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The Legend of the Hatchet Man
Sometime in the early 1840's, a mysterious hermit built his home
on land once occupied by a local Native American tribe in a part of
the woods known as Augumtocooke. Settlers in the area were unnerved
by the stranger as he would not speak to them at all - instead
staring at them silently with cold, black eyes as he drank from
old, large whiskey jug. They quickly learned to leave the newcomer
alone and warned their children to stay away from the home of this
moody, bearded stranger.
One summer Mr. Willowdale, a local farmer and his wife went
missing. Neighbors searched the entire forest, but despite finding
a large pool of blood and a torn dress, no other trace of the
farmer or his wife was ever found. For some reason, it was assumed
at the time that Mr. Willowdale had killed his wife and fled, as
they were known to argue quite often, but no one really knew for
sure.
A few months later during the autumn harvest, 11 year old
Timothy Carver and his friend, 10 year old Joshua Althea went
missing. Again, nearby neighbors searched the woods thoroughly. And
once again, they were unable to find any trace of the boys, though
this time they noticed the waters of a nearby swamp had turned a
scarlet red hue. Sensing something evil was going on, people became
frightened and refused to travel through the woods. Some began to
wonder about the mysterious hermit, who by this time had not been
seen in weeks.
It was a drunken dare during a full moon which led a couple of
teenagers, George and John Carney, to sneak up to the hermit's home
one night...since the old hermit had not been seen in awhile, it
was assumed he had moved on and abandoned his home, or perhaps fell
victim to the same evil force which had apparently taken the lives
of four local residents. Entering through a window, George lit a
lantern and within seconds began screaming "Hatchet Man! Hatchet
Man! Hatchet Man!". Terrified, John took off back to his familys'
homestead - looking back to to find, to his horror, a dark figure
clutching a large hatchet was running after him! As he got closer
to home, John began screaming for help and his parents and their
neighbors rushed to his aid. The dark figure with the hatchet was
no longer behind him. After John told them what had happened, they
grabbed torches and pitchforks and made their way back to the
hermit's home. It was there that they found the body of George -
lying on the ground, a large hatchet protruding from his lifeless
body. Angered, the Carney family and their neighbors threw their
lanterns through the windows of the home, igniting a large fire.
The home became engulfed in flames. Within minutes, a horrible
unearthly howl was heard and a man hurled himself out of the house
through the burning door. It was the hermit, clutching a large
hatchet as he staggered menacingly toward the assembled group.
Without hesitation, they ran him through with their pitchforks, and
dragged his body to the edge of Scarlet Swamp where they hung his
body from a large tree. It appeared the mysterious hermit, the
Hatchet Man, was dead. Weeks later, a stone monolith was erected by
the Carney family on the edge of Scarlet Brook as a memorial to
those who lost their lives that year...some visitors to the
monolith beleive they can still hear the anguished voices of those
victims, their souls unable to find peace after meeting their
gruesome fate in the cold, dark woods of Augumtocooke.
To this day, it is considered very dangerous to walk through
this section of woods after sunset. Through the years, many people
have claimed to have heard the ghastly howl of the Hatchet Man.
Others have claimed that they've seen a shadowy figure staring at
them in the woods, holding a large old whiskey jug. Still others
believe they can hear the creaking of the old rope used to hang
Hatchet Man's body from the old tree at the edge of Scarlet Swamp.
It is said the Hatchet Man may be summoned back home by calling out
his name three times. But who would be so foolish as to tempt fate
in such a way? Only time will tell if the Hatchet Man's evil,
murderous rampage is truly over.
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