The Cumberland Witch

Download or read book The Cumberland Witch written by Patty Kowing and published by . This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The reason that Reverend Chester Willaby and his parishioners had chosen to settle in this particular valley in the Cumberland Gap, that summer of 1777, was Tisily, the old witch. When the small band of pioneers from war-torn Virginia had limped off the road into this clearing, half of the children had colds and infected insect bites. Jacob Renfre, a free black man and storekeeper, had a wife that was ready to deliver any minute. Several others had scalded feet ;( blisters from walking for days in wet moccasins through the saturated, muddy ground) That day the weary travelers had all they could take so they stopped to rest and dry out in the pretty meadow surrounded by jungle covered caves and mountains. Reverend Willaby had noticed a ramshackle bark house, covered with thorny vines. "Hallo!"He called to the bearskin pelt door hanging on the house. Slowly the pelt was pushed aside and the settlers' mouths dropped at the crone who slowly emerged. Tisily had one hand in the pocket of her long dress and held a pipe with the other. Her lovely, old wrinkled face, haloed with wild, white hair, crinkled into a smiling welcome. "Halloo yerself," she called back. "Saw you was comin'.Been waiti'n fer ya." The "road" was the Great Wilderness Hiway of Kentucky. It was a hiway in name only, as it was no wider than a horse's chest in the late 1700's. Also called the Cumberland Road, it crossed Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and opened Appalachia up to settlers, explorers and pioneers heading west. Like it had so many others, this road was about to alter the travelers' lives forever.