The Witch of Plum Hollow

I first wrote about Elizabeth Barnes many years ago when I still lived in Ontario. I came across her while researching a historical poltergeist case that she had been consulted on, and I became fascinated by her story. 

Mrs. Barnes did not self identify as a witch, but many of the things she became famous for could certainly be considered "witchy and so she was dubbed by her contemporaries as the Witch of Plum Hollow. Elizabeth Barnes was a wise woman, gifted psychic, medium, and healer.

Elizabeth was born in the year 1800 in County Cork Ireland. She was the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter much like my own grandmother had been. At a young age she eloped with an Irish sergeant, who her family greatly disapproved of already showing a fierce independence. The young couple emigrated to Canada, and settled in the Cobourg area. However, a few short years later her husband Harrison tragically passed away leaving Elizabeth a very young widow.

Living in a very new country that offered only harsh living conditions at the time Elizabeth chose to remarry as opposed to trying to return to her family in Ireland. Her second husband was a shoemaker by trade and together they were blessed with nine children. In 1843 the family moved to Sheldon’s Corners which is near Plum Hollow, and soon afterwards Mr. Barnes went on to live in Smith’s Falls leaving his family behind, and Elizabeth alone to support all of their children! There was very little in the way of employment opportunities never-mind meaningful ones for women at that time, especially a single parent. Elizabeth wisely turned towards her psychic abilities as a fortune teller and as a healer to support her family.  

She was very good, so good that her uncanny talents were soon sought after by people living as faraway as the USA. Despite her fame she never charged more than 25 cents and often helped and healed for barter or trade. 

Elizabeth achieved quite a bit of notoriety as a psychic when she was credited with helping solve the murder of Morgan Doxtater. His cousin Edgar Harter was tried, convicted and executed for the crime in 1860 just as she had predicted. She also advised George Dagg of the infamous Dagg poltergeist events that occurred in the family home near Shawville Quebec. This was widely reported in the media of that time. She felt that the eerie occurrences were the result of three individuals who had been dabbling in the occult, and set about to put the paranormal activity to rest.

Elizabeth was known throughout her life as a kind woman who was respected as a “wise woman” within her own community. Mother Barnes - The Witch of Plum Hollow - Elizabeth lived to be over ninety years of age and is buried in Sheldon’s Corners cemetery. She is very fondly remembered today, plays have been written about her, her old homestead has been preserved, and there is even a road named for her. 

Elizabeth's witch's cottage (photo credit) 

After my initial article was published I was contacted in 2006 by a direct descendant of Mother Barnes as she became affectionately known. Elizabeth's gr. great grandson not only openly shared family lore with me, but photographs of the extended family and pages from the family's bible. It appears that Elizabeth's extraordinary gifts also have been passed down through the generations to some of her descendants. I cannot describe how exciting it was to be in contact with Elizabeth's family, and I am eternally grateful for what they shared with me. 

Great Granddaughter Gertrude circa 1960’s with photo of Elizabeth Barnes.

Elizabeth Barnes was not the only woman of her era to become a professional witch despite the inherent dangers and ostracization from the so-called respectable society in those days. Women in Elizabeth's position had little choices beyond marriage, prostitution, or scullery-type work, and one of my longer term goals would be to write a social history about these fiercely independent, courageous women who turned to the paranormal to support themselves and their families. 

In 2018 inspired by Mother Barnes and other women like her I portrayed an early 19th century fortune teller at a historical event in Mississauga. I also did mini tarot card readings.  

 

Susan Demeter - Bradley Historical Event 2018

And for all those who appreciated my table, including talk about the hardships of women in the early 19th century I still received a few jeers and disapproval from the parents of a child who was curious about my table. As they were pushing their daughter past me I overheard them say in a stage whisper "we don't believe in people like that." But, judging by the look on the girl's face as gave me a backward look this only served to make the girl even more intrigued by my appearance and what I was up to.  

Sources:

Legends Told In Canada by Edith Fowke 1994 R.O.M

Leeds and Grenville Their First Two Hundred Years By R. Mckenzie 1967 McClelland & Stewart

Personal correspondence with Elizabeth Barnes descendants. 

Visitations

Sauble Beach, Ontario, Canada - My photo

It has been 11 years since my Mother passed away after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. She is forever in my heart, and my mind, and I still miss her very much.

I have been going through some of my older posts from other blogs and websites that I have contributed to, and came across this one earlier today. It reminds me of how fleeting and precious our lives are, and I wanted to reshare it in honour of my Mom.

My Mother held no specific religious beliefs beyond that she would tell us that she believed in the stars, and the Sun, and our Earth. She was very much a Pagan in spirit if not in a self identifying label. She was a very spiritual woman in part due to a near death experience she had after falling into a river when she was 9 years old. And she was very interested in my research into exceptional human experiences.

A couple of weeks after her diagnosis of stage 4 pancreatic cancer with a very grim prognosis we had a long talk about death. She assured me that she had no fear of death itself, but was scared of the process of dying. Her illness came as a shock to all of us, including herself. A few weeks before she collapsed at home, and had to be rushed to the hospital we had taken a long walk on shores of Lake Ontario for her birthday. She loved the beach and she lived close to the lake. We had ice cream cones, and joked about stuff, and nothing seemed unusual or wrong on that warm Summer day. It was three weeks before we knew she was seriously ill.

When my Mom got her diagnosis she was in shock, and grief, and she told me she had no idea how she would be able to fall asleep for all of the anxiety.

Weeks later she told me that when she did go to her bedroom that first night, and climbed into bed with her book, something odd happened. She felt as if someone unseen to the eye had sat down on the bed right beside her. She could feel their weight, and mass as if someone was right there! She said it was like a larger person was sitting there, but she could not see them despite the lights being on.

A ghost?

She was not frightened, in fact she said she felt a great calm come over her, and she felt protected. She knew everything would be ok no matter what happened. And soon afterwards she was able to fall asleep.

Surely, she said to me, "this must have been my guardian angel come to comfort me." Everybody has a guardian angel isn't that right, Susan?" She told me about this strange experience a couple of weeks after it had happened, and as she, and we as a family began processing the knowledge that her life was coming to a close.

The day after the horrific diagnosis my Mom asked me to break the news to my younger sister. She couldn't bear to do it herself knowing it would break my sister's heart. I waited until my sister got off of work, and I told her our Mother was dying, and had very little time left. This was one of the hardest moment's of my life.

Before the end of the evening and as the news began sinking in for both of us, my sister said she had to tell me something, and it couldn't wait. She said she did not want to forget to tell me, knowing that I'm "into weird stuff" and that I'd find it interesting, and needed something else to occupy my thoughts even if only briefly.

Three days prior to the diagnosis of our Mom with terminal cancer my sister, and her partner were in the small town of Sauble, Ontario, Canada, that coincidentally was the same place our parents had first met during the 1950s. My Sis and her partner had stayed in the Sauble Beach area later than they had planned, and so they decided to rent a motel room for the night, and drive back to Toronto in the morning.

After watching a movie, my sister and her partner fell asleep. At some point during the night she was woken up by what she initially thought was her partner sitting down on the bed beside her. She felt it was a bigger person, and she turned around only to realize her partner was snoring, fast asleep on the other side of the bed!

She said she was a little startled by this because she could feel the indentation where this "bigger body" felt as if sitting right beside her, however she told me she was not scared.

The light was very dim, and she could not see this "person" only felt the sensation of someone being right beside you.

She then said it felt like a hand began stroking her head, and she felt comforted, as if the intention of this "unseen hand" was to soothe her, and she turned over and went to sleep.

She said she had no idea what the experience had been all about. In fact she said she probably just dreamed it all, but since she knew I collected "weird stories" she wanted to tell me, and give me the name of the motel so I could post an anonymous report about it to my ParaResearchers of Ontario website. Just in case someone else experienced something similar there or if there was a history of the place being haunted.

Bear in mind that at this point I did not know about my Mom's strange experience, and I had not been able to connect the two encounters yet.

So a couple of weeks later when my Mom began telling me of her "guardian angel" I was bursting, and almost leaping off my chair. And I believe the first thing I said to her was did you talk to Diana?!!!!

My mother and sister had not shared these experiences with each other yet. And both were amazed by this synchronicity. The descriptions of their separate encounters were nearly identical!

I did not have a similar encounter, and I'm not certain how I would have felt about it if I had. I did have several synchronicities leading up to my Mom's diagnosis, but I was only able to decipher them much later on.

There have been thousands of similar experiences reported over the centuries, and probably occurring since the beginning of human history. We are certainly not alone. I hope that somehow in the telling of our family's encounter this will help someone in some way.