Notebook of Ghosts

Welcome to a new series: Indiana Folk Beliefs. For the next five weeks, I will be sharing a new theme each week. These will be short and sweet posts. You’ll notice some of these folk beliefs expand beyond the Hoosier state.

This week we are talking about witchcraft! I actually found A LOT of good stuff, so we are breaking it into two posts. The first post is focused on butter. Yes, butter.

When looking over the 1943 article “Folk Beliefs and Practices from Southern Indiana,” I came across two witchcraft folk practices.

• Having issues with making butter “come,” it’s probably witchcraft! Counteract it by adding a hot poker to the churn.
• Still having trouble with that butter? Put a horseshoe in the churn. You’ll be able to recognize the witch later if you see her with a horseshoe burn.

Then, later, when I was reading my copy of Hoosier Folk Legends (Baker, 1982), I came across a legend that provided some context.

This particular story comes from Giro, Indiana (an unincorporated community located at the northernmost point of Gibson County). It was not uncommon to blame the difficulty of everyday tasks on a neighbor’s bewitchment, especially in this small town.

One day, Mrs. Brown of Giro noticed she was not producing butter, even after churning for several hours. She turned to husband and exclaimed, “Someone has a foot in my cream, so I’ll find out who the witch is this time!” She then heated an iron in the fire and dropped it into the churn, hoping to burn the foot of the person bewitching her butter. Soon, she had nice yellow butter.

The next day, Mrs. Brown stopped by the house of Mrs. Jones for a chat. Mrs. Jones was in great pain and complained about her burned foot. Mrs. Brown left satisfied that she had found the witch.

Sources

Baker, Ronald L. Hoosier Folk Legends. Indiana University Press, 1982.

Halpert, Herbert & Paul G. Brewster. “Folk Beliefs and Practices from Southern Indiana.” Hoosier Folklore Bulletin, vol. 2, no. 2, 1943, pp. 23-38.