Lou’s View – March 31, 2016
Lottie Schwartz, Queen of the Faries
by Lou Bernard
This column marks the final week of Women’s History Month, during which I have been writing about notable women from the county. During March, I have wanted to accomplish two things: A- Write columns about local women, who had B- Not been already written to death. Everyone likes the stories of Annie Halenbake Ross, Maria Molson, Annie Snyder….But I’ve written about them before. I wanted to choose some new topics this month.
Nothing says that these have to be real women, however, in the sense that they actually existed and everything. I’ve already written about Catherine Smith, who comes as close to being fictional as you can imagine. So, why don’t I take a woman from local legend?
In the Henry Shoemaker book “The Indian Steps,” there’s a chapter called “The Fairy Parks.” It’s all about how fairies infested the local parks in roughly the Swissdale area, and could often be seen at night in the forests and cemeteries.
Shoemaker explains that these fairies aren’t native to Pennsylvania. Don’t be silly. Of course there aren’t indigenous fairies here. These were imported. These particular fairies were an invasive species from Germany.
The story centers around a woman: Lotte Schwartz.
I have to take a moment and caution you that Shoemaker was known to take liberties with his stories, or heard them from people who did. He wrote a lot of cool old legends into his books, but there’s been some debate about how accurate they were. Even in the ones that can be documented, sometimes he changed the names. So I have no idea if Lotte Schwartz was real or not. But I feel the same way about Donald Trump, and that hasn’t stopped anyone from writing about him.
Lotte Schwartz was born Lotte Rudesehli in Wurtemburg, Germany. As a young girl, she discovered that there were fairies living in the forests near her village, and they chose to make her their queen. (I’m summing this up. If I told it the way Shoemaker did, this would take all week.) She would often sneak off into the forest to be with them. As she grew older, however, she discovered something more unlikely than fairies: She discovered boys.
At least, one particular boy. Wilhelm Schwartz, who had already been in love with her. The two of them became a couple, and she shared with him her secret of the fairies.
Not long after, Lotte’s parents announced that they were moving the family to America. Lotte didn’t want to go, but when you’re a kid, you go where your parents go. That night, she and Wilhelm went out to the forest to tell the fairies that their queen would be leaving.
Some of the fairies, unexpectedly, begged her to take them along. So Lotte announced that she would bring as many as she could carry in a sack. (Shoemaker is very careful about explaining that they punched air holes in the sack.) With Wilhelm’s help, Lotte packed up a dozen or so fairies, and brought them to America, paying off customs officials along the way. (Shoemaker is also very careful about detailing the necessary steps to smuggle fairies into the country. You know, in case you should want to try it.)
Finally Lotte and her family settled into their new home, a cabin along the Coudersport Pike. She released the fairies, who inhabited the local forests. Lotte and Wilhelm were married, grew up together, and had children and grandchildren. The fairies also had children and grandchildren, all of whom happily lived in the local forests and parks. This explains the heavy fairy infestation in that area, which I am sure the DCNR has noticed.
Lotte died at an old age, and the legend says that on a full moon, the fairies still come out and dance around her grave. So that’s one way to figure out who she really was, I suppose—Drive out to Woodward Township, sit in cemeteries during a full moon, and loudly announce that you’re waiting for fairies to show up. It’ll be fun! Tell the cops I said it was okay.
