WAS MARY BLACK REALLY A WITCH? (ELLWOOD CITY, PA) 🦇🧹

**Mary Black’s headstone. (Photo is courtesy of Lawrence County Historical Society of Pennsylvania.)**

During the 1800’s, a woman named Mary Black lived in the Ellwood City area. Her reputation would become infamous with witches and curses for the next century. However, like most Urban Legend, she is shrouded in a bit of mystery. Who really was the infamous Mary Black? Was she really a witch?

Mary (Johnson) Black was born in Ireland and immigrated to Western Pennsylvania in the year 1832. According to the Lawrence County Historical Society, she resided, along with her husband, in the Shenango and Taylor Township areas of Ellwood City. She had nine children and died in 1888 at the ripe old age of 87. Her place of rest is listed as buried in the Tindall Cemetery located just off of Turkey Hill Road; however, if one decides to hike through those woods, they will NOT find her grave, but they will find, if they examine the grounds carefully, remnants of stones of other folks buried there. Besides this fact, Mary Black’s headstone does not exist on the grounds; it was removed by an unknown person(s). No one knows exactly why her stone was removed or how. It turns out that her headstone, ironically was discovered at the bottom of the ‘West Pittsburgh Swamp’ (Where is this? I have no idea or how her headstone would end up in such a place!). Mysteriously, the headstone turned up at the Lawrence County Historical Society where it now rests. So, the question remains, why was this woman BRANDED a witch?

The legend that is amalgamated to this woman is eerily similar to the Bloody Mary legend that has invaded our sleep for over a century. As it goes, if you say ‘Mary Black’ three times and retire for the night, she will come into your room and claw you with her demonic fingernails, depending on which variation you hear. There have been quite a few that have been circulated over the years. One other version says that if you sleep with a crucifix under your pillow, Mary Black will scream for mercy in your backyard (if you call her name), as though she is being burned alive at the stake. Through the years, many tales have been told by the local Ellwood City residents of this mysterious woman. What do you know of her? We would love to hear your version… (ALL PHOTOS ARE COURTESY OF THE LAWRENCE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY) 👻