USA > New York > Ulster County > Kingston > History and legend, fact, fancy and romance of the Old Mine Road, Kingston, N.Y., to the mine holes of Pahaquarry > Part 4
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Another and instantly effective way of settling the matter was to stick a pin in the bottom of a chair in which the sus- pected person sat. Under such circumstances the witch is held fast and wholly unable to move, while the innocent per- son proves the fact promptly and to the great gladness of the assembled company. The writer can testify that he has never to his knowledge seen a witch sit on a pin.
Sometimes unsuspected witches would be accidentally dis- covered as when an uncle of a local luminary, while hunting,
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discovered a large deer which he shot at without result, ex- cept that the animal, no doubt having the Biblical injunction in mind, turned the other side toward the hunter who, then sus- pecting where the trouble lay, found a bit of silver in his pocket with which he loaded his gun, and this time hit the game, only to lame it, however, when immediately a person in the neighborhood went lame, thereby proving that she was a dear, I suppose.
There was a time when I used to go hunting myself, and in those day was notorious for shooting at bewitched deer. It would have helped my sporting reputation immensely had I only known where the trouble lay and the simple remedy therefor, but that has nothing to do with the subject-matter in hand.
On another occasion a neighbor, though a good shot, missed several times while attempting to bring down a hawk, until some one told him to try a silver bullet, and with this he killed the bird instantly. About this time an old woman who was believed to be a witch, died, thus proving that she had taken possession of the hawk and that the silver bullet killed her as well as the bird. Sounds almost like a case of absent treatment, does it not?
It was a common trick of the witches to cast a spell over the guns of hunters, and no one thought of venturing out for game without at least one silver bullet in his pouch.
But these meddlesome and altogether no-account persons caused trouble indoors as well as out. Aunt Jane Elmendorf was so hindered in her churning on one occasion that the but- ter would not come, no matter how much of a dashed time it had, until she was finally compelled to put a horseshoe on the
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bottom of the churn, whereupon, the charm broken, the but- ter promptly came.
Doctor Jacob Brink, of Katrine, was the witch doctor for all this region. He and his sons were also called "finger doc- tors" from their success in curing diseases by the laying on of hands. I can recall with painful distinctness how they used to try that on me when I was a small boy, and how they firmly believed that the result was beneficial, though the proc- ess never in the least had my approval.
On account of the machinations of the witches and of the obstacles placed in his way, no ordinary person was able to summon a witch doctor-only a seventh son could overcome the difficulties. Such a one was Jacob Bonesteel, of West Hurley, but even he at times met with vast opposition. On one occasion he became mixed up with fences in most inextri- cable fashion, was caught and held by trees and generally had a most bothersome experience. The writer believes that he recalls having read in a history of witches and marvels, en- titled "The Thousand and One Nights", how witches were sometimes confined in bottles, and escaping on the removal of the cork caused great confusion and entanglement with fence posts and things, causing said posts to place themselves directly in the path of the bewitched person and to deliberately collide with him, but we must get back to Jacob Bonesteel; my tendency appears to be to wander.
Jacob finally reached the doctor who, coming out, wrote a few lines on a bit of paper, waved his hands, and the traveling thereafter was so easy as to become positively monotonous.
A cardinal point to remember, once the witch doctor had been sent for, was to allow no one in the room, as the witch could and would enter with a visitor and, once inside, could
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negative any good the doctor might attempt. Of course she could have been kept out by a broom placed across the door- way, but no one seems to have thought of that. In the par- ticular case in hand a child was the victim, and while Jacob was dodging the fences, trees and other sirens of the highway, a neighbor called and in this way the witch was let in, who thereupon remarked "Auntie has come to see you", and when the witch doctor came he discovered the situation and told the relatives that he could do nothing beyond punishing the witch, which he proceeded to do to the great satisfaction of the family by cutting the child's shirt with his whip, explaining that just so many times as he hit the shirt did the witch re- ceive strokes upon her back. It has not been learned whether the child was at the time within the shirt or not.
A sister of an uncle of a true believer was cured of a fever sore on her leg by a "finger doctor", who rubbed the spot gently and at the same time repeated an incantation, which caused the sore to entirely disappear. We have finger doctors even to-day, but I believe they are now called osteopaths.
Doctor Brink was the only one who could kill a witch without the use of a silver bullet, though he could delegate this power to others. Otherwise the witches "dried up and blowed away"-such was the fate of an old witch that once lived in Beaverkill.
The mother of our friend Jacob Bonesteel was once sitting quietly in the house when on a sudden she found she could not move; then entered a witch who had been bothering the boys at hog killing outside and said to her the magic words "come on", and the old lady moved without difficulty. No Christian Scientist could have made a better job of it. Every one knows what an obstinate thing a hog is, but not every one
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THE OLD MINE ROAD.
knows how doubly-dyed is its obstinacy when bewitched. The boys were killing hogs, but they finally came to one who, like Achilles, had been made invulnerable at all points but one, and that one was hot water-it is well to remember that no witch can stand hot water-and after exhausting all other methods, they were compelled to resort to scalding, before which no hog, bewitched or otherwise, can stand. It is a well known fact, established by the traditions of the fathers, that it does not do to slaughter a hog in the wane of the moon, for then the fairies take all the fat for their lamps, while the farmer gets all the lean. Sounds rather like Mother Goose, but facts are stubborn things.
There is yet living a woman who can bear testimony to the disconcerting effects of being bewitched. When a girl she lived with Domine Blauvelt, of West Hurley, and for a time when she was in the house, the good man experienced great trouble in his household. Everything was mixed up. His gold spectacles were found in the stove, as was a silver thimble;
Note-To cure warts. Take green bean leaves; place on the afflicted part and then lay the leaves under a stone and as they rot the wart will dis- appear ; if it does not disappear that is evidence that the leaves or some- thing were (or was) too green. Or, take a piece of pork and place it on the wart ; then throw same over the left shoulder, using the left hand for the purpose, closing the left eye and placing the tongue in the left cheek during the operation. When the pork rots the wart will disappear. If in this case the wart does not disappear that is a sign that some dog found the pork.
An old Hurley cure for fits. Take 9 drops of blood from the right ear of a cat and administer to the patient.
In order to bewitch a person the witch must borrow 3 separate articles from the to-be-bewitched.
A witch track placed on the bottom of a churn was a 5 pointed star; if this was of no effect a red-hot horseshoe was tried.
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the sugar bowl was discovered in the woodbox, handfuls of dust in the milk pans, and such a general mixedness was there that the Domine was at his wits' end. Finally suspicion fell on the maid, who was watched and caught in the act, when she admitted that her grandmother had put a spell on her. She was then hurried to the witch doctor and cured, and to- day is living the orderly life of a respectable married woman with an abundance of small children.
The following is one of those simple, old-time receipts that were so efficient in the days of our grandfathers, and it seems to me worth preserving. The chest from which it has lately been taken had not been opened for years and this was with other papers dating back seventy-five to one hundred and fifty years. The informant of the gentleman who forwarded this and whose intelligence led him to at once see the value of the document states that in his early days such a cure, or at least a similar one, was frequently used. The paper is quoted literally :-
"A Cure for the Spavin :: last friday of the last quarter of the moon, take the head of the horse to the east; begin on the left side of the horse and take a piece of every foot, of the frog, then goe around the horse to were you begin and take a bit of hair by the shoulder end by the hip and goe a round to weare you begin then take a bit of hair of the curle of head and put it in a paper together, the frog first then the hair and make a 3 quarter fold and put the paper in it and plug it shut in and sweet apple tree to the east side of the tree befour sun rise whithout speaking a word."
A certain Hurleyite is the possessor of a stone that is lo- cally regarded as an Indian effort at carving an Indian head
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THE OLD MINE ROAD.
with a feather head-dress, which was found on the flats at the foot of the graveyard many years ago by John L. Elmendorf.
Inquiry of the Peabody Museum in Boston elicits the state- ment that it is a "slick" stone, used by the Indians in working down thongs and also in preparing various fibres for strings and sinew thread.
The Smithsonian Institution responds to the same question that it is of that class known as "whetstones", and while it may have been used for dressing thongs, it was more prob- ably employed in grinding down other objects of stone. The stone is possibly a half-inch thick, is three and eleven-six- teenth inches long by two and one-half inches at the widest point.
Advertisement from the Ulster County Gazette, July 10, 1802 :-
"Notice is hereby given
"That the remaining seats in the Church of Hurley will be sold at public vendue on Saturday the tenth day of July. Those persons who have subscribed with an interest to pur- chase seats will be pleased to take particular notice that if they neglect to purchase at this time, they will be debarred hereafter, as the seats not sold at this vendue will be disposed of in another manner.
"All those who are in arrears by Subscription, or for Seats purchased in said church will please to settle the same with- out delay, with Mr. Egbert Roosa.
"The vendue to begin at two o'clock P. M. on said day and due attendance given by the Consistory.
"Hurley, June 31, 1802."
The good book tells us that there is no new thing under the sun, and Hurley helps to prove the rule. In those parts of the
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HURLEY.
country which run open street cars in Summer there has de- veloped a species of biped known as the "end-seat hog", which we believe is generally regarded as a modern development due to changed environment. But it seems that Hurley was the better part of a hundred years ahead of the rest of the coun- try, as witness the following official document of the Hurley Church-that church which formerly stood over against the Senate House :-
Among the "Miscellaneous Acts of the Consistory" is-
"An Act of the Consistory of the Congregation of Hurley For the better Regulating the Seats of the Church of Said place.
"Whereas some difficulties have arisen with respect to the Rights of Different Individuals who have Purchased Seats upon the same bench in said Church, with respect to the ex- tent and distinction of Their Rights.
"Consistory wishing therefore to do away all misunder- standing upon this Subject, and to restore & maintain Perfect harmony among the Proprietors of said Seats do declare that the first principle upon Which the Seats were sold and the Deeds given was that there was never to be Any distinction of the Seats of Individuals upon their respective Benches and that Such Individuals were Proprietors in Common of Said Benches Possessing undivided rights Corresponding in exact proportion to the Number of Seats they purchased And that Said proprietors had no Right Conveyd. to them by virtue of Said Deeds Ever to Choose any particular part of any Bench or pew Purchased as above.
"The Consistory therefore Ordain as a Standing regulation of this Church as it respects Said Benches or Pews and the Rights of Individuals thereto, that the Person or Persons who
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Shall for the purpose of Divine Worship Enter into any of the Said Pews or Benches first after Comming to said Church Shall as soon as the other Proprietors or any of them may come for the purpose of Divine Worship to the door or doors of any of Said Pews or Benches, Immediately move up on the Bench So as to give room for the other Proprietors So that their shall be no passing by one another or crowding or justling in Said Seats which is always indecent in the house of God and very offensive to the true worthiness of the most High.
"This Resolution however Shall not be Considered repug- nant to any agreement that now or may hereafter Exist among individuals Provided Such Agreement is consistent with or- der and Decency- - By order of the Consistory.
Hurley (signed) Thomas G Smith Preses 26 Decembr. 1806."
When the British burned Kingston there was naturally a good deal of fear of the "Red Coats" among those who loved peace. The following two or three stories are taken from a little book entitled "Rachel Dumont", published in 1890 :-
A field of rye had just been cut in Hurley, but when it was known that Kingston was burning the workmen dropped their tools and left the half raked grain to care for itself. Thus a rake lay with the teeth up, on which a young farmer, crossing the field, happened to step, when the handle promptly flew up and hit him a hard and sudden blow on the nose, whereupon he immediately threw up his hands and yelled "Hurrah for King George".
The day following the arrival of the American soldiers in Hurley the usual "noon gun" was fired. Pompey, a slave in one of the refugee families, although he had done much boast-
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ing as to what would happen to the Britishers if he ran foul of them, hearing this gun, rushed into the farmhouse, exclaim- ing :-
"Lord Massy: dem Britishers am comin' agin! Good Mr. Lordie, spare dis poor fambly, an' de niggers, too. Ole Gran- nie, she's ole an' sick, an' wan's to die; so take her fust, if yer mus' heab some un. An dad he can go wid her fer com- p'ny. Pompey has too many wimmen an' childers to take care ob; he can't be spar'd jes' yet."
Then he hid in a great barrel of potatoes, where he was found some hours later by his father, who came for potatoes, and who exclaimed :-
"Lor's a massy, wot's yer doin' in dis tater bar'l? Has yer been about suffin' orful wicked ag'in and feard de good Lord'l cotch yer? Come out, yer nigger, an don't spile all dem new taters."
"Oh, daddie, I done thort dem Red Coats was comin' and I's so afeared dey take yer an ole Grannie dat I come in de cella' to fire at dem truegh de trap door. Am dey come?" re- sponded the valiant Pompey.
"No, no, chile-de good Lor'll tak car of poor ole Daddie and Grannie; yer's a brave boy, Pompey, to 'fend yer 'lations, an s'all hab a big piece of water mellin fer yer dinner fer not fergettin' the old folks, Pompey, some niggers is jes' like white folks an' jes' looks out fer der own sef's. But yer is a waryer an' no mistake."
In an old account book wheat is spelled as follows: Wett, weat, wheate, weate, whitt, whaet, wheat, witt and weett. Those were the good old days when every man was his own dictionary. We are not one bit happier to-day, if we are more precise over minor mattters. It was a favorite saying of my
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father that it was a poor word that could not be spelled more than one way, which leads me to think that wheat must be a multi-millionaire. And in this same class can Hurley itself be placed for old records give it to us as Hurly, Horli, hor- rely, Hurrely, Horly and Horley.
Here follows an advertisement from the Ulster County Gazette of October 26, 1799, the reason for which is not alto- gether evident to me, unless the advertiser proposed to sell his horses to unsophisticated New York :-
ULSTER COUNTY GAZETTE. October 26, 1799. (Advertisement) "Wanted to purchase a few fat Dutch Horses
If they are TWENTY and shew for SEVEN they will an- swer. None need apply after ten days from date hereof.
Hurley, October 18, 1799. (Signed) Eli Sears."
So far back that I do not know just when it was, Hurley boasted one of the few militia companies in uniform, and be- cause of the color of the uniform, and for no other reason whatever, this company was known as the "Hurley Greens"- they were not vegetables, mind you, but men of war.
Now, during the anti-rent war in a neighboring county, the Hurley Greens were ordered out for police duty, but the mem- bers did not like to be used in such a cause and it took a sum- mons from the Sheriff to get them into line. Finally some of them went, and on arrival at the seat of war were placed on sentry duty the first night.
The password for that night was "moon". During the hours of darkness one of our valiant friends was greatly per- turbed by a person approaching through the bushes, and they
LL
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do say his teeth rattled some; but still the stranger ap- proached without offering to give the countersign until he of Hurley could stand it no longer, and blurted out: "Say 'moon', damn you, or I'll shoot", whereupon the approaching stranger kindly said "moon" and all was peace.
A certain neighbor who lives out on the Marbletown road is a devout Christian, but somewhat practical withal. During a long continued drought the Domine happened to remark to this good brother that he thought it advisable to pray for rain, to which the deacon responded: "That's all right, Domine; but you'd better wait for the new moon."
A few specimens of English from an old Hurley account book :---
Anno Domini, 1756. £sd
I peare Shouse Meade for your wife ..... .00. 6.0
I peare Shouse petch for your Neger Jough. .. 00. 3.0
2 deays Riding with horses and wagen au Do. . 00.18.0 3 bearlears of Syder at the press at 8s. ... I. 4.0
I peare of Shouse Meade for your Neger Whinch Gin 00. 6.0
Another account, 1757 :- £sd
2 Schiples of Weet at 4s. per Sch'pl 00 8.0
to 1-6 an Agys (eggs) o. I.6
4 Ells of humspon for apetecot 0.12.0
Credit
by making a Chist that is a Coffin for our
Whinch
.00. 4.0
Another account. £ sd
to Maind My teecatel 00. 1.6
fixing bagnet to a gone
by Making a Cock to my Gone 00. 9.0
2 hug Seds I. 4.0
1775 to 4 broms I geir corn for to the ingines .. . oo. 2.0
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West Hurley once boasted of a citizen who was on the town and proposed to stay there. He became such a thorn in the side of those who were compelled to care for him and his that many attempts were made to bring him to a sense of his position, but all without effect. Finally his neighbors con- cluded to try a scare, and announced to the old fellow that as he was entirely useless on this earth they were intending to bury him on a certain day, to which he readily assented.
The threat, not having the hoped-for effect, his friends next procured a pine coffin, proceeded to the house and in- formed lazy-bones that they had come to attend his funeral. Even this failed to stimulate to activity, and they then placed the old chap in the coffin and proceeded. Well, they had not counted on any such ready acquiescence to the proceedings, and were much perplexed as to the final outcome and, in the hope that something might develop which would arouse their burden to a sense of his shortcomings, they stopped each pass- ing neighbor and explained in a loud tone and with many words what was being done.
Each moment matters became more and more desperate, until finally one was stopped who, on hearing the story, said "Put him down boys, I have a couple bushels of corn that he can have and that ought to be a start toward something better". Up to this point the corpse-to-be had shown no in- terest in the proceedings, but now he raised up and inquired if the corn was shelled, to find that it was not, whereupon he lay back and said "go on boys, it ain't no use".
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MARBLETOWN, STONE RIDGE AND ACCORD.
MARBLETOWN, STONE RIDGE AND ACCORD.
After a night spent under the roof of the Senate House, I was fitted out with a pocket full of lunch and the Doctor and the "dorg" went along as far as the next (the fourth) mile- stone. And now that the milestone is past and my com- panion has turned back, I am inclined to tell on him. The Doctor has a wife who is a great Bible student, nor does she mind getting one on her husband when an opening occurs, thus she not infrequently quotes holy writ at him and at least one such quotation is, it seems to me, worth recording for the benefit of those who do not search the scriptures daily. It is to be found in 2 Chronicles, XVI., 12-13, and reads as follows: "And Asa, in the thirty and ninth year of his reign, was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great; yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers."
Before we can possibly get away from the village one sees a dab of green paint that proved to be one of the interesting old Hurley houses-or was it blue paint, my chief recollec- tion is that it was some kind of a blot on the landscape. This is where the first Masonic lodge for this locality was estab- lished and that is why we stop and look at it. Asking for a drink I was sent to the spring which boils out of the bank of the Esopus at the rate of a barrel a minute, it was everything that a spring should be; refreshing both to the eye and
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THE OLD MINE ROAD.
throat and having been told where to find the cocoanut shell cup among the roots of an old tree, I helped myself.
"Yes, fountain of Bandusia, Posterity shall know The cooling brooks that from thy nooks Singing and dancing go."
Sink holes in a limestone country are by no means un- common. Opposite the second milestone out of Kingston is one in a field. Another opposite the fourth milestone was re- cently discovered by a cow of roving disposition, whereupon our bovine explorer hoisted her tail over the spot, much as explorers of old planted the King's standard and, like an old knight, she bravely gave her life to the cause, for when the farmer saw the signal she had raised he found his cow wedged head down in the rocks and as dead as Cæsar, though not quite so dusty.
The day was something warm, the air full of the smell of growing things. A delightful breeze kept me company down the road, but unfortunately it was traveling my way and at about my gait, and I only knew of the fact because the trees were waving to it a welcome. To my way of thinking a blow in the face had been better than to have so softly kept me company.
The old Pawling house soon came along and I stepped over into Marbletown. Then there was the Esopus where it bumps into the highway, a tent among the alders on the other side and a canoe drawn up on the shore suggested camping and fishing and doing nothing, and most anything else that a tent and a canoe and a pleasant little river might suggest.
Here was the sixth milestone, and about three-quarters of a mile beyond, or just before the seventh milestone is reached,
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MARBLETOWN, STONE RIDGE AND ACCORD.
in the village of Marbletown, stands a famous old tree, on land owned by Louis Bevier. This is within a few feet of the north fence in the bend of the old road; a new cut-off here leaves it still further afield.
This is an ancient landmark, so ancient that it is said to have been a noted mark on the old Indian trail from the Esopus to the country of the Delawares. A great, solid chestnut tree that is estimated to be over five hundred years of age. A singular feature is a white elm which at the base is entirely surrounded by the spreading trunk of the chestnut. About eighteen inches from the ground the elm springs from the trunk of the older tree as a branch might, there being no indication of a split in the chestnut trunk. Five feet from the ground the elm and chestnut, in close apposition, measure twenty-two feet three inches in circumference, the elm being probably thirty inches in circumference.
The great age and size of the tree, its historic interest and the remarkable singularity of the growth combine to make this of more than passing interest.
Many years ago Marbletown was visited by a great wind which demolished the church. All the congregation turned out at the rebuilding, even Domine Davis lending a hand in the good work.
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