Halloween 2009

The Corn Witch, or Field Witch, is a figure from early rural American folklore. According to the legend, the first manifestations occurred in the eastern part of the country in the early 1800s. Rural farmers frequently blamed livestock deaths and crop blights on curses, or hexes. Inhabitants of the wooded areas surrounding and dividing their farmland were often seen as the source of the hexes, and labeled as witches. The origins, and existence, of these people are debated, but purported sightings and writings of the time identify them often as possessing malevolent intent and monstrous visages, "...miserable termagants clothed in scraps from our scarecrows."

By 1850, due to deficient fertilization methods and acidic nutrient-poor eastern soils, early pioneers abandoned their farmland homes and moved further inland for the fertile acres to the west. For many, this substantiated the belief in cursed acreage and propagated lurid tales of the Corn Witch.