Ohio History Journal

OHIO'S ONLY WITCHCRAFT CASE

 

BY ALBERT DOUGLAS

The following report of a quaint and amusing case,

tried some one hundred years ago in Gallia County, was

originally published in the Scioto Gazette, of Chillicothe.

The young lawyers who opposed one another in the trial

afterwards became distinguished in the legal and po-

litical annals of Ohio.

Samuel F. Vinton, the then Prosecuting Attorney of

Gallia County, was born of Revolutionary stock at Lynn,

Massachusetts, September 25, 1792; was graduated at

Williams College, 1814; admitted to the bar of Connec-

ticut, 1816; came west soon after and located at Gal-

lipolis. In 1824, the year after this trial, he was elected

to Congress as a Whig, and served there with much dis-

tinction for fourteen years. Meanwhile he continued to

practice his profession with ever increasing prestige.

His argument in the case which determined the boun-

dary between Ohio and Virginia is a monument to his

legal learning. In 1851 he was the Whig candidate

for Governor. In 1854 he removed to Washington,

D. C., and died there in 1862.

Richard Douglas, also of Revolutionary parentage,

was born at New London, Connecticut, September 10,

1785, and died at his home in Chillicothe, 1852. Some

account of his life and characteristics appeared in the

July number, 1913, of the QUARTERLY, in connection

with the quaint and forceful speech he delivered before

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the great Whig convention of February 22, 1836, at

Columbus.

Senator Thomas Ewing was the first Secretary of

the Interior, a department created by a bill introduced

in Congress by Vinton. Ewing in his Diary, published in

the QUARTERLY January, 1913, speaks of Vinton as "a

wise, sagacious statesman, almost unerring in his per-

ception of right *  *  * with a large control over

the mind of those with whom he acted;" and of "Dick

Douglas our wit par excellence."

 

IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS FOR

GALLIA COUNTY.

MAY TERM, 1823.

State of Ohio vs. Abigail Church.

The defendant was indicted under the tenth section of the

act for the punishment of certain offenses therein specified; for

that she, under the false pretense of foreknowing future events,

and of telling the fortune of George Badgley, did obtain from

said George twenty-five cents, with intent him, the said George

Badgley, to cheat and defraud.

Plea, "Not guilty."

Vinton, for the prosecution; Douglas, for the defendant.

George Badgley stated that he had heard of the reputation

of Mrs. Church in the neighborhood, for telling fortunes, and

had understood her common charge to be twenty-five cents;

that with a view of getting his fortune told, he went to her

house; that she sat beside him, and after shuffling some cards,

uttering some mystical words, and examining closely the palm of

his hand, commenced the thread of his fortune, and ran through

the whole tale of his life; that he paid her twenty-five cents

willingly, came away well pleased, and was perfectly satisfied;

that much of what she told him was true, but sufficient time

had not elapsed to determine as to all. The defendant's counsel

wish the witness to relate all that she did tell him, but this,

from delicate motives, he declined, and the court and counsel

forbore to press it; but it was plain, from the manner of the

witness, "a bonnie braw laddie," that it was concerning an af-

fair of a very tender nature. Witness believed, from report,

that much of what the defendant was in the habit of telling

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Ohio's Only Witchcraft Case          207

actually came to pass; and that her reputation stood high in

the neighborhood as a correct fortune-teller.

Jesse Dutton stated he used the employment of a boatman

up and down the Ohio river; that he had lost his pocket-book,

containing all his bills and most valuable papers; that, after a

long and useless search, he was advised to apply to the de-

fendant; that, after going through the ceremonies of dark say-

ings, anxious looks and shuffling of cards, she told him that he

might rest perfectly assured that neither his pocketbook, nor any

of its contents would be eventually lost to him, although some

time must necesarily elapse before he could possibly obtain it;

but that within certain dates a very dark complexioned man, or

negro, would bring him the pocket-book with its contents; that

he willingly paid the usual fee of twenty-five cents and retired.

Witness stated that, within the period mentioned, a NEGRO

MAN came to him with the pocket-book, containing all he had

lost. As to whether any disturbances had been created by

reason of her doings, he stated he had once heard that she fore-

told a dark complexioned man on Chickamauga would cheat

and defraud his neighbors; and that a person who suspected

that himself was intended, had manifested some ill blood upon

the occasion.

General Holcomb was called as to the character of the

defendant, and her setting "folks together by the ears" in the

neighborhood. The General stated that he lived a near neigh-

bor to Mrs. Church; that she was an industrious woman; that

her husband was an old revolutionary soldier, and that what

she obtained, together with his pension, afforded a subsistence

for themselves and family; that he had heard much of her

telling fortunes, and believed her house was the full resort of

both Nymphs and Swains of the country round, to get their

fortunes told; that he had seen and conversed with many of

them; that all were pleased, and many highly delighted with

the tender tales of love she had told them; that he knew of no

disturbances in the neighborhood by reason of what she had

told; he once, however, met a company of young men return-

ing from defendant's house, and one was swearing that his

money was as good as any one's else; that he had been waiting

a long time, but now had to return home many miles, and wait

three or four days longer before it would come to his turn.

Witness had conversed with the defendant upon the subject

of her practice; she always told him that whether or not she

could tell fortunes, she did not know; but if people would have

it that she could, and would flock to her house for the purpose,

she could not afford to lose her time for nothing, and thought

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twenty-five cents but a reasonable compensation; she had, how-

ever, adopted one invariable rule: never to take money from

either children or old fools.

The defendant offered no testimony.

Mr. Vinton, for the prosecution, addressed the jury:

He urged that the present was an offense clearly within

the letter of the statute, and intention of the Legislature. All

wise governments (said he), in every age of the world, have

made provision against offenses of this nature. God, in his

Providence, for his own wise purposes, and the peace of society,

has so ordained that the page of futurity should be totally hid

from our view; indeed, the knowledge of it would not only

tend to make a deadly breach upon the harmony of society, but

hasten the work of our destruction. The days of inspiration

have gone by. To teach man his true nature and estate, to bring

about the great purposes of Heaven, and to publish the glad

tidings of a happy restoration to lost man, the Almighty saw

fit to communicate a portion of his will to the Prophets and

Seers of old; but those ends are now accomplished, and we

live under a more practical dispensation, which addresses itself

to the heart and the life. The golden rule is left for our com-

fort and monition; and our laws are all in furtherance of that

Divine precept.  Can it be pretended, gentlemen, that this

woman was divinely inspired? Is not even the supposition

itself horribly impious? Is she not, then, basely usurping an

attribute that belongs to God alone? And that (let it not be

named) through the false and sorry devices of the shuffling

cards, and inspecting the palm of the hand! Are you pre-

pared, gentlemen, to say these devices are true? that these pre-

tenses are not false? What, then, is the simple scope of your

consideration? Has she not obtained money from the witness,

Badgley, by these means and pretenses, and are they not false.

If the defendant knew at the time that she was not endowed

with the power of foretelling future events, was it not a fraud

practiced upon the witness to obtain his money? Was it not

with intent to cheat and defraud him in the very words of the

statute? Again, gentlemen, the wisdom of applying this statute

to such cases, is apparent from the one before you. Have not

the doings of this woman tended to stir up strife in this coun-

try, and to set peaceful neighbors at odds and quarrels with

each other? Mr. Vinton concluded by observing he had no doubt

but the jury, from the evidence before them, would have no

hesitation in finding the defendant guilty.

Mr. Douglas, for the defendant, could not forbear com-

plimenting his young friend for the clear and correct views he

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Ohio's Only Witchcraft Case            209

had taken of the dispensation of Providence, as applied to the

general state and condition of man; they afforded an ample

testimonial not only of the ardor of his thought and sound

structure of his mind, but also of the purity of his principles.

But, gentlemen (said Mr. Douglas), I can not agree with him,

either in the expediency of his appeal, or the fitness of its

application. Those sublime truths are too awful for the present

occasion, and were designed for a more glorious purpose than

the aid of a prosecution so contemptible and unsupported as the

present. There is something grand in our appeals to Heaven,

when the subject calls for them; and that orator is rarely happy

who has his sublime illusions present for the furtherance of a

sublime design. The spear of Achilles, or the bow of Ulysses,

were never wielded or drawn to make war upon dwarfs; and

if Jove himself should thunder at the murmuring of every pelt-

ing mortal, we should have "nothing but thunder." Hence the

precept of the Roman critic:

"Never presume to make a god appear,

But for a subject worthy of a god."

"Fit the action to the word, and the word to the action,"

is a precept of the most immortal of bards, who, among his

other inimitable qualities, possessed that of a rare special

pleader, and from which my friend, from his known attach-

ment to that science, can not withhold the meed of his approba-

tion and applause: concerning which precept I have heard a

learned Judge, who lately adorned our Supreme bench and

Gubernatorial chair, more than once suggest as peculiarly

applicable to actions of slander, and so designed both by

Shakespeare and Hamlet.

Nor can I agree that a case like the present is either within

the meaning of the statute, or intention of the Legislature.

Miserable, indeed, must be the occupation of the legislative

body, who, in the boasted days of light and truth, could sit

out their live-long time in making laws having for their object

the punishment, with five hundred dollars fine and six months

imprisonment of a poor, old, frail and simple woman, who

should be guilty of the enormous crime of taking twenty-five

cents from some love-lorn Strephon, for telling him whether

or not his Urania would have a high chin, blue eyes or pug

nose; or to beware of a mole on the left breast, for it was the

unerring badge of a shrew or a profligate. The times of such

legislation are long since out of mind. Even in that country

Vol. XXXIII--14.

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where they have made more use of witchcraft and necromancy

than ever we republicans did, the statutes of the wizard mon-

arch have long since been repealed, and his book of Demonology

is only found in the libraries of the curious, and would not

there be found, but from the circumstance of its being written

by a king. It is only scarce because it is not valuable; and

remains a memento of the extraordinary paradox, that a wise

king may be a learned fool.

Even in the age that succeeded, when "quite athwart went

all decorum;" when divination was on tiptoe, and pervaded

everything; when profound statesmen were moon-struck enough

to believe they were divine witnesses; when, as the satirist ob-

serves,

"They'd search a planet's house to know

Who broke or robb'd a house below;

And ask of Venus, or the moon,

Who stold a thimble or a spoon;"

When Praise-god Barebone's parliament was asserted to be

the temple of the Highest; and even then and there I say the

more wise and temperate did not hesitate to declare that such

laws were a disgrace to the statute book.

But to come nearer our own times and bosoms, let me

ask you, gentlemen, whether you ever heard the blue-laws (so

called) of Connecticut and Massachusetts mentioned but to be

satirized? Those laws, which our pious forefathers (for I be-

lieve you are mostly all my countrymen--Yankees) very

gravely adopted as a substitute for the laws of God. Their

wilder sons loved their buxom wives too well to forego a kiss,

even upon the Sabbath; and the scale-beam would kick in

favor of the ponderosity of some old runnion of a witch, even

against the Bible, aided by the pious discourses of a Mather or

a Mahugh. They found that a barrel sawed asunder would

make two tubs in despite of blue-laws; and the "confounded

big piece of timber" which, on Saturday night,

"Fell down, slam-bang,

And killed poor John Lamb,"

ceased to be regarded as an instrument of Divine vengeance, or

a judgment from Heaven, for his profanation of that holy time.

Darby persisted in the love and elopement of his darling Joan,

in spite of the penance of the cart-tail, or the quick scourges

of the cat-o-nine. The truth is, the old bedlam, nature, is the

same in all ages and under all laws. You may tread her down,

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Ohio's Only Witchcraft Case             211

 

but can not tread her out; when in a frolicsome mood, she will

frolic. All laws ought to be proportioned to the wants of that

society for which they are made; and although some may, on

a slight view, be considered as encroaching too far upon in-

dividual rights, yet are still'to be tolerated in relation to the

object they have in view. Thus the law of England, making

it penal to bury the dead in any other commodity but woolen

cloth, may at first seem a trifle in the dignity of legislation, but

is, nevertheless, said to be a wise law, inasmuch as it en-

courages the staple of the kingdom. But laws depriving men

of the liberty of kissing their wives, or restraining all under

the degree of a Knight from wearing steel points upon the toes

of their shoes, over a given length, are foolish, contemptible,

and ridiculous. In fine, the more witch laws, the more witches;

and all the acts of grave legislation upon the matter, will serve

but as additional fuel for the charmed cauldron. The greatest

legislative secret may be summed up in the advice of the old

Quaker lady, "Let them alone, and they'll fall of themselves."

Where, gentlemen, are the evils brought upon society by

the doings of this old fortune-teller? Where the call for a

prosecution? Is it because she sets her sage prognostications

at the enormous fee of 25 cents? I tell you nay! it is gotten

up by some canting, monkish zealot, who affects the alarm that

his craft is in danger. His motives may be good, but his no-

tions and habiliments are better suited to a disciple of James

Naylor or Jemima Wilkinson, than an American grand-jury-

man. The prosecuting witness protests before you that he is

not the voluntary complainant in the business. He sought her

skill, heard the tale of his fortune, paid the pittance, and is

satisfied. Is he defrauded? Has she cheated him? If he be

deceived, he has sought the deception himself.  It is true he

will not, he can not tell us the one-half that was told him; but

sufficient is understood from the "villanous trick of his eye, and

foolish language of his nether lip," for good guessing of the

whole matter: he is content, nay, delighted with his quid pro quo

-- a good Roland for his Oliver. His future Dulcinea is, no

doubt, to be fairer skinned and sweeter disposed than he even

anticipated before he visited Mrs. Church. Some other inter-

loping Panza is to be routed from the wind-mill; the lip upon

which he is fated to sigh is never to be sighed on by another;

and she who is to "share his pleasures and his heart" is to be

all his own. Dare I further trow, gentlemen, I would jump at

the guess, from Badgley's phiz, that she is to possess, withal, a

competent share of the smoother of furrowed cheeks and sweet-

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ner of boisterous tempers, that rare commodity which, accord-

ing to the mood of the time,

"Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest."

The warning voice of this defendant appears the astonish-

ment and delight of the country round.   Even the virtues

ascribed to love-in-idleness fade away before the mystic wave

of the wand of Dame Church. Satyrs are changed into lovers;

and the transformation of a Bottom is no longer without a

parallel. By its unyielding magic, lost pocket-books are restored,

and the ferae naturae reclaimed. The people of Raccoon town-

ship may now lift up their voices and rejoice at the coming of

that blessed prediction,

"When wolves and bears will learn to browse,

And go to pasture with their cows."

Her house is not only the "commodity, nay, it is the very staple"

of spring love and good fellowship.

Thither repair

"Tom, Dick, and Benny,

And Sal, and Kate, and Jenny,

All, all in merry glee."

There, "like elves and fairies in a ring," they dance around

the modern Titania, who carelessly casts her enchantments about

her, and dispenses happy fortunes with the ease of a widow

Wunks, and the facility of a Robin Goodfellow. "There is the

"boon laddie of Galla Water," "the bonnie lassie of Gretna

Green," or the "Roy's wife of Aldivalloch," who could for-

bear to join this festive throng! Even my young friend out

not to withhold his meed upon the joyful occasion. -- Let him

gladden his heart that he has fallen on these days, and "rather

pursue the triumph and partake the gale," than attempt its

opposition by a criminal prosecution. Who knows the good

that she may have in store for him? who knows but the for-

tune of Lucrece, with the beauty of Helen, now sighs in secret

for its destined approach? Ah! says he, who will show me this

good? I answer, Abigail Church.--"Shall I now realize this

unknown object of all my cares ?" I reply--go to Mrs. Church;

she will tell you.

But we are told that some dark complexioned person about

Chickamauga is in the habit of cheating his neighbors; and

disturbances are reported to ensue. Ah! gentlemen, in these

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Ohio's Only Witchcraft Case            213

"coster-monger times," it needs no "ghost come from the grave"

to tell us that Chickamauga is like unto the places of the plains--

the one dark-complexioned countryman may be healed by many

kindred light-blown spirits from the "towered cities" of the

east. Haply for us if the rarity of occurrences like these called

for the aid of fortune-tellers to point them out.

"Beware the Ides of March," said the Roman augur to

Caesar. "Beware the month of May," said the spectator to

his fair country-woman. Which of these prognostics partook

of the greatest share of divination; the one being the faith as

the other was the levity of his country. We ought not too

rashly to tax Roman credulity or religion because we will not

believe that the wrong flight of birds at Pharsalia and Cannae

predicted the fate of those great battles. We doubt not the

virtue or learning of a Plutarch, because he believed them; but

rather rejoice that he has recorded and sent them down the

vista of time for our instruction and reproof. Will the Epi-

curean cit, "with eager eye and smacking lip," forbear the de-

licious morsel, because a Montauk Indian tells him that south-

west moon makes bad oysters at Blue Point? Even old Sir

John in the moanful days of villainy, boasted his better ability

to take a purse when under the governance of his chaste mis-

tress, that patroness of rogues, the moon. Will you indict our

whole horde of almanac makers, for foretelling the numerous

goods or ills of life that await us, because our birth is under

the tail of "Charles' wain," or our crimes attributed to the in-

fluence of a star? Are they criminals because they tell us that

when the moon is in her apogee, or Mars in his perihelion, we

must expect more wars or falling weather about that time?

I was reading in a newspaper the other day that Isaiah

Thomas' apprentice, while composing the almanac, came to his

master to know what he should put opposite the 1₄th of June.

The master, being engaged, told him, "anything." The boy put,

"rain, hail, snow and sleet." It so happened that it both hailed

and snowed on that day. A large dose of the Empirick's pills,

noted for their efficacy in recovering strayed cattle, drove the

countryman aside from the road, where, to be sure, he found the

ox. I doubt much if even in these days and goings down of

the sun, either the quack or Mr. Thomas would have been ad-

judged within the letter or spirit of this statute -- the one for

the price of his pills, or the other for the recipes of his almanacs.

But I have detained you too long in telling what, in my

judgment, the statute does not intend. I will detain you but a

few moments longer in stating what I believe it does. It was

intended to detect high-handed swindling in such instances as

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the following: If a man should make his appearance in your

town, in the guise of a merchant, and should relate that he had

a large quantity of merchandise at Pittsburgh or Wheeling, just

ready to descend the river, should show false invoices or bills

of lading, and thereon induce one of your citizens to loan him

a sum of money for his exigencies, until he could pass on as

far as Louisville, on urgent business, and thus make off with

the booty--or if he should feign the name of heirship of a

large nonresident landholder in your State, and exhibit false

deeds and vouchers, whereby he imposed on the unwary, and

obtained money or property by means of such false and fraudu-

lent pretenses--and, indeed, numerous other cases which could

be mentioned. But to extend it to the contemptible case of this

woman, would be giving a scope to implied powers hitherto un-

precedented. If our Legislature really think it is time to take

the alarm; that our liberties are endangered, or our peace in-

vaded by the inroads of witches, fortune-tellers and conjurors--

let them so express it. Let laws be enacted with a punishment

consequent to each. -- Then, at least, will the first object of a

criminal code for a free State be obtained--that of having

crimes specific and punishments certain: for of all things within

the circle of our jurisprudence, we ought to be the most cautious

in extending criminal laws by implication.

Mr. Douglas concluded, by observing that he was equally

clear on his part, as the prosecuting attorney was on his; and

that the jury must acquit the defendant.

The Court left it to the jury to say whether they believed

the case within the statute, and if the defendant obtained the

money with intent to cheat and defraud. The jury, after re-

tiring a few minutes, returned a verdict of "Not Guilty."

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