The following is an excerpt from the book, _Alex Stewart, . . Pioneer_ . The subject is stories of witches and witchcraft. We can discuss it within the limits of the List mission. i.e. The history, culture and traditions of our SW VA ancestors. Any discussion of the truthfulness of the story should be limited and narrow. I think like stories with origin in 18th century SW VA would be o.k. Anything involving ancestors would be good if it promotes the List mission. It is a great story and sounds like what might be told on a cold winter night in a log cabin the SW VA hills while the family is gathered around the fireplace trying to stay warm. PLEASE don't click REPLY and write a reply to me. It ain't my job to hold private debates with each member. If in doubt go back and read the List welcome statement and policy. Again, I recommend this book. It is great and has told me more about pioneer SW VA & E. TN. than any I of have read. I am 3/4 finished and will be posting more brief excerpt later. NO COMMENTS FROM HUSBANDS WHO HAVE LIKE "suspicioned" . WITCHES OF SW VA I don't know whether or not witches ever existed, but after hearing Alex tell about them, I'm certain of one thing. If they ever did exist, they did so on Newman's Ridge in and around Grandpap Stewart's place. You told me a story once about an old man who ran a corn mill whose wife turned out to be a witch. How did that go? "That was old Spot Collins. He lived about four or five miles from here over on Blackwater and he put up the first gristmill that was ever in this community. Back then they didn't understand gearing them up to where the stones would turn fast. They went awful slow and it would take two or three hours to grind a turn of corn. They had to run night and day to do any good. "Old man Spot Collins had four girls: Doshia, Laurie, Keary, and Cary. They run the mill during the day and he had a feller to come in about bedtime to run the mill all night. "Spot went down there one morning early to take the miller his breakfast and he was dead. There wasn't much said about it except that he died there, suddenly. After a while Spot hired another feller to run the mill of a night, and it wasn't long before they found him dead too. After that Spot suspicioned something. "About that time there was an old circuit riding Methodist preacher that come by and held a meeting at Spot's house. They wasn't no churches back then and they would just meet in people's houses. Well that old preacher, he wore a long scissortail coat. He stayed there several days and preached of a night. "Spot got to telling him about what had happened and that he couldn't get anybody to run the mill at night. Everybody was afraid. People was needing their corn ground to make bread, and so that old preacher agreed to run the mill a few nights till Spot could find somebody. "He went down there the first night and started the mill up. It was powered by one of them old wooden waterwheels. He poured the hopper full of corn and set down on an old wooden bench to read his Bible while the corn ground. I've set on that bench a thousand times, I guess, waiting for my turn of corn to be ground. He set there a few minutes reading his Bible and here come a cat. He had the mill locked so tight that a rat couldn't get in and he didn't know how it got in. The cat come up and rubbed around his leg and meowed, and he spoke to it, and asked it to have a seat. It jumped up on the bench and laid down with the old preacher. He went on reading his Bible and in a little while, here come another cat and done the same way. Laid down beside him. "The preacher carried a great big hunting knife all the time, and he had it laying beside him. He'd heard the tales about the other two men dying and he didn't know what might happen. All of a sudden them two cats made a lunge at his throat and he grabbed that knife and struck at one and cut its foot off and it fell to the floor. He looked down at it and it was a woman's hand with a gold ring on one of the fingers. "The next morning Spot got up early and told his wife to get up and get them some breakfast while he went down to get the preacher. She said she'd get up in a minute and he went on down to the mill. He asked the preacher how he got along and he said: 'All right. I just had one little racket. Two cats jumped on me and I struck and cut off a foot from one of them. That's it laying over there.' "Spot went over and looked and he said, 'That's my wife's hand. That's the ring I bought for her when we got married. "They shut the mill down and went on up to the house to get breakfast. Spot's wife was still in bed. He told her again to get up and she said, 'I feel bad. I'll get up directly.' He said, 'Yah, you low-down bitch you.' Said, 'I've been thinking you was a witch for a long time, and now I know it.' He said, 'Here's your hand. You get out of here and never come back.' Made her leave before breakfast. "A lot of people say that it don't look like it could be true. But Grandpap Stewart said it was the truth." -eddie