TUGGY THE WITCH (Bryn Mawr, Montgomery County) The Harriton House dates back to 1682 when it was a land grant given by William Penn. The first home was built by Rowland Ellis in 1704, and Richard Harrison bought it in 1719. Although a Quaker, Harrison was a tobacco farmer from Maryland. He grew tobacco at Harriton too, and employed slave labor to farm the crop. It's thought, in fact, that Harriton was the northernmost slave plantation in America. One of the slaves was named Tuggy, who knew some voodoo. She didn't like it in Pennsylvania and wanted to return to her Maryland family. She tried to kill her hated owner, first by poisoning his morning cup of chocolate. But at knock at the door saved him from drinking the concoction, and Tuggy came up with a Plan B. She went to the graveyard with a wooden stake. Some think she tried to raise a body from the dead to do her bidding while others believe she was trying to cast a death spell on Harrison. Whichever, it worked - but on the wrong victim. A bloodcurdling scream was heard from the graveyard that night. Being superstitious, no one ventured into the boneyard until morning. There they found Tuggy's body, staked to a grave. The legend says that she accidentally drove the stake through the hem of her dress, and thought that a dead man's hand was pulling her down into the grave to join him
