Simmy and Smith was one of the early settlers of New Hampshire in 1772.

He built a farm there on the border between Wentworth and Warren and held a local office.

By trade he was a tailor, but like a lot of men of that decade he fought with the continental

army.

It's easy to look back at Simmy and Smith as a typical pioneer from the late 1700s.

He was patriotic and a stereotypical New Englander, I'm sure, but few people in town liked

him.

Why, you might ask?

Because Simmy and Smith, according to all the local stories, was a sorcerer.

It was said that Simmy and 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 Simmy and Smith was in the churn.

If children in town behave badly, it was because he had bewitched them.

He could become as small as a nat 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 weird 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.

...