The Newtown bee., 1900-12-07

with her history, and from the day of her death, or perhaps should say her disappearance from earth, to the present time, not one of them has ever ventured, after niRhLfall, on the unused road lead ing past her old home.
 Hannah CrannA was not always krOWn as witch. Nothing Is known of her life as a girl. Tho earliest kn0 wledge of her takes us back only about half . de zen years before she beca me known As an exponent of witchcraft. At this period her life was apparently neventful and commonplace. She was married and lived with her husband in the old house that after ward became 60 famous as the seat of 90 much that was welrd, mystert ous and occult.
 Silas Cranna was an inveterate tippler and pas ,ed much of his time at an inn that stood on the present site of Porter blacksmith shop, near Stepney Depot. His mode of life. to say the least, annoy. ed Hannah, and she ushered in her initi- ation to witchcraft by murdering him in @ startlinRly novel and sensational manner. Indians were quite numerous at that time and body or them, descend. ants of the old PeQuot tribe, saw her, huspand and herself were standing iu the old Indian trail, just where 1t sur. mounts the very pinnacle of .Helvelyn crag, engaged In an altercation, appar. entity. Suddenly she seized him and dragged him toward the edge of the precipice. He struggled desperately but hls virility being undoubtedly much weakened by his buc0lfc habits, he was no match for his enraged wife. She forced him, writhing ard screaming for help, to the edge and deliberately thrust him over. Down, down from the dizzy height to the depths far below he went, striking lodges and rocks as he fell, until, 8 moment later he lay, an inanimate heap Cranna never stirred again. He was dead. A moment only Hanpa her face set and white, gazsd with burning eyes at the inert, hfeless form, then she moodily returned to her home. Her reason for the perpetration of this crime has always been yelled in impenetrable mystery. It was October, nearly five months later, before she was again seen. Then two men driving along the old White Hills turnpike "a " her, dressed in white, flowing garments and with dis heveled hair, standing in the swamp, near the road, in the rear of her old home. They were afraid to moleet her and hur- ried on. During the following month
 
 always late at night. The spinal column of collective Stepney was 90 chilled by these encounters that disastrous resulGs would undoubtedly have ensued but for the fact that she suddenly disappeared again. It was late in the following spring when she re.appeared and wal seen daily, as of old, about her house. Up to this time 1t had not been suspected that she possessed any unusual or mYs. terious gifts. The dread she had inspired was due to her killing her husband, her strange disappearance and subse quent return under such uncsnny circum- stances. The fact that the authorities seemed to fear her was not without ks effect on the public mind. At any rate her apprehension was never attempted.
 After her return she became . recluse, went from home but seldom and allowed no one near her houee. Shortly after this her weird power as Q witch was demonstrated. The owner of . nearby field adj ,ining her garden was raising there, t''at season, large crop of pota- toes. The crop was in excellent condi- tion when, one morning, this mans COWS broke into her gsrdec and damaged, to