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charles j. adams iii - the witch of the schuylkill introduction lyrics

down along the schuylk!ll river, a tale is told about a forlorn woman who somehow, for some reason, became etched into the annals of berks county folklore as the witch of the schuylk!ll

her story can be traced to an 1872 article in the reading lyceum review, in which a writer who identified him or herself only with the initials h.w.z

here then, in story and later, in song, is the saga of the witch of the schuylk!ll:

a beggar approached a group of newspapermen in reading and asked for a pittance. the gentleman of the “fourth estate”, ever anxious for a scoop and with noses for news, promised to meet his request provided he would tell a good story. accordingly, he regaled the scribes with the following account

early in the 19th century, there lived an elderly woman known to berks county residents as “dame ellen.” her home was on the banks of the schuyk!ll river, on the green tree road, near green tree tavern. according to “h.w.z.” she was, “an attenuated female of most hideous countenance, ogle+eyed and crooked+kneed”, all of which means that she was ugly. there were stories of her rides on a broomstick with her demon lover; of the orgies of her feast on the occasion of the witches’ sabbath; of the farmer’s milk that sour when she passed his barn; of thefts and depredations of all sorts that were charged to her evil incantations and of the evil eye and other manifestations of sorcery

she gained her livelihood by telling fortunes of the credulous and by light+fingered pilfering at public gatherings. this income was supplemented by the produce from her small garden and charitable gifts of castoff clothing and the like

one day, dame ellen was missed by some of her neighbors. they had not seen her stir about her garden. the blinds and shutters of her house were in the same position for weeks on end. something must be wrong. a group of young men decided to investigate. they approached her house and shouted “hail, evil one!” there was no response. braving the wrath of the spirits, the men entered the house and found the partly decomposed body of the unhappy woman

placed upon a table, alongside a spirit lamp, there lay a sealed packet. the investigating neighbors opened the packet and found, therein, the sad story of ellen hurton’s life. she had been reared near providence, rhode island. disaster had beset her family when she was quite young. all of her relatives had perished in an epidemic. alone in the world, she had accepted marriage to a co+rs+ drunkard who beat her and disfigured her features by his cruel tortures. although almost penniless, she had left her new england home and had built for herself a hermitage on the banks of the schuyk!ll. there, she had been forced to eke out an existence by methods which had earned her the title of the witch of the schuyk!ll

- charles j adams iii lyrics

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