Appalachian History

During the Depression the Federal Writers' Project provided wages for unemployed clerks, writers, editors, lawyers, teachers, librarians, and similar workers, and sought to compile anthologies of oral history, folklore, and music, as well as state, local and specialized guidebooks.

The Virginia Writers' Project (VWP) was the state-sponsored segment of the Federal Writers' Project. The VWP collected over 3,850 items from 62 counties between mid-1937 and mid-1942.

In 1991 Thomas E. Barden published 150 of the pieces from the VWP Collection (now housed at the University of Virginia) in ‘Virginia Folk Legends,” from which this oral history was taken.


Montague and Duck Moore
‘An unknown informant, interviewed by Raymond Sloan in Rocky Mount, Franklin County VA, no date

A family moved into Franklin County about thirty years ago, or rather, “appeared” in Franklin County, settling in a little cabin on a farm near the foothills of the Blue Ridge in the western section of the county. No one seemed to know where they might have come from. Evidently just wanderers, Montague Moore and his wife, known only as “Duck,” were a peculiar acting couple. And they both dressed oddly and shabbily. No more than paupers really, and without any education or skill, they must have struck a likely place to remain---for they did remain, and fared well.

Living near the Moores were several families that were very superstitious, and it wasn’t long before reports began to be circulated that the Moores were witches. Soon proofs of the accusations were forthcoming in the death of livestock from strange causes. Any strange happening was soon attributed to Montague and Duck Moore.

On being approached concerning their ability to hex, to make it stranger still, both freely admitted the fact. Yes, they were witches, but Montague stated that although he had the ability to bewitch, his greatest accomplishment was the ability to “take off the spell.” It was his wife Duck, he affirmed, who did all the hexing. It was not very difficult for Montague to follow this up and make it profitable, for in her visits to the neighborhood, Duck often threatened those who displeased her with a “spell.” Dismayed, the superstitious neighbors were relieved, next day, when Montague appeared and announced that he would gladly remove the “spell” for a bushel of potatoes or other household necessities.

In this manner, Montague and Duck continued their racket. Duck was occult in manner and professed to know many secrets in gaining good fortune and preventing bad luck. This information she dispensed for articles of clothing, food, and even money. The “spells” were of many types. Duck would suggest causing everything from a headache to rheumatism in the line of common ailments, and often would vent her powers on livestock.

Children were especially afraid of her and Montague, and would not pass near the little shack in which they lived. Even now, years after their death, many are superstitious about the little shack in which they lived, and especially wary of the two mounds on the hill, the graves of Montague and Duck Moore.

Possibly the greatest accomplishment attributed to Duck was the spell she put upon a young man in the neighborhood. He began to act very strangely and his family thought he was under her spell. What Montague could do for him didn’t help and he went off in the woods and killed himself.

When they had just died neighbors that had never dared to cross their doorsill came in crowds to ransack the place. Only a few crude pieces of furniture were in the little hovel, but a large cave in the hillside nearby was filled with stuff---tribute they’d got from their neighbors to ward off their witchery.

There was a notable character, a Mrs. Henagar, who had the reputation of being a witch. Her upper eye-lids were paralyzed and drooped over her eyes, giving her the appearance of being blind. Whenever she read her Bible she was obliged to stoop over it and hold the lids up with her hands. Then her vision was perfect.

Mrs. Preston asked her, "Why, Mrs. Henagar, do people say you are a witch?"

"Law, bless your sweet soul, honey," she replied, "it's because I have got more sense than all of 'em put together."

This bad reputation, however, clung to her, and every rise that had "a spell" upon it, and every child that had convulsions in the neighborhood was supposed to be bewitched by Mrs. Henagar. So fixed was this belief that Charley Talbot, a notable hunter and marksman, once had " a spell " on his gun, and he could not win at shooting matches nor kill a deer in the woods.

He said that Mrs. Henager had a " grudge " against him, and had put the " spell " on his gun. To avenge himself and rid the neighborhood of this supposed meddlesome person, he determined to practice a "spell " upon her. To accomplish this it was necessary to draw an outline of her figure upon a tree and shoot it in the heart with a bullet in which there was a large portion of silver. This he did, but, to his surprise, Mrs. Henager did not "pine away and die," but continued in her usual health. He was, therefore, convinced that it was not Mrs, Henagar that had "spelled " his gun, but some other witch.

Many other stories of witchcraft were circulated and believed, but, perhaps the best authenticated was that of the children of young Mrs. Talbot and her cousin, Mrs. Henagar. They lived together on the north side of the river, about a mile from the King Salt-Works. Their children were little girls, nearly of the same age, and had learned to talk well enough to be understood. On a bright summer day the two mothers barred the door of the house in which the children were left, and went to the river side to do their washing.

Suddenly there was a noise and shrill outcry from the house, and the mothers ran back to it. On entering the door one of the children was found sitting in the “crib,” and the other greatly excited and alarmed running about the floor.

Soon it was discovered that the one on the floor had lost the power of articulation; was, indeed, dumb, and the other, in the cradle, was paralyzed in its lower limbs, but could speak. No intelligent explanation of what had occurred could be given by the only child which could talk, and, as far as she could indicate, the only cause for alarm was that a black cat had come down the chimney with a cap on its head.


This solved the mystery, and was accepted by the families and the neighborhood as a clear case of witchcraft.

Subsequent events confirmed the opinion. On the anniversary of this event the mothers and children went to bed just as they had done for a year; but, lo! when they awoke next morning the paralyzed child sprang up and ran about the floor as actively as her cousin had done the day before, but that cousin sat in bed talking in the advanced language of a year, but could not move her legs.

This periodical interchange of condition continued for two or more years, and until the paralyzed child sickened and died. The dumb one lived to be an old woman.


source: "HISTORICAL SKETCHES AND REMINISCENCES OF AN OCTOGENARIAN.," by Thomas L Preston, BF Johnson Publishing Co, Richmond, VA, 1900


Preston was the son of Gen. Francis Preston & grandson of Gen. William Campbell & Elizabeth Henry Campbell Russell (sister of Patrick Henry. The historical sketches referred to in the title are first hand accounts of Washington County, VA & of the Preston Saltworks at Saltville, which Preston operated before the Civil War. According to the 1850 Federal Census for Smyth County, Preston was worth over $500,000 on paper, making him one of the wealthiest men in America (he was actually heavily in debt at the time.)



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"The celebrated mountain lands, of which Mark Twain writes in the Gilded Age, lie in Fentress County; and the picturesque village he describes under the name of Obedstown is none other than its county site.

"The court-house, on the fence surrounding which the male population of the village were sitting, chewing tobacco and spitting at bumble-bees and such other objects of interest as appeared within their wide range, while they waited the arrival of the mail; and to which one of them referred, when he observed that, "if the judge is a gwine to hold cote,' he reckoned he would have to "roust" his sow and pigs out of the court-house, was the same in which this singular case was tried.

"It seems that an old man by the name of Stout, who lived on Obeds River, was arrested for bewitching the beautiful daughter of a certain man, named Taylor, who lived on the mountain. The defendant was treated with much rigor, and his person abused by the various experiments to which he was subjected, for the purpose of establishing his guilt.

Fentress County Courthouse about 1910.

"The guards had taken the precaution to remove the lead from their guns, and to load them with silver, which was considered the only metal to which a wizard is not impalpable.

"The accused was carried before Esquire Joshua Owens, a leading magistrate of the county, whom Judge Goodpasture knew intimately for many years afterwards. The prosecutor and many of his neighbors were introduced as witnesses on behalf of the State, and proved, in addition to the particular facts charged, that the defendant had frequently been seen to escape out of houses through the key holes in the doors; and that he had on divers occasions not only operated on the bodies and minds of human beings, and that at a distance of ten or fifteen miles, but also on horses, cattle and other stock.

"On this evidence the defendant was found guilty and bound over to the next term of the Circuit Court. When the grand jury met, General McCormick being of opinion the prosecution could not be sustained, refused to prefer a bill of indictment. The defendant was accordingly discharged amid great excitement, some of the mountaineers boldlv declaring that it would be better to live without laws, if such offenders could escape with impunity."


Source: A Genealogy of the Family of James Goodpasture, by A.V. and W.H. Goodpasture, Nashville: Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing House, 1897



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Please welcome guest blogger Timothy W. Hooker, author of the Sushi Tuesday blog. Tim teaches English at Cleveland State Community College [TN], is a "Point of View" moderator for WDEF-TV 12, and is the author of several works, including: "Rocket Man: A Rhapsody of Short Stories," "Duncan Hambeth: Furniture King of the South," and "Looking For A City."

I don't pretend to know how or why it works; I just know it does.

Among the Appalachian people, it's known as the Blood Verse and it is probably the most controversial aspect of hillbilly witchcraft. I don't feel comfortable calling it a spell. But, it is something my analytical, scientific, humanistic mind can't rationalize away.

Simply put, the Blood Verse stops hemorrhaging on sentient beings when nothing else will. And, by sentient, I mean it will work on animals just as quickly and effectively as it will on humans. I've seen others use it. I've used it myself.

And, up until now, I've been very hesitant to talk about it.

But, here we go.

The Blood Verse is found in the Book of Ezekiel, Chapter 16, Verse 6. It
reads:

"And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said
unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou
wast in thy blood, Live."

Not just anybody can use it. It has to be handed down from male to female to male to female, by someone who already uses it. My mother handed it down to me.

If a sentient being is bleeding uncontrollably, the practitioner can say the verse aloud three times and then say the complete name of the person who is bleeding, and the bleeding will stop.

It's that simple.

The practitioner does not have to have rock-solid faith. The practitioner doesn't have to be sinless. The power of the Blood Verse overrides any deficiencies in the practitioner.

I've seen my mother use the Blood Verse on cattle that have been de-horned. I've used it on people who were recovering from dental surgery. And, it's always worked. Immediately. Conclusively. No questions asked.

I even used it on my father, when his brain stem hemorrhaged. By that time, the damage was done; he was already brain-dead. But later, the doctors, not knowing what I'd done, reported that the bleeding stopped, believe it or not, at the same time I used the Blood Verse.

I don't expect anyone reading this to believe me; feel free to think I'm nuts. I've got a wall full of academic degrees that say I excel at critical thinking skills; I'm not supposed to believe in things I can't measure in a test-tube. But, I know the Blood Verse works.

And, as Charlie Daniels would say, "There are some things in this world you just can't explain."

TWH


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