The History, Page Two

The death of their only son wrought a tragic and horrible transformation in both Jeremiah Cutter and Elizabeth Cutter. The former became a complete recluse, refusing to call upon his friends or allow them to call upon him. On the rare occasions that Cutter was seen sitting on his porch or checking the status of his fields he was observed to be constantly wearing black, his face set into a scowl that quickly became a hostile glare when he noticed that he had been seen. At such times Cutter would vanish into his house as fast as his legs would carry him.

Elizabeth, too, displayed a tendency to remain indoors. No more would she make her weekly trips to the market with the slaves, to collect the mail and catch up on the latest town gossip. When the slaves came to market now, they came alone. The children of Raven's Grove in particular missed the visits by Elizabeth Cutter owing to her propensity for stuffing her pockets with sweets, which were merrily distributed to any and all children that ran up to greet her.

Thomas Cutter and Anna Updike were buried side by side in the Merryhill Cemetery. Every single citizen on Raven's Grove turned up for the funeral to pay their respects except two. Jeremiah Cutter and his wife were conspicuously absent. The finest stone mason in town, Robert Emmett, was hired to erect a beautiful monument in the couple's honor. The monument remains in Merryhill Cemetery to this day, and draws in many tourists.

## The Fall of Jeremiah Cutter

As the year closed out and the year 1820 blossomed into existence, friends and neighbors of the Cutters began to notice strange and frightening things happening on the property. It began with furtive and foreign visitors to the Cutter House. These strangers always came at night, sometimes alone and sometimes in pairs. They never spoke to anyone, and where always seen leaving before dawn. Around the same time the neighbors took note of odious smells emanating from the property, and noises that were only described as faint and rhythmic chanting deep below the foundations of the house. Most believed that Jeremiah Cutter had opened his books of black magic, and was casting spells in the hopes of contacting the spirit of his dead son.

In time such mysterious happenstances were reported on so much that the Sheriff, Marcus Taylor, decided that the Cutter slaves must be confronted. He was waiting when the oldest of said salved, referred to as Old Daniel, came down from the house to purchase a few bags of soil for the Cutter garden and found Sheriff Taylor waiting Waiting with him were along were three very prominent men from Raven's Grove; these being Andrew Allbright the banker, Councilman Thomas Trollby, and Taylor's own deputy Michael Kasback. The four men hard-pressed Old Daniel for answers and the elderly slave, terrified, gave them up at once.

Old Daniel told the men that most of the foreign visitors brought strange objects with them to give to Cutter. Books that Old Daniel couldn't read but looked very old indeed, black candles and items such as bells, black satin robes, shipments of wooden dowels, flat stones, and a sword with a curved blade that even Old Daniel admitted must have come from "A place very far away." Cutter and his visitors would always go to the basement, and soon after the bizarre and offensive smells and the chanting would begin. After their interview with the elderly slave, with the expected admonishment under penalty of extreme punishment not to tell Jeremiah or Elizabeth about what Old Daniel had told them, the four men came to an agreement. Jeremiah Cutter was practicing black magic. Thus, a quiet watch was put on the house. Sheriff Taylor had no legal cause to arrest Jeremiah Cutter with only Old Daniel's story but he was bound and determined to end this evil. He was content to wait and to watch for Cutter to make a mistake that would give the Sheriff a reason to place the old man under arrest.

In the fall of 1821, the Melendez Sister arrived in Raven's Grove on a bright but cold late morning. There were three of them, each beautiful; each rich, and each attended by half a dozen slaves and servants. They were fifteen year old Isabella, nineteen year old Maria, and Twenty year old Lupita. They came into town with munch pomp and circumstance, drawing much attention to themselves. On this they seemed to thrive, casting smiles that could melt a steel door towards the handsome men of Raven's Grove and giving polite but somehow disdainful nods to the ladies of the Grove they passed. Their large contingency swept through the town and gained followers. The citizens that followed the gaudy train saw that the sister were making for the Cutter home, and were admitted by Jeremiah.

The neighbors would soon report new sounds to the Sheriff: dull thuds and booms like small explosions, long drawn out cries, and the distinct sound of a woman sobbing. This last anecdote spurred the Watchful Four into action. Thinking that Elizabeth was being ill treated Sheriff Taylor, Deputy Kasback, Allbright, and Trollby paid an unannounced visit to the Cutter house in the evening of 18th November. They were inside the house and when they emerged, each of the four men was visibly shaken and alarmed. None of them spoke of what the content of the meeting or what was said. Only Kasback broke his silence. In a letter to his mother, dated November 20th, he wrote:

*"It's worse than we though. Cutter is a black wizard in the truest sense of the word. Outwardly his appearance gave nothing to suggest so. His suit was finely cut and done all up on black, and there was nothing about his person in the way of marks on his hands or face to show that he has been trucking with the Devil. But it was in his eyes. They are eyes without any trace of The Virtues in them but they overflow with the Seven Deadly Sins. I swear on my head, Mama, there is no sin that man has not committed since the death of Thomas. We fear most for Elizabeth Cutter. As we were being shown out by Old Daniel, Elizabeth came to us from the upstairs and looked down upon us from the landing.
She was a broken shadow of what a beauty she had once been. She was so thin you might think she'd fit inside of a bean pole, and her skin was so white you might think you could see right through her. Her cheeks and the spaces under her eyes sagged. She looked like a woman that had taken on consumption, had refused food, and forfeited herself even sunlight. She whispered only two words to us: Save me."*

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