Carolina student whose disappearance from Chapel Hill in 1833 grew into the legend behind the Order of Gimghoul. The long subtitle promises duels, the Seminole Wars, secret societies, castles and Flagler's millions along the way. Published by Literary Lantern Press in Warrenton in 2017, 276 pages with illustrations and portraits, some in color.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Library of Congress record: Dromgoole, Peter Pelham, 1815-.

NC Cardinal UNC Library of Congress CH Historical Society

Gimghoul : past and present

1978 · Order of Gimghoul

A short pamphlet on the history of the Order of Gimghoul, the Chapel Hill student society, and its castle, issued by the order in 1978. It includes the legend attached to Peter Pelham Dromgoole, a student born in 1815. Eight unnumbered pages with illustrations.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Dromgoole, Peter Pelham, 1815- -- Legends.

UNC

Dromgoole's revenge

Malone, E. T., Jr. · 2010 · Literary Lantern Press

A sixteen page short story by E. T. Malone, Jr., built on the campus legend of Peter Dromgoole, the University of North Carolina student who vanished in the 1830s, and on the Order of Gimghoul, the Chapel Hill secret society bound up with that legend. Literary Lantern Press of Warrenton published it in 2010.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Dromgoole, Peter Pelham, 1815- -- Fiction.

UNC

Peter Dromgoole : in which much light is thrown on an interesting tradition

Cotten, Bruce, 1873-1954 · 1924

Bruce Cotten's 1924 pamphlet on Peter Pelham Dromgoole, the student at the center of a Chapel Hill legend, with attention also to Edward Dromgoole and the wider family. It concerns legends of Chapel Hill and the Dromgoole name, so it serves local folklore and family history alike.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Dromgoole, Peter Pelham, 1815-.

UNC

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