Recently erected bronze plaque, also likely to stay around for a while, but may not outlive the legend. Photo by Tom Seymour
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That’s the legend. Here are the facts. There is no historical record of anybody in Maine ever being executed for witchcraft or sorcery. The infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials were history well before Buck was born. Belief in the supernatural may well have pervaded rural Maine communities, however, which helps account for the legend.
Colonel Jonathan Buck, for whom Bucksport was named, was a veritable pillar of the community. Buck is credited with building Bucksport’s first gristmill, its first sawmill, and also the first boat. In the year 1775, Buck signed a petition, which was later sent to the Provincial Congress, asking for up to 300 bushels of corn to be sent to settlers in Bucksport. That was the year that saw no summer and had frost every month of the year. Crops failed, people starved and many left Maine for a new life in the west. People here caught “Ohio fever,” as it was then called. Buck dedicated much time and effort to help relieve the suffering.
Finally, the rumor that the Buck tombstone has been replaced various times is patently false. What exists now in the tiny cemetery along Route 1 in Bucksport is the same stone that was erected back in 1855. A short history of the stone, along with a disclaimer regarding the witch’s curse, stands near the memorial. Anyone can visit, peer through the iron fence that surrounds the cemetery and read the facts.
If all this is so, then why now, in the enlightened year 2009, would people place any credence whatsoever in the Buck legend? Perhaps because they stood near the stone and saw not only the outline of a leg and foot, but also that of a highly-stylized heart. This is no ordinary heart, either. Rather, it is what is known in folk art circles as a “country heart,” a rendering that has its origins in Colonial times. The Buck heart differs considerably from the typical “Valentine’s heart” of today. Whereas contemporary renditions of a heart are rather round and chubby, the heart on the Buck stone is long and narrow, coming to a fine, tapered point.
Why legend doesn’t explain, or even include, the existence of the Colonial-era heart that appeared on Buck’s stone many years after the Colonial era is a true mystery. Stonecutters maintain that the foot is actually a stain on the stone, caused by iron oxides reacting with the air. That is certainly plausible, but to have the image of not only a leg, but also a heart on the same stone, begs for a more detailed explanation. Unfortunately, such clarification remains at arm’s length. And so the legend continues.
Myth Propagated
Despite concrete proof that the Buck legend (at least the part about the witch and her leg) has no basis in fact, lots of people still believe it. And that seems particularly fascinating in light of the enlightened, scientific age we live in. My long-running practice of asking folks what they think about the witch’s curse has produced some surprising results. The majority of those questioned feel that while the legend is mostly made-up, it may contain a grain of truth. And a scant few embrace the story in its entirety. Even more surprising, the preponderance of teens questioned feel that there is, “something to it.”
Might this naïve acceptance of an obvious falsehood have a basis in the workings of the human psyche? Hard to say, but it appears that most of us really want to believe in ghosts, spooks and things that “go bump in the night.”
Even the most jaded among us must, when driving by the Buck memorial, slow down for a closer look at the long, slender leg and pointed foot. Only a few can totally ignore it. And the stylized heart? Seeing it for the first time cannot fail to elicit at least a shred of wonder. Readers who have not stopped to examine Buck’s monument might want to take a few minutes and stand in front of it. Do this with the knowledge that there was no witch, that Maine never executed anyone for the dark arts and that the leg is a wholly natural occurrence.
That said, a recent visit to the monument resulted in a conversation with two visitors, a man and a woman. The man considered the legend a pure invention, interesting but untrue. The woman, though, was of a different opinion.
“But she was his wife,” she said. No amount of explaining could convince her that the so-called “witch” was not Jonathan Buck’s wife. For her, the legend had a concrete foundation, even though that foundation was based upon made-up or imagined “facts.”
Other interviews with those who believe the legend revealed even more fantastic ideas. One local teen asserted that the witch was kept locked up across the Penobscot River in Fort Knox to await her trial. There, she was mistreated and ill-fed. However, since Fort Knox wasn’t constructed until the 19th century, that was simply impossible. The teen should have had a better understanding of local history.
But the woman’s as well as the young man’s story do point out one, basic truth. That is, legends such as this are never static. Once begun and circulated, they assume a life of their own. Today’s fiction becomes tomorrow’s truth.
Supernatural phenomena are hard to dispute. Standing in front of the Buck monument and seeing the leg and the colonial heart, makes it clear why.
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