The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1948-12-02
True Tales About Ohio
concluded from page u


then began "Nancy Evans, thou art
weighed against the Bible to try thee
against witcheraftry and diabollcal
practices-and in the preponderanee
of the law, say LET 'er go!" The
men let loose and down went Nancy
so hard that she had to eat ot the
fireplace mantel for nearly a week.
Nancy Innocent
Well, Nancy Evans was innocent,
But the Hildebrand girl continued
to be inhabited by the evil spirit.
Whether the witch ever was expelled
| is not recorded but readers may
only speculate as to whether the
Hildebrand family or anyone else IN
Bethel then ever had beard OF
epilepsy. !.
Roth families soon moved out of
town, the Hildebrands to an un-
recorded place and Nancy Evans to
Brown County where she died years
later, a very old and much respected
woman.
Evil spirits crept into animals too'
in the early days, a lot OF ONO
pioneers believed.
In 1914 a farmer in the Hlllcreek
valley, near Cincinnati, Hamilton
County, who had flair for raising
fine horses, found that the distemper
had somehow gotten into the
animals and the disease was Of a
peculiar nature-it resisted all his
efforts to cure it. Since no remedy
appeared to work, the horses certain
lily must be inhabited by evil spirits
they were bewitched.
Horses Bewitched
The farmer consulted everybody
he knew who might have an idea
about sorcery or fortune telling in
an effort to learn way to eXpel
the witch.
One mystic advised him to boil
certain herbs over a hot fire with
pins and needles in the kettle. That,
he was told, would produce great
mental and bodily pain in the witch
After doing the boiling the farmer
stood in his doorway looking out to
see what effect the horses would
show. What he saw was his
daughter-in-law hurrying to the
spring after a bucket of water.
"She must be in great pain to
need that water" the horse owner
thought, and believing the girl to be
the witch, ordered his son to move
off the farm with her.
Then he decided that old Amanda
Garrison, 81, in feeble health and
fast sinking to the grave anyhow,
must be the witch. Amanda heard
about such gossip and was much
worried and grieved. 1t did not help
her health much.
Witch Remedy
One of the remedies recommended
to the farmer was to shoot silver
bullet at a horse while the witch
was in it. That would kill the witch
and cure the horse.
So the farmer nodded bullet out
of melted coin and picking out his
finest and most valuable horse-the
one he most wanted cured-he shot
the bullet into it. 1t killed the horse.
| Soon afterwards Grandma Garri-
son died fromqold age, general
debility, worry over her ruined
reputation and other natural causes.
She had lived long and exemplary
life, we'll over the allotted three score
and ten.
Farmer Convinced
AS long as he lived the farmer
believed that the silver bullet killed
the aged and infrm woman. The
experiment was successful, he point
ed out and if the horse had not died
too he would have been certain
whether the witch had gone out of
it.
A Union Furnace, Lawrence Coun-
ty, farmer about the same time sued
Enoch H. Fleece for selling him a
horse which appeared "droopy' and
was bewitched. The same witch, he
declared, had gotten into some per
sons and into his COW. The court
believed him and found for the
plaintiff. However the farmer expell-
ed the witches from the cow by
burning it over a pile of logs-and
that night saw the two witches, fire
brands in hand, dancing around the
embers. Next morning he tracked
them in all directions, the tracks
| leading nowhere"