Young Martha Dandridge Custis

Young Martha Dandridge Custis

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Weird Tales of New Kent- December 1904


 In honor of Halloween we begin our occasional series  . . .cue the music . . .Weird Tales of New Kent . . .



                                       A DAZZLING BEAST.  
                         A New Kent Lady Sees Strange Sights in the Swamp.
                                        (Special to The Times.-Dispatch)
ROXBURY, VA. Dec 19.-New Kent farmers are looking after the birds and is not thought they suffered greatly during the heavy snow. Several flocks or partridges have been seen, and they seem to be all-right. The farmers are  putting out feed and not allowing any to be killed during the snow. 
One of the strangest sights ever seen in this section was witnessed near this place, Saturday, which has left the lady in a terrible state of nervous  prostration. Mrs. Woodson whose home near the Chickihominy(sic) Swamp, heard a noise like the bleating of a lamb. Fearing some little lamb had wandered away, she went to its succor. When a few rods off she noticed the head of an object like that of a sheep coming towards her. Its eyes were a light brown, while its ears were like those of a sheep. Its body was the shape of some large snake, apparently about four feet long, full of scales. As it would move in the sunlight the different colors were dazzling in their brightness and so changeable that it caused her eyes to pain terribly. 
Mrs. Woodson ran to the house after the male members of the family to tell them of her strange find, but when the men got to where the beast or serpent was it had retreated to the swamps of the Chickahominy. It was tracked to the waters edge; there all traces were lost of the strange intruder. Hunger had undoubtedly forced it from its hiding place, as two rabbits and three birds had been caught by the strange beast, as portions of each were found by the huntsmen.

-Times Dispatch, 20 December 1904


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