A Possible Origin of "Wizard Whateley"?

Artwork by Alex McVey
It was in the township of Dunwich, in a large and partly inhabited farmhouse set against a hillside four miles from the village and a mile and a half from any other dwelling … one of the decadent Whateleys … an aged and half-insane father about whom the most frightful tales of wizardry had been whispered … - The Dunwich Horror, H. P. Lovecraft

The following is an authentic article from: The Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner (Rhode Island) of 22 March 1879

The Coventry Wizard

Superstition seem to be an essential element of the New England charatcer. The haunted houses are legion and many women have had the name of being witches and men the name of wizards beside those whom our progenitors of Salem put to death. Still an instinctive belief in such things seem to linger and probably there are those still who believe that less than a century ago a man leagued to the devil, lived in the eastern part of the town. As near as can be learned his strange death occurred about sixty years ago. His residence was less than a mile north of the village of Washington. He was known as Major Waite. I have heard three versions of his first name, and do not know how he gained his military title. He was a smart business man and acquired considerable property. The beginning of his performances was peculiar. He was one day on those great bog meadows of the Flat River, with several men. In some mysterious manner he fell, but no sooner touched the earth than he sprang up with wonderful rapidity. What the connections is cannot be told; but from that time his witchcraft began. Visitors to his house appeared to have had a hard time of it. One night a party tried in vain to reach his dwelling, and this remarkable fact was regarded as sure evidence of diabolical practices. On another occasion, trees fell before a retiring party in such a manner as to completely stop their progress. At another time, a woman saw rats running all around her, and went back in fright. On such occasion the old wizard would laugh at them, possibly give them a drink of cider, and finally dismiss them saying, “he guessed nothing would trouble them now.” Then they could peaceably depart. There was one woman who refused to believe in his powers. One day her riding horse suddenly stopped in the middle of the road. The undaunted rider dismounted and talking the bridle remarked to the horse – “That’s some of old Waite’s witches; come along!” The animal obeyed, and afterwards the Major acknowledged that he could do nothing with her, because she was religious. Query.- Was that horse balky?

The wizard finally committed suicide in the woods near the road. His gun was heavily loaded, and he discharged it by pressing the trigger with a forked stick, receiving the charge in his body. Some maintain that “his time was out” and he was obliged to kill himself. There are many legends concerning him, some of which may possibly form the basis of another article.

{signed} Faust

{I have not been able to discover who “Faust’ is, but it may be the local historian, biographer, and poat, Jeremiah S. McGregor as just under this legend he has a signed article, thus the article that immediately comes after “Faust’s”:}

A Sudden Change

One of the most sudden changes in the atmosphere I ever heard of, occurred many years ago in one of the western states. It was in the spring of the year and the weather was very warm and sultry. Every frog pond was alive with peeping frogs when all at once a cold streak came over that part of the country and froze those frog ponds over so quick that the frogs had not time to pull their heads under water, so the next morning the boys were sliding on those ponds kicking the frogs heads off.

{signed} J. S. McG.

{The Waite legend is a unique story, and perhaps unrecorded as yet, other than in the Gleaner. One wonders if Lovecraft ever read this story as he read through the old files?}

{Coventry is sometimes known for the Native legend of the gemstone of Snake Hill or Carbunkle Hill. A giant serpent had his den on a hill in a remote part of Coventry. Once the rumor got out that there was a precious gemstone, a carbuncle, white men attempted to steal it. The legend varies, but inevitably the serpent runs off with the stone and it is lost at the bottom of a swamp – something quite prevalent in that part of Rhode Island in those days.}

{Washington village was fairly obscure then, and more so today. It was located in the town of Coventry, and named upon the death of George Washington in 1799 as a memorial. The Flat River was so named because it (then and now) descends only about 16 inches to the mile, just enough to make the water gently move, but not stagnate. It is located on a south branch of the Pawtuxet about six miles before the village of Washington.  This is a very similar distance as mentioned in the Lovecraft passage.}

{The only vague reference to this “Major Waite” person in history was the following which contained (1) a military title, (2) the name Waite, and (3) the reference to Washington. However, this was a stalwart member of a very different community, so it likely is not.}

… Col. Beriah Waite, son of Stephen Waite. Colonel Waite entered the army at the commencement of the Revolutionary War and rose to the rank of colonel which position he held until the termination of the war. He was then appointed sheriff of Washington County, a position which he retained for more than thirty years. [The Fourteenth Regiment: Rhode Island Heavy Artillery {etc.}., William H. Chenery, Providence, undated but after 1865, p.296. ]