Sara Pease, the Witch of Piney Grove
The 16 August 1882 issue of the New Jersey Courier has an article, which even it admits is only hearsay and may not be true, about the death on July 25th of that year of one Sarah Condon Pease of Piney Grove. I have not been able to locate where that place is, or was, although the article implies that it was somewhere in Ocean County.
At any rate, it mentions that she was known all over the area as the 'most powerful witch' in South Jersey. She is not known to have had a husband, although she had two sons, John (who deserted the Union army during the war), and Henry. She was arrested in 1845 on a charge of witch craft brought by one James Cosgrove, although the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. A few months later, there was apparently another arrest.
She died in July of 1882, and according to the article, a large number of people turned out for the funeral and subsequently looted her home. So far I have found no other evidence that anyone by this name lived anywhere in Ocean County during this period, however.
At any rate, it mentions that she was known all over the area as the 'most powerful witch' in South Jersey. She is not known to have had a husband, although she had two sons, John (who deserted the Union army during the war), and Henry. She was arrested in 1845 on a charge of witch craft brought by one James Cosgrove, although the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. A few months later, there was apparently another arrest.
She died in July of 1882, and according to the article, a large number of people turned out for the funeral and subsequently looted her home. So far I have found no other evidence that anyone by this name lived anywhere in Ocean County during this period, however.
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