The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1880-11-18
A Strange Dream-St0ry.

"A UAC06O DAC1W- NoNIys
There is an inexplicable story-wh,ch
I believe has never been published
among the traditions of the fat, fertile hill
country of Western Pennsylvania, the |
most unlikely quarter in the world to
serve Is a breeding place of mystery. |
1t was settled wholly by well-to do farm
ers from the north of Ireland, economical, |
hard-working folks-God-fearing too,
after the exact manner described BY John
Knox, and having little patience with
any other manner. Not likely people
assuredly, to give credeace to any fanci-
full supcrstltions, and still less to origi-
nate them. The story indeed, has q j
bold, matter of-fact character in every
detail which quite sets it apart from re-
lations Of the supernatural. have new
er heard it explained, and it is the best
authenticated mystery in my knowledge.
Here it is in brief. Among the Scotch.
Irish settlers in Washington county in
1919 was family named Plymire, who
occupied comfortable farm and house.
Rachel, the daughter, was engaged to a
young farmer Of the neighbo1hood. On
a Saturday evening in July, having fin
ished her weeks work, she dressed her.
self tidily and started to VISIT her mar
ried sister, who lived on a farm about
five milef distant, intending to- return on
Monday morning. She tied up her Sun
day gown and hat in checkered hand
kerchlef, and carried her shoes and stock
ings In the other hand, meaning to walk
IN her bare feet and to put them on
when she came in sight Of her destina-
ton, after the canny Scotch fash
ion. She lett home about seven in order
to have the cool evening tor her walk.
The road to the farm was lonely and un-
frequented. The girl did not return
home on Monday, but no alarm was felt,
as the family thought her sister would
probably wish to detain her for a few
days: and it was not until the latter part
OF the week that it was found that she
had never been at her sisters. Then the
country was secured, but in vain; the
alarm spread, and excited great deal OF
error in the peaceable, domestic commu-
nifty which would seem inexplicable to
city people, to whom the newspapers had
broug bit budget of crime since their
childhood. To children raised in those
lonely hamlets and hill-farms, murder
"oo AoA OAI1 OuACHA AOIIOE.
The girl had left home on Saturday at
seven o'clock That night long before
ten O'Clock Farmers go to bed with the
chickens) a woman living in Green Coun-
ty, about forty miles from the Plymire
farm, awoke her husband in great terror
declaring that she had seen a murder
done, and went on to describe place she
had neve. seen betorc-a hill country
with wagon road running through it,
and q girl with bundle tied with
checkered handkerchief, her shoes and
white stockings in the other hand, walk
ing briskly along the grassy side Of the
road. She was met by young man
the woman judged from their manner
that they had met by appointment; they
sat down on log and talked for some
time.
The man at last rose, stepped behind
her, and drawing out Ratchet, struck
her twice on the head. She fell back
ward on the wet, rotten leaves, dead.
Presently the man was joined by anoth-
er, also young, who asked, ''Is it done?"
He nodded, and together they lifted the
body and carried it away out of sight.
After awhile they came back, found the
bundle of Sunday fnery and the shoes
and stockings, all of which were stained
with blood. There was a ruined, old
mill near the road; they went into it,
lifted loose board in the flooring, put
the bundle, shoes, etc., with the Ratchet,
underneath, and replaced the board.
Then they separated and went through
the woods in different directions. The
farmers wife told her dream to her hus-
band that night; the next Sunday, go
ing to little country church, she re-
NAMED during the intermission between
the morning and afternoon services. The
neighbors who had come from circuit
of twenty miles to church, gathered, &C.
cording to their hsmely habit, in the
churchyard to cat their lunch and ex-
change the news. Our dreamer told her
story again aud again, for she was
impressed by it as if it had been a reall-
ty. After the afternoon service the con-
gregation separated, going to their wide
~ scattered homes. There were thus
witnesses ready to certify to the fact
that the woman had told the dream the
morning after the murder was commit
ed at a distance of forty miles, when it
was absolutely impossible that the news
could have reached her. There were no
telegraphs, we must remember, and no
railways in those days-not even mail
carriers in those secluded districts.
When The story of tho girls disap-
| pearance was told over the country at
the end of the next week, the people to
whom the dream had been repeated re-
called it. Nowadays the matter would
only serve as good material for the re-
porters, but the men of those days still
believed that God took an oversight even
of theil dreams. Might this not be a
hint flom Him?
The Rev. Charles Wheeler, a Baptist
clergyman of Washington, we'll known
In western Pennsylvania and Virginia a
generation ago, and Ephraim Blaine,
ESQ.,, a magistrate, and father Of the
present senator from Maine, and pop
ular man in his narrow circle, drove to
see the woman who had told the dream.
Without stating their purpose, they took
her and her husband, on pretense of bus.
mess, to the Plymire farm. 1t was the