Harmon’s Histories: Oh my, such tales written by witch hazel trees!

By Jim Harmon

It is a medicine which has been used for centuries, and is still available at drugstores today.

Know what it is? Let’s take a look at its history.

Like many early medicines, this one is extracted from a tree. In our country, the species can be found in the forests “throughout northeast and southeast North America, from Nova Scotia to Florida and from the Great Lakes to eastern Texas,” according to the U.S. Forest Service.

No, they are not big, towering trees like Pine or Redwood. They’re more bush-like, with multiple stems. They top out at about 15 feet in height, although some have reached double that size.

The flowers are impressive, but appear only a short time in the fall. The Forest Service calls the pattern “extraordinary,” because of their bright yellow hues.

At times they are “the only sign of color in woods where all the autumn leaves lay upon the forest floor,” according to the USFS. Oh, I forgot to add, the American version of this tree/bush/shrub is pollinated solely by moths!

When the seeds finally drop to the ground, the second season after their formation, they remain dormant (requiring an additional year to germinate).

Geez! Three years from seed formation to an actual tree ... or bush ... or shrub. That’s a long, long time.

Figured it out? Well, it’s the American Witch Hazel tree, from which we derive Witch Hazel Astringent!

On store shelves today, you can find Thayers, Teals, Bretanna, Quinn’s, Equate, Humphreys, and T.N. Dickinson’s versions.

But wait – there was an even more fascinating use of this tree or shrub in the early days of America.

In 1799, a fellow named Nathaniel Wood applied to be the minister of the Congregational Church in Middletown, Vermont. As the story goes, he was so upset when did not get the job, he started his own church!

The congregation became known as “the new Israelites,” and Priest Wood prophesied “a day of reckoning was coming (when) God would destroy all the Gentiles.” One assumes that was to include all those affiliated with the Congregational Church.

How dare they have denied him employment?!

At this point a guy named Winchell enters the scene - a con artist and fugitive from a neighboring county, “where he was wanted on counterfeiting charges.”

He claimed to be an expert “at using a dowsing rod made of witch hazel, which he said could detect buried treasure.” Our disgruntled priest believed Winchell's story. He started using the “dowsing rod” in church events and other endeavors.

Those “other endeavors” included “determining how long someone might live, locating plants to cure disease, as well as finding treasure.” Priest Wood was said to have told young women “that their clothes had the Devil in them, and should be removed.”

Wow. I wish I’d known about that “entrée line” in my teenage years!

But most importantly, our priest claimed to receive messages from God while using his dowsing rod. One message ordered him “to build a temple in Middletown, and to prepare for two apocalyptic events.”

“First, a destroyer would come to kill half the Gentiles. Next, a giant earthquake would strike Middletown on January 14, 1801, and kill the other half.”

That didn’t go over well with the townsfolk!

They weren’t frightened by any talk of an apocalypse - but they were very concerned about what some of the more whacky members of the congregation might do.

So they activated their militia and waited. As you might have suspected, January 14th passed without event - no violence, no earthquake, no plague, no anything.

With that, Priest Wood was done. No church was built, and he and his family moved away to rural New York state.

Some historians believe Joseph Smith (the founder of Mormonism), was influenced by Wood and Winchell … and impressed with the idea of “Rod Men.” Who knows?

Back in the 1950s, my dad showed me how to cut a dowsing branch and use it. The branch needed to fork into two smaller branches. He said I should hold the two forks, one in each hand, pointing the single branch straight outward.

When there was water below the ground, that single larger stem was to twist straight downward - so powerfully that it would tear the bark off the two twigs held firmly in your hands!

All I can say is my Dad made it happen. He put on a great show at our lake cabin in the summertime.

The trouble is, I could never replicate it. Nothing ever happened when I held the twigs. It’s something which has tarnished my otherwise useful and productive life.

I’m apparently defective.