BETHEL:
THE HILDEBRAND-EVANS WITCHCRAFT TRIAL OF 1805



The only witchcraft trial known to have been recorded in the history of the state of Ohio occurred in Bethel in 1805.
Mrs. Nancy Evans was an elderly lady who lived next door to the Hildebrand family. The family included 2 teenage girls who had active minds and sought recognition from their peers and their entire community. Mrs. Evans lived on the corner of the road St. Rt. 125 and St. Rt. 232. All she owed was her little cabin, her garden and a pet, a black cat.

The girls accused of talking to her black cat in her cabin, alone. The girls claimed a black cat was familiar with the devil, a familiar being of an intimate servant of Satan. The girls would become hysterical as night approached as the claimed to see hideous objects in the air. Devices were made to catch the witch including a large bag of linsey-woolsey. A family member held the bag while some ceremony was performed forcing the witch to seek refuge in the bag. The bad was quickly closed and tied shut and laid on the porch of the Hildebrand house where it was cut into many pieces with an axe. The fragments were collected and burned; it was supposed to kill the witch. All of this effort was unsuccessful the girls still had their bouts of hysteria. Subsequently the village justice of the peace was forced to take action.

It was believed the first witchcraft trial was in 1888. The justice of the peace took the matter in hand. A tradition prevailed that if a witch was weighed against the bible she could not tip the Bible because of its over powering influence against evil. A rude scale was made and set up in a pond, and in the presence of the neighbors, with the Bible at one end and Nancy Evans at the other, she was thus adjured, ‘ Nancy Evans, thou art weighed against the Bible to try thee against all witchcraft and diabolical practices.’ This being done in the name of the law, and with a respect for the word of God, it had a conclusive effect. Nancy was of course, too heavy for the Bible. She willingly submitted to this odd process to bring peace of mind to her ignorant deluded neighbors whom she pitied.

The pond in which Mrs. Evans was tried is believed to have been in the rear of her home where lowered ground can still be seen just directly south of the Evans’ cabin.