Rides IX

Before we leave Merrimac there are a couple more stories to tell and many that will have to wait for another time. Merrimac once had a blacksmith shop, two hotels, a carpenter house, a millinery shop, a photography shop, a general store and many other houses and buildings as well as the mill that I have written about already.

My Dad grew up hearing stories about the Merrimac Witch. She was a real person who lived near the community. She came from Germany and was sometimes called Granny Dutch. They claimed she had the gift of second sight and could tell people where to find things they had lost. She died at the age of 99 years in 1879. That was long before my Dad was born in 1908 but many people remembered her and told him stories about her when he was young.

Among other things, they said Granny Dutch had the ability to put a hex on people and did so to a family with five children. There were four boys and one beautiful blond girl. The parents were very proud of their children but all of them got diphtheria. Three of the boys and the girl died. People blamed it on the Merrimac Witch. When that family moved to a farm their barn burned. That, too, they blamed on the witch. They eventually moved away.

Of course the woman was really not a witch but stories about her were told for generations. Overtime, as with all stories, I am sure they were greatly embellished.

* * *

The land around Merrimac is low and wet in the spring. It was sometimes very difficult for farmers to get crops in because the equipment was primitive compared to what they have today. Just southeast of Merrimac a small stream meandered through the bottom ground. (The old streambed is actually still evident if you look at the area with Google Earth.)

The landowner decided that straightening the stream would allow the water to get away from the area quicker and allow him to farm it much easier and timely. He tried to do it himself but it was just too big of a task. He eventually hired a man who had a steam engine and a dragline.

Even with that equipment the work was slow and muddy. After about six months the fellow gave up with the job half finished but wanted paid for what he had done. The landowner refused and there was quite a dispute about the issue. Dad thought it actually went to court but didn’t know how it turned out. The equipment sat in the field until spring when it was finally removed.

A second man with similar equipment was hired to finish the job. After a great struggle he did and the straight channel is evident today. In more recent years the fields have been tiled and drain to that ditch.

As we head out of Merrimac that is usually the last story Dad tells about the place. Green Mound Cemetery is the next stop.