Asheville daily citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1890-1900, 1893-12-30
A REMARKABLE FAMILY
EIGHT AGED WOMEN WHO
LIVE NEAR MONROE.
Their Average Age is SS Years,
They DO Their Own Farming,
ana Believe In VvIichcraft and
HOOdOOI8m.


In Union county, this State, near the
town of Monroe, live family of aged
women OF the name of Clontz, who are
remarkable for their longevity and their
strange belief, and whose story carries
one back to the days of Cotton Mather
and of witchcraft in old New England.
There are eight of these women, all OF
whom are closely related, and whose av-
erage age is S5 years. aFive of them are
maiden sisters, and the youngest of the
sisters. who is also the Youngest of the
eight, is rs years old. They have lived
on the same farm near each other
all their lives, and the major
itv of them can neither read nor
write. None of them has ever been far
ther from home than the nearest towns,
and none has ever ridden on train. Sew
eral have never seen either town or train.
The women own the farm on which
they live and perform all the labor
thereon, and under their efforts the
earth yields to them comfortable living.
One OF the sisters has ploughed, ditched,
split rails and generally performed a
mans work nearly all her life, and until
recent years in each season went into
the harvest field and cut grain with an
old-fashioned grain cradle, The sisters
.
wheels and looms and cut and make their
own clothing.
All of this remarkable family Of wo-
men are believers in witchcraft and hoo
dooism. One of them professess to be
able to effect cures of various diseases in
humans and animals by Sorcery. A sick
horse was taken to this sister, who
treated 1T by rubbing it three times
along the neck and backbone from head
to tail, striking it thrice in the flank and
uttering incantations in words unintel-
hgible to listeners. But the belief that
she could cure had no verifcation in this
instance, for the horse died.
1t has been the popular belief that the
women could put 'spell'' on the hooks
OF fisher men SO that a day spent in fish
ing in the brooks of the vicinity is
truitless. Hunters, too, are particular
to get permission to go cunning in that
locality, for it is tradition that the wo-
men can "spell' the gun so that bullet
fired straight at target will fly wide
of the mark. Every spring when these
industrious people shell corn for plant
ing, they place the cobs in the creek,
which, they claim, will prevent drouth.
To show their belief that Friday is an
unlucky day, neighbor one went to
their house after some article he had
loaned the sisters, but they declined to
return it OH account of it being Frida>
when the owner came for it. The wo-
men belong to the Presby terian church,
and enter the edihce to attend service in
single file. all wearing old style sunbon-
nets. This headdreSs, it is said, is rarely
if ever taken off. even Indoors. They all
SMOKE long-stem pipes and dip snuff.
The women, with all their pcculiari-
tios, are notcd !or thcir integrity, and
upright life.
There are also living near these per-
sons five women closely related to them
who e1,Nt1 rHS Of so old
The younger community are taking con-
siderable interest in educational work,
and the belief in witchcraft is fast pass
ing away.