WITCHES
Pg. 184

     The south part of Jackson County, and the adjoining parts of Scioto and Lawrence, were settled early in the present century by the poorer classes of persons from Western Virginia.  They possessed many good traits of character, and some were not so good.  From the amount of ceremony attending the marriages among them, as I have already described, one would suppose that the marriage relation among them would be highly esteemed; but such was not always the case.   On one occasion a man conceived that he had been worsted in his marriage contract, and traded his wife to another man for a penknife, worth 50 cents.  The purchaser took possession, and the parties lived together quite happily until they left the county, and for aught I known, they are living together yet.
     Occasionally an old bachelor was found among theses early settlers.  There was Jesse Rees, the tailor, who made my first coat for me.  He built a cabin away back across the Black Fork of Symmes' creek, miles from any other settler.  It was at the foot of a steep hill, which is known to this day as "Rees' Ridge."  This place is about a mile from Jefferson Furnace.  There Rees lived all alone.  He was an inoffensive man, but terribly addicted to drinking whisky.  When partially intoxicated, he was in the habit of boasting of a large amount of property in which he had some interest at King's Salt Works, near Charleston, Virginia.
     Witches were very troublesome in the days of the first white settlements in this county.  The cows would become bewitched, and kick over the milk pail.  The butter would not come with any amount of churning.  The only remedy was to cut a small piece from the end of the cow's tail, take that and a few drops of her blood, and a little of her milk, and cover them in the hottest part of the fire, and the witch would be rendered very uncomfortable, and would very likely relieve the cow.  Hogs were often bewitched.  A farmer told me once that he had lost many fine hogs at the hands of the witches.  The hogs would commence running around, fall down in a kind of convulsive fit, and soon die.  He and his brother were out one day burning brush, when a witch seized one of his hogs, and it fell near the burning brush heap.  He told his brother to pick it up and throw it into the fire.  It was apparently dying, but as his brother stooped to take hold of it, it jumped up as well as ever, and ran off.  The witch having so narrow an escape, did not trouble his hogs any further.
     But the witches often attacked persons.  I known a young woman once who was sorely troubled for years by ____, a witch, living in the neighborhood. I have seen this young woman seized in time of religious meetings, and it was a fearful sight.  No one could hold her but ___, her beau.  Great terror would seize the congregation when these attacks were made.  It was the subject of gossip for miles around.  The aid of witch doctors was invoked.  They made a profile of Mrs. ____, the witch, and shot it with a bullet made of silver.   They resorted to other means, too mysterious to be made known, and finally Mrs. ____ was rendered so uncomfortable that her husband was compelled to sell his little farm and leave the county.  A most horrid case of witchcraft occurred in this county since my recollection.  A young girl near the town of ____ was bewitched.  The witch would cause the dishes to move from the cupboard to the table, and back again, without any human agency.  Nearly all the clothes about the house were cut to pieces by the witches.  Persons went many miles to see these strange sights.  The whole county was excited, and scarcely anything else was talked about for many months, mount them and ride them over hill and hollow, through brush and briars, until the poor wretches were completely exhausted, and would return early in the morning looking more than half dead.
     Witches would often appear of rainy nights, especially in low, swampy places, as "Jack with the lantern."  The witch would commence as a torch light, and the traveler, too glad to have a light to show him his way, would follow.  The light would move, and commence dancing, and then the party was in for it, and was compelled to follow it whithersoever it went.  It would lead him into the worst mud and mire, and then it would stop and laugh at his calamity, and mock when his fear came.  I cannot give the sound of this laugh in print, but it was something like "heuck, heuck, heuck."  An old man from Old Virginia told me that he had often and often, been thus led by witches.  Once he became completely exhausted and crept into a hollow log as far as he could get, but his hips and legs were exposed.  The witches came and battered him over the hips until he was glad to get out of the log and pursue his way.  His hips were bruised until they were black and blue for many days.  The only way to get this witch spell broken, was to turn some portion of your garments wrong side out, when the light would instantly disappear and you were free.
     Witches would often kill sheep and cattle by shooting them with balls made of hair, very closely and mysteriously wound together.  These balls never made any external opening in the skin, but were often cut out of the dead animals, in various parts of the body.  Standard.