Everyone knew a Boo-hag walked the woods of Lady's Island, looking for a husband. All the eligible men stayed far clear of this particular patch of Live Oaks and all those already spoken for were never allowed outside after dark. All but Estus Fallon, who has never fallen to feminine ways. Estus would march right in, enjoying the solitude of the haunted woods.
After a tornado blew away his home, Hollis Wert wasn't sure where to look for it. A recounting of the event in the Loval Telegraph mentioned its general whereabouts, but Hollis had to contact his brother Harlen, for its exact location.
"Mind you stay away from that place, it's got the sickness. If you get too close it will pull you in and ain't nobody on the face of this earth gonna pull you back." That's what the adult population of Millet warned, not that we needed reminding. We all knew if we got too close, bad things would happen. Any family that took up residence in that place wound up losing their children to something, something that would drain the life right out of them.
Truman from the city spent his summers down here. Thought he was tough, thought it was all made up stories. On his last day before going north, Truman figured it was high time somebody had the guts to toss a rock through one of them windows, just begging to be broken. He shouted, "see I'm still here you ignorant country people," and walked away.
Truman didn't come back the next summer. We never did find out what happened to him. His family here in Millett kept to themselves.
Barton Juris, the local ladies man, had quite a reputation of conquests throughout Anderson and Abbeville counties. His shack in Stonewall Woods was "about as busy as a sheik in his harem," Barton would boast to all his pals at Jinx's tap.
Funny thing was, Barton probably slept with half the wives of the guys he drank with, but they didn't know or care all that much.
The older folks would speculate as to why Barton got away with it. Some said it was because Stonewall Woods had an unusually large number of wounded veterans. Others thought it was just that life here was exceptionally hard and there wasn't much time left at the end of the day.
Whatever the reason, Stonewall Woods was a peaceful place and most felt it was best to leave things alone.
After the mysterious disappearance of Emory Wilty from the Beaufort County road crew, his gloves and vest turned up as a scarecrow in Mrs. Powhites garden. Mrs. Powhite, who never had a good thing to say about anybody, admitted to murdering Emory. She said, "he came to my door asking for water but I knew what he was up to. He was the devils apprentice sent to retrieve my soul from this earth and his costume is very good at scaring away the birds."
After multiple attempts to escape earth's gravitational pull, Alton Treaddwell fell into bad health and his dreams of liberation were put on permanent hold.
Hester Tullis claimed to be a witch.
Her son Porter, was a lazy no good who threatened to have his mother conjure up restless Haints and cast spells of vicious evil over the little town of Catholic Hills. He tormented the young Mrs. Heber -- "All your children will be stillborn" and threatened old Mr. Quinn with "tumors on the brain." After years of abuse it was more than this superstitious little place could handle. So the town, with renewed courage and help from the recently elected Sheriff, decided it was time to drive the Tullises from Catholic Hills.
First they went after Porter, they figured he was the easiest. Things got out of hand and a noose ended up around his neck. Fearing a plague of spells from Hester over the brutal death of her son, a torch was promptly put to her ramshackle house.
A blanket of Kudzu quickly covered what was left, but Catholic Hills never recovered.
