Lou’s View – April 28, 2016
The Magical Items of Henry Shoemaker
by Lou Bernard
If you’ve never heard of Henry Wharton Shoemaker, then I’d like to congratulate you on reading my column for the first time. Shoemaker was a writer, editor, and folklorist from McElhattan, and wrote a lot of cool books about local legends that are available at the Ross Library. I can see them from my desk, which is nice, because Shoemaker is also one of my big heroes. That’s why I’ve been known to write columns about him every hour on the hour.
Shoemaker claimed to have interviewed a lot of people from around the county, gathering local legends. A lot of these are awesome—Stories of ghosts and creatures, curses, ancient deities coming from the earth. My kind of stuff.
As I’ve read the stories, I’ve noticed that a lot of them entail the loss, hiding, or discovery of objects—Often, objects with some sort of spell or magical ability to them. If Shoemaker’s stories are to be believed, Clinton County is littered with magic items, like an especially imaginative video game, or an average Dungeons and Dragons evening.
So for those of you in a sort of questing mood, clip and save this column—I’m going to tell you about some of the best magical items from the Shoemaker stories.
The Queen’s Ring: Appearing in “The Spanish Queen’s Castles” in Shoemaker’s collection of papers, this is a ring with strange designs on it, found out in the ruins of the Queen’s Mansion in Farrandsville. According to the legend, a local farm worker found it, and when he put it on and knocked on the door to the ruins, the ghost of the Spanish princess appeared, and married him. I’ve had relationships that made less sense.
The Giantess: This one is my personal favorite. The story comes from “Tales of the Bald Eagle Mountains.” Native American Prince Pipsisseway had a statue made of a lost love, but it had a curse on it. The curse eventually killed him (I’m summing up a lot of these stories here.) The Giantess statue, with its curse, was buried underwater in McElhattan.
It’s worth mentioning here that there is a second Giantess statue, from a related story—“Rock Of Ages,” from “The Indian Steps.” After Pipsisseway’s death, his personal stone-carver confessed his love to the widow, but was rejected. He walked off into the forests of McElhattan, sealed himself in a cave, carved a statue of his love, and then killed himself. So, supposedly there are no fewer than two cursed female stone statues in McElhattan.
Bob Giry’s Earrings: These are a pair of dragon-shaped silver earrings, given to villain Bob Giry of Sugar Valley. They were a Christmas present from the devil. When put on, they enable the wearer to be more evil than ever before. (I didn’t say these are all good magical items.) This story comes from “Pennsylvania Mountain Stories.”
The Lost Chord: Another cool one from “Tales of the Bald Eagle Mountains.” A musician in the Beech Creek area found a small statue of a woman that looked just like his lost love. When he placed it on a piano and played, the statue would move in the direction of wherever on Earth his love happened to be. As the book was written in the early 1900s, presumably they’re both dead now, but I’m assuming the statue is still out there someplace.
The Sword of Pine Creek: This one comes from “The Indian Steps,” as well. This was a powerful sword, used by a soldier named Morgan in the 1700s. Knowing he was about to be captured and killed. Morgan took off his sword and buried it up to the hilt in the ground.
Don’t anybody try to tell me that Clinton County is a boring place. We live in a wonderful area of adventure, filled with lost items of magic, just waiting to be found. Sound like fun to you? Well, it wouldn’t be as cool if I just told you where to look. So come to the library, and check out a Henry Shoemaker book. I think you’ll find that I’m right—There is magic in them.
