“TheWitch-Girl and The Wobbly” is inspired by the legends of a people
known as Pondshiners or Bushwhackers who lived in isolation for many
generations in the wooded hills surrounding what is now called Lake
Taghanic. They kept to themselves, growing a few crops in the rocky
mountain hollows, working from time to time for nearby farmers, and
producing for sale a beautiful and unique kind of basket which is now
highly prized by collectors. (Published in 2021 Running Wild Press Novella Anthology)
The Pondshiner community was located
in what is now Lake Taghanic State Park
The
Taghanic basketmakers were similar in some ways to other isolate
cultures such as the Eagles Nesters near Kingston, the Sloughters of
Schoharie and the better-known Melungeons of the southern
Appalachins, all of whose origins are shrouded in myth. When the
Taghanic people came to public attention through a series of
sensationalized articles by Frederic Van de Water in the 1920s, no
one knew how long they had lived apart from the surrounding culture.
Perhaps they had fled oppressive landlords during the anti-rent wars
of the 1840s. Perhaps, as Van de Water thought, they had been up on
“the Hill” for centuries. Some traced their skill at basketry to
Mohican influences.
What
is clear is that their small society was devastated by the influenza
epidemic of 1919, when this tale is set. The narrator, Tom Ryan, was
a boy during the Little Falls Textile Strike of 1913 and dreams of an
activist life as a “wobbly,” as members of the International
Workers of the World were called. Arriving in New York City just as
the war is ending, he pays little heed to the flu epidemic and is
more directly affected by the Red Scare which targeted the radicals,
like Carlo Tresca and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, whom he idolizes.
Accepting a job with a new union, he arrives in Stottville,
determined to organize the Julliard mills. Things go badly and in his
flight from arrest, Tom stumbles into the forest world of the
Pondshiners.
Old Yet and Mattie Hotaling,
from Carl Carmer's "Great River of the Mountains"
Those
who prefer their history straight may take exception to my depiction
of what might be called wiccan beliefs among the Pondshiners.
However, I believe there is ample evidence for a persistent belief in
magic and witches in
this isolate culture.
Carl Carmer in his 1939 book,
The Hudson,
devotes a chapter
entitled "Witches Make Star Tracks" to the supernatural
beliefs of the Pondshiners and similar Hudsom
Valley groups.
According to him, a belief in witches, and fear of their powers, was
universal among the Pondshiners.
Crosswell Bowen
in his
1941 photographic study,
Great
River of the Mountains, said
that “Most of them cannot read but they tell strange stories which
echo of the middle ages” and “their world is peopled with goblins
and spooks and omens.”
Considering
the frenzy of witch-hunting on the other side of the Berkshire Hills
in the 1600s, it is conceivable that a few believers in the old ways
might have fled to safety beyond the reach of the Puritan
inquisitors. And perhaps a young radical might fall in love in 1919
with a girl who shared those ancient beliefs, and who possessed
powers which his materialist philosophy could not explain.
An
except from “The Witch-Girl and the Wobbly”
“It's when the Goddess fill your heart and show you the
right path to take.”
“The Goddess?”
“Mama tol' me all about Her.” She looked anxious for a
moment. “She said I was never to tell anyone from outside the Hill
but I guess it's all right telling you 'cause we're...”
“Because we're in love.” I touched her face and she
nodded.
“Mama said that the bad Bible folk called anybody with the
light from the Goddess was witches.” She kept looking into the
forest as she spoke. “That's why they hanged the mama of the first
Brother and Sister and they had to run away and live up here on the
Hill with the Red People. And Mama said that the gals in our family
could always get a light from the Goddess when things are real dark.”
“Like now?”
“Yea, like now.” She looked troubled. “Only I don't have
no light now.”
“I think it will come to you, Lizbeth, and you'll know the
right path to take.”
“Do you think so?”
“Yes, I do. But that path might have to take you away from
this Hill.”
"The Witch Girl and The Wobbly" is available on Kindle for 99 cents.
and is in paperback as "the Lost People" in the collection, A Good Catholic Girl and other Tales.
and is in paperback as "the Lost People" in the collection, A Good Catholic Girl and other Tales.