A great tale of a witch riding a white horse started the 'Hexie' legend
LOWER TURKEYFOOT TWP. ― While the dressed-up version of witches are out and about this time of year for Halloween, the folklore legend of the "witch of the hills" who lived in the late 1700s in the township has recently been revisited and memorialized through a historical marker.
It all began at a place called "Hexie" or "Hexebarger" with the word "hex" meaning witch in Pennsylvania Dutch terms and the "barger" suffix meaning hill or mountain. And, that's exactly where this great tale of a witch took place – on a hillside farm in between Kingwood and Ursina in Lower Turkeyfoot Township.
The Hexie roadside community is now being memorialized with a marker to be dedicated at 3 p.m. Wednesday at 1818 Humbert Road at the entrance to Pennsylvania Game Lands No. 111.
According to a 1949 article in the Daily American newspaper, it all began when Capt. Richard Rhodes, a Revolutionary War soldier, moved to Ohio and a young couple named Sammy and Prissy Rugg bought his farm in 1789. Prissy was given a white horse as a wedding present from her father and the horse had to do double duty as a farm horse, according to the article.
Legend has it that Prissy wasn't exactly cut out for being a typical housewife and would sometimes unhitch the horse, mount it from a stump and ride circles around the stump exclaiming loudly to her husband, "I'll make the Welkin ring," or in other words "I'll make the sky ring" as if she had the power to do that. The neighbors heard this from afar and believed Prissy was a witch. It probably didn't help Prissy's reputation that she rode off on that white horse from work routinely at a time when most housewives would stay until the work was done.
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Then, as time went on after the lives of Sammy and Prissy Rugg were over, inhabitants of that area said they would still hear horse hooves coming when nothing was there.
According to "Down the Road of Our Past, Volume II," published by the Rockwood Area Historical and Genealogical Society, Prissy would supposedly "hex" people on these rides on that white horse and when community members would see her coming, they would "scurry off in fear."
One story goes that a man killed her goose one day and she went into a rage, saying he would walk like a goose for the rest of his life. Apparently, the following day he was injured in a mine accident that stiffened his legs so that he actually did walk like a goose and he died believing he had been hexed by the witch, according to "Down the Road of Our Past," page 63.
"Her name was Pricilla and her nickname was 'Prissy' and she ended up having several children who lived all over southern Somerset County and into Fayette County," explained Linda Marker, a volunteer at the Meyersdale Public Library and Rockwood Area Historical Society. "I would guess she was quite a strong-willed woman for her time and for whatever reason, the rumor of her being a witch got started and stuck."
Marker describes two brothers who grew up in the Hexie community and made the place famous through their writings. First, Clyde B. Miller, of Richmond, Texas, who died at the age of 49 in 1995, wrote four quarterly issues of a historical and genealogical paper called the Hexie Gazette. Then, his brother, Sam Miller, who died Aug, 12, 2022, at the age of 84, wrote the book "A Place Called Hexie" in 2010. The fictional novel based largely on historical content is still available on Amazon. The brothers were descendants of Prissy Rugg. After research, Sam Miller believed that Prissy Rugg was an illegitimate child born to a well-to-do family, related to Marker.
"Clyde was living in Texas and became homesick for Hexie so he started writing the newspaper," Marker said. "People loved to get a copy and many have hung on to theirs until today. I truly don't believe Sam would have written the book had it not been for what his brother did earlier with the Hexie Gazette. He wanted to keep the legend alive. Sam was a sweetheart. After he retired from the U.S. Navy, he became the tailor who made suits for the U.S. Navy Blue Angels."
Marker wrote a forward message in Sam Miller's book and has read copies of the Gazette. She said the brothers grew up in Hexie and always heard about the superstitions but didn't believe in witchcraft themselves.
"I think they wanted to keep the legend alive by writing about it," Marker said. "Sam, who died last year, would have been overjoyed if he knew a marker was going in about his hometown area."
How did this get started?
The idea all got started when Marker was volunteering at the library one day a few months back. The staff was talking about a foundation grant for legends and lore markers. It was then she suggested Hexie.
"Terri Foster (the library director) and I had this idea to pursue this grant and when Linda Marker heard us talking she said, 'What about Hexie,'" said Jennifer Hurl, archivist at the Meyersdale Public Library.
William G. Pomeroy Foundation provided the library with $1,500 for the purchase of the marker. The foundation is committed to supporting the celebration and preservation of community history; and working to improve the probability of finding appropriate donor matches or other life-saving treatments for blood cancer patients. Established by trustee Bill Pomeroy in 2005 to bring together these two great causes, the Pomeroy Foundation is a private, philanthropic organization located in Syracuse, New York.
As the nation’s leading funder of historical roadside markers, the Pomeroy Foundation has awarded more than 2,100 grants for markers and bronze plaques in 48 states and Washington, D.C. To learn more about the Pomeroy Foundation, visit wgpfoundation.org.
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Terry Hackney and Jodi Burnsworth, owners and operators of Lens Creek Studios in Meyersdale, installed the "Hexebarger" Legends & Lore marker in Lower Turkeyfoot Township. The marker was manufactured by Sewah Studios Inc. in Ohio., the company that manufactures all the Pomeroy markers.
A brief dedication ceremony will begin at 3 p.m. Oct. 25, at 1818 Humbert Road, Confluence – the entrance to Pennsylvania State Game Lands No. 111. Marker will have a number of Sam Miller's book, "A Place Called Hexie," available for purchase at the dedication.
"What I've learned about Hexie is that it wasn't all that unusual for the times because other places also had this folklore but it definitely is an interesting story," Hurl said. "People lived with a lot of superstitions back then and often tied that into these stories. It seems like the further back you go, the more religious people were and the more religious they were, the more spiritual they were and were aware of good and evil. What we tried to do with the marker is make people more aware of this intriguing piece of Somerset County folklore."
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Hexebarger created from 'witch of the hills' legend
