Dear Readers - Letters From the Country

Editor’s note: My son-in-law Johnny Bain’s cousin wrote this report about the Madstone. I had never heard of any such thing, but Johnny avers that all the principals involved were absolutely truthful. Maybe some of our readers know more about madstones? -- F. Sanders

During the 1940s most of the people in the country carried water from a spring near their house for cooking, drinking, and washing clothes. Most water springs were located in a low, marshy area with lots of grass growing nearby. There was a path leading in to the spring. Such was the case in our area.

One day while working in the woods nearby, my mother went to the spring for water and was bitten by a water moccasin snake. They lived about 12 miles from town and the only transportation available was a team of horses and a wagon. Of course, by the time anyone could have gotten her to town, she could have been dead or very sick.

A neighboring family, Mr. & Mrs. Yancey, who lived two to three miles away, had a "madstone." My understanding is that a madstone was a very porous, grey stone that was sometimes found in the head of a deer. This stone had evidently been passed down from generations before.

As the story goes, Mother got very sick immediately. She got Daddy’s attention and he carried her immediately to their home. Mrs. Yancey ["Aunt Velmer"] took the stone, which had been soaking in milk [apparently it was kept soaking in fresh milk all the time, and the milk was changed when it clabbered], and placed it on Mother’s foot. The stone attached itself to Mother’s foot and stayed attached for about two days. The stone fell off after that time and Mrs. Yancey took the stone and soaked it in milk again. The poison came out of the stone and came to the top of the milk and was very green. They placed the stone on Mother’s foot again and it stayed on "a little while." They had a rule that the stone could not leave their house, so Mother stayed with them during her treatment.

Every time Mother told us the story of her snakebite, she always talked about how nice Mrs. Yancey was to her. At that time, Mother was a young woman with a family. It was very hard for her to be away from her husband and children and she missed them very much. Mrs. Yancey helped her in every way she could so that she would not be so lonely for them.

Mother recovered completely from the bite, thanks to the madstone and our heavenly Father providing for us in such an awesome way.

I have no idea what happened to the madstone, some will probably not even believe the story, but I know it worked – my mother lived to be 75 years old. 

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