afa-wart healing research fieldnotes

7/30/2019 AFA-Wart Healing Research Fieldnotes

1/8

Alabama Folklife AssociationJoyce H. Cauthen Fellowship, Round 1

Fieldnotes / Final ReportTraditional Wart Cures in Northwest Alabama

Sarah Carter and Jennifer JamesonFieldwork dates: 6.27.2012 6.29.2012

CONTEXT by SarahIn 2000, I endured a variety of wart treatments for some unsightly warts on myright leg. My method of ignoring them and pretending they would go away wassurprisingly unsuccessful. After having them all frozen at once (about 27), andputting on a variety of dermatologist prescribed wart creams, I was still just aswarty as ever. Feeling hopeless about the whole ordeal, my mother suggested Igo see the wart healer in my familys home place, Winfield, Alabama.I had heard about wart healers my whole life, but was unsure about the actualprocess myself. Cleavus Stivner, a distantly-related marvel, was the subject ofmany of my mother and uncle's childhood stories. Having gone blind later inlife, Cleavus was seemingly undaunted and performed tasks of mythicproportions for a sightless person.

My Uncle, Duane Hot Hughes, said in addition to Cleavus taking warts off forhim, Cleavus continued to practice his business of broom making after he losthis sight. Uncle Hot had memories of hearing his straw-cutting machines cuttingbrooms long after the light had faded, leaving him in utter darkness. He didnt,of course, see that it was dark outside, but this darkness and the apparent

danger of operating potentially life-threatening machinery sightless was agreatly admired trait in my home.Another feat Cleavus was said to have performed is driving while blind. His wife,who did not care much for driving, convinced him to be her chauffeur long afterhe was able to see the road. Because they had lived in the Possum Flatts areatheir whole lives (Winfield and surrounding areas), it was sufficient that sheshould direct Cleavus as he barreled on down the curvy, country roads.When we did finally go to the wart doctor in Winfield, Cleavus was no longerliving. I went with my mom, and cousin Kelsey, both with warts of their own, to

the home of Ira Baccus, who my uncle knew from his youth pastorate at WinfieldFree Will Baptist Church. A deacon himself, Ira (whos name is pronounced by allas Iree), was in his final years but still willing to see us.

The Baccus' house was extremely tidy and well-kept. Mrs. Baccus was very kindand chatted with us until Ira could see us. My mother, Deborah Hughes Carter,cousin, Kelsey Hughes Elmore, and I each had warts, so Ira went one at a time.He counted the number of warts each person had, and tied that many knots in a


2/8

string. Then, he cut the string in half, and threw it on the ground. He would nottouch the string after that point, and we were instructed to pick up the stringand bury it. Damp, dark places were the best places to bury the string becausethe rotting of the string signified the disappearance of the warts. Another thingIra said was, "Don't think about it anymore. Don't talk about it anymore." Aftera couple months of not thinking or talking about it, we all conferred and foundall parties were healed.

Jenn had recently spoken with Joyce Cauthen at the National Folk Festival inNashville about the upcoming Cauthen Fellowships, and was looking for aresearch topic. After I casually mentioned my wart healing story to her, Jennmentioned the opportunity to document it for AFA, and we agreed to write aproposal together. I had no idea that wart healing was as unknown as I found itwas, and we decided to try and get as much information on the practicedocumented as we could.

FIELDNOTES by Jenn and Sarah

June 27, 2012 | MARY DEAN McDONALDWe arrived in Winfield,Alabama in the late afternoonand met up with Sarahsfamily, Duane (Hot) and LynnHughes for an early dinner.When the opportunity forthis project arose, Sarahtalked with her aunt, Lynn

Carden Hughes, aboutcurrent practitioners of warthealing in town. Because sheis such an active member ofthe community, many peoplewere willing to share theirknowledge on the subject

and inform about individuals in the area who could give further information.Without her help and community connection, Im not sure how we would havefound such helpful interviewees. After that, we met up with Mary DeanMcDonald [a pseudonym, her mothers name] at the location of her choicewhich was the McDonalds in downtown Winfield, AL. She had just come from

her Church of Christs Wednesday night service, and she spoke with us abouther experience of healing warts for people of her community.

Mary Dean is a Caucasian woman in her late 50s/early 60s. Working in banks formost of her life, she is now a childcare professional. Mary Dean learned the artof wart healing from her mother at a very young age, and tested it successfullyon children in her neighborhood. She said that her mother learned it from an oldwoman who passed through town, but does not know any other detail about the


3/8

original source. Mary Dean had not used her skill in many years, but stillfelt strongly connected to it, even though she had not told many of herfriends or family about her ability, including any of her sons.

Mary Deans process for curing a wart involved saying something and doingsomething, although she kept the specifics under wraps, as her belief was thatas soon as she tells someone how to do it (essentially passing it on), she willlose the ability to take off warts, herself. On what she recites/thinks to cure awart, and its source: Its nothing to do with a witch pot with smoke coming outof it. Nothing to do with a cross. Its just somethingdont know whatits justsomething, if that makes any sense. She insisted that those who participate(healer and patient) must truly believe that it will work, for it to be successful.She also imparted that many of the folks who have this skill dont broadcast itit remains rather private, only circulating among her/his immediate community.What surprised us was how the conversation turned swiftly fromhealing warts to other neighboring folk healing processes such as a

few forms of divination such as predicting the sex of a baby. [This wasmostly discussed after we had formally ended the interview recording]. MaryDean felt strongly that healing is a specific gift, distinct only to certainindividuals who had the gifting and believed in the process. She was not yetsure she would pass it on to her children, but after the interview decided thatshe would pass it on to someone.

That evening, Aunt Lynn told us that Tracy Estes, a writer with the localnewspaper, the Mario Co. Journal Record, had heard about the research we weredoing and wanted to write something up about it for the paper. He emailed us alist of questions, and we typed up responses that evening, to send back to him.

The next morning we got up early to meet at his office at the Journal Record indowntown Winfield so that he could get a snapshot of us for the story. It was aquick meetinghe simply posed us behind his desk, as if we were typing on hiscomputer. The story was published on the front page on the Journal Record onAugust 1 (a scanned copy is in our Misc. file).

June 28, 2012 | GINA BRYANTOn Thursday, we had threescheduled interviews. Thefirst was Gina Bryant at theWinfield Community Center.Gina, a Caucasian woman in

her late 40s, is on staff andworks with programming atthe center. Aunt Lynn hadbeen given Ginas namewhen she was looking forinformants for the project.We met in the AlcoholicsAnonymous room at the


4/8

community center, and asked Gina to tell us what she could about her and herfamilys involvement in the healing process of warts. She told us about hergrandmother receiving the gift from an elderly African American woman wholived near her mother as a child. Gina was close with her grandmother, and felthonored that her grandmother imparted the gift to her before she passed away.For her, the process involved a certain level of privacy between patient andhealer. She kept her method identical to what her grandmother toldher, and felt this was essential to the effectiveness of the process.Similar to Ira Baccus method, Ginas steps to taking off a wart include:tying a knot, rubbing the string on the wart(s), repeating that pernumber of warts, then burying the string after the person has left (hergrandmother put a rock over it). Gina alluded to praying a silent prayer anddescribed this step, which could not be articulated to us due to the secretivenature of the practice. Gina says the healing process takes about a coupleweeks. Gina, who is a Christian, sees wart healing as an importantSouthern tradition based on faith.

Gina also explained other healing traditions she remembers hearing discussedduring her childhood. For chicken pox, she described an African Americanwoman coming and slitting the throat of the family's best chicken over the headof the affected child. For thrush, children were taken to the seventh son whohad never seen his father, and have him blow in the child's mouth. She alsodiscussed American Indian traditions she heard from her Cherokee mother:willow bark for poison ivy, sage and sassafras tea for worms (for children).

One interesting aspect of Gina's healing is that she is a nurse. Shesaid there is no medical explanation of which she was aware whichexplained wart healing, saying I can't see any scientific reason that

they should go away as a nurse (or as an intelligent human being), butit just works. Additionally, working at the community center enables her todevelop and implement programming for a large age range of individuals. Shehas also healed a large number of individuals of varying ages. She recalledpeople approaching her at children's baseball games she was attending asking ifshe could take off warts for their kids. She also healed a wart for an elderly co-worker who had already scheduled a doctor's appointment before Gina offeredto heal her. Gina's healing gift mirrors her occupational strengths and extend tothe whole Winfield community.

June 28, 2012 | HAROLD

SPANNIn the afternoon we sat downin Harold Spanns livingroom, in a beautiful housewith a large porch, tuckedaway on a country road. Hisyard, a sort of sanctuary forbirds. We set up the recorder


5/8

in the living room, surrounded by Smoky and Spicy the dogs, and Cuddles thecat. Harold, a widower with two grown sons, had turned 77 year old just one dayprior. He was born and raised in Winfield, but lived in Texas and Virginia,working for the Dept. of Corrections in Richmond, VA. He retired at 52, thenmoved back to Winfield, Alabama so his sons could go to school in Marion Co.

Harold told us that he received his ability to heal warts from his uncle, whopassed the tradition along to him when he was quite young. Unlike our otherinformants, the "healing gift" was not a mysterious thing to be lost when passedon. His uncle simply asked if he wanted to do it, and told Harold he thought hewould be able to. Harold had warts on his right hand (age 11 or 12), then hisuncle, Jim Spann, said, I can take them off [] Im gonna touch them and thenyoull look one day and theyll be gonebut you got to believe theyll be gone.One or two weeks later he was washing his hand in the creek and he noticed hiswarts were gone. Not long after, the mother of a young child asked him if hecould take off her childs wart. He tried, and it worked for the child. Word soongot around that Harold could move warts, as he put it.

In our other interviews, each of our informants expressed that thetradition was, for them, a relatively secret or private process, but notso, for Harold. For him, it seemed to be more about truly believing in theprocess than any secretive element. He does say something when seeing apatient, but does not recite a special line or anything. He touches it, he rubs it,he looks at the person and says, Do you believe this can be done? He told usthat when he works with a patient, There are things that go thru your mind andin your beliefs about this person. Then when he departs from the person, hesays youll forget about this. Typically, theyll report it as gone just days orweeks later.

As a Christian man, we asked him about the source of the ability to take offwarts. He said, You have different things that go through your mindwhen you do this. Its not your power, it could be [a] higher power.Thats my feelingthat you dont do this on your own-self. [] Here asa person here, we may have some power, but we dont have all thepowers. To me, its God who has the power. Its not power-doin, Hispower may come through us. [] My mind is on God when Im doingit. He did wonder, though, about the scientific aspect of the healing: I readsome articles about it [] I was always interested in why it was that I couldremove them. I wondered if it was a chemical in my skin with a chemical in theirskin that might cause it to go away. Then I said [laughing], Well, Walmart

might have put me out of business they got that over-the-counterstuff.

From his Uncle Jim he also learned to "witch for water," which was aservice greatly utilized by community members. Harold said that his unclewould hold "a forked branch from a pitted fruit tree" up in the air and count thesteps he took before the stick's end was pointed directly at the ground. The


6/8

number of steps taken equaled the number of feet which needed to be dug tofind water. Sarah asked him, So, you hold it kind of loose?and he responded No, you hold it tight. Ive held it tight and you can hear itsqueaking in my hand. Youd have unbelieving people, and Id say, no, you canhear it squeaking.

Jim insisted that the two traditions go hand in hand, stating, If youcan do [warts], you can do the water [witching.] Whats interestingwas the way he spoke about these skillshe sees the removal of a wartas a natural process, while water witching, or divining, is a sort ofparanormal or supernatural process. Removing a wartits just anatural thing, but, I mean, its not a mystery as far as the witching forwater and stuff like that.

Harold's yard is breathtaking.Full of large, floweringbushes and dotted byhomemade, squirrel-rigged

bird feeders, the yard wasstill tidy and Harold was kindenough to give us a tourdespite the heat. One of thebest features was a particularbird feeder which had beensurrounded by a foot-longplastic ring making itimpossible for squirrels tosee the feeders from the

ground. In the yard, Harold told us he had been a prison warden for 30 years in

Richmond, VA, spending 10 years of that time running a prison farm.

When we asked if he plans to pass the tradition on, he told us: Its natural tome. I was hoping it would pass along to one of my sons, but I dontthink it didmaybe itll go to one of their grandsons [laughter]Illhave to check them out!

June 28, 2012 | CATMAMA BOXCat Box had been working inher garden all day when wearrived. It was around supper

time, and still close to 100degrees, but we sat on herporch. Joined by her grandson,Thackary, Mrs. Box was stillnot convinced that she'd beable to tell us much, ifanything, about healing. Toher, healing is a very


7/8

private, and secret thing. She felt that if she revealed her process, shecould lose her gift. She was able to tell us that she tied knots equal tothe number of warts, but not what she was thinking or said during theprocess.

The Box's house is clearly the center of their extended family's activities. Oneof the Box's grown sons was at the house helping Mr. Box fix some farmequipment. A teenage grandson stopped by to say hello and give hugs, andRita, Cat's daughter, stopped by to join in the interview after work. Rita and Catsaid almost all the family lives close, and pointed to a house and piece ofproperty across the street where Thackery's family lives.

Among the many things Cat said about healing, she expressed pity at thescarring children today receive when they have warts frozen off. She took wartsoff her own children, and those in the community. Rita remembered a younggirl who was covered in warts coming to the house several times. She said Catfaithfully tied knots, and healed almost every single wart. They both agreed

there were hundreds of them.

We discussed the spiritual aspect in details because Mr. Box is aEvangelical minister. His usual comment about the whole process is, "Ipreach the gospel, and Mama does Voodoo." Neither seem to truly feelthat there is any Voodoo (in the true cultural sense of the word) involved, butthis quotation well summarizes the tension between this type oftraditional folk healing and faith helping as practiced by manychurches.Sarah's cousin, Kelsey Elmore joined the group in the last section of

the interview because she needed a wart healed. It was still lingering afterit was frozen off, and, knowing the Box's from being friends with theirgranddaughter, felt comfortable asking Cat to help. They both allowed us towatch and we observed just what Cat told us, although nodocumentation was permitted. It was truly a beautiful and intimate momenton the porch, and a privilege to witness the healer/patient dynamic betweenMama Box and Kelsey. Mrs. Box counted the wart, tied a knot in the string, andwalked around the side of the house with Kelsey. Speaking to Kelsey later, shesaid Cat buried her string. This was different from when Ira Baccus healed herwarts previously. Mama Box told us in the interview, "I don't go in secretand I don't make a show of it either, and that was very much the casewith the process we witnessed.

June 29, 2012 | KELSEY ELMORE


8/8

On Friday morning we met a very pregnantKelsey, who is Sarah's cousin, at the framingshop where she and her husband worked indowntown Winfield. BAMA posters, and BearBryant paraphernalia in gilded frames coveredmost walls. We sat in the office, and Kelsey toldher side of the story of going to see Ira Baccusat age 18 to have a fit of over 100 warts healed.After going to see Ira, her warts were notinstantly healedit took about 5-6 months. Thewarts began to itch one day, then the very nextday they were gone.

Before seeing Mama Box that Thursday evening,Kelsey, who had a fairly irritated wart on herhand, had tried to get it frozen off by adermatologist months earlier, to no avail. She

told us that having the wart taken off byCat Box felt natural to her, and not forcedor strange to her. She mentioned that shehadnt heard much talk against the

tradition, as she grew up within some proximity to it. We also discussed ifwe felt her current wart healing would be affected by her pregnancy, but we alldecided it wouldn't (and it did not!).

afa-wart healing research fieldnotes

Documents