When Melanie Chisamore saw the growing pile of quarters left on her great-great-great-grandmother’s gravestone, she felt a sense of awe.
“I was blown away … by how special it seemed,” says Chisamore, who believes people leave the coins behind because that was the price her ancestor Jane Elizabeth Martin Barnes charged to tell a fortune in the mid-1800s.
“The fact that the number of coins continues to increase means that more and more people are learning about her and understanding her place and our history here.”
WATCH: Witch or wise woman? The story of the so-called ‘witch of Plum Hollow’:
Why this woman keeps the legend of the “witch” of Plum Hollow alive
Melanie Chisamore’s great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Barnes, charged 25 cents to predict your future in the mid-1800s.
Chisamore has made it her goal to share the story of Mother Barnes, who also became known as the Witch of Plum Hollow and lived in a log cabin in Sheldon’s Corners, Ontario, just outside the hamlet of Plum Hollow, about 70 miles away. south of Ottawa.
She says Barnes emigrated to Canada from Ireland after marrying against her family’s wishes. Her first husband died and her second husband left her after they had nine children together, seven of whom survived.
“It seems that because of her circumstances she started telling fortunes,” Chisamore said.
Chisamore says the number of coins left on Elizabeth Barnes’ gravestone has increased over the past two years, a possible indication of the growing interest in her ancestor’s story. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
Telling fortunes proved lucrative for Barnes.
“If you do the math… the average worker at the time was making a dollar a week and she was making two, three, four dollars a day,” said Elaine Farley, who works as Mother Barnes’ interpreter and reenactor. collaboration with the local museum.
Chisamore says this even allowed Barnes to cover the cost of the cabin she shared with her children.
Elaine Farley is a Mother Barnes interpreter and reenactor for the Athens and Area Historical Museum, giving presentations and conducting extensive research on the story. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
Farley said that when reading tea leaves, Barnes would have the person spin the cup three times before pouring the leaves onto the saucer. The pattern they created would give them an idea of what to expect in life. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
Reading the tea leaves
Although Barnes’ cabin is now privately owned, some of her belongings, including the table where she read tea leaves or told horoscopes upstairs, are now on display at the nearby Athens and Area Historical Museum.
Farley points out the two finger-width holes just below the edge of the table, through which Barnes would presumably stick a stick to help with the drama.
“It was often thought that she was somehow eavesdropping on messages to people, saying she was getting information from the great beyond,” Farley said.
It is believed Barnes would use small holes in the side of her table to tap and create other effects that suggested she was in communication with the spirit world, Farley said. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
It also helped that we were on the second floor.
“It’s a small building, and even if you talked softly, she heard your conversation. So if you say to your friend, ‘Well, I’m going to ask if Joe is really going to ask me to marry him,’” she’s already heard that. , Farley said.
However Barnes accessed her knowledge, Farley says it’s clear she was a perceptive and intuitive woman. For this she credits Barnes’ upbringing in a wealthy family and the classical education she received, unlike most others in the area.
Ottawa-area newspapers have long covered Mother Barnes’ story. On the left is her log cabin where Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, is said to have approached, visiting the fortune teller, pictured on the right. (Ottawa Journal/Kingston Whig Standard)
Myth or marketing?
When it comes to Mother Barnes, it’s difficult for historians to separate fact from fiction — and Farley says Barnes wanted it that way.
“I believe some of the myths were created by her,” Farley explained. “I think she was able to capture the imagination and make people say, ‘Oh, look at that!’”
Barnes claimed to be the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, which, according to Farley, was seen as the mark of a clairvoyant. Although she also sometimes claimed to have been born in Spain, Farley says Barnes’ birth certificate refutes this; in fact, she would change her country of origin or religion from one census to another.
The small two-story cabin where Elizabeth Barnes lived with her children. Chisamore said Barnes was able to buy it herself with the proceeds from her fortune-telling business. It is currently privately owned and not open to the public. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
Farley says Barnes became so popular that there was a shuttle bus from the train station in Athens, Ont., to her cabin, where people lined up along the path waiting to be told their fortunes.
‘People came from all over the country. They came from the United States to see her,” Farley said.
Legend has it that one of her most famous visitors was Sir John A. Macdonald, before he became Prime Minister of Canada.
The story goes that he went to see Barnes and she told him that the nation’s capital would be in what is now Ottawa. Whether this actually happened is up for debate, but Farley said there is evidence that Macdonald visited the area.
Witch or wise woman?
For Farley, that fame likely led to the “Witch of Plum Hollow”—a name first coined in the late 1860s, which Barnes apparently never disputed.
But Sally Smid, who runs the museum in Athens, said the exhibition is intended to teach people that Barnes was more than just a witch.
“When we studied her, we were a little offended that she was called a witch,” Smid said, although she admits the name is driving a lot of interest in her story, with people posting on the agency’s Facebook page museum search for references to it. and visitors suggesting they should push the witch story more.
Barnes’ exact burial place is unknown. A local couple from Plum Hollow paid for this memorial headstone under the Sheldon Cemetery sign, but Chisamore said the dates on it are incorrect. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
“There’s a lot of interest again in clairvoyance and tarot cards and all the other forms of ‘spiritual knowledge,’ I guess you’d call it… so I think that’s fueling the interest,” said Farley, who also prefers Mother Barnes to the term ‘witch’.
Keeping the past alive
However, Chisamore doesn’t mind her grandmother being called a witch, and said the cousins she’s talked to feel the same way. They all grew up hearing Mother Barnes’ stories.
“My father in particular was very interested in her story,” she said.
He died in January, and now the family documents detailing Mother Barnes’ history have been passed on to Chisamore. Sharing the story is a task she takes seriously.
“Things like gravestones will fade over time,” she said. “But if we can keep the stories going… whether it’s through print or through video, or just through stories that we share from generation to generation… those people stay alive.”