Local "Witch"

     When we first moved here in 79, we heard the story about the local witch. As that was several years before I started this blog, I had pretty much forgotten about it until reading a story about witchs bottles in an old issue of National Geographic brought it to mind. The county history does not mention her. The story is second hand from older residents who supposedly were in on the demolition of the witches house in the mid-1940s, just after World War Two. The "Witch" was a recluse; though she lived near the center of town her house was an old ramshackled log construction and stood by itself in the center of three lots. According to the story everyone in town was afraid of her and she wasn't overly friendly with anyone in town; just staying to herself. Needless top say, anytime disaster struck anyone in town the whispering started that the old witch was probably behind it. Whoever she was, her time in the village took up the later part of the 1800s. Not date of death is remembered, but everyone who knew of her insists it was from natural causes.  Her old house sat, primarily empty, after her death. It was thought that a relative, in a neighboring state, inherited the property and pretty much forgot about it; though they must have kept up with any taxes. Sometime just after WW2, someone new bought the lots and what was left of the log house. The new owner decided to build a new house on the center lot where the log house stood. This necessitated tearing down the old house which was in really sorry condition. Right off the bat, when distruction started, the whole place caved in, almost getting some of the workmen who, luckily, saw it coming and got out of the way. It was just a matter of cleaning up the rotten logs and getting them disposed of. Much of the house had fallen into the basement. One wall that fell into the basement was found to be a falsewall. The wall behind it (they had collapsed together) was found to be covered with horse shoes in different configerations. While clearing out the basement they found sealed jars with nails and human hair in them. That got tongues a wagging. Other sealed jars appeared to have pieces of cloth, needles, and nail parings in them. All of this weird stuff was gathered up and burned or buried. I'm told no one opened any of the jars. I suspect the old girl was just alone so long, she was crazy. But older residents in this village think, even yet, that she was a witch. Think what you like, the time of "The Witch" was over a hundred years ago, even if there are still people around who remember the distruction of the house and what their elders told them about the old "witch" that lived there.