"Witching" for water. In the account of some of my experiences with Old Red the mule; I mentioned us transporting our water from a well about 1/4 mile from where we lived. Actually there were about seven other neighbor families within 1/2 mile of the well who got theri water from there. Now, the 80 acres that Grandpa King leased; the house was located in the NE corner of the property next to the road which ran north and south along the east side. The house was on top of a hill and to the west was a 5-10 acre peach orchard. Late in the spring of 1939, while we were living in the tent, Grandpa, Dad, and my brother Donal were out in the orchard when Donal asked Dad: "Dad, how does Grandpa Sackett witch for water?" (Grandpa Sackett was called upon by his neighbors in Titus Co., TX to help them determine where to dig their wells because he was able to "witch" or "douse" for water.) Dad replied; "I'm not sure how he does it. But I'll show you what I have seen him do. He uses a forked branch from a fruit tree, like these peach trees." Dad then cut one of the newer forked branches (a "Y") from a peach tree and showed Donal how Grandpa Sackett would hold the branch (The forked branch was inverted with a tip held in each hand in such a way that it would not lean forward) and started walking across the orchard. Before he had gotten very far the branch started leaning forward and after a short distance it was pointing straight down. Dad marked the spot and with the branch back in the upright position continued north across the orchard. And nothing happened. He then turned around and started back going south across the orchard and soon the branch started leaning again and was pointing straight down ... at the same spot Dad had marked ! He then proceed on south across the orchard and into the field south of the orchard. And nothing happened. To "make a long story short;" Dad walked back and forth in the orchard; working his way toward the house, marking where the branch reached the downward position. During this process he began to notice that there seemed to be a consistancy in the distance between where the branch began to lean and when it was straight down. It ranged from 19-22 feet. I was with Grandma in her flower garden when we saw the three of them walking back and forth in the orchard and by then they all three had branches in their hands. The line they had marked out, which they had decided must be a "vein" of water about 20 feet down, passed about 40 feet north of the house. Well, with there being no employment for Dad at that time, he and Grandpa decided it was worth testing their theory that there was a vein of water down there. So they started digging. When they got 20 feet down they hid solid rock and decided that the water must be just below the rock. So, using a star drill and a hammer they drilled a hole in the rock and within a foot the hole was through the rock. But no water came out. So they decided to blast the rock with dynamite. When Dad was ready to blast we were all told to stay in the house, or to get well away from the "well." So I went to the tent which was about 150 yards from the "well." When the dynamite went off I saw a large chunk of rock come out of the well and landed in a thicket between the "well" and where I was at the tent. (We didn't find this chunk of rock until later in the summer.) The noise from the blast was so loud that it scared Mother and Grandma and they "laid down the law": NO MORE BLASTING !!! When the dust had cleared there was now a hole about 1 1/2 - 2 feet in dia. through the rock. But no water. They excavated some of the material from under the rock and as far as they could reach in all directions from the opening in the rock. Still no water. So the "well" was forgotten and the neighbors had a laugh at Dad and Grandpa "diggin' a well on top of the hill." In the fall of that year, Dad got a job with the Batsons back near town and we moved into the house where we lived when Dad became "The Ghost in Marietta Cemetery". The next spring, Grandpa came by our house to get Donal to come down to his place and help him "bail out" the well ! Water had come into the well and was up within 8-10 feet of the surface. But before the water had come in there had been some rodents that had fallen into the hole and perished. And that didn't make the water very desirable. Drawing the water out of the well took them several hours because fresh water kept coming into the well fast enough that if they stopped for very long the water level would gain back. Grandpa said that the water was coming into the well from under the rock on the north side of the hole they had blasted through the rock. So then, Dad had missed the water vein by about 2 feet. But Dad and Grandpa had the "last laugh" on the neighbors; because they ended up hauling their water from Grandpa's well ... Up on top of the hill. Thurmon