The Methodist preacher and local historian Rev. A.B. Wright knew the area of Fentress County, Tennessee, and the surrounding area intimately. Recalling his time preaching in the neighbourhood in the 1880s, he wrote: ‘Superstition has a strong grasp on many. It is a popular opinion among some, that witches are prevalent and doing a great deal of harm; and some even profess to know how to kill them’.17 Little had evidently changed in half a century. For in 1831 a complicated case of suit and counter suit arising from accusations of witchcraft against a man in Fentress County revealed both the depth of feeling about witches and the ambiguous operation of local justice at the time.18
In the summer of 1830 several young women in Fentress County, which had been created only seven years before, suffered from fits and other symptoms attributable to witchcraft. They all recovered after several months except for Rebecca French, aged in her thirties, daughter of Joseph French.19 Originally from Virginia, French had brought his family to Fentress County sometime around 1807. His was a prosperous and respected family in the area. Joseph was a justice of the peace, and at the time of these events Rebecca and her parents lived on a 600-acre spread a few miles west of Clarkrange in the south-western comer of the county.
Before going any further, though, it is best to clear up some problems with the sources in this case. Brief details have been reprinted several times based on those in a biography of the Tennessee judge Jefferson Dillard Goodpasture published in 1897. Its author was his son Albert Virgil, a lawyer and clerk of the State Supreme Court. Goodpasture Sr knew those involved in the Fentress case well. Yet in the account of events provided by his son no mention is made of the French family. Furthermore, in recent references the date of the case is put as 1835. It is a newspaper report from the Nashville Herald, reprinted in several other newspapers, that confirms the date as 1831 and puts the French family centre stage. Genealogical research confirms the details of the French family as recorded in the Nashville Herald, so it would seem that either the Goodpastures did not know the full story or deliberately erased the French family from the case, perhaps out of sensitivities towards relatives. There was good reason to do so, as we shall see. The court records would have clarified these details but they no longer survive, having probably perished in the fire that destroyed Fentress County Courthouse in 1905.20
Back to events then: during the winter of 1830 Rebecca was treated for bewitchment by Isaac Taylor and Pleasant Taylor, who the Nashville Herald described as ‘celebrated for their skill in putting witches to flight’. Both men were recorded in the County Tax List of 1833. Genealogies indicate that Pleasant was a young blacksmith who lived in Jamestown, the County seat, while Isaac Taylor was a well-established surveyor in the area.21 In January an old man named Stout who lived along the Obeds River that flows through the County, paid a visit to Squire French's house. As soon as he appeared Rebecca was seized with the telltale signs of violent jerks and trembling. She demanded that Stout give her a rope that he had brought with him. He initially declined to do so, but, concerned for his personal safety, he reluctantly handed it over. When the rope was tied around her waist her symptoms stopped. In the minds of some of those present, this was a sure sign that Stout was the witch responsible for Rebecca’s condition. Stout understandably made a quick exit. Rebecca’s torments returned.
One Charles Staunton now requested a warrant for the arrest of Stout, which was granted by Esquire French. A constable and five men armed with guns and silver bullets apprehended the suspected witch and brought him before French and a crowd of locals. Further proof was now sought of Stout’s guilt. Those present were ordered to take Rebecca by the hand and pronounce the words: ‘May the Great God of heaven, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, bless you’. Several people went through this process but without any effect. When Stout was forced to go through the same ritual at gunpoint her tortures immediately ceased. Rebecca now procured a warrant, presumably from her father, for the arrest of Stout on the charge of witchcraft. Stout, in turn, took out a warrant against Isaac Taylor, Pleasant Taylor, Charles Staunton, and others for assault and battery and false arrest. In the midst of winter, with snow deep on the ground, the parties made there way to Jamestown, some twenty miles or so away, to have the merits of their cases assessed by the county magistrate Joshua Owens, who was a good friend of Judge Goodpasture. The charge against Stout was considered first. Owens decided to hold him to bail in the considerable sum of $2,000 to appear before the next county court in February.
On the due date Rebecca failed to turn up at the courthouse, which had been completed only four years earlier from plans drawn up by John M. Clemens, who was the father of Mark Twain and one of the town’s lawyers. Rebecca French was ordered to pay costs. She appealed and the case was brought before a jury at the next Tennessee Circuit Court. Evidence was given that Stout had been seen exiting through the keyholes of houses, and that as well as afflicting the local women he had harmed horses and livestock through his witchery. The prosecuting attorney General John B. McCormick decided, however, that the prosecution could not be sustained and refused to proceed with the indictment. The decision apparently caused uproar amongst the Fentress hill folk who believed justice had not been done.
At the May session of the county court it was the turn of Stout’s persecutors to stand trial. Squire Joseph French was called for the defence and deposed that he had never believed in witchcraft until confronted with his daughter’s suffering, and that no attempt to harm Stout took place at his house—other than the unpleasant business of knocking him down with a chair. Pleasant Taylor also affirmed his belief in witchcraft. Isaac Taylor pleaded not guilty but was found guilty. He appealed, and once again the Circuit Court was confronted with the issue of witchcraft. Judge Abraham Caruthers, founder of the Cumberland School of Law, presided over the appeal. The prosecution rested its case on the fact that the handling of Stout for his supposed crime was permissible under the English Conjuration and Witchcraft Act of 1604, which, it was stated, had never been repealed in the state of Tennessee. Judge Caruthers gave this argument short shrift, stating that the Act had never been in force in the state. He informed the jury that the prosecution’s case was ‘destructive of, repugnant to, or inconsistent with the freedom and independence of this state, and form of government’. The decision of the county court was upheld.