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Story 1 Rebecca Nurse - Witchcraft
Rebecca (Towne) Nurse (abt.1621-1692)
Narrative
Rebecca (Towne) Nurse’s early life was remarkable only by the journey her family made from England to settle in colonial New England. Records show they had most likely arrived in 1639. She married John Nurse about 1644 in Salem, Massachusetts. It is said they had eight children, with the last being born in 1666.
It wasn’t until 26 years later that a group of young girls in Salem accused several local women of witchcraft. For those that don’t know, a wave of hysteria spread through colonial Massachusetts, and a special court was convened to hear the cases of more than 150 men, women, and children accused of the craft. Rebecca was one of the first three of those implicated.
There were many people involved in the trials held by the special council. Sarah Bibber accused many people of witchcraft, giving detail about their supposed spells or efforts to raise the Devil. Rebecca’s sister Sarah Nurse testified that she watched Sarah Bibber prick herself with pins from her clothes before claiming Rebecca had harmed her. Two of her daughters and a son-in-law testified on her behalf. When the arrest warrant was written out it was said Rebecca committed “much hurt and injury” to the body of Ann Putnam, though Rebecca denied any knowledge of the incident. But one of the first accusers was Joseph Hutchinson. What is notable about him as that he was the great-grandfather of Eunice (Putman) Nurse, who married Rebecca's great-grandson Francis Nurse. To descendants such as Lois McMaster Bujold, an acclaimed author, both Joseph and Rebecca are direct great-grandparents (they are Lois' 8th great-grandparents).
Rebecca was executed for witchcraft by the government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England in 1692, during those Salem Witch Trials. She had several children and grandchildren, and was a well-respected member of the community at the time. Although there was no credible evidence against her, she was hanged as a witch and died on 19 July 1692 at Proctor's Ledge.
Tradition has long said that the sons of convicted and executed witch Rebecca Nurse came back to the execution site under cover of darkness and removed their mother’s body for burial in the family cemetery. There is certainly a headstone for her in the family cemetery today, though it was erected long after the execution, in July of 1885.
Almost twenty years after her execution, it was agreed that she had been innocent of being a witch. And though Rebecca threw herself at the mercy of the court she was executed. There is much documentation both before her death, and through the appeals process after for restitution and the clearing of her name. The tragedy is that an upstanding community member, mother, and wife was put to death before it was accepted that she was innocent and her name was cleared.
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- Testimony of Sarah Nurse document
- FindAGrave memorial
- Warrant for Rebecca, p. 1 document
- Warrant for Rebecca, p. 2 document
- Examination of Rebecca Nurse 2 documents, but also a transcription of the accusations
- Indictment of Rebecca Nurse 2 documents and a transcription.
- Petition of Rebecca Nurse to the court 2 documents and a transcription.
The church she was baptized in |
Rebecca in chains |
Story 2 John Albee - Influential
Narrative
John H. Albee was born about April 3, 1833 in Bellingham, Massachusetts. He was born to poor parents, John Albee and Esther Thayer.
In the early 1850s, John was sent to the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts to study under Dr. Samuel Taylor. He was later admitted to Harvard Divinity School, taking a job in a store to support his studies, and graduated in 1858. John was described as being five feet eight inches tall with a dark complexion and dark hair.
John Albee trained to be a Unitarian minister, but his heart wasn't in it. In his diary, he wrote:
- "I take no interest in the education or teaching of people. . . . I have nothing to say on the common topics of Christianity or religion. But this morning I go to Walpole to preach!" (21 May 1859)
Eventually he left the ministry and settled in New Castle, New Hampshire, as a gentleman farmer. It was later said that he withdrew from the rest of the world and dedicated his life to "contemplation and study". John became particularly fascinated with Transcendentalism after reading the Ralph Waldo Emerson's works as a student, and cites Emerson as a major influence in his decision to leave the ministry.
In addition to Ralph Waldo Emerson, John was acquainted with several of his contemporary writers, including Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, Celia (Laighton) Thaxter, Alexander Graham Bell, and Mary Morse (Baker) Eddy. In her memoir, his daughter LouLie recalls the following.
- “Alexander Graham Bell was another friend who came often to New Castle. He was young and at that time teaching in a deaf mute institution. He was living in the throes of inventions that he had no money to further. I can see him now arriving with two tin dippers attached to a long string.”
According to Loulie, Bell asked Albee to stand next to the well as he stepped back about 50 feet, pulled the string taut, and spoke into the metal dipper. “I hear you perfectly!” John Albee shouted, the other metal cup held to his ear.
John H. Albee died on March 24, 1915 in Washington, D.C., just shy of his eighty-second birthday. His remains were interred at the D. C. Crematorium two days later.
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John H. Albee |
Story 3 Anna Hennig - Captured
Anna (Weyerbacher) Hennig (1767-1794)
Narrative
Anna and Elizabeth Weyerbacher were two of at least seven children born to Johannes Weyerbacher and Anna Catharina (Best) Weyerbacher. They moved to Northumberland, Pennsylvania in 1775, in what was then part of the frontier. They lived a quiet life in Buffalo Township, tending to their small farm with its two horses and three cows.
Times were turbulent for all during the American Revolution. To add to the tension, the local Iroquois Nation sided with the British and didn’t welcome those fighting for a new country. As Anne’s family heard of an impending slaughter, they joined the others in what would appear to be a stampede of families, wildly fleeing the valley. By late 1780 or early 1781 her family had moved back to Buffalo Valley to farm.
For a little history on the area, Buffalo Township is among the oldest settlements in Butler county. Before the reorganization of townships in 1854, Buffalo was one of the largest townships in the county, being near nine miles in length and eight in width. The southern part of the township, being heavily timbered, was considered the most desirable land for settlement, and the area was considered a thriving agricultural region. After the return to their farm in Buffalo township, Anna’s family went about the business of growing and storing food to feed their family, like the neighbors around them.
In 1781, while most of the family was out working the farm, Anna and her sister Elizabeth had stayed back at the cabin. Ages fourteen and sixteen, respectively, they may have been tending to other tasks necessary for the family. The turbulent times not over, the girls were seized by the natives that raided the farm. They set fire to the cabin before they left, taking both of the young girls with them.
Anna escaped a few days later, making her way back to her family. Her sister was not in her company when she arrived. The initial tales of the abduction stated that Elizabeth was “never heard of afterwards,” when in fact her father had located her after the war was over. As the story goes, when Elizabeth heard that her father and his friends would be killed on the road if they took her, she agreed to stay with the tribe. She later became a “wife of a chief, mother of a large family and lived to beyond the age of 80 years.”
As for Anna, she married John Adam Hennig about 1783. They had at least four children, all raised in Butler Township. Anna’s life met with further tragedy, as the family set out one day in August on horseback. Anna rode with four month old Anna, and her husband Adam carried her twin, Adam Jr. Anna’s horse slipped and she and baby Anna went over into the creek. Her husband clutched onto Adam, Junior but was unable to save his wife and daughter. Anna was just twenty-seven years old. Adam was eventually buried next to her in the Neidig Cemetery in Haines Township.
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- Mural of the families ready to flee Public Domain photograph.
- The Great Runaway black and white showing families heading down the river. No copyright cited.
- The Weyerbacher farm in later days
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