USA > Maryland > Harford County > The rocks of Deer Creek, Harford County, Maryland. Their legends and history > Part 4
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A new day has dawned. An intensive civiliza- tion, eager for great achievements, has decreed that the hills and dales of Upper Deer Creek shall no longer rest in thei ' comparative solitudes. The
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THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
tramroad and the steam engine, with their enormous capacity of transportation, are about to substitute the common modes of travel and trade. The change will bring an increased population, and insure the erection of factories and mills. The theatres of the solitary wanderings and walkings and skillful achievements of our hunter, trapper and fisherman will re-echo with the whirr of the wheel and the sound of the hammer. A new generation, with its real and artificial wants, will take the place of the old, content in its enjoyment of the common modes of life.
The Indian Cupboard, no longer tenantable, has been abandoned. A common country road has marred its beauties, and soon the mighty and mysterious dynamite will reduce its proportions still more. Reluctant to leave a spot endeared to him by so many recollections of the past, the subject of our narrative is building of stone and wood, un- der the shadow of the Copper Rock, a habitation conformable to the style of modern times, where, as a partial compensation for the great loss he has sus- tained, the exclusion of the employments and pleas- ures of the past, he will view the mysterious stranger as it passes by, laden with the productions of the earth and the fruits of human skill.
The story I have told is not of one reared in afflu- ence, a child of fortune, but of a poor man, who has illustrated the dignity of manhood in the faithful discharge of the duties of life as he understood them. And there are those who have owed to him the preservation of their lives from a watery grave in the sometimes excessively swollen and turbulent waters of Deer Creek; and inany more for assist-
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THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
ances and courtesies that ought not to be forgotten. To that class of the community who worship only the great we have no apology to offer for this re- membrance of the humble. We find in such recol- lection an illustration of the well-known adage, " Act well your part ; there all the honor lies."
THE MINE OLD FIELDS; OR, THE GATH- ERING OF THE WITCHES.
Two miles east northeast of the Rocks are the Mine Old Fields. This locality, though the Ara- bia Petrea of this section of Harford County, is not without a certain degree of interest, and may be catalogued with the many curious and attractive natural objects of the neighborhood of the Rocks. It is an elevated plateau of considerable area, abound- ing in iron ore, chrome and other minerals. Much of the rock is soapstone of a superior quality. From this stone the Susquehannocks and other In- dians of the vicinity made their culinary vessels. Occasionally there is found a pot or other relic which is treasured as a souvenir of the distant past. These Fields, as they are called, have never produced wheat, or corn, or other cereals, but did for a time yield an abundant harvest of iron ore, which, being smelted, was manufactured into various articles that the necessities of civilized life demand, and they
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THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
will, doubtless, upon the completion of the Rail- road, yield again their valuable treasures.
A tradition exists that on this territory was found, many years ago, a rich mine of lead ; that it was known to the first Mr. Rigdon, settled near by on land now in the occupancy of some of his decend- ants. He was, in his day. a great hunter, and ob- tained there, it is said, all the lead he used. There is a similar tradition that in the immediate vicinity of the Rocks there is a gold mine, known to the Sus- quehannocks, the original inhabitants, the knowl- edge of which was communicated by them to some white man who visited the locality at an early day. The contractor who made his way by powder, and crowbar and pick through the formidable rock, in the hill immediately beyond the creek, above the mill, found in the rock a substance bearing so strong a resemblance to gold that he conveyed a large specimen to the shanty. There it was for a time to be examined by the curious. But like the discover- ers of gold at the settlement of Jamestown, Vir- ginia, expectants were doomed to disappointment. The Mine Old Fields do have iron and chrome, and perhaps lead.
Like other portions of this far-famed section of Harford, the Mine Old Fields have a mythical his- tory. The story of the gathering there by moon- light of the witches to practice their mysterious rites, has come down to us of the present generation. We shall relate it substantially as it was told to an aged citizen by that venerable hermit, whose roman- tic and touching history is written in this book. That the story may be properly appreciated, it will be necessary to preface it by some preliminary statements.
4
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THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
Many persons believe not only in the power of the devil to assume a corporeal form, but also in his capacity of acting injuriously upon mankind through the instrumentality of others. Baxter, the author of the "Saint's Rest," shared this opinion with many of the wisest and best of England in an age of culture and refinement. The same credulous tone of mind existed in New England in its early history. It is true that at that period belief in witchcraft and other diabolical agencies were popu- lar delusions which were rapidly disappearing from the world, but such men as Cotton Mather and the intelligent inhabitants of Salem were always ready to sustain their belief in such superstitions both from holy writ and philosophy. It was an excess of the imagination, affecting not only the stupid and the dull, but also the highest wrought minds. The early residents of our vicinage were a simple and enthusiastic people, primitive in their manners, and were doubtless affected by the sentiments of their more pretentious fellow citizens northeast of them. The Puritan, then as now, despite the pre- judice and repugnancy felt toward him, singularly impressed his views and opinions upon others. In the existence of witches and other malevolent beings and their power of harm, many of our ancestors had the most implicit faith. They saw spirits and witches ; to them devils appeared ; strange sights were seen, strange sounds were heard. The Jack o' the Lantern was recognized as a personality whose every purpose was evil, and whose following certainly brought perplexity, and even peril of life. The Fay, though extremely diminutive in size, was greatly feared, not so much on account of its physi-
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THIEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
cal ability to do harm as of a supposed moral power of evil. The potent words were spell, charm, witch- craft.
Why witches practice incantation on moonlight nights may possibly be explained on philosophical principles. There is no peculiarity, that we are aware of, in the visual organs of a witch. The singu- lar construction of the eye of an owl or an Albinos adapts their sight to moonlight. The retinas of witches are suited to the light of day. 'Tis not that; 'tis this, perhaps. The moon is idiosyncratic ; psychologically, she is peculiar, and by the well- known law of sympathy impresses her own nature upon the nature of man. It must be so, or else the word lunacy would not have found a place in our lexicography. Other reasons why the witches were wont to assemble in the Mine Old Fields on moon- light nights are apparent. They had light. Be- sides, the fears of the people, heightened by moon- light, were a defence to them as strong as the walls of a fortified city. The witches were there, and there they practiced their dark rites. Around the blazing fire and the boiling caldron they, with joined hands, walked during the hours of moonlight-" black spirits and white, red spirits and gray,"-singing :
"Mingle, mingle, mingle, You that mingle may,"
and invoking the spirits of power, ceased their orgies only when there came to them the gifts of power, in the exercise of which they satanically de- lighted. The demonstration of the fact that they who gathered in the Mine Old Fields by moonlight were witches, was that people in the vicinity became 6
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THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
sick in all sorts of ways, falling into strange fits, crawling under beds and into cupboards, barking like dogs, mewing like cats, bleating like sheep, and lowing like cattle. The doctors were sent for, and they declared that their patients were bewitched. All were superstitious. All believed in diabolical agency. Terror and consternation were in every heart.
Living at that day on Deer Creek, one mile east of the Mine Old Fields, in an humble dwelling, was an aged woman, whose only misfortune-if such it were-was that she was poor and infirm. The other occupants of the hut were an aged Indian woman, one of the very few who remained after her people had migrated westward, and a young man of the class of the "innocents," as the Swiss mountain- eers benevolently name such unfortunates as are not endowed at birth with the sana mens. Albert, as he was always tenderly called by his aged moth- er, willingly labored to provide sustenance for the household, and the Indian woman, Maggy, having been taught the art of weaving, contributed also by her industry and skill to the support of the family. Of the aged matron of the lowly household it might have been said, "She that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusting in God, and continueth in suppli- cation night and day ;" and of her assistant, "She hath done what she could." An Eden it was. But the cruelties of suspicion were soon to be felt by the hitherto unsuspecting and confiding household. Trouble came from an unexpected source.
Father G., a prominent man of the neighbor- hood, in conversation had said, " There have been wizards and witches in all times," and that pious
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and learned man, Cotton Mather, says, "That if all the spectral appearances and molestations of evil angels, and tricks of necromancy, and bodily appa- ritions of Satan and his imps, could be collected and counted, that are daily and nightly going on, all righteous and goodly men's hair would stand on ends with horror." "In these parts," con- tinued Father G., "are infernal doings," and pointing significantly toward the cabin which the unsuspecting were abiding in peace, ominously said, " Satan may now abide there." That was sufficient to create in all minds. a suspicion that very soon ripened into a conviction, that the aged and decrepit occupant of the cottage, as, perhaps, also her faith- ful assistant, dealt with familiar spirits, and that much, if not all, the strange evils which afflicted the community were to be attributed to their ma- chinations.
On the morning of the following day the former habitation of the widow was but a pile of smoking ashes. The people said, " The wretches who made a compact with Satan, and inflicted the evils we suffer, have perished. Give God the glory."
From the Mine Old Fields the witches have de- parted. Their unhallowed rites have ceased ; the innocent are at rest. And Father G. has, we hope, expiated his great wrong in the light of a knowl- edge free from cruel suspicion.
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TIIE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
THE FALLING BRANCH ; OR, THE CAP- TURED BRIDE.
EMPTYING into Deer Creek, three miles above the Rocks, is Falling Branch. It is so called from the fact that a mile or more above its mouth its waters fall from a rock twenty-five or thirty feet in height, forming a miniature Niagara, which, with the picturesque and romantic surroundings, constitute a most pleasing attraction. To some this curiosity is more attractive than the Rocks, nature not dis- playing herself in such bold and massive forms, but exceeding in picturesque beauty. It is a wild scene, primitive almost as when the wild man speared the speckled trout that abounded in its waters, or shot the swift deer that frequented the adjacent forests. Here the attention of the visitor is also curiously drawn to a series of stone steps that lead from the base of the rock over which the waters fall to its summit. These steps were seemingly cut by the hand of man. If so, by whom and by what instru- ments ? The Susquehannocks, who dwelt by the locality when discovered by the white man, were men of large size and of much strength, but could physical strength so handle the stone axe or hatchet as to make the achievement possible ? If human ingenuity and labor constructed the steps, it may have been done by that previous race whose instru- ments of labor were of copper or iron, or by the present race, to whom invention has supplied such instruments in their more perfect forms.
Within fifteen or twenty yards of the falls and
----
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THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
directly opposite them are the remains of a mill and a dwelling-house, the former abode of the miller. Why the immediate contiguity of those build- ings to the falls? Was the builder and occupier a man of romantic turn of mind ? Appreciating the scene, and charmed by the music of the falling waters, were these the motives that prompted him to fix his residence in this wild spot? It would be pleasant to think so, but sadly for our imaginings, the suspicion of utility and economy is suggested. His nearness to the falls obviated the necessity of building a dam of perishable material, or the digging of a race, or the construction of a trunk more than a few feet in length. Wise, worldly wise, was Isaac Jones in his day and generation. But for aught we know, in the heart of that plain man who patiently watched the hopper in the years long gone, when northern Harford was a comparative wilderness, and the progenitors of the pretentious race of the pres- ent were a plain folk without ambition to be great, there may have been the highest and the subtliest appreciation of nature in her sublime and beautiful moods, and a susceptibility to art that brought to him the knowledge of that mysterious law-a law operative in the realms of spirit and matter equally -which harmonizes the creations of the made with the works of the Maker. The artist-born builds not a high house in a diminutive and contracted valley, nor a low one on a high hill overlooking an extended plain. These are but few of the many fitnesses of things perceived by the man whom God has created great in his appreciation of the harmonies of nature. Almost a demonstration of the possession of this quality is the row of Lombardy poplars, now in 6*
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THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
decay, that were planted in front of the dwelling, which, with the native forest trees and rocks and cataract and rapid river, constituted a scene of sur- passing attractiveness.
The Falling Branch owes its chief attraction to the story of the Captured Bride, which, though confessedly legendary and mythical, is not without a certain degree of interest, especially to persons of much romantic susceptibility. Arlotto was the only daughter of a gentleman of fortune, whose home was in the vicinity of Hull, England. The attrac- tions of her person and the fascination of her man- ners, added to a superior mental and moral culture, brought to her presence many admirers. Among them was an officer of the English Army. Young, handsome, accomplished, brave, the scion of a noble family, in all respects worthy of her whose qual- ities of mind and heart had so strongly attracted him, his suit was encouraged, and after a proper interval of time, they were wedded. The church, or rather cathedral, in which the nuptials were celebrated, was
" A dim and mighty Minster of old times ! A temple shadowy with remembrance Of the majestic past."
Everything about it told of a race
that nobly, fearlessly,
In their heart's worship poured forth a wealth of love."
There, under its fretted roof, and in the midst of its wrought coronals of ivy, and vine, and leaves, and sculptured rose-" the tenderest image of mortal- ity"-the light which streamned through arch and
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THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
aisle in harmony with all ; that dim, religious light, which is a reminder of the past-of the dim, the shadowy, the heroic past-there, in the select assembly of the high-born, they pledged each to other their troth, and were by the aged and vener- able priest pronounced man and wife. Retiring from the church, they were followed by the aged minister and his assistants, singing a recessional hymn, accompanied by the organ, the flood of its harmony bearing up on its high waves their voices attuned to the praise of God. Such was the mar- riage scene.
The past is always suggestive of the future. The memories of the past, like dim processions of a dream, are associated with visions of the future, though indistinct as dreams that " sink in twilight depths away." Arlotto passed from the altar happy, indeed, in the sense of the love of her now adored husband, but not without thoughts tinged with sadness. Apprehension of coming sorrows was the shadow that fell upon her pathway so soon. " Coming events "-sorrowful and pleasant alike --- "cast their shadows before." A few days after the marriage the young officer was ordered to rejoin his regiment, then at Portsmouth, about to embark for America. This summons was the interpretation, in part, of the mysterious revelations that mingled with her present joys fears of future evils.
"Even so the dark and bright will kiss ; The sunniest things throw brightest shade, And there is even a happiness That makes the heart afraid."
The New World was at this period a theatre for
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THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
the struggles of giants. France and England were contending for the mastery, and the stake was a continent, with all its possibilities of wealth and power. So desperate was the conflict, and of such magnitude was the issue, that each party was obliged to avail itself of all its resources. To the place of battle, so full of peril to the participants, the youthful officer would have gone alone. He was unwilling that his bride should be subjected to the privations incident to warfare, and to the perils always attending it, greater in this case because of the character of the foe. The savages were gener- ally the allies of the French. Yielding to her en- treaties, he consented that she should accompany him.
Arriving in America, the regiment to which the officer belonged was detached to form a part of the army then being raised by the governors of Massa- chusetts and Connecticut, and designed to operate against the French and Indians, who in large force were threatening the borders of their respective prov- inces. In a battle fought soon after his entrance upon the campaign, the young officer was wounded, and left upon the field as dead. Arlotto, imme- diately upon the cessation of the conflict, made her way to the ensanguined field, and after a patient and anxious search found her yet living husband. The dying sufficiently recovered to recognize her whose presence was the only earthly solace left to him. A few words, with difficulty uttered, were expressive of the tenderness and strength of his affection. Arlotto hoped. How delusive that hope !
" A moment more and she
Knew the fullness of her woe at last !
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THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
One shriek the forests heard-and mute she lay And cold; yet clasping still the precious clay To her scarce heaving breast."
Awaking from what was less than death and more than sleep, Arlotto became conscious of the presence of a dusky form bending with seeming sympathy over her prostrate body. It was an aged Indian warrior, who, taking her tenderly by the hand, bade her arise, and by further signs indicated his desire that she should follow him. Toward the setting sun they journeyed slowly for some days ; then south-eastward until they reached the imme- diate vicinity of the Falling Branch. There was the home of her captor, a lone cabin in the woods, within hearing of the plunging waters of the cata- ract. The Indian woman in whose care she was placed, seemingly won by " a form so desolately fair," or touched by the remembrance of some deep sorrow, manifested an unwonted interest in the cap- tive, and cared for her with all the tenderness and solicitude of a mother. The aged warrior and his wife had seen a daughter go to the land of spirits,
" And ever from that time her fading mien And voice, like winds of summer, soft and low, Had haunted their dim years."
And fancying that they saw in their captive a re- semblance to their only child, whose early death had thrown upon their pathway heavy shadows, their hearts, "with all their wealth of love," were touched by the sorrows of her to whom was left only the memories of the past. In the forest was no temple erected by human hands dedicated to the Sufferer of Calvary. It was a void waste, in which
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the sound of the church-going bell was not heard ; nor priest nor altar was there. Yet in the silent majesty of the deep woods, and in the presence of the silver brook which pours from its full laver the white cascade, was more than the spirit of poetry which dwells amid such scenes. The spirit of the Holy One was there, and valley and brook, and cas- cade and deep woods and everlasting hills, and the green trees, were a grand minster at the altars of which the devout could worship and the sorrowing find relief. To this temple and to these altars in the green wood, by the side of babbling streams, in the sunlight and the stars' bright gleams, the sufferer went, and thither she led her captors, and there she taught them to listen to the voice of Him whose presence is the glory of all temples and of all altars.
The harp-string too strongly tensioned breaks. Worn with grief and hopeless of relief, Arlotto wasted, and when autumn's last sigh was heard, and the winter's blast, in the first days of spring ; when "sound and odors with the breezes play whispering of spring-time," bore to her couch life's farewell sweetness, then she was passing away to that solemnly beautiful sleep, that deep stillness which falls on the silent face of the dead.
Arlotto's life work was ended ; its great purposes accomplished. In the depths of the forest, within hearing of the murmuring waters of the Falling Branch, in God's acre she sleeps, and by her side her foster father and mother. In God's acre they rest, and
"Into its furrows shall we all be cast,
In the sure faith that we shall rise again At the great harvest, when the archangel's blast Shall winnow, like a fan, the chaff and grain.
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THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
"Then shall the good stand in immortal bloom, In the fair gardens of that second birth; And each bright blossom mingle its perfume
With that of flowers which never bloomed on earth."
THE EAGLE.
"He clasps the crags with hooked hands ; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world he stands, The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls."
Some yards above the Saloon at the Rocks and under the hill, there lived in a small cabin a man by the name of Cully, the father of Arch Cully, so well known in his day by the residents of Rock Ridge and its vicinity. At that early period the Rocks and their surroundings were in almost their original wildness, unaffected by the arts and appli- ances of civilized life. The axe of the woodman might have been heard now and then, but no house other than the cabin had been erected, and no forge or furnace to mar the scene.
It was wash-day to the aged matron of the hut, and while engaged in the necessary vocation, she heard the cries of the chickens and the excited bark- ings of the dog without. An eagle, whose nest, with young, was on the summit of the opposite
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THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
Rock, had swooped down from her eyrie, and seized with its talons one of the chickens. The little dog, true to its instincts, hastened to the rescue, and chicken, and dog, and eagle were soon engaged in earnest contest. The eagle was likely to succeed in her purpose, when the old lady, grasping her beetle, ran to the rescue, and striking the eagle a deadly blow, carried it in triumph to the cottage.
The eagles, like the original human inhabitants, pressed by the presence of civilized man, have sought their eyries on more distant and secluded heights. Occasionally one may be seen hovering about the summits of the Rocks, as if curious to observe the past homes of its progenitors.
THE WITCH RABBIT.
AMONG the hills in the vicinity of the Rocks was many years ago a remarkable rabbit. Tradit on tells us that it was of the size of a Jack Rabbit, that well-known habitant of the West, though not of the same species. The hunters of those early times sought by trap and snare to secure it, but without success. Many a charge from musket and shot-gun and rifle was directed toward it fruitlessly. The opinion of our simple fathers was, that the body of that rabbit was the habitation of a witch, and in solemn conference they resolved that it could
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