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The legend of the Witch of Yazoo became famous in Willie Morris’ book, Good Old Boy published in 1971. affectionately termed by, “The Chain Lady,” by many in modern-day Yazoo
Then one late afternoon in 1884, a boy named Joe Bob Duggett was passing by her house on a raft when he heard a terrible, ungodly moan from one of the rooms. He tied his raft to a cypress branch, ran to the house, and looked through a window. What he saw chilled his blood and bones. Two dead men were streched out on the floor of the parlor, and an old woman, wearing a black dress caked with filth and cockleburs, had turned her face up to the ceiling and was singing some dreadful incantations, waving her arms in demented circles all the while.
Joe Bob Duggett raced to his raft, floated into town, and told the sheriff and his men what he had seen. They smashed down the front door, but were unable to find either the dead men (who have never been found to this day) or the demented old woman. They climbed the stairs to the attic, opened the door an inch or two, and caught sight of several dozen half-starved cats, all bunched together and gyrating in their wild insanity. Two skeletons, which were never identified by the sheriff's office, dangled from a dusty rafter. Fish bones littered the floor, and the smell was unusually pungent. The sheriff, his deputies, and Joe Bob stood there transfixed, finally banging the door shut when eight or ten of the cats tried to get out.
Then from the backyard they heard the sound of footsteps in the fallen pecan leaves, and from an upstairs window they saw the old woman sneaking away into the swamps which abounded along the River. "Stop in the name of the law!" the sheriff shouted, but the old woman, who as Joe Bob Duggett would later tell his grandchildren, looked "half ghost and half scarecrow, but all witch," took off into the swamps at a maniacal gallop. They followed in hot pursuit, and a few minutes later they came upon a sight that Joe Bob remembered so well he would describe it again, for the thousandth time, on his deathbed in the King's Daughter Hospital in 1942.
The old woman had been trapped in a patch of quicksand, and they caught up with her just seconds before her ghastly, pockmarked head was about to go under. But she had time to shout these words at her pursuers: “In 20 years, I will return and burn this town to the ground!” Everybody always hated me here. I will break out of my grave and burn down the whole town on the morning of May 25, 1904!" Then, as Joe Bob also described it later, with a gurgle and a retch the woman sank from sight to her just desserts.
The Fire of 1904 destroyed over 200 residences and nearly every business in Yazoo City - 324 buildings in total. Many theories evolved as to how the fire started, but none were conclusive. The most popular theory is that the fire started in the parlor of a young Miss Wise who was in preparation for her wedding to be held later that day. While this is quite possible and certainly innocent enough, it is the strange and fierce winds that were blowing on that fateful day, unusual for the time, that lead many to blame the witch. The flames were said by witnesses to have jumped through the air, as if driven by some supernaturally forceful winds. This is one of the eeriest facts of the story. Area weather reports from May 25, 1904, make no mention of high winds in the area.
A group of citizens made their way into Glenwood on the day after the fire, and found the large chains around the grave of the witch broken in two.
Many years ago, the stone (now long gone) which was original to the grave only had the letters T. W. (The Witch??). The stone which is now in place mysteriously fell and split in two shortly after installation. No one knows why for certain. The heavy chains surrounding the grave are constantly being repaired, only to fall apart again shortly after. famous graves