Shortly after this, they met a farmer, Milton J. Hess who believed he was hexed. He and his wife were of Pennsylvania Dutch stock. They believed in Hexeri and obeyed all of the regulations and rules Hexenmeisters gave them. Milton had been a successful farmer. His crops flourished, chickens laid the right amount of eggs and the cows' milk was plentiful. His wife, Alice had a stand at the farmer's market, for pin money, where she sold vegetables, flowers and fruit.
In 1926, for no reason that was apparent, things took a downward spiral. Crops began to fail, chickens were stolen and those that weren't did not lay eggs, cows would not eat and no longer produced milk. Milton's health was affected. Wilbert, his 17-year-old son was also affected, psychologically, by hearing his father complain about the failures and lack of money and his mother changing from an energetic cheerful woman into a sad and silent one who withdrew from communicating with family.
The family was convinced they were hexed.
Milton got a job as a truck driver for the Pennsylvania Tool Company on North George Street in York. Alice still had her stand, now, out of financial necessity.
In June, 1928, Milton met Blymire who lived in the Widow Detwiler's boarding house the alley. They would talk daily and the conversation, eventually, turned to hexes and the fact the Blymire was a Braucher.
It was about this time that Blymire consulted Nellie Noll, the Witch of Marietta, in the quest to discover who had hexed him. She told him that it was the Witch of Rehmeyer's Hollow, Nelson D. Rehmeyer.
Milton Invited Blymire, as a Braucher, to his farm where the witch could see its condition for himself. He asked Blymire who had hexed the family, but try as he could, he could not come up with a name, so he visited Nellie Noll again.
She told him who the hexer was. Nelson D. Rehmeyer. The Witch of Marietta added that Rehmeyer had also hexed Curry.
All they had to do was to get Rehmeyer's copy of John George Hohman's "Pow-wows or Long Lost Friend" and burn it or a lock of his hair and bury it 6 to 8 feet underground. The book was written in 1820 and is the spell book for PowWows. Sometimes, it is referred to only as the book.
Blymire told the Hesses and Curry that Rehmeyer had hexed all of them. Plans were made for Blymire, Curry and Wilbert to visit Rehmeyer and get a lock of hair or the book, do with which they got as directed and the hex would be removed.
