The Woman With Braids

I am from the oldest town in Tennessee. There are countless old stage roads and historical buildings that hold memories of days, people, and events long past. I have found many Native American artifacts--arrowheads and pottery on the family farm near a natural spring. My husband says there is a very heavy energy on the farm that I am from. I myself wouldn't call it heavy but I do acknowledge that there is a sort of power there. Since I was a little child I have always seen and felt things. I am more immune to those feelings now than I was when I was younger. For years as I child and into my teenage years I would have a recurring dream.

The dream takes place on a road that is over the hill from the farm. I am able to recognize the road even though it is not paved and the trees are younger in my dream. In my dream there is a caravan of people. Maybe they are homesteaders. They look like they are from the 1860s or somewhere around that time. There is a very pretty woman with long blonde braids. In my dream they are going down the old stage road talking and laughing with each other. There are multiple couples and children. I assume that they are immigrants because they are speaking another language--which language they are speaking I am not sure.

The dream cuts to screaming and chaos. I see bloody women and children and they are running for their lives. They are tearing through the woods, stumbling and falling. The branches and briars are ripping their long skirts. They are screaming, crying, pleading for their lives. Their eyes are wild, panicked. They run and they are being pursued by men dressed in dark clothing. Gunshots echo through the valley. Highway robbery? Are these homesteaders being persecuted for being immigrants and trying to make better lives for themselves? The dream ends with the people running for their lives. To this day the road is still desolate and I have always felt a tight feeling in my chest when I jog or drive down it.

I never told anyone about this dream.

One of my friends has a neighboring dairy farm. He and I are close in age and have always been friends. He works his tail off and he gets up at 4 am because he has so many cattle to feed and farm chores to attend to. He keeps a herd of cows on some property that is beside ours. One morning my friend called and asked if I would like to go feed the cattle with him, and that he had something that he wanted to ask me about.

He picked me up and we started making rounds and checking on the cows. He looked visibly shaken. He said, "You are not going to believe what happened to me this morning. I keep thinking that I am crazy." I assured him that whatever it was, he wasn't crazy. He is a smart guy with a Master's Degree.

He began to tell me what he experienced. He told me that earlier that morning it had been very misty outside when he went to feed one of his cow herds on the property bordering mine around 4 am. He was calling the cows and shaking the grain bucket and the cows were running up to him. All of a sudden he said he had a strong feeling that he was being watched. He looked around him but he saw no one. He was trying to calm himself down when he saw a woman running/walking very briskly toward him. He said he was perplexed as he watched her come closer. She was wearing a long dress and she was clutching her shawl. She and had long, blonde braids. He said she was beautiful. He called out to her, "Hey are you OK?" He said she didn't acknowledge him and that she just kept going and eventually passed right by him without stopping. He tried to follow her but he said that she slowly faded away.

It was after he told me this that I told him about my dream. He was understandably floored. He and I have done a lot of research since my dream and his experience but we can find no documentation of any violence or massacre of that scale nearby. Sadly at that time it probably wouldn't have been too hard for the locals to make the evidence disappear. The victims were probably immigrants so their disappearance might not have been missed.

Since my friend saw the pretty lady, he has been too scared to venture into that field so early in the morning. He now waits until later in the morning when the sun has fully risen in the sky before he goes there to feed.