A Tragic & True Story of a Farmer's Daughter

​                            Rhoda's father and mother, Jacob and Rachel, moved west from Pennsylvania to Illinois, first stopping in Indiana where Rhoda was born (the youngest of eight children), and then on to Quincy, Illinois. Rhoda it was said, was a “beautiful young woman,” and in 1850, Rhoda met and fell in love with a neighbor boy, Charles Phenix. Charles' mother, Nancy, was not amused and forbid Charles from marrying Rhoda. Believing Charles' mother had placed a curse upon her, at 16, Rhoda's life took a terrifying and tragic turn. Her life began a downward spiral into the little known world of the insane. Inexplicable events began to happen, which many attributed to the “evils of witchcraft.” Rumors of the practice of witchcraft surrounded her family for many years. It is likely such rumors were due to the myths and legends of her grandmother, my 3rd g-grandmother, Mollie Derry - The Fortuneteller of the Revolution. Mollie became both respected and feared for her practice of witchcraft. It was said that she lived in absolute destitution in a hovel in the mountains above Uniontown, PA, and that she could “command rattlesnakes to guard her and her cabin,” yet she was widely known throughout South West Pennsylvania as “a healer, using herbs and roots.” Mollie was a renowned practitioner of both “Pow-wowing” and “Der Hexen Hammer” (The witches hammer). She is said to have owned an “Erd Spiegel,” meaning “Earth Mirror,” some type of crystal ball by which she could foretell the future...
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