Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-10-10

are noncombdtanS, the problem OF deal
bile Club was building it's clubhouse
near Grandview. the most perplexing
problem that arose was one of water
supply. H. G. Blakesley, +. c. Merry
and George Davis We're appointed a COM
mittee to solve that problem. They de-
cded to sink a well, but they could not
agree upon the place Finally they
called in Edgar C. Faris, the architect
and while the four men were standing
on the grounds talking the subject over
a man drove in with load of rock.
''Say. if you men want to know where
| to sink well leave it to me. I'm a
water WITCH he said
The others laughed at him, but Faris
| had heard a good deal about water
witches and had never met one, and he
invited the man to try his art.
| "He cut a crotch from the limb of a
! peach tree. said Faris last week With
4 his hands grasping the two limbs of
| this and the prong pointing upward he
| walked in a half circle across the
grounds and at certain point the prong
| pointed down. He would back away
| from one spot and the prong would point
| upward again. BY walking to the right
| a little and back again and then to the
| left, and watching the dipping of the
! prong he was able to trace the under
/ ground vein for half a mile across the
| fields until he came to an old abandoned
we'll overgrown and hidden by weeds.
I'VE followed him in Amusement as We
! watched the prong of the peach limb dip
and arise again. We decided to sink the
| we'll at the spot indicated by him and at
depth of II feet we struck vein of
! fine water
| while the water witch was making
| his experiments on the automobile club
! grounds / took the fork of the peach tree
| in my own hands and il worked with
| me just as it did with the water witch.
When l came to the spot directly over
| the vein of the water the prong would
| twist downward in spite of my utmost
| efforts to prevent it. l even clutched it
so tightly that when it turned it twisted
| he bark off.
| Last spring, while visiting my broth
, er's farm near De Soto. Kan, he spoke
of sinking a new well because the one
on his place was too shallow and it went
dry last summer. | recalled the expert
| ment 1 had made on the automobile club
l
started out to see if / could find a vein
| of water. At certain point near a
small oak tree the prong pointed down
ward. l was alone when that occurred
! and | returned to the house and gave
the divining rod to my brother and
showed him how to use it. and told him
to walk in a certain direction. The
prong remained upright until he arrived
n;,,t rbar for
| me. and there it pointed downward.
| mot being satisfied with this we called
in the village blacksmith who was pass
ing, and, after showing him how to hold
the peach-tree fork he had the same ex-
[ perience with it. My brother dug a well
/ at that spot and at depth of eight feet
! he struck vein of water that has not
| diminished in its flow all through the
I, drought this summer while his other
+, we'll went dry.
| But that is not all. A man who lived
across the road from my brothers place
/ wanted a well, too. and the blacksmith.
| with the divining rod, found that the
same vein of water ran across that
mans place and he indicated the spot
! at which well should be dug, and an
! inexhaustible vein of water was found
there. and all this summer gasoline en-
| CINE has been pumping water out o. it
without lowering it an inch.'
i ''Walter A. tastes. who has a farm
near Harrisonville. Cass County. tells of
water witch in that village, Henry
Knoll, who is a we'll digger also.
He was engaged by Eastes to locate
water and he asserted that he had found
it. and he sank well there. but no
water was found. However, it must be
said for Knoll that he has been remark
ably successful in locating water.
/, Two weeks ago Harry Snedeker, 1923
! Ohio avenue, Kansas City, Kan, being
outside the zone of the city water supply,
and his cistern having gone dry, cut a
fork from a peach tree in his yard, and
holding ii in his hands, walked back and
forth until at certain spot it Topped
over and pointed straight down. He
hired a man to dig awell and at depth
OF Is feet he struck a thin shell of rock,
beneath which was a stream of water
large enough almost to supply city.
! Prof w. +. Barrett, of Dublin, wrote
treatise on divining rods about five
years ago, in which he included col
lection of many tales of water being
/, found by this means. He asserted in his
book that he had found many of the in
cidents to be true.
William Hamilton Gibson, naturalist,
I artist and author, in his book, Happy