Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1885-10-10
SELECTIONS.
A CURIOUS LEGEND.
BY A TRAVELLER.

FOr years Jnoro STOOD upon the
old Doren property, good long
distance from the kitchen door OF
the mansion, a queer stone well.
1t was of carven stone, with gfotes-
que heads and faces Oh every side,
and behind it the head and body of
some fendish-looking thing-a sort
OF satyrit seemed-Wlth such fierce
expression III its carven eyes that
all children were afraid of it. A
rustic shed covered the well. I've
crept over it, and half hid the stone
face. And it was certainly very
picturesque object.
There had never been either wind
lass or sweep; only chain fastened
to the roof of the shed, to which the
bucket was attached; but the water
was always so high that it was very
easy to draw it in this way.
In connection with this well, how
ever, something very remarkable
had occurred. In the year 1914,
when the house was first occupied
by the family, a young girl, Kathrine
Doren by name, the Youngest daugh-
ter of the house, had gone to the
well in the edge of the evening to
fill pail. She never returned. Her
friends went in search of her, and
found the pail on the Wells curb.
1t was thought ut first that she
was drowned, but this was not the
case. However, she was never seen
again. Her friends tancied she had
been murdered; strangers believed
that she had eloped with some lover !;
but ITO one ever knew what had be-
come of Kathrine Doren.
Mean while, her niece, a child at
the time, grew up, married, and had
a daughter, whom she named Kath-
rine, after her lost aunt.
Forty years from the day on which
the first Kathrine had disappeared,
this second Kathrlne, then seven
teen years old, went in the gloam-
ing of an autumn day to the stone
well to fill a china pitcher.
Again the same thing happened (;
the pitcher was found on the well
curb, and Kathrine was never seen
again. The whole country was
secured; posters were pasted up in
every town; advertisements insert
ed in every paper; but the mother
died of grief without having heard
any tidIngs Of her daughter.
Since then, in every generation,
the same thing has happened. Sew
en- girls had gone to the well for
water and never been seen since,
and, strangely enough, each had
been named Kathrine.
Yet so skeptical are the people of
today, that no one really believed
all shat was said and it was thought
in the neighborhood that the Dozens
were race given to eiopement, and
that the glrls took advantage of the
legend of the well.
In the year 1914 the old house
was crumbling edifice, that rocked
in the wind when it blew strongly !;
and the widow of the last Doren,
TO whom it fell on the death of her
husbands father, hesitated about
taking up her abode there but she
was poor, and really had little choice.
So to the old house she went, with
her one daughter, Kathrine-a girl
of eighteen, blue-eyed, golden-haired
and bonny.
The widow had heard the story Of
the disappearance of the girls, but
had scarcely believed 1t, and had
never repeated it to her daughter.
Katharine was in utter ignorance Of
it, and OF the well. She ran about
the garden, discovering new beau
ties at every turn, and at last actual
~ danced with delight before the
old stone well.
|. Like well in an old fairy story,
mammal she exclaimed, as she de-
s.ari hod Il LII .,aalz.. c.~I