Can y’all believe Halloween is tomorrow? To help you get in the spooky spirit, we have a witchin’ story for you.
Most of us know about the mass hysteria in New England in 1692 caused by claims of witches. A story less told, however, happens 100 years later in a small S.C. town, which also began to cry witchcraft.
In the town of Winnsboro, S.C. (only ~40 mins. from Columbia) in 1792, some strange things started happening around the town that no one could explain. Supposedly, people’s cattle began getting sick. There was also talk of townspeople acting as if they were possessed.
One particular woman in town, Mary Ingelman, stands out in the story. Someone from town accused Mary of killing one of their cows by causing the cow to levitate, then throwing it back down on the ground, causing the cow to break its neck. Another townsperson accused her of turning him into a horse + riding him to a “grand convention of witches” with the devil himself present.
Mary Ingelman, along with three others, were accused of witchcraft. Those four people were tried – illegally.
They were taken to a farm 5 miles south of the town for the illegal trial. The only “evidence” presented were first person accounts from the alleged victims. Apparently the four accused didn’t offer a defense, so they were found guilty. They were not hanged like many of the witches in Salem, but instead were flogged + had the soles of their feet burned off.
It’s safe to say that Mary was most likely not a witch. She was, supposedly, an herbalist + healer from Germany who was described by one person as a “neat, tidy and decent old lady.”
What’s more likely, like many of the “witches” accused in Salem, is that Mary lived on land someone wanted, or she just had beef with the wrong person.
For those of you who are fans of the creepy + spooky…according to locals, Mary’s spirit haunts the courthouse in Winnsboro, perhaps still waiting for her justice.
