I’m not a lover of evil sorcery, witchcraft, or magic spells and the older I get, the more I dislike Halloween festivities, at least the ones intended to show harm or be horror-like. However, I feel this month’s article is appropriate for both October and Halloween.
Many years ago, I came across a book titled, Hidden Powers. It appealed to me because the title page showed that the book was printed in 1946 by the Banner Printing Company in Shinnston. Banner Printing Co. was in Shinnston for several decades and was managed by a Mr. Moran. I immediately remembered hearing of the book and its characters, which are few in number. The book was written by Lawrence Herschel Martin and focuses on the few occasions that a man named Peter Crowe visited his home near Wyatt.
Similar to another local book (Daughter of the Elm), Hidden Powers also disguised the names of its characters. For example, Joseph Marston was actually Joseph Martin. The time takes place well over one hundred and fifty years ago. During one cold winter night with blizzard-like conditions surrounding them, the Marstons received a visitor to their home, needing a place to stay for the night. Upon opening the door and welcoming the man in, it was noted that the man did not appear to be cold, had no snow on him, and his boots were dry and clean. He walked into their home, across their oak hardwood floors, with his footsteps making no sound.
He sat with them around the fireplace and joined in conversation with them throughout the night, yet his lips were never seen to move as he talked.
He was shown a bed to sleep in and at morning’s light, when breakfast was ready, no sign of his use of the bed was seen. He left the home shortly after breakfast and it was noted by the Marston (Martin) family that he left no tracks in the snow.
Peter Crowe arrived a second night at the Marston home. Prior to this visit, the Marston (Martin) family was again seated around the fireplace, except this time, there was a vacant chair in the room. Each family member was preoccupied with mind’s thoughts when, out of the blue, a low voice spoke. Everyone looked up and saw Peter Crowe sitting in the empty chair. No one saw him enter, nor heard him walk across the room to sit in the chair. He was warmly welcomed back and busied himself with the Marston children by helping them build corncob castles and Indian wigwams from kindling pieces. He became a regular visitor to the Marston home, having bought land nearby, on which he eventually built a log cabin.
One evening while again visiting the Marstons, word was received that a neighbor several miles away was severely injured by a bull and was rapidly bleeding to death. Peter Crowe stood up, walked to the door as if to leave, then turned around and came back to sit around the fireplace, while announcing that the bleeding just stopped. The time was 7:30 p.m.. The next morning, it was learned that the neighbor was out of danger and the bleeding had stopped at 7:30 p.m. the night before. On another occasion, one of Mr. Marston’s horses was injured at the hip with severe bleeding occurring. When Crowe was told about this, the bleeding stopped.
It was reported that many magical powers existed within the life of Peter Crowe. He was known to be walking through an open field and disappear in the middle of it.
During a summer storm when the waters of Bingamon Creek flooded everything in its pathway, Peter Crowe came to another rescue. He was with a group of people on one side of the floodwaters, looking across the hillside as a house was being swept away.
A large rock was left on the bank with a small child clinging to it. In an instant, Peter Crowe was seen standing on the rock, holding the child. Seconds prior to this visual, he was with the crowd on the other side. The time and means of getting to the girl was not possible in just those few seconds of elapsed time. Those present felt like a miracle had just been witnessed by them.
Dogs silenced their barking when he was nearby. When butter clung in the churn or yarn became tangled, Peter Crowe’s presence would make the butter come quickly and the yarn reel with ease. When he entered a barn, horses’ manes and tails were rid of knots and tangles. It was said that many people thought Peter Crowe was unaware of his strange powers and he also never referred to them.
I’m not a believer in witchcraft. I find the story to be both unusual and interesting, but using a witch on a broomstick for the cover art of the book seems like it would be describing evil spirits. The legend of Peter Crowe is far from evil. He probably had neighbors that feared his powers, but whatever use he got from his “powers”, was used for the good. We certainly need a lot less evil and a lot more good in this world! And that is this month’s story behind the photo.
