Witchcraft Wars, Trials and Hunts in Pennsylvania
state police commissioner to immediately take action against "witches," specifically hexers. The witch hunt of Pennsylvania beginning in the 20th century.... The PowWow doctors laid low. Mainstream society, for the most part, ignored them.
In 1940, the Harrisburg Patriot newspaper had an article about Hexeri. Educators said it was being eradicated from public schools. Science instruction was the most powerful weapon used to combat PowWow. Court records evidence that hexes were responsible for many crimes, including arson and murder, in the past fifty years.
My maternal great grandfather, who died in 1948, was a PowWow doctor and practiced into the 1940s. I have talked to people who were "tried" for, the term used for being healed. These healings took place after the Rehmeyer murder.
A professor at the Milton S. Hershey School of Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, discusses the art of PowWow in his lectures. Medicine has an interest in PowWow and other forms of holistic healing.
What else from the Pennsylvania Dutch and PowWow still exist?
Obviously, the culinary art. Pennsylvania Dutch Cookery is a blend of German and Native American cookery as evidenced by recipes using corn and other American vegetables. I have yet to find a traditional German recipe that features corn. The corn recipes are Pennsylvania Dutch.
Another obvious survivor is the folk art that is Pennsylvania Dutch. There is also the humor and the quaint sayings.
Look in a farmer's almanac and you will see when, astrologically, is the best time to plant different crops or to fish. This is Pennsylvania Dutch as evidenced in books about the Dutch.
The Hex signs are Pennsylvania Dutch. You can see these beautiful geometric and stylized works of art inside of circles painted on barns in Dutch Country. You can buy these to use as wall hangings. There is jewelry that incorporates them.
There are those who maintain that hex signs painted on barns are "chust for pretty." This is not true. Those who say this do so to deny the practice of PowWow or out of ignorance.
Each design has a meaning as does each color. These signs are designed for a specific beneficial purpose. The most common purposes are protection, blessings, love and romance, rain, sun and fertility and good fortune.
Currently, there is a revival of interest in the culture of the Pennsylvania Dutch, including the language, which is a form of Low German and the art of PowWow. PowWow is no longer underground.
Adams, Charles J. III
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