Page News & Courier
Heritage and Heraldry
Five brides, a witch and a deadly curse
Article of April 5, 2001
No, it’s not Halloween, but in the tradition of Appalachian folk stories, it would seem that any time is a good time for eerie tales. Anyone familiar with the old Foxfire series (see Volume #2 for some good ghost stories from the hill country) would agree. Additionally, when I come up with an idea for a story, it’s hard to keep it on hold for the appropriate season.
When I first heard this story growing up, it gave me a spook. But I didn’t really understand that the effected persons were my great-great grandparents. As I got a little older and I came to understand the relationship, but became skeptical, and being an historian, I had to look some things up. With a little bit of research I was able to place some names and dates to the story and add a bit to its validity.
Then too, I’ve learned over the years that nearly every Hilliard cousin I know can also tell the tale bringing me to believe that there must be something to the story.
The year was 1886, and, in all likelihood, the place was somewhere in the vicinity of Steam Hollow in Page County. Forty-two year old Charles Robert Hilliard and his wife, Margaret Elizabeth, had a grand family of seven boys. One of which was by Charles Robert’s first wife, Martha Susan Monger, who had died in 1871. The youngest of the lot was not yet one-year old.
As the story goes, one day, an elderly lady came to visit Margaret. Whether the exchange between the lady and Margaret was neutral, peaceful or heated, the meeting concluded with the old woman taking great-great grandma's tobacco pouch. The next day or so, Margaret became deathly ill – so ill that the family called for the local doctor.
After the doctor examined her, he must have drawn some unnatural conclusion and stated that he knew what had taken place and that he would see that "witch in hell by morning."
The story goes on to show that Margaret died from the "curse" put upon her by way of the tobacco pouch. The story also leaves us to believe that the witch met a similar fate soon thereafter.
Leaving Charles Robert with seven to care for on his own - naturally, by November of 1887, he was married again, for the third time. Oddly, Charles Robert must have felt as if some curse continued to plague him. When his first wife died (married 1870), they had not even been married two years. He had been married (married 1872) to Margaret for fourteen years. His third wife, Ella Nauman, (married 1887) died after less than six years of marriage. A fourth wife, Sarah Elizabeth Breeden, (married 1894) died after less than two years.
Finally, his fifth wife, Bessie Comer, broke the mold - barely! At the wedding, it is recalled, that after Bessie got into the carriage, the team was spooked and took-off. The team and carriage were stopped and, fortunately, Bessie's life was spared. When asked what he would have done if she had been killed, rumor has it that he replied, "I would have moved on to number six."
Thirty-three years his younger, Bessie was married (1896) to Charles Robert for forty years before he died at ninety-one years old, only four days after their anniversary in 1936.
Margaret Elizabeth Eaton was born in 1849 to Thomas Eaton (of Eaton Hollow in Rockingham County) and Amanda Shifflett. Though the two were not married, they had a large family of at least nine children. Margaret was likely the oldest or second oldest of the lot. Thomas was the son of William and Nancy Eaton, perhaps the descendant of an early (18th century)Baptist minister to the Shenandoah Valley. Amanda was the daughter of Edmond and Millie Wyant Shifflett.
There now, that wasn’t too scary was it . . .?
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