The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26
MAN LIVING WHO . SAW WITCHES BURN Maine Man Recalls Days of
 Long Ago BACK TO REVOLUTION
 --7 Was Reared and Educated by Man Who Lived to Be Ninety and
 Had Vivid Memory ~ of the Past
E,ron, the Boston Globe.

I that forms. the highlands of Spring vale and during the revolutionary war was busy getting families to locate there. At the close of the revolution lit was an important settlement con taining IS or 20 houses.
 For some time before Springvale de- veloped Emery,s Mills. village in springvale. was the trading center of 1 the surrounding country. The proba- [ bilities are that MT. Deering thought. Emery's Mills was to be the metropolis of the northern Mousam valley and that his neighborhood would be- the logical place for the village of Sand fordtown.
 He lived long, senough to see his Il plans come to naught, for he was over 90 years old when he died
 The memory of MT. Deering is well preserved tin the mind of Moses Den nett, who lived in his house from child hood to manhood, and was largely un- der his influence! MT. Dennett, now in his S1st year and a lifelong resident of Springvale, is himself a character of more than common interest. His story of MT. Gideon Deering, re- fecting also his own idiosyncrasies, is very interesting. One of MT. Deer ling's peculiarities was firm belief Il in witchcraft. y%
 It is possible that Mr.. Dennett is the only man now living who has been witness of the, act of burning up be witched cream" Three times, at least. \ he saw the "churning'' thrown into the great brick oven, because "old Wizard Hersum' was in it.
 Says MT Dennett: '.Mr. Deering had Inc children, and when was a small boy my father moved into his home | and there I was reared. l remember II the old man as well as I do my father. The house was known far and near as II .Pilgrim Tavern It took that title be- H cause it was a free and open house | for the clergy. In those days revivalists travelled about the country in groups and when in this vicinity stopped at our house.
 Many times my brothers and my self have been obliged to sleep on the floor to accommodate the guests. As they all travelled by team the barn was often full of horses; and my brothers and I had them to care for. l do not recall ever having a cent given as | tip l suppose the day of such things had not arrived.
 .In all matters excepting this MT. Deering was level headed and always ] shreWd enough to look out Tor his own When the clergy or the church was involved he never counted the cost and it must have been drain upon his resources, for as long as l can re- member the same generosity was kept up, and it had been in vogue long be- fore I was born
 We boys had to go to meeting ev- cry Sunday. We walked and the old | r,ap xva 1lx cd with us. We dressed up in our best. The distinguishing feature of my attire as I recall it, was the great white collar with long points, and high sides, resembling those worn by negro impersonators. The chief pur- pose they served was to keep my eyes on the preacher, for could not see to either side, the collar was so high and the points so long.
 Tn the Bible there is something said about taking off the shoes when on holy ground; but MT. Deering reversed the order; for he had us go barefooted until near the church. Then we dressed our feet (having brought shoes and stockings) and went into the meeting house all booted. Upon the return trip
 we had respect for the church until out of sight; and then off came our shoes and stockings; and we went the rest of the way barefooted. It was two good miles to the church.
 MT Deering was intensely religious. i. but more than that he was superstl- tious. His implicit belief In the reality of witches and wizards was his most striking characteristic. In that respect Cotton Mather had nothing on nim'
 as the boys say today.
 Tn that sense he lived in an age even then gone by. He was nevertheless fine
 old fellow and always treated us boys
 well. He was master at story telling
 at least it seems so to me-and he used
 to amuse us children with all sorts of yarns.
 But the ghost stories were the ones that fascinated us, and night after night have gone to bed with the fear of gob- lins upon me. The instant I got into
 he'd under the sheets went my head to shut out the. vision of ghosts prancing
 up and down the room. That made no
 difference with my desire to listen the
 Eext night. He always wore button
 that was ornamented with designs or Il fantastic symbols. It was a witch
 charm, and he had great faith in Its ef- ficacy to protect him against evil spirits
 "4e was disposed to assume the grandee l style: and did many things apparently
 in the ibid of the manor spirit. At one
 time there came into fashion cart called
 'rhe Rattler.' They were either so ex-.
 pensive or so abominable, because or the
 noise made when on the road, that none I Lut the well-off men owned them.
 "rhere. were three in our town, and
 MT. Deerng had one. He used to ride in 1t and seemed to enjoy it, but 1t was a ! nuisance to his neghbors. It rattled and rattled, and double rattled. Some of the modern styles in woman's dress are no
 more outrageous or offensive to good taste
 than were those kind of vehicles.
 "The most remarkable incidents were
 trose of dumping the 'churning' into the
 fire. There was an old fellow living in inc nejghborhood who had the reputation
 of being wizard, and for some reason Mhen the butter would not make readily II MT. Deering thought he was the cause;
 and nothing would suffice but throwing
 the whole mess of cream into the oven
 so as to burn up the wizard or the evil spirit.
 'When the command was issued to
 burn the wizard. fear was upon the house.
 The ceremonies were solemn but brief. The, fire was made hot One, and some
 times two, would hold the churn, and as
 the old man swung open the great oven door the bewitched contents would be
 thrown in, and the door slammed-to with
 a vengeance, and closely guarded until the cream had evaropated in the heat MT. Dennetts father inherited Pilgrim Tavern It was later sold to Elmer D. l Weniwortn, and Is now owned and occu- ipied by Oscar Carpenter.