With Halloween on the horizon, I decided to do a little research into witchcraft to see if there were any tales to tell. I found out there was actually a witch trial in Kittery in 1725. Sarah Keene, who lived in the Spruce Creek area of that town, was charged with witchcraft by a neighbor named John Spinney. She prevailed in the case and Spinney was later found guilty of slander.

But Spinney didn’t stop there. Determined to prove himself right, he enlisted 13 witnesses to testify against Sarah Keene. Spinney claimed that Keene had changed him into a horse one day and rode him toward the east. Others claimed she was capable of shape-shifting, could cause fire storms in her kitchen and that she had bewitched her own daughter.

As outrageous as these claims may sound, many people believed them, and not just poor, ignorant people either. Some educated people in most communities throughout Maine, New Marblehead included, believed there were witches in their midst.

Generally, it was elderly women who were marked with the brand of “witch.” It was believed that with the aid of the devil, these old ladies could control sickness, create unusual weather events, or charm money from secret hiding places. Some thought the women would use a witch’s bridle to make their victims do whatever they wished.

Because the superstitions were so strong, people would often use charms to ward off evil spirits. Shoes hidden in roof rafters were said to protect the house’s inhabitants from the wiles of a witch. Witches balls made of brightly colored glass and filled with holy water were hung in some windows for added protection against a witch’s spells. Since many old wive’s tales indicated that witches were repelled by salt, salt was kept on hand as an evil repellent. There were also verbal spells, phrases and prayers used to keep evil away and some people wore amulets for extra protection.

I was only able to find one story about a witch in Windham that was told by town historian Samuel T. Dole. Dole had acquired a few such stories in his day. This one was written down by his son Frederick H. Dole in his book, “A History of Windham Maine.” It’s titled “The Enchanted Butter Churn.” The story goes like this:

There was a well-to-do farmer living in the early days of Windham whose neighbor’s wife was thought to be a witch. She was feared by many in the community because of the occult powers it was believed that she possessed.

One day, the farmer got up early so he could take some corn to a local mill to be ground and still have time to get some farming in later in the day. Before he left home, he helped his wife in the churning of some butter and they had it nearly set when he took off for the mill.

The way to the mill took him past the property where the “witch” resided. Upon seeing that he was heading to the mill, the old woman came out of her house and asked the farmer if he would wait while she filled a bag with some corn. She asked him to take her bag with him to be ground, but being in a hurry, the farmer refused.

The “witch” did not take kindly to this. She raised an old skinny finger to his face and screamed, “You will pay for this, man!” When the farmer got to the mill, he was dismayed to see that there was already a line forming to have corn ground and he waited for most of the day before he got to the head of the line. The farmer cursed the witch for his misfortune.

When he returned home at the end of the day, the farmer found his wife still churning butter. She explained that the butter had never gathered in the morning and had turned back to cream. Believing this to also be the work of the neighborhood witch, the farmer enlisted a charm to break the spell. He heated an old horseshoe until it was blazing red and put it into the churn. Within five minutes, the butter was good and solid and the evil was gone from the churn. The farmer was even more delighted the next day when he saw the old woman’s hand wrapped in a cloth. Obviously, she had been burned by the hot horseshoe that had broken the spell.

It’s doubtful that the woman was actually a witch, and the wounded hand was probably just a coincidence, but the farmer was convinced the whole incident was the work of witchcraft and he had taught the evil hag a lesson. What do you think? Do witches exist or are they just figments of our imaginations? Whatever you think, you’ll be seeing plenty of them in a few days.

Happy Halloween to all.

Haley Pal is a Windham resident and active member of the Windham Historical Society. She can be reached at haleypal@aol.com.

The image of witches being ugly, old hags comes from early beliefs that many witches were elderly women.

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