On the Subject of UFO’s– Linda Knight Seccaspina —

On the subject of UFO’s– Linda Knight Seccaspina

A few years ago I wrote a historical story about an incident that took place in 1915. It was a tale of shenanigans by a group of kids that led the citizens of the Ottawa Valley to believe the Germans had landed via UFO’s. Years later paranormal studies attempted to debunk history and insist it wasn’t kids wreaking mayhem, but was indeed a cluster of UFO’s.

As a fan of the X-Files I really believe that there is someone else out there. However, I have always thought my late father was dubious when he insisted I join him in a spaceship watch. In the late 60’s he claimed to have seen something up in those starry skies hovering over the Brome Pond/Lac Bromont area– which I jokingly blamed it on too much exhaust coming out of his Ford Pinto. 

In 1974 it happened again and this time he made me sit for what seemed like hours to see what he claimed was another UFO. Of course I never saw anything unusual and handed him a glass of wine and suggested he go watch The Rockford Files.

Today, going through the news archives I found out that there were indeed many UFO sightings in the Eastern Townships and Arthur Knight might not have been so crazy after all. In the late 60’s many sightings in the Sherbrooke area have been documented and Michael Phelps sent a letter to the Sudbury Star in 1990 in response to a request by the newspaper for personal encounters.

The letter discussed a 1968 incident at an Ayer’s Cliff cottage on the shores of Lake Massawippi that his family was renting. He spoke of walking home one evening when the whole sky lit up like giant spotlights being turned on. He looked across the lake and saw  3 or 4 balls descend, and after a few seconds they were gone. His sister had seen the same thing, but later they found out that it had not been a visit from beyond, rather it had been nothing but earthquake lights.

In the summer of 1909 a similar aerial display was seen in that part of the heavens which looked down upon the Eastern Townships. At night it was seen by many, but two fishermen claimed that they had a view of it by daylight, although it must be admitted that the description given by the latter was not quite so circumstantial and satisfactory.

The people of the Townships justly celebrated for solving mysteries were this time completely baffled. There were explanations, but no two people agreed on one story. Some in Magog thought it might be a new contraption for facilitating smuggling, others guessed it might be improved rural mail delivery. Some thought it could have been done for election purposes, but there just wasn’t one pending.

As the autumn nights grew dark, and chilly the mysterious flying machine like the birds went its way and was seen no more. Until a few weeks later in October it was seen hovering above the city of Worcester, Mass. exciting the people considerably and causing no end of conversation.

Now it was discussed whether the flying object could be a thing of supernatural existence. It was nothing in the nature of a witch or anything of that sort. The fact that it appeared at Worcester and not at Salem, of uncanny fame, stopped the witch’s conversation immediately. They said the thing “bore a ‘searchlight”, and there is nothing on record to show that a witch ever carried anything on her journeys except a broom. 

Again, it became the talk of the Townships, and some thought it should now be considered serious and be attended to. One thing was for sure– that the people of New England would not be satisfied with any of the Township’s theories based on such common subjects as spying or smuggling.

The Montreal Star’s explanation was that any answer that did not provide for something like a visit from the Martians would not be satisfactory. In the meantime they suggested that everyone should look into hiring one of their famous air navigators and put them on the trail of the mystery, and just fly It down.

Did anyone ever take up The Montreal Star’s suggestion? Not in any archives I was digging into, but as they say: “The truth is still out there!”

UFO Sightings in Lanark County 1982 — Lanark Village

Was it the Germans Or UFO’s that Invaded the Ottawa Valley in 1915?

Saturated with UFO activity Lee Cole 1994

Unsolved Mysteries — The Almonte Woman Abducted by a UFO (Part 2)

More UFO Sightings in Carleton Place!

Was it a UFO? A Meteorite or a Fuse Box? A Carleton Place Legend

Memories of UFO’s Earthquake Lights and Gale Pond

Did the Germans Start the Fire at the Portland School in 1915?

Witches Folklore 101 in Ontario 1800s

Ideas concerning witchcraft are rather attenuated at present, although their existence may still be observed.

578. Some people believe that a wish expressed very solemnly or under special circumstances, such as by a dying person, will be effective against supposed wrong-doers. This is somewhat of the nature of a curse. For instance, a man who was dying of consumption wished for a cane belonging to his father. The younger brother, who had possession of it, refused to give it up. The sick man then remarked that the brother might keep the cane, but that he might need it before long.

579. Burning salt will drive witches out of the house. (M.) 579. Burning salt will drive witches out of the house. (M.)

580. A crabbed, sour-dispositioned old woman is still sometimes referred to as an old witch.

581. The seventh son of the seventh son is supposed to be able to tell fortunes and to perform cures of various kinds. This applies equally to the seventh daughter of the seventh son. It is also held that the seventh son or child is supernaturally gifted.

582. Mrs. Richard Hutchison told of a male relative of hers who was said to have been bewitched by an old woman living in the neighborhood. The old woman was supposed to have had a spite against the man, and made him want to kill his wife, who could not escape him, no matter where she might go. Nothing could be done to rid him of his murder mania. At last it became known that the old woman had bewitched him. So she was sent for and ordered to say, “God bless you!” She kept saying, “My God bless you!” but this did the man no good, as the old woman’s god or deity was the Devil. The people finally threatened to string her up to a tree if she did not say, “God bless you!” When she said it at last, the man became as usual.

583. A woman living in the country, a short distance from Toronto, one day saw a cat coming towards the house through the grass. As she noticed that the cat’s face resembled that of a neighbor woman, she tried to catch it, but was unable to do so. Had she cut its paw, or hurt it in any way, her neighbor – so she believed – would have been injured in a similar manner. The cat after a while went into the stable, and walked in and out of the stalls “just like a soldier.” The people tried to hit it with sticks, but it got out of the way every time. (Informant is said to have been of Highland-Scotch descent.)

584. Another item, presumably of Scotch origin, is to the effect that a woman took sweepings from her steps and threw them on those of her mother-in-law to prevent the latter from doing her an injury.

585. Some people always sweep in, never out of the door.

586. A practice attributed to Irish sources is that of pointing the scissors at people, either when they are looking or when not looking; this is done to injure an enemy

The beliefs under Nos. 587-591 (recorded by the Rev. Solomon Snider of Norwich, Oxford County, Ontario, in “The Globe,” Toronto, 1898-1900, were current between 1840and 1850. 587. “Witches were a terror to old and young, and not without reason when it was found what they could do. What quantities of soap-grease were wasted in the vain attempt to make soap! How many hours were spent over the churn, while the butter wouldn’t come! . . . How much bread sponge had to be thrown into the swill- barrel because it wouldn’t rise! . . . Manes of horses would be found in the morning braided up and fastened together as stirrups for the witches or fairies who had ridden them through the night.

588. “A man’s cows got lean and lost relish for their food and would yield no milk; but when an old woman marked crosses on their horns and foreheads, they were themselves again. They were held to have been ‘witched.’

589. “Again, an old man declared he was taken out every night by the witches and bridled and ridden like a horse; and he would show all the signs of being completely exhausted in the morning, and would exhibit the sores at the corners of his mouth where he had been un- mercifully jerked by the bit. He so fully believed all this, that he walked fifty miles to consult a ‘witch doctor,’ who delivered him from his tormentors.

590. “An old soldier, who lived alone in a little log cabin, died very suddenly in the presence of some young men whom he had just been diverting with tales of his former exploits. One of themran to the house of Mrs. S – , who was found with a pot fiercely boiling, in which were three pigs’ livers all stuck full of pins and needles. In reply to the news that ‘old Uncle Simon was dead,’ she said: ‘Served him right. Why didn’t he let my pigs alone?’ It was a case of ‘tit for tat.’ He had bewitched her pigs, and she, with the help of the murdered pigs’ livers, had compassed his death.

591. ” Once more: An old woman said to her husband one day: ‘The butter won’t come.’ He at once cast a silver bullet for his rifle (lead won’t kill a witch), and fired it into the churn. The butter was all right; but not so an old wife of the neighborhood, who had be- witched the butter. She went hobbling around for months, suffering silently from a concealed bullet wound.” The following story, which confirms some of the notions contributed by the Rev. S. Snider, was obtained from John Jamieson, Jr., an Iroquois residing on the Six-Nation reserve, in Brant County, and deals with beliefs –evidently European –current in that locality some thirty or forty years ago:

592. A blacksmith living along the stone road between Brantford and Langford had an apprentice who gradually began to get very ill. One day he told the blacksmith that he was going away. “What’s the matter?” asked his employer. “Nothing,” he replied, “except that you do not use me very well.” ” How’s that?” asked the blacksmith. “Well, I am kept awake every night working,” said he. The blacksmith decided to take the young man to sleep near him, the wife of the latter sleeping in another room. In the middle of the night the blacksmith heard something knocking. He went to the door, and saw there a man with a fine-looking mare. “I’ll give you five dollars if you will shoe my horse,” said his visitor, “as I have to drive twenty miles.” The blacksmith said, “No! I have worked hard all day, and I want to rest.”-“Shoe the front feet, and I’ll give you five dollars for your trouble,” said the man; “I do not want to drive on the gravel without shoes.” The blacksmith at last consented; but the mare was very restless, and kept following him around, while the thought kept occurring to him that he had seen the mare before. The customer paid his bill and departed. In the morn- ing the blacksmith asked his assistant how he had slept. “Oh! all right,” said he. The hired girl got the breakfast, and went to call the blacksmith’s wife; but the latter remained in her apartment weeping, her hands hidden in her clothes, and would give no answer. The blacksmith finally entered, and asked her what was the matter. She showed him her hands with horseshoes nailed on them, and said, “I did not think you would do such a thing.”

593. I have frequently heard of a red-hot horseshoe being put into the churning when the butter would not come. The avowed reason was to remove the spell which a witch had put on the cream. (Boyle.)

594. An old Irish woman of the neighborhood, when she has any bad luck, such as her hens not laying, or any farm stock not prospering, obtains something belonging to the person she suspects of “evil’ and, after sticking it full of pins, burns it. She claims that she always hears of this person’s illness at once.

Also read-Strange Folklore from Ontario –BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD

Need “BLOOD-LETTING’? Head on Down to the Blacksmith!

Witch of Plum Hollow

The Witch of Plum Hollow — Complete Story File

Witches

The Trouble With Witches

Witchy Woman — Isabella Mary Rutherford Laidlaw

We Know About the Witch of Plum Hollow — But Have you Heard About Mother Lajeunesse?

A Bewitched Bed in Odessa

The Eardley Witch Doctor

Different Seasons of Witches in Lanark County

Local Miracle Story– Woken From a Ten Week Coma

The White Witch of Lanark County–Having the Sight

Hocus Pocus –Necromancy at Fitch Bay

The Witches Handcuffs

Ancestor of Salem –Rochester Street Witch

The Witches and Spirit Communicators of Montague

The Devil’s Telephone? The Ouija Board

The Trouble With Witches

Witches were once known as wise women. You couldn’t help staring. Dressed completely in black, her eyes outlined with black, a pentagram dangled from a chain, her presence demanded attention. No, this wasn’t Hollywood — it was NYC years ago when I was on a buying trip for my store in Ottawa. Standing next to me in a check-out line stood Laurie Cabot, the official witch of Salem, Mass. Admittedly disconcerted by the woman in black, I suddenly felt a twinge of fear– or was it admiration? Every Halloween we are confronted by witches. Ugly hags, powerful and evil, handmaids of the devil. Few images are so frightening; few are so completely wrong.

Until the Christianization of Europe, the Old Religion, with its goddesses and gods, marked cycles of time and fertility. Wise women – healers, midwives and counselors – practiced magic and folk arts of ancient earth-based spiritualities. Even as people converted to Christianity, they blended these old mysteries with the new beliefs. Male clerics, however, eventually redefined folk practices as Satan’s work or witchcraft In 1484, Pope Innocent sanctioned witch-hunting. Two years later, two Dominican inquisitors published the Malleus Mallefi-carum (“Hammer of Witches”) as an instruction book for zealous Christians to aid the cause.

An instant best-seller, the Malleus argued that women were more susceptible to the Devil’s wiles than men. By nature, women were feeble-minded, morally and sexually lax, inclined to lie, weak in faith, and prone to evil. Clerics and medical doctors identified women’s ancient arts – contraception, abortion, birthing, healing -as witch’s work. “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18). Thus armed with the Malleus and the Bible, the medieval church launched one of its most successful crusades – killing women.

One of the largest witch trials in European history started in the rural diocese of Trier in 1581, eventually reaching the city itself six years later. The motives behind this massive witch-purging were likely political. Wanting to prove his loyalty to the Jesuits, the newly-appointed Archbishop Johann von Schöneburg ordered a purge of three groups of nonconformists: Protestants, Jews and witches. Very few of those accused of witchcraft were ever released. Between 1587 and 1593, 368 of the accused from 22 villages were burned alive, almost all confessing under torture. Almost a third of the victims were nobility or held positions in the government or local administration, including judges, burgermeisters, councilors, canons and parish priests.

Although reliable numbers are difficult to discern, some scholars estimate that from the 15th to 18th centuries, approximately 2 million people were executed for witchcraft- 80 per cent of them women. During the burning times, the church terrorized women suspected of practicing the old religions. In 1585, in the Bishop of Trier, had the entire female population was murdered. Ancient beliefs died by harassment, inquisition, torture and execution. In the midst of this violence, the church – threatened by the rival female spiritual power – constructed the modern image of the witch, a misogynist image haunting our culture still.

Once, before the burning times, people revered old women, wise women – “witches” – as healers and givers of life. Now they are hags. On Halloween, some Christian women commemorate the burning times in what theologian Rosemary Ruether calls a “remembrance of the holocaust of women.” After reciting a litany of women executed as witches, participants pray, “We weep for them. We do not for get them. And as we remember them, we dedi cate ourselves to making a new world where we and our daughters can live free.”

Other women, however, have rejected traditional religion completely and embraced revitalized forms of the old ways – now referred to as wicca, god dess worship or neo-paganism. The re-emergence of witchcraft as a serious religious practice coincided with contemporary feminism. Many women believe Christianity and Judaism to be hopelessly patriarchal and, not surprisingly, violently oppressive to women. Thus, many well-educated, urban professional women have turned to the Goddess as an alternate source for spirituality According to modern witches, “the craft” is not a pact with the Devil (and not to be confused with Satanism, a separate belief.

Rather, it is a set of ritual practices aimed at healing as one connects with the universe – related to other pre-Christian beliefs found in tribal religions around the world. Halloween, or Samhain, is one of witchcraft’s most important ritual festivals. It is the witches’ New Year, the time when the veil dividing the world of the living and the dead is thin. At this time, the witches’ spiral dance celebrates death, fertility and renewal. I don’t fear witches. Rather, I fear the witch hunt – the real work of the Devil.

Pakenham Witches. —Because we are deriving very little and in some cases no butter from our travelling starved cows, many believe the cream is bewitched by a maliciously inclined man or woman, supposed to receive power from the devil. It is astonishing how many Protestants, even church members,believe as strongly in superstition than they do in the Bible. We are inclined to ask what Protestant religion is doing when superstition is cultivated to such an alarming extent, W e must be getting back near the time when the witches were burned, and perhaps in our next we can give you the gratifying news of the capture and burning of this one.–Almonte Gazette Pakenham August 6 1880 read-The White Witch of Lanark County–Having the Sight

https://lindaseccaspina.wordpress.com/2017/09/04/the-white-witch-of-lanark-county-having-the-sight/

Laurie Cabot– Click here

The Gazette
Montreal, Quebec, Canada27 Oct 1996, Sun  •  Page 36

Witchy Woman — Isabella Mary Rutherford Laidlaw

The Plum Hollow Witch 101 – Mother Barnes

We Know About the Witch of Plum Hollow — But Have you Heard About Mother Lajeunesse?

Mother Barnes– The Colonel’s Daughter in Plum Hollow

An Interview with the Witch of Plum Hollow–Mother Barnes— The Ottawa Free Press 1891

The Witch of Plum Hollow and the Blacksmith

My Grandmother was Mother Barnes-The Witch of Plum Hollow

A Bewitched Bed in Odessa

The Witch of Plum Hollow – Carleton Place Grandmother

Plum Hollow Witch and The Mountain Man of Pakenham

Different Seasons of Witches in Lanark County

Local Miracle Story– Woken From a Ten Week Coma

The White Witch of Lanark County–Having the Sight

The Witches of Rochester Street

Hocus Pocus –Necromancy at Fitch Bay

The Witch of Plum Hollow – Carleton Place Grandmother

The Witch Hollow of Lanark County

When Mother Barnes Made a Mistake? Beckwith 6th Line

The Witch of Plum Hollow Files- An Evening in Smiths Falls

Mother Barnes and the Missing Money of South March

Witchy Woman — Isabella Mary Rutherford Laidlaw

https://www.ontarioabandonedplaces.com/ontario/grey-county/the-legend-of-mary-rutherford/witchy-woman

Adrienne Jones— I see they missed Mary Rutherford the witch whose head was severed from her body so she didnt come back. Body in Bentink township guarded by 2 white spirit wolves and head up the peninsula around Tobermory.

Yesterday I saw this comment from Adrienne and decided to document it. On Google there are quite a few articles on her but scouring the newspapers sites. not a one.. Just this clipping below that in 1873 one L. Kyder from Montreal dressed up as Mary Rutherford- Witch.

The Gazette
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
13 Feb 1893, Mon  •  Page 7

Grey County Cemetery– click here.. ( formerly known as Lamlash Cemtery)

The worst condition I have ever seen in any cemetery, appalling really. Such desecration is completely unwarranted and I wonder at the minds of some people. This sad little cemetery is found down an abandoned “No Maintenance” road, closed in the winter and very rough the remainder of the year. The only visitors are off-roaders, partyers and people dumping garbage. Also those who follow the ghostly legends of the paranormal may also be found visiting here, in curiosity of the Legend of Mary Rutherford. Cults and satanic rituals are common here, and apparitions have also been reported

Please see the link for more details of the legend, it is a sad story of a poor spinster, rumoured to be a witch, buried away from the rest of the departed, her grave continues to be desecrated and damaged.

What is easy to find are the other gravestones, all gathered together on a concrete slab, most damaged and in poor condition, all turned every which way and used as stools for partying idiots.

Mary Rutherford was reportedly the first burial in what was once the West Bentinck Presbyterian Cemetery. She died Christmas day of 1872. The last confirmed burial here was 1922. A visit here is spooky, deep within the forest setting, surrounded by the refuse of society and the uncertainty of the unknown.

The Legend of Isabella ‘Mary’ Rutherford

The legend of Mary Rutherford has always been vague and ambiguous. It tells of an old maid who was finally betrothed to be married, only to be duped at the alter by her husband-to-be. Left shameful and heartbroken, she committed suicide by hanging herself in her wedding dress. If this wasn’t enough, she has since been accused of being a witch, having her head buried separate from her body and her grave placed far from the rest in the cemetery where she now rests.Upon first hearing about this infamous, yet illogical legend, something didn’t seem to fit. The facts didn’t add up so the deeper I dug, the more things began to make sense. The purpose of this article is to help shed some light on the often talked about, yet rarely accurate legend based on a woman who has come to be known as Mary Rutherford.

The History

Bentinck Township, just outside of Hanover, Ontario in the West Grey area was one of the former townships that made up the original city. (the other’s being the Townships of Glenelg and Normanby, the former Village of Neustadt, and the former Town of Durham). During the early 1900’s, the Hanover area became a popular area for immigrants because of its wealth of farm land and hardwood bushes. Many of these immigrants came from Scotland, but for this story, one family stood out in particular.Robert Laidlaw, a farmer from the village of Bedrule in Roxburghshire, Scotland, married a woman from the same town named Isabella Rutherford (born 1800) on May 21 in 1826. Decades later in 1855 their son Walter left Scotland in his late teens with his fiancee Maryanne, and was the first of the clan to come over and settle in Canada, in the Bentinck Township.

Sometime in 1860, Robert and Isabella joined them, and the family lived in a 2-storey log home that had just been built in 1859.Walter and Maryanne married in 1870 and had five children. Walter became quite a prominent man within the Bentinck Township and was elected the deputy reeve. He died in 1895 and Maryanne in 1910. The family’s log home was sold and taken apart, log by log and moved to Lake Rosalind in Hanover to be used as a cottage in 1958.

Isabella ‘Mary’ Rutherford died in 1872 (LAIDLAW, Isabella (Rutherford)) on Christmas day at the age of 72. A few years later her husband Robert Laidlaw passed away in March of 1874. They were both buried in the now abandoned West Bentinck Presbyterian Cemetery (also known to be the Lamlash Cemetery) and Isabella was the very first, or one of the first, to be buried in the 1872 graveyard. According to the burial records in the Bentinck Township book, the last recorded burial was another Mr. Laidlaw in 1939. However, a stone at the graveyard contradicts this saying that the last burial was in 1922.

I think you might be better off not finding her grave and accidentally touching it, so they say. 

Facts and Myths–https://www.ledicarusmedia.com/west_bentinck_pres_cem.html

MYTH
Isabella grew up to be a childless old maid who was duped at the alter by her fiancé who had taken her virginity the night before the wedding. Isabella committed suicide by hanging herself while in her wedding dress on her wedding day at the age of 26.

FACTS
At least three children (seven total) have been directly connected to Isabella, their names were Walter, Jean and Robert.
She was married, successfully, to Robert in 1826.

MYTH
Locals claimed she was a witch and so her head was decapitated from her body and both buried separately in the cemetery. Her grave(s) being placed separately from the rest of the group for this reason.

FACTS
There is no prevailing evidence to prove she was a witch or practised witchcraft. The “practise” of witchcraft was, in many communities, misconstrued to include everything from botany to herbology to astrology. A well tended gardener who took heed of the seasons and Mother Nature and respected both could be interpreted as practising a type of witchcraft. A confirmed witch would not have been permitted burial on consecrated grounds nor had the symbol of a handshake (a welcoming into the heavenly world) engraved on their gravestone. Both Robert and Isabella have the same symbol on their gravestones.

There are some interesting points to be made about her burial.

1. As one of the first buried in the cemetery her plot was located over halfway back from the entry to the cemetery on a hillside. This could have simply been the location of a purchased family plot or intentional on the part of the deceased’s wishes or the church. There is no evidence available as to the intent.
2. Her plot was alleged to have been located next to her husband but witnesses claim the two stones were not located immediately side by side (before, or after, being relocated).
3. Her plot was separate from other graves, however, only a fraction of the total plots had surviving gravestones on them by the 1970s (when the bulk of rumours commenced). Following the clustering of stones, her stone remained separate on the hillside for some time until it was moved down next to the cluster. No effort was made to locate her stone together with the others in the past or since.

A clarification to what you may have read on websites like geocaching.com, the “clustering” of gravestones was not common practise in cemeteries when they were established or for centuries following. This clustering most likely occurred some time between 1950 to 1990 when this desecration of historical cemeteries, in the name of easy maintenance and alleged vandalism prevention, was performed. It was cheaper than requesting additional police patrols or better lighting. You will not find any untouched cemeteries containing a clustering of gravestones, even the most remote locations deep in forests and the back forty of family farms.

Kevin, Lead Investigator Notes: I know this for a fact because I personally witnessed the clustering of at least a half dozen local cemeteries during the 1980s for these reasons. Stones were being vandalized by drunken idiots and it was thought the only way to protect them was to cluster them closer together restricting access. Since then we have come up with better concrete and steel supports to protect and preserve freestanding stones, too late for the cemeteries already converted. In older cemeteries where records are lost, and stones have been vandalized the clustering of stones together was done out of a lack of information more than common practise. For example, no one wants to place to stone belonging to Mary on top of the grave belonging to John lest they be haunted by the dead or the descendants thereof.

MYTH
Anyone who touches the gravestone of Isabella ‘Mary’ Rutherford will befall an injury. Allegedly the ghost of Mary will reach out from the grave and break the arm of the daring individual. The bone may not break right away but will soon after in a mysterious freak accident.

FACTS
Obviously false without a need for much explanation. Many people have touched her gravestone and not become injured including our Lead investigator Kevin.

MYTH
If you wait near the gravestone or grave, unclear which, at the stroke of midnight it is alleged that the ghost, apparition in mist form, or the witch herself can be seen walking through the cemetery near the trees.

FACTS
No one sober has reported seeing this phenomenon that we have found during our research. Due to the conditions of the road back to the cemetery and the lack of nearby public space we have not located anyone who has been back there after sunset in recent years.

Discussion on the Haunting Folklore

Is Isabella’s spirit haunting the cemetery? Not likely.
Did Isabella die an unwed childless old maid? No.
Was Isabella a witch? Unknown but evidence supports that she was not.

17 Signs That You’d Qualify as a Witch in 1692 click here_–

Is there a spirit or spirits, other than Isabella, haunting the cemetery? Inconclusive
Is there a malevolent or demonic spirit, other than Isabella, haunting the cemetery? Inconclusive
​
Why are these two points inconclusive?

There has been evidence of witnesses feeling intense sorrow or discomfort while in the cemetery. This is most likely a psychological effect of hearing the rumours and legends concerning the location. However, our lead investigator, Kevin, reported that he felt a uniquely calming presence in the cemetery and noted the reduction of bird and animal sounds in the immediate area of the cemetery. He concluded, based on four visits over several years, that this was simply an anomaly of time of day and use of location versus a prevailing psychic energy in the area.

There is, however, the fact that several, albeit amateurish, rituals have been performed in the graveyard over the last several decades. Whether these rituals were the result of a impulse brought on by alcohol or intent to raise or conjure energies is too varied and undocumented to be dismissed. The toying with such dangerous activities may have created a rift or tear, a portal, allowing for the attraction or entry of inter-dimensional energies into this location. Further paranormal investigation into this location is needed.

---

All from –all from http://geneofun.on.ca/

Photos courtesy of Rev. Owen Juhlke [2012], additions from Brenda Calder
Indexed by Sherri Pettit

This index represents ALL visible headstones still in existence at the time this cemetery was visited-Grey County Cemetery– click here.

(unknown)
ALLEN, Jane (Perrey)   1798 – 1878 (age: 80)
ALLEN, Samuel   spouse
BAILEY, Beatrice   parent
BAMFORD, Annie   1849 – 1917 (age: 68)
BURGESS, John   1877 – 1898 (age: 21)
CAMPBELL, Charles   1799 – 1871 (age: 72)
CAMPBELL, Isabella   1841 – 1919 (age: 78)
CAMPBELL, Margaret   1844 – 1904 (age: 60)
CURRIE, Cathrine   1797 – 1895 (age: 98)
CURRIE, Kate   1867 – 1892 (age: 25)
CURRIE, Margaret   parent
CURRIE, William   parent
DICKSON, Janet (Hudson)   1833 – 1899 (age: 66)
DICKSON, John   1863 – 1868 (age: 5)
DICKSON, Samuel   spouse
DICKSON, Samuel   1833 – 1909 (age: 76)
EVANS, (infant son)   1890 – 1890
EVANS, (infant son)   1891 – 1891
HASTIE, (infant sons)   ? ?
HASTIE, Andrew   1835 – 1915 (age: 80)
HASTIE, Margaret (Irvine)   1841 – 1904 (age: 63)
HASTIE, William   parent
HENDERSON, Isabella   1816 – 1893 (age: 77)
HUDSON, Janet   1833 – 1899 (age: 66)
IRVINE, Margaret   1841 – 1904 (age: 63)
JEFFKINS, Jane (Laidlaw)   1898 – 1898 (age: 31)
JEFFKINS, Jannet (Watt)   1892 – 1904 (age: 12)
JEFFKINS, Keziah   1892 – 1918 (age: 26)
JEFFKINS, William   1859 – 1881
KLAGES, (infant daughter)   ? ?
KLAGES, John   parent
KRAUTER, Aubrey   1917 – 1917
KRAUTER, Beatrice (Bailey)   parent
KRAUTER, Marjorie   1941 – 1941
KRAUTER, Willard   parent
LAIDLAW, Adam Robson   1880 – 1939
LAIDLAW, Isabella (Rutherford)   1800 – 1872 (age: 72)
LAIDLAW, Jane   1898 – 1898 (age: 31)
LAIDLAW, Jennet   parent
LAIDLAW, Margaret J.   1861 – 1877 (age: 16)
LAIDLAW, Mary Ann   1837 – 1910 (age: 73)
LAIDLAW, Robert   parent
LAIDLAW, Robert   spouse
LAIDLAW, Robert   ? – 1874
LAIDLAW, Walter   1833 – 1895 (age: 62)
LEESON
LEESON, Annie   1880 – 1904 (age: 24)
LEESON, Annie (Bamford)   1849 – 1917 (age: 68)
LEESON, James   1807 – 1879 (age: 72)
LEESON, Jennie   1875 – 1905 (age: 30)
LEESON, John   1839 – 1919 (age: 80)
LEESON, Joseph   1870 – 1908 (age: 38)
LEESON, William J.   1867 – 1871 (age: 4)
McNICOL, Agnes   spouse
McNICOL, Agnes   1830 – 1901 (age: 71)
McNICOL, Annie   1838 – 1905 (age: 67)
McNICOL, Cathrine (Currie)   1797 – 1895 (age: 98)
McNICOL, Donald   1829 – 1890 (age: 61)
McNICOL, John   1798 – 1880
MILLIGAN, Margaret   ? – 1914
MILLIGAN, William   ? – 1887
OWENS, Euphemia   1886 – 1886
PERREY, Jane   1798 – 1878 (age: 80)
POLSON, Charlotte   1826 – 1898 (age: 72)
POLSON, William   spouse
POLSON, William   1823 – 1875 (age: 52)
RUTHERFORD, Isabella   1800 – 1872 (age: 72)
STORRAR, Andrew   1831 – 1872 (age: 41)
STORRAR, Andrew   ? – 1892
STORRAR, Annie (McNicol)   1838 – 1905 (age: 67)
TODD, Agnes   child of
TODD, Alice   child of
TODD, David   1815 – 1899 (age: 84)
TODD, Isabella   child of
TODD, Isabella (Henderson)   1816 – 1893 (age: 77)
TODD, William E.   child of
TODD, Willie   child of
WATT, Jannet   1892 – 1904 (age: 12)
WILKINSON, Catharine   1877 – 1879 (age: 2)
WILKINSON, Isabella   parent
WILKINSON, Isabella (Campbell)   1841 – 1919 (age: 78)
WILKINSON, James   parent
WILKINSON, James   1831 – 1901 (age: 70)
WILKINSON, Margaret   1873 – 1876 (age: 3)
WILKINSON, Margaret   1881 – 1909 (age: 28)

all from http://geneofun.on.ca/

Name:	Isabella Rutherford
Gender:	Female
Spouse:	Robert Laidlaw
Child:	Walter Laidlaw

Name:	Robert Laidlaw
Gender:	Male
Spouse:	Isabella Rutherford
Child:	Walter Laidlaw

Name:	Walter Laidlaw
Age:	36
Birth Year:	abt 1835
Birth Place:	Scotland
Marriage Date:	18 Mar 1871
Marriage Place:	Canada, Grey, Ontario
Father:	Robert Laidlaw
Mother:	Isabella Rutherford
Spouse:	Mary Ann Laidlaw

Walter LAIDLAW-son from http://geneofun.on.ca/
1833-1895
Walter Laidlaw died October 22, 1895 at age 62; also Adam Robson Laidlaw (1890-1939); also Mary Ann Laidlaw (wife of Walter Laidlaw) died March 5, 1910 age 73 (b. Roxburghshire, Scotland) (1871 Census Division 3 Ref. #49)
West Bentinck Presbyterian Cemetery, Grey County, ON

Photos courtesy of Rev. Owen Juhlke [2012], additions from Brenda Calder
Indexed by Sherri Pettit

related reading:

The Plum Hollow Witch 101 – Mother Barnes

We Know About the Witch of Plum Hollow — But Have you Heard About Mother Lajeunesse?

Mother Barnes– The Colonel’s Daughter in Plum Hollow

An Interview with the Witch of Plum Hollow–Mother Barnes— The Ottawa Free Press 1891

The Witch of Plum Hollow and the Blacksmith

My Grandmother was Mother Barnes-The Witch of Plum Hollow

A Bewitched Bed in Odessa

The Witch of Plum Hollow – Carleton Place Grandmother

Plum Hollow Witch and The Mountain Man of Pakenham

Different Seasons of Witches in Lanark County

Local Miracle Story– Woken From a Ten Week Coma

The White Witch of Lanark County–Having the Sight

The Witches of Rochester Street

Hocus Pocus –Necromancy at Fitch Bay

The Witch of Plum Hollow – Carleton Place Grandmother

The Witch Hollow of Lanark County

When Mother Barnes Made a Mistake? Beckwith 6th Line

The Witch of Plum Hollow Files- An Evening in Smiths Falls

Mother Barnes and the Missing Money of South March

The Evil Eye of Lanark County

 

 

August, 1929

A pretty bride recently went to the Perth Court and asked for a separation, charging that her husband believed she possessed the “evil eye” and could bewitch him. In the enlightened year of 1929, and in the civilized village of Lanark,  the pretty young wife told the judge that her husband believed her eyes could exert an evil power over him.

When, the amazed judge heard the Mrs. tell how she was forced by her husband to go to a witch in order to be “exorcised,” he granted the separation. In doing so he made this final comment: “It seems strange in this day that such a matter should be in litigation or that such testimony could be heard from the lips of witnesses”. But, strange as the case was, investigation later disclosed there had been many others, in the area wherein witchcraft and the “evil eye” played an important part. I would think we should have just labelled that “Lanark County Gossip”.

These cases usually involved immigrants or their descendants who still retained . superstitions and beliefs in magic. Even more amazing was the revelation that such superstition ascribed to a lack of education or undeveloped mentalities.

But until this woman went into court there was no suspicion that faith in witchcraft was so widespread. The witch was supposed to have passed out of the realm of belief after the Salem persecutions.

Her husband said that unless he was freed from the evil influence he would die and his wife would be to blame. A month after their marriage, she said, the husband forced her to go to live with a “witch” in order to be exorcised.

Authorities were jolted when the wife asked for a separation from her husband, charging him with cruelty because, she said, he regarded her, not as his wife, but as a witch. She told the astonished Court that her young husband, here nine years from Italy, had accused her of having bewitched him, his family and his house.

Four days after their marriage, she testified,  her husband accused her of having bewitched him with her evil eye into marriage. Coincidentally enough, she had, indeed a cast in the left eye. “My husband,” she said in court, “was continually pointing his finger at me.”

The defendant denied the charge about witchcraft, but had apparently was taken seriously by some in the community of persons among whom they live. The defendant said that if the woman whom they visited was a witch doctor he did not know it until the plaintiff’s affidavits were served on the motion for temporary alimony.

She had sustained her burden of proof, and that the charges, under the circumstances, were so cruel as to make it impossible for them to live together any longer. This case was all the more remarkable because of the otherwise high intelligence of those concerned. But authorities later discovered that fear of the evil eye prevailed among many “intelligent” people living in Lanark County.

 

 

Clipped from

1. Akron Daily Democrat,
2. 05 Oct 1894, Fri,
3. Page 3Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun andScreamin’ Mamas (USA)

   

   The Witches Handcuffs

4. Ancestor of Salem –Rochester Street Witch

   The Witches and Spirit Communicators of Montague

   Plum Hollow Witch and The Mountain Man of Pakenham

   An Interview with the Witch of Plum Hollow–Mother Barnes— The Ottawa Free Press 1891

   My Grandmother was Mother Barnes-The Witch of Plum Hollow

   A Bewitched Bed in Odessa

   The Witch of Plum Hollow – Carleton Place Grandmother

   Different Seasons of Witches in Lanark County

   Local Miracle Story– Woken From a Ten Week Coma

   The White Witch of Lanark County–Having the Sight

   The Devil’s Telephone? The Ouija Board

The Witches Handcuffs

 

 

An odd thing in the way of a family heirloom was brought here a few days ago by a woman who came to spend the holidays with relatives. It was a pair of handcuffs said to have been used in confining an ancestor of hers who was put in jail in Salem, Massachusetts during the witchcraft persecutions in the latter part of the seventeenth century.

The elderly woman was proud of her descent from early Massachusetts ancestors and she was not at all ashamed that one of them was persecuted as a witch. “As far as I have ever been able to learn,” she said, “the only thing against my ancestor was that she was hump-backed and had a wart on the end of her nose”. Of course this did not make her a beautiful woman to look at, but neither did it make her a friend of the Devil. Yet she was charged with being a witch and was confined for several weeks in the Salem jail.  

A number of others who were also charged with witchcraft were executed, but she escaped with a few weeks imprisonment. The handcuffs had been in her family for several generations and the family was rather proud of them. They were rudely constructed of wood, bound together by iron clamps with a padlock attached. The key had long been lost but the whole thing showed evidence of use.

I found it sad that the little humpbacked woman with a wart on her nose did not keep a journal and tell what the handcuffs did for her. At present they were simply mute reminders of an era which, however, we may laugh at it now, was once very real.

Among the interesting things which witches, with the assistance of the Devil, were supposed to do were not only to foretell events but to raise storms, etc., to change themselves into cats and other beasts. At their supposed annual general meetings they were said to come long distances riding on broomsticks, pokers, goats, hogs, etc. The Devil always presided at these meetings.

As to the power of witches, renowned New England Puritan minister *Cotton Mather said: “They are the doors of strange things. They cannot indeed perform any proper miracles;  those are things to he done only by the favourites and ambassadors of the Lord.”

 

 

Cotton Mather
Written By Rachel Walker CLICK HERE

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place and The Tales of Almonte

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun  Screamin’ Mamas (USA)  and The Sherbrooke Record

Ancestor of Salem –Rochester Street Witch

The Witches and Spirit Communicators of Montague

Plum Hollow Witch and The Mountain Man of Pakenham

An Interview with the Witch of Plum Hollow–Mother Barnes— The Ottawa Free Press 1891

My Grandmother was Mother Barnes-The Witch of Plum Hollow

A Bewitched Bed in Odessa

The Witch of Plum Hollow – Carleton Place Grandmother

Different Seasons of Witches in Lanark County

Local Miracle Story– Woken From a Ten Week Coma

The White Witch of Lanark County–Having the Sight

The Devil’s Telephone? The Ouija Board

The Witches and Spirit Communicators of Montague

Like Pakenham witches were said to be afoot in Montague Township. Apparently they were depriving the locals of their milk and butter in the summer, and god forbid they sucked off the maple sap in the Spring. Some of the farmers would boil and boil and not get one ounce of sugar from it and of course blame it on some of the mysterious women folk living near them.

Stories of seeing a man turn into snake near a Methodist praying site were the talk of the area.  It was said that once he gazed into a woman’s eyes and she was lifted up and transported to Perth. Unlike the transporters of Star Trek she was supposedly whisked over the fields through the air. No word if she took the short or longer way.

At an early date there lived in the vicinity of Kilmarnock, on the north side of the Rideau River, a man by the name of Croutch, who claimed to have the gift of foresight. Many old and respected settlers believed implicitly that he received warnings of the approaching death of any person who resided in the settlement. According to the testimony of his wife, who bore the reputation of being a Christian woman, Croutch would frequently retire to bed, where in vain he would seek slumber; restless and uneasy, he would toss from side to side, at times groaning and muttering names of the departed. Do what he would to shake off the mysterious spell, in the end he was compelled to submit.

Rising, he would quickly dress himself, take his canoe and paddle across the river, where he declared he always found waiting a specteral funeral procession, which he would follow to the grave yard, where all the rites and ceremonies would be performed. Croutch having watched the ghostly mourners fade away would then return home would retire to rest and sink into a profound slumber.

It was always with the greatest difficulty that Mrs. Croutch could ever elicit from her husband the name of the party, whose death had been heralded. It is related of the late Samuel Rose that upon one occasion he was in the company of Croutch, in crossing a common both saw a light. Croutch exclaimed, Did you hear that cry ? No, replied Mr. Rose. Oh, said the fatalist, it was the cry of a child, the name of which he gave and in a few days the child breathed its last.

Upon another occasion he predicted the death of a man named Mclntyre. Colonel Hurd, of Burritt’s Rapids, informs us that he knew Croutch and that far and wide and that he was regarded with terror by the children, who had learned from their parents his supposed power of communing with the spirits of the departed.–From “History of Leeds & Grenville” by Thad. W.H. Leavitt, Recorder Press, Brockville, 1879, page 88 There is no doubt that Croutch became a legend in the township of Montague and he decided to leave the area in 1811, but the tales of Isiah Croutch were talked about for years.

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place and The Tales of Almonte

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun  Screamin’ Mamas (USA)  and The Sherbrooke Record

Different Seasons of Witches in Lanark County

Hocus Pocus –Necromancy at Fitch Bay

The Witch Hollow of Lanark County

An Interview with the Witch of Plum Hollow–Mother Barnes— The Ottawa Free Press 1891

My Grandmother was Mother Barnes-The Witch of Plum Hollow

A Bewitched Bed in Odessa

The Witch of Plum Hollow – Carleton Place Grandmother

Plum Hollow Witch and The Mountain Man of Pakenham

Different Seasons of Witches in Lanark County

Local Miracle Story– Woken From a Ten Week Coma

The White Witch of Lanark County–Having the Sight

Barnes Buchanans and McCarten Family Photos–Doug B. McCarten

The Witches of Rochester Street

Hocus Pocus –Necromancy at Fitch Bay

The Witch of Plum Hollow – Carleton Place Grandmother

The Witch Hollow of Lanark County

The McCarten House of Carleton Place

Who was Mother Barnes? Find Out About the Witch of Plum Hollow April 7

 

Reenactor Elaine Farley

 

                         Who Was Mother Barnes??

 

 

Reenactor Elaine Farley presents—Who was Mother Barnes?? Beckwith Township Municipal Complex-Lanark County Genealogical Society–April 7 MONTHLY GATHERING- 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm. ONLY 100 SEATS Available!!!

Elaine Farley will highlight research about local legend Elizabeth Barnes the Witch of Plum Hollow and debunk some myths about her.

 

Clipped from Vancouver Daily World, 18 Oct 1889, Fri, Page 1

 

Elaine Farley photo and text “Mother Barnes lived in this area and was known as a “seeer”. Her log cabin is privately owned in Sheldon’s Corners/Plum Hollow”

 

                              Where?

Beckwith Township Municipal Complex–ONLY 100 SEATS Available!!!

1702 9th Line Beckwith Carleton Place April 7 MONTHLY GATHERING

1:30-3:30

Appreciated to help cover the cost of refreshments at the meeting or  help cover the cost of this event.

 

All are welcome—a five dollar donation is appreciated

 

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun andScreamin’ Mamas (USA)

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

 

An Interview with the Witch of Plum Hollow–Mother Barnes— The Ottawa Free Press 1891

My Grandmother was Mother Barnes-The Witch of Plum Hollow

A Bewitched Bed in Odessa

The Witch of Plum Hollow – Carleton Place Grandmother

Different Seasons of Witches in Lanark County

 

The Witches of Rochester Street

Hocus Pocus –Necromancy at Fitch Bay

The Witch of Plum Hollow – Carleton Place Grandmother

The Witch Hollow of Lanark County

 

If the Family Bible Spins Three Times… You’d Better Run!

 

I have written about the Vampires in Wilno, the Witch of Plum Hollow, and let’s not forget the poor gal in Pakenham being garnished up to burn in the middle of town as no one could seem to churn butter. By the 1870s most of these folkloric tales from the highlands had disappeared, but Reverend Bell kept reminding them that witches or ghosts seen in Lanark County were always floating around in the old country– so in all honesty, no more fretting in Beckwith—just get on with it.

I think that was one reason the settlers held on to the St Fillans Crozier for so long in Beckwith (until the 1840s) as they deemed it to be powerful over any local witch who might pollute their water or god forbid- slow down the sap. Let’s not forget all those family bibles that were left on the table during times of toil and trouble, and if that bible spun around three times while someone was about– well, god help you.

In the 1840s and 1850 the Carleton Place Herald went on the warpath and held in “print contempt” those who still believed in the evil eye and witchcraft. In 1856 a young woman’s hacked up body was found in the depths of the Rideau River and James Stewart of the 7th line of Beckwith was arrested for her murder. James Poole editor of the Carleton Place Herald, not known for his quiet demeanour nor candour went off the hook that the local Sheriff had dared consulted the Witch of Plum Hollow about the case. Poole could not understand why a witch would be more powerful or know more than the local sheriff about a local murderer.

Similar to Pakenham, butter wasn’t churning at various times in Beckwith and Carleton Place and farmers would get rid of their cows and replace them with sheep as they were sure their aging neighbour put a hex on their livestock. There was big business in charms and hex removals in Lanark County in that era, all because they brought their ways with them from the old country. It got so bad that Beckwith began a bylaw for the preservation of public morals. Slowly they got rid of their superstitions except probably the one for getting rid of warts. That my friends, is still something that carries on to this day.

They say when you get rid of one thing people transfer their troubles to something else, and that they did. Religion and whatever church you attended to keep the bad morals out came next. Stories of the famous donnybrooks among the Presbyterians and Anglicans in Carleton Place made front page news. Pigs were thrown through the St. James Anglican window (open I hope) in August of 1852 with one Carleton Place resident deeming the town of Carleton Place as nothing but colonies of rats. Rats? Here is a fact for you– rats multiply so quickly, that in 18 months two rats could have over a million descendants. Now, there is genealogy for you.

 

With research files from Beckwith- Glenn Lockwood

 

Ted Hurdis— If you can get an ” unbeliever ” to buy your wart it will disappear from you to them !! True story 

 

 

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun and Screamin’ Mamas (USA)

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

Importing Vampires into Wilno

 

What I Did on Beckwith Heritage Days – Alexander Stewart – Ballygiblin Heroe

Different Seasons of Witches in Lanark County

The Witches of Rochester Street

Ancestor of Salem –Rochester Street Witch

Hocus Pocus –Necromancy at Fitch Bay

The Witch of Plum Hollow – Carleton Place Grandmother

Plum Hollow Witch and The Mountain Man of Pakenham

An Interview with the Witch of Plum Hollow–Mother Barnes— The Ottawa Free Press 1891

My Grandmother was Mother Barnes-The Witch of Plum Hollow

A Bewitched Bed in Odessa

Local Miracle Story– Woken From a Ten Week Coma

The White Witch of Lanark County–Having the Sight

The Witch Hollow of Lanark County

Ancestor of Salem –Rochester Street Witch

 

 

 

This is an update to the The Witches of Rochester Street

 

Want to attract a ghost? There is a well known method that worked for the Victorians and still works today. Simply buy an old house, add a vivid imagination and watch things happen.

Really?

They say on Rochester Street in Carleton Place there is a home that pots, pans, kettles, and logs once flew about the rooms. In the late 1800s the ghosts were exorcised by a local clergy and also by a local medicine man for good measure. In later years when a former American bought the house he nailed a horseshoe to the front door, but this gentleman spent more time in the gaol than he did at his home so nothing out of the ordinary was spotted. In his later years small fires broke out in his stove and the pots and pans began to fly, so cooking became out of the question.

By this time they were convinced they were victims of a spell cast by a witch. Their youngest granddaughter in their care was sent off and the household went back to normal. Months later she returned, and things began to fly again and the granddaughter retorted that the ghosts didn’t like her Grandfather.

 

Former opera Hall –This woman (and tractor) are posing in front of the stone building at the corner of Bridge and William Streets – once the Opera House, a mica factory, and later, Brewer’s Retail. A mica-splitting industry of the General Electric Company was being carried on in J. R. McDiarmid’s Newman Hall in 1906 at the corner of Bridge and William Streets. Photo- Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum

 

 

Sensing a way to make money he rented out Pattie’s Opera Hall advertising his Granddaughter and her gifts. The place was crowded that evening and his granddaughter showed up, but the ghosts did not. Wisely after that fiasco he kept to himself and the family grew accustomed to the daily shenanigans although it was still unnerving when a plate fell off the rack, or a door slammed for no apparent reason.

The family never realized their great great granddaughter was an ancestor of a witch they were never able to burn in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem was going through a rough patch and refugees flooded into the town following England’s war with France on American soil. The war displaced many people living in New York, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, and the extra mouths to feed in Salem put a strain on the town’s resources. This, in turn, stretched the division between Salem’s rich and poor, causing heated arguments which the local Puritans blamed on the Devil.

Even though three suspected witches were put away, the people of Salem became paranoid. In a fit of mass hysteria- and probably a dash of simply taking advantage of the situation to get rid of enemies- fingers were being pointed at supposed witches left and right, even for the mildest of offences. When the hunt ended, some 200 people had been accused of witchcraft. However, only 20 people were executed, and years later one of the witch’s ancestors became known as one of the Witches of Rochester Street, which story later came to folkloric fame in Carleton Place.

Believe it or not!

 

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun and Screamin’ Mamas (USA)

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

 

Coffee Talk– Coolidge’s Penny Candy and Rochester Street– For Tom Edwards

Winter —Rochester Street Looking North– Before and After

My—- How House Values Have Changed in Carleton Place —- 10 Rochester Street

The Witches of Rochester Street

Plum Hollow Witch and The Mountain Man of Pakenham

An Interview with the Witch of Plum Hollow–Mother Barnes— The Ottawa Free Press 1891

My Grandmother was Mother Barnes-The Witch of Plum Hollow

A Bewitched Bed in Odessa

The Witch of Plum Hollow – Carleton Place Grandmother

Different Seasons of Witches in Lanark County

Local Miracle Story– Woken From a Ten Week Coma

The White Witch of Lanark County–Having the Sight

 

 

 

Friday October the 13th– 6:30.. meet in front of the old Leland Hotel on Bridge Street (Scott Reid’s office) and enjoy a one hour Bridge Street walk with stories of murder mayhem and Believe it or Not!!. Some tales might not be appropriate for young ears. FREE!–

 

 

Here we go Carleton Place– Mark Your Calendars–
Friday October the 13th– 6:30.. meet in front of the old Leland Hotel on Bridge Street (Scott Reid’s office) and enjoy a one hour Bridge Street walk with stories of murder mayhem and Believe it or Not!!. Some tales might not be appropriate for young ears. FREE!–

Join us and learn about the history under your feet! This year’s St. James Cemetery Walk will take place Thursday October 19th and october 21– Museum Curator Jennfer Irwin will lead you through the gravestones and introduce you to some of our most memorable lost souls!
Be ready for a few surprises along the way….
This walk takes place in the dark on uneven ground. Please wear proper footwear and bring a small flashlight if you like.
Tickets available at the Museum, 267 Edmund Street. Two dates!!!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1211329495678960/

OCT 28th
Downtown Carleton Place Halloween Trick or Treat Day–https://www.facebook.com/events/489742168060479/