Lou’s View – Oct. 6, 2016

The Siren of the Susquehanna

by Lou Bernard

October has arrived. My favorite time of year. And costumes and candy are cool and all, but it just wouldn’t be Halloween if I didn’t tell a Henry Shoemaker story. Surprisingly, though I’ve been doing this for several years now, I still haven’t run out of stories to tell.

If you’re any kind of regular reader of my column, you’ll know who Henry Shoemaker is. Just in case you’ve never read my stuff before—Let’s say you just moved here from Miami or something—Let me explain.

Henry Wharton Shoemaker was a writer and folklorist from McElhattan. He was also probably Clinton County’s first paranormal investigator. Shoemaker wrote down a lot of old legends of ghosts, curses, and spooky stuff. Most of these are available at the Ross Library, and a lot of fun to read.

This one’s from one of my favorite books, Tales of the Bald Eagle Mountains. It’s called “The Siren.”

The story begins in Native American times. Some of Shoemaker’s legends are hard to pin down, time-wise. This one’s a little easier; there’s a clue we can use. The story refers to “the new county of Clinton,” which means it had to take place sometime in the neighborhood of 1839 or so. And in that time, according to the legend, there was a pretty girl from the Mingo tribe named Sweet Cicely.

Sweet Cicely was a beautiful girl, the youngest in her family. And she could sing—She had a wonderful voice, and would often sit by the Susquehanna River singing in the evenings.

In time, she made the acquaintance of a young man named Wild William. (I don’t know who came up with these names. I just report this stuff.) Wild William and Sweet Cicely fell in love. Wild and Sweet sounds like a new potato chip flavor, but Shoemaker didn’t comment on that—He had more of a flowery, romantic streak than I do. He wrote,”The ecstasy of the first love is life’s grandest elation, but how few who have experienced it are aware of its value.”

Cicely used to sit on the banks of the river and wait for Wild William to arrive. She would wait on a ledge above the river, and she would sing.

When a lumber raft would pass by, Sweet Cicely would stop singing out of sheer self-consciousness, though she had a nice voice. But she liked to sit on her outcrop above the river and sing to herself, waiting for her boyfriend.

One evening, she didn’t notice a lumber raft coming by, piloted by a rough-looking man. Cicely didn’t notice him immediately, and kept singing. Captivated by her voice, the man pulled his raft over. He climbed the perch up to her with the request that she choose him. Cicely refused, and when he became more persistent, and then began attacking her, she screamed for help. Grabbing her by the throat, he choked her to death, which is how Wild William found her a little while later.

Grieving, William buried her on the hill. Unable to get the local police to take an interest in the crime, he left the area to go to Allegheny County, where he settled. But from that night on, something strange happened.

Sweet Cicely’s spirit was restless. Rafters coming down the Susquehanna could hear singing from the hills, and it was such a beautiful voice that they frequently lost control of their rafts and crashed. She became known as the Siren of the West Branch, and according to Shoemaker, caused a very dangerous period on the river, with many more fatalities than usual.

The raftsmen got together, and took an oath to make things right for Sweet Cicely. And when a very rough-looking, mean lumberman came around, looking for work and asking what had ever happened to the Native American girl on the river, they “accidentally” crashed the rafts together, throwing him to his death in the river.

And that night, they heard singing, a joyous, happy tune.

Shoemaker doesn’t really specify if that was the end of the Siren. Maybe she’s at peace now. Or maybe she’s still out there, singing along the banks of the river. I’m not much of a swimmer. If someone’s out there in the summer and you hear singing from the mountains, let me know.

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