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Fred and Diane Heard Harmon – Ball Ground, Georgia
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Interviewed on October 6 , 2016
These are my grandparents (Papa and Nanny). They are the first source from which I learned anything about conjuring. They both grew up on farms in rural communities near where they now live. My Papa grew up on a farm in the Salacoa Valley, and my Nanny grew up in the Keithsburg Community. Neither of them are conjurers, but both have stories of being healed by conjurers and know several people who still practice it. They believe fully that it works and that it is a gift from God given to people worthy of it. Their attitude about the subject is very respectful, but casual, because it was so commonplace when they were growing up.
Fred talked about having a man “buy his wart” from him when he was a young adult. He said that he was sitting by the fire on a hunting trip whittling at a wart on his hand that he could not get to go away, and the man said, “can I buy it from you?” Fred was a little taken aback, but said yes, and the man gave him a coin for it. He told Fred not to think about the wart again, and it went away within about a week. He also recalled a story of a woman who lived down the road from him in Beasley’s Gap who could conjure poison oak. He said that one of his relatives even had a couple show up with their child who was covered in poison oak and very ill. They had come from “far away” to find this woman who could make it go away, and the woman was not home because she was visiting these relatives of Fred’s. The woman took the boy around back of Fred’s relatives’ house for a few minutes and came back with him. He said the people claimed their son’s poison oak went away after that.
Diane also had a wart bought from her at the grocery store after she became an adult. It was bothersome because it was on her finger and got caught in people’s hair since she was a hair stylist. She said she had tried Compound W and other medications, but could not get rid of it. She ran into someone at the store whom she knew, and he bought it from her. It went away. Diane also told a story about Ben Ghorley’s brother, Sam Ghorley, who lived less than two miles from her parents’ house. She said her brother’s son had a terrible case of “thrash” (actually “thrush”- a painful autoimmune rash inside the mouth and throat of babies). Diane said when her mother, the baby’s grandmother, saw his mouth, she immediately took him down the road to Mr. Ghorley to have it conjured. Diane said it went away afterward. Diane went on to mention that she believes education has played a role in the dying out of conjuring, a connection no other person I talked to had made.
