Zimian Smith was one of the early settlers of New Hampshire in 1772. He built the farm

there on the border between Wettworth and Warren, then held the local office. By trade,

he was a tailor, but like a lot of men of that decade, he fought with a continental army.

It's easy to look back at Zimian Smith as the typical pioneer from the late 1700s. He was

patriotic and a stereotypical New Englander, for sure, but few people in town liked him.

Why, you might ask? Because Zimian Smith, according to the local stories, was a sorcerer.

It was said that Zimian would saddle and bridle a random neighbor and then ride them all over the

countryside, just despite them. When women were having trouble churning butter and it simply

wouldn't work, it was because they said Zimian Smith was in the churn. If children in town behave

badly, it was because he had bewitched them. He could become a small zinnat and move through

the keyholes of your locked doors. He could become larger than a giant and would stalk through the

forest at night. Or so, they said. Stories like these were common in early America. They were a

mixture of fact and fiction, of historical truths and hysterical superstition. In an effort to

explain the unexplainable, sometimes neighbors and prominent figures were thrown under the proverbial bus.

The era between the mid-15th and late-16th centuries was precarious for many people. This

wasn't the age of Harry Potter, witchcraft wasn't something that was spoken of lightly or with

a sense of wonder and excitement. It caused fear. It ruined lives. It made good people do

bad things, all in the name of superstition. I'm Aaron Manky and this is lore.

Superstition was common in the late-16th hundreds. If something odd or unexplainable happened,

the automatic response from most people was to blame the supernatural. But most scholars agreed

that these beliefs were merely excuses to help people deal with neighbors and family members

that they didn't care for. If you didn't like somebody, it was common to accuse them of witchcraft.

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