Fishermen, Fear, And Fire: The legend of the Witch of Yazoo City
A fire swept through a southern town in 1904, the question is, what caused it? an accident, or a curse?
In the state of Mississippi, just fifty one minutes away fron Jackson, lays a small town by the name of Yazoo city. While Yazoo is known for a few notable things, the most striking has to be a local legend. This myth was not only a violent and horrific tail, but a chilling legacy that some believe, nearly burned down the entire city in 1904.
Brief Background Of Yazoo
Originally named Manchester, before being renamed Yazoo in 1838, the town was formed in 1823 by the Yazoo river with the same name. With the town growing in population, so did it’s accurate, agraculture, and train business to stretch connections around the state. The word Yazoo derived from the Choctaw word “Yazu” meaning “river of death”. Yazoo played a big role during the civil war, as it was the location of the navy yard. During the war, a month long battle in would take place, officially being called “the battle of Yazoo city”
Due to the swampy area, there was a fair amount of dangers from the wild, as well as the threat of yellow fever. Scene the city was located by the Yazoo river, there were naturally people going out to fish, whether it be for fun, food, or business. Unfortunately, some men who wanted to go out for a day of fishing would find themselves in their own watery tomb.
A Stroll Gone Wrong
In the 1880s, there was an old woman who lived in a house by the river of Yazoo. the towns people didn’t know much about her, but disliked her even so. There were however rumors that the woman would lure fishermen into her house and poison them. She would them bury there bodies on a hill in the woods. The origin of these rumors is unknown, but they seemed to have been proved right when a young man passed by the womans house. On a late afternoon, Joe Bob Duggett was walking back home from a fishing trip when he passed by the mysterious woman’s house. That’s when Duggett heard a scream coming from the house. He then went inside the house to investigate. What he saw inside…well, let’s just say where lucky there were no cameras involved as far as we can see. Inside, Duggett saw two men on the floor, with an old woman standing above them, sitting some sort of spell or incantation while waving her arms. The woman had apparently been wearing a black hat and dress. Seeing this horrific sight, Duggett ran out and back to town. Duggett went to the Sheriff to report what he saw. Taking immediate action, the Sheriff took a group of towns men to the house and smashed down the front door. Searching inside, the group were unable to find the old woman, however when they went up to the attic, the group found somthing much worse. Inisde the attic were seven dozen half starved cats hutled together, as well as two skeletons, which were never identified, that were dangling from the rafts. fish bones skatered the floor, and the smelled of death was potent. Once the bunch left the attic, they heard rustling outside in the garden. They looked outside and saw the old woman trying to sneak away from the house.
A Chase That Ends In A Curse.
the group of men chased after the woman through the swamp, with the Sheriff shouting at the mysterious woman to stop in the name of the law. After minutes of chasing the woman, They eventully chased her into a patch of quick sand, were she sank into the pound. But before she sink fully, she would yell a chiling speach at the group;
“I shall return. Everybody alwasy hated me here. I will break out of my grave and burn down the whole town on the morning of May 25, 1904!”
After yelling out her final words, the woman sank into the quick sand.
The authorities were able to recover the body from the quicksand. The next day, the towns people buried her in the center of the city’s cemetery. Around her grave, they put heavy chains around her grave in order to make sure she didn’t forfill her promise. The Sheriff was reported by one of the towns people to say quote;”If she can break through that and burn down Yazoo, she deserves to burn it down”end quote.
Morning Of Madness
On the morning of May 5, 1904, a fire burned through out Yazoo city. The flames were so violent and indiscrimininte, that the entire town nearly burned to the ground. A witness had reported that the winds were unnaturally strong. So strong in fact, that the firemen trying to put out the flames couldn’t do so, due to the strong wind.
After the fire was finally put out, some of the townspeople went back to the witch’s grave to find a eriee sight. The chain around the witch’s grave had been broken, and there was a link missing. The townspeople left the grave where it was, and didi not bother to repair it.
Haunted Legacy
To this day, the grave still sits in Yazoo city, as well as a marking on the stone with the Letter’s, T W. Which is belived to be the real name of the Witch of Yazoo, Tandy Warren.
Thank You for reading this if you did. If you have any other information on this local legend, please let me know.
Sources:
national register of historic places inventory. (1979, April 16). Mississippi Department of Archives and History. MS.GOV. https://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/nom/dist/92.pdf
http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2019/04/flashback-friday-yazoo-city-destroyed.html
https://discover.hubpages.com/literature/A-True-Story-of-Halloween-Fright
https://www.yazooherald.net/front-page-slideshow-news/history-revisited-yellow-fever-epidemic-yazoo
