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Powwow Recipes
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Powwow Medicine and the Tawzers The artifacts documented here, were used by Barbara Thomas Tawzer and her husband Jeremiah Brumbaugh Tawzer, for healing purposes. Barbara was a well-known healer in Woodford Co. Illinois, after they moved here from Adams/Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. They were German Anabaptists, (Dunkards) and later became known as The Brethren. My grand mother well remembered Barbara holding healing sessions in their home in Roanoke, and Jeremiah, (her grandparents) assisting in these sessions. She said that people would travel by horse and buggy to arrive at the homestead for healing. She remembered the prayerful, solemn attitudes of those in attendance, and the soft voice of her grandmother as she spoke the words of the ceremonies and blew across the "healing stick" at certain times during the sessions. The healing was not limited to human, but also included the healing of animal life. Jeremiah corresponded with other healers exchanging information. A reply to one such letter has, what I take to be cabalistic symbols, written in a double-sized script at the top of the letter, followed by the words, "I hope this proves good". Some of the "recipes" are in english, some in Penns Deutch, and others that are much older and on a thicker parchment-like paper and are in a very old form of German. I sent copies of these to be examined by specialists in German and have partial translations, and the opinion that they are similar to phrases in artifacts of German Paganism from the Middle Ages. The paper "Vilda Fire" was said to be a "cure for cancers" through my families' traditions, however, its origins seem to be possibly connected to the "Black Plague" in Europe. The Brethren (Dunkard, Tunkers, Tauffers) were German Anabaptists who were more mystical in their religion than other of the Anabaptist movement, (Amish, Mennonite, etc) In this type of healing you notice a blending of Christian thought with a much older mystical religious thought. Truly, there is an element of the old "earth religions" here. Barbara's daughter Martha Switzer was embarrassed by her mother's "old-fashioned" ideas and reputation as a healer, so when her mother passed away, Martha wallpapered all the evidence of her mother's practices inside a small handmade trunk of hers, but before she died, made its contents known to her daughter, Erma Switzer Wiley. Then when Erma was in old age she passed the trunk on to her daughter, Joyce Wiley Whisler (my mother). Mom opened the trunk in my presence, and all of the bits of paper with the verses were wrapped around the "healing stick" in the manner of a scroll, and the outside labeled "Powwow Recipes". My mother framed all of the artifacts and letters in a large frame, for display, being very aware of the importance of this ancient tradition. L.W. |
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The Copybook
Powwow Wand
Fevers/All Wounds
Cold in Sores
Vilda Fire(Cancer
Botts
Shoulderslip
Powwow Letter
3 in One trans
Cold (transribed)