When Witches Rode Broomsticks Over Missouri's Hills

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When Witches Rode Broomsticks Over Missouri's Hills
Posted by: stubbytate (ID *****7557)	Date: May 27, 2007 at 14:33:06
	of 52989

A new article has been added at Newspaper Abstracts > United States > Missouri >
Jefferson
http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/index.php?action=displaycat&catid=613

Direct link to article: http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?id=36898
Submitted by: Gigimo

Article Title: Kansas City

Article Date: January 12 1908

Article Description: When Witches Rode Broomsticks Over Missouri's Hills.

Article Text:

Witchcraft once was a Missouri institution. While it did not disturb the public to
the extent that it did in Massachusetts, when, in 1692, nineteen supposed witches
were executed, the alleged evil practices were the cause of much concern to honest but
gullible folk. The early day Missourians sought to placate, rather than punish, the
witches, and "witch charming" was a profession that had numerous practitioners.

Missouri's witches flourished in the early part of the last century, and their
stronghold was Jefferson County. The most notorious of these sorcerers was "Queen
Bevers, the witch," the widow of Thomas L. BEVIS, a highly respected pioneer of Jefferson
county. BEVIS, in 1802, left Georgia and traveled northward through a pathless
forest, and felled the first trees to build the first home on the land where Victoria,
Mo., now stands. Spain held dominion over the territory then, and Charles Dehault
DELASSUS was lieutenant governor of the Upper Louisiana.

When BEVIS died in 1826 his wife turned witch, so the settlers believed, and from
that time until about 1854 she was a terror to the people of her county. The story of
"Queen Bevers" is told by Judge John L. THOMAS in an address before the Old
Settlers' association of Jefferson county, printed in a recent issue of the Missouri
Historical Review.

"A biography of Prudence BEVIS," Judge THOMAS said, "will give a clear insight into
the beliefs, folk-lore and manners of the people sixty and seventy years ago. This
woman was known everywhere as 'Queen Bevers, the witch.' How she got the cognomen
'queen' I could not learn, but it is evident the people corrupted the name BEVIS to
Bevers.'

"I am informed by persons who knew her well during that period that an overwhelming
majority of the people really believed in witchcraft, and that 'Queen Bevers' was a
veritable witch. In the immediate neighborhood where she lived, which was never far
from Victoria, every ailment or misfortune happening to man or beast, was traced to
her malign influence. Cows gave bloody milk, guns failed to hit a deer, though true
in every other respect; the people were sick with various diseases and ofttimes
would have 'hair balls' in their flesh. These and many other abnormal conditions were
by the people laid at the door of 'Queen Bevers,'

"What could be done to counteract this baneful influence? The pioneers did not do
as the people of Salem, Mass., and of England--hang the supposed witch--but they
sought a remedy for the evils that were supposed to be inflicted on the community. This
remedy was found partially in Henry H. JONES, who lived on Buck creek and who was
recognized universally as a witch charmer."

Judge THOMAS gives a few instances of the witchery of Queen Bevers and the
interposition of JONES, the professional disolver of spells.

A man in the neighborhood had a gun that he claimed would not kill a deer, though it
was accurate in every other respect. He went to JONES and the latter inquired into
the matter. Finding that Queen Bevers had a motive for preventing this man from
killing deer, he attributed the defect in the gun to her cunning craft.

To break the witch's power over the gun, JONES made a paper likeness of Mrs. BEVIS
and fired a silver ball through it. Very soon Queen Bevers was confined to her room
with an injured limb, and the gun was restored to its original deer killing quality.

It was believed generally that if an owl be stuck in the chair where a witch sits
her power would be overcome, and she would be unable to rise up. On one occasion when
Mrs. BEVIS went visiting some one crept up behind her and stuck an owl in the leg of
a chair on which she sat. But that time the charm didn't happen to work and she
arose with ease when the time came for her to depart.

Mrs. Sullivan FRAZIER, the wife of a pioneer preacher, said, that Mrs. BEVIS visited
her home in 1842 and selected from a herd a cow that she wished to buy. Mrs.
FRAZIER's mother refused to sell the cow. The next morning the cow that "Queen Bevers"
had chosen jumped the fence and ran away. It required a day and a half to bring her
back to the pen and she gave bloodfy milk and was worthless thereafter.

Several sisters in the neighborhood became ill with a strange disease and their
misfortune was attributed to "Queen Bevers." A messenger was dispatched at once to one
of the lower counties of the state for a witch doctor. He came and found a hair
ball in the arm of one of the girls, and forthwith the disease was pronounced the work
of a witch. A remedy to break the charm was used and the girls recovered.

One Zack BORUM had a child who was sick, and he sent for Henry H. JONES. The case
was diagnosed and the illness was pronounced to be the work of Mrs. BEVIS. The witch
doctor placed a magic liquid and some needles in a small vial and hung it in the
chimney. In a short time Queen Bevers became ill, but the child died anyhow. BORUM
gave JONES a side of bacon for his services in this case.

But the most remarkable instance is that related by Aaron COOK, who formerly lived
near Hillsboro, in Jefferson county. He declared that Queen Bevers turned him into a
horse and rode him to a ball at Meredith WIDEMAN's, across the river from Morse's
Mills, hitched him to a plum bush and left him standing there all night.

Among the pioneers of Jefferson county there was a common belief that witches made
knots in horse's manes so that they might ride them. Such knots, to this time, are
known as "witches stirrups."

Another instance of the alleged power of witchery is the case of Francis WIDEMAN,
who built the first grist mill in Jefferson county. On one occasion his brother,
John, wished to grind some corn after night. Francis gave him permission to use the
mill, but cautioned him to keep a sharp lookout for witches.

John went to the mill and started the wheels going. Suddenly the stones began
grinding with such speed and violence that he became frightened, shut off the water and
ran away without his grist. This incident antedated the frenzy about Queen Bevers
several years, and the witchery was attributed to some other evil one.

"It would fill a book to recount all the stories afloat about his remarkable woman,"
Judge THOMAS continued. "The instances of her supposed witchery that are related
are sufficient to show how the people regarded her. She was said to be an unusually
handsome woman, which is contrary to our preconceived notions of witches.

"Mrs. Bevis often was told that the people regarded her as a witch, but she merely
laughed at the accusation. She moved to St. Louis in 1856. I learn that she lost
her reputation as a witch in her later life. She died in 1858 or 1959."

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