There were many experts who could get rid of warts on the hands. How these warts were formed no one really knew. We children were told that they came from our handling a toad frog. We did play with frogs sometimes, but I don’t think this was the cause. Some wart doctors used a willow stick. They would make notches on the stick for as many warts as you had on your hands. Next they would have you bury it under the doorstep at your house. The number of notches on the stick indicated the number of days before the warts would disappear. Another method was to rub the warts with a greasy dish cloth and not wash your hands for as many days as there were warts. You could also rub a grain of corn on a wart, lay it in the fork of two roads, and the person who picked it up would get your wart.
—Charles Fletcher
I came across an old email from Charles recently and in it he shared the excerpt about warts. He was born and raised in the mountains of North Carolina and was a dear friend to the Blind Pig & The Acorn.
Charles isn’t the only reader who has shared their wart removal memories over the years. Here’s two more.
Garland Davis: I had numerous warts on my hands. Everyone told me that they were caused by playing with toads and letting them pee on your hands. I remember thinking that wasn’t right. I knew that I hadn’t touched any toads. I remember trying to keep my hands in my pockets so that people wouldn’t see my warts. My parents tried any number of homemade potions to no avail. Some things from the drugstore were tried, but again no remedy for my warts. I remember going to the doctor and him telling them that I was too young to have them “burned” off.
We carried my ‘Granny’ Salmons to Yadkin County one Sunday afternoon to visit some friends. I remember that it was late in the day and Daddy was ready to leave. She told them to wait that she was going to take me to get my warts “witched”. She led me for a long distance (probably not that far, but to a little boy, quite a distance) down a path through the woods. We eventually came to a log house. An old (again, old is relative to my age) woman came out and talked with my grandmother.
Granny gave her a sack that she had brought. The old lady sat me down on the stoop to the cabin door and started touching the warts on my hands. She then took a piece of cord and tied a number of knots in it (I later realized that she was counting the warts and tied a knot for each one.) She then hung the cord around my neck and led me by the hand around the yard. She then took the cord and went into the woods. She returned and told me that my warts would leave me to look for the cord. She said if I ever tried to find the cord all my warts would return. We left and went back home. Within a few days, all my warts, except one, disappeared. I still have that one wart on the knuckle of my ring finger and have had it my whole life. I always figured that she missed counting it.
Miss Cindy: When I was around 10 years old I had a wart on my left thumb. It was on the side of my thumb at the knuckle. The wart measured about 3/8 inch across. That’s fairly large on a 10 year old hand. My folks took me to the doctor for removal. The doctor burned it off. It wasn’t long till it came back, so it was back to the doctor. This time he cut it off but again, it came back.
My cousin, Zoolie also had a wart. Hers was on the thumb also but it was on the side growing partially into the nail. It was about the same size wart as mine. Her folks took her to a dermatologist. They were really concerned because of the way it grew into the fingernail. The dermatologist removed it several times, several different ways. Each time it grew back.
My dad finally said “enough, get in the car, both of you”. He took us to an old man in Henson Cove above Canton, not too far from my grandmothers house. I think the man’s name was Mr. Hall. He looked at both warts, rubbed them and sent us on our way.
I looked down a couple of weeks later and it was gone, I called Zoolie and her wart was gone as well.
I don’t know what to tell you happened…..the warts were gone and never returned.
When The Deer Hunter and I first met, he had two or three warts on his hand. After dating him for a few months I was so head over heels in love that I paid the warts no attention and didn’t even notice they were gone until he pointed it out. He said he’d grown up hearing about folks getting their warts rubbed by someone so every time he thought about it he rubbed his. In a few weeks they were gone. I still tease him about having magical wart removing powers.
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Tipper
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I remember having a wart on one of my fingers and showed my mom. She went to her old straw broom and got a straw out and measured the wart. Then she went outside and buried it. Within a few days it was gone. I begged her to teach me how to do that. I was gonna charge my friend that had one to remove hers…lol I was 6…hahahha
Three examples:
My mon said they lived down the road from a “witch” who removed warts, and did other cures.
My father-in-law said an old Indian man removed his.
In my case, I had a large one on the ball of my foot about the same diameter as a cigar. I had a podiatrist remove it. The nurse sprayed the bottom of my foot with a cryogenic, then the doctor stuck a needle in my foot – FROM THE TOP BETWEEN MY TOES to numb my foot. That would have been OK except the nurse stopped spraying the cryogenic when the needle went in. OUCH!
Then he burned the wart off with an electric needle. Smelled like burning hair. I have a scar now, but no wart. I should have visited the witch.
When I was around 4 I had one on my right hand-in the palm area. It grew to almost the size of a quarter. Someone told my mother to rub castor oil on it couple times a day. All I remember is a week or so later I noticed it was gone. After that castor oil was put on every ones warts. My parents had tried other treatment options but the castor oil worked.
So funny , yet, I have to admit , quite interesting! 🙂
Prayers for all in the path of the storms !
My grandma told me to steal someones dish rag rub the wart and hide the dishrag. I did that and it didn’t go away. It was round and full of ltttle black specs. One day I was helping my mama wash clothes in the wringer washing machine and running them through the wringers. After having my hands in the water for so long the speckled part fell out leaving just the outer part which closed over and that was the last of the wart and I never got another,
. It was a seed wart and the black specks were the seeds.
Tipper, very interesting stories about warts. I can remember when I was, I guess 9 or 10 years old, I was riding my bicycle out our long gravel driveway, and I started out to Papa Odell’s a neighbor of ours, he came outside to ask me how I was doing, and he noticed the big wart on my thumb, and said to me , I can remove that wart for you if you want me to, I said yes please. He picked up a smooth rock from his driveway and rub it across my wart and said some words to himself, and then he said take this rock and threw it over your head as far as you can and don’t look back and go home and forget about the wart. I never thought no more about the wart until one day I looked down at my thumb and the wart was gone. I was so happy that the wart was really gone. I will never know what Papa Odell said that day to make the wart on my thumb disappear. Funny how years later you can remember things like that when you were 9 or 10 years old. Thank you, Tipper, for sharing the awesome stories of warts.
We were told to find as many small stones as we had warts and rub each wart with a separate stone. Put them in a “tobacco sack” and throw them away at the next intersection you crossed. Whoever found the sack was supposed to get the warts.
My grandparents believed is the Bible verses said to stop bleeding and I remember them being called when a pig who was being neutered kept bleeding. I don’t remember the outcome. There are many, many strange things in our world.
There was an old woman that took a wart off my daughters finger. She wrote something on a note and put it in an envelope with a penny. she told me yo take it and put it in the fork of the road. I did and her wart was gone in a couple of days.
Morning everyone, hope everybody was out of harms way yesterday and today. All these nasty storms seem to be lasting quite a while this spring. Labor pains of Mother Nature to birthing summer. My maternal Grandpa would rub a wart with a cut potato and bury the potato. I can’t remember if it worked, but heard this all my life. Blessings to all. J.
This article brought back fond childhood memories of my Uncle Nolan and Aunt Ruth who were visiting one Sunday. This was in the early 40’s. I had a wart on my little finger that “grew seeds” and would bleed, and he said he could get it to disappear. He said to bring him a “new Irish potato” and a sharp knife. He cut the potato in half, rubbed the wet surface on my wart, and told me I couldn’t watch where he buried the half. I didn’t dare try to look! He came back from burying the potato half in the backyard. I never looked for that potato and my wart was gone within a week! I love recalling times growing up in Columbus, Georgia!
Nothing to do with today’s post, I have been reading some of older post while we have been having some pretty bad thunderstorms this morning. I read one about using Sevin dust or natural remedies for garden bugs. If Sevin dust is harmful I would have been dead years ago. I read the comments and remember during the late 50’s or early 60’s my Grandaddy using arsenic on his Irish (arsh) potatoes. He mixed this up with water in an old 5gal lard can and would brush this on the tops of the potato plants using a broom made from broom straw. I do not know if he used it on anything else. The point is how dangerous would this be considered now, it never killed or harmed none of us. I listen to a man that worked for a pest control company say what you are not told is how much it takes for all of these things that are now said to be dangerous to become dangerous. Think of all the years mercurochrome, iodine or methylate was used on cuts and scrapes by many of us, now it is no longer available because of having trace amounts of mercury.
I’ve always heard that warts have seeds and if you don’t get rid of it, the wart will always come back. I’ve only had one wart, that I can remember, and it was on my right hand. I cut it off with my pocket knife a few times and it kept coming back. Finally I decided to look for a seed. I picked, poked and prodded in the wound left by the “surgery” until I found a tiny white seed looking thing. I had to use a pair of pliers to get it detached but it finally came loose. The wound healed up nicely and the wart never came back.
It’s like digging out a deep splinter, it hurts and bleeds a little but it’s got to be done. Luckily I’ve had only one wart seed to dig out but I’ve had many splinters in myself and others. I used to be the “splinter doctor” at work. I had a sharp knife and sharp eyes back then and everybody came to me for their painless surgeries. Painless meaning it didn’t hurt me a bit.
wow! such interesting stories! my husband had warts on his fingers while we dated. He would put band-aids on them. After we were married for a while they went away. Maybe marriage made them go away lol!
rub your hand with a greasy dish rag, then don’t wash them for as many days as the wart remains???? that’s gross…..but I do believe in people with powers to-do things like that.
Interesting topic. I enjoyed reading this. I never had any warts growing up, though I knew people who did. I have heard tell of people being able to talk the warts away (as well as talking the fire out of a burn…my Mom knew someone who’d had the fire talked out). She said the one that talked the fire out was a Christian lady and she would never tell anyone what she said when she was talking the fire out.
I wonder if the man who rubbed off Miss Cindy’s warts is the one who rubbed off my brother’s. His hands were covered with warts. My daddy took him to someone who rubbed them off. We lived in Center Pigeon so it could have been the same person.
Daddy could remove warts. He touched a wart when the person didn’t know it. What he did after I don’t know. He took away warts from my mother and cousin. Probably more.
I had one on my ring finger that would grow and crack open at the top. I cut it off once with my pocket knife and it bled for several days but came back. Mom took me to a doctor who cut it off. It came back. He said it was a ‘seed wart’ and was difficult to get rid of. It came back over and over until I was working with a lot of chemicals and caught it on something that tore about half of it off. I got mad, got a cup of sulfuric acid, went to the sink and burned it off. I would put acid on until I couldn’t tolerate the pain and hold it under the faucet until it quite burning. After several rounds of acid and cold water I had a hole in my finger where it had been. I felt I had gotten the root out and bandaged it for a few days. I have a scar some 60 years later but no wart.
My mother in-law had a wart on her finger several years back. One day when visiting her she handed me a box and told me to open it. There was a thin piece of cloth in it. I was dumb founded as I looked at her. She laughed and said she had been told that if she wrapped a thin piece of cloth around her wart then put it in a box with a lid to close it, the warts would go away. She then had to hide the box, so whoever found the box and opened it would get the wart. My husband told her that was pure witchcraft. She just laughed at his remark. I did agree with him, but didn’t say it outwardly like he did to her. I just looked at her and said, “Well I didn’t find the box, you gave it to me and told me to open it. I guess that doesn’t count”. She laughed and said, “well let me know if you get my wart”. I guess the joke was on her, because I never got one and hers came back.
Yep, grew up hearing the ‘toad frogs cause warts’ idea and also hearing stories of people with special healing abilities. My maternal Grandma had a reputation for being able to “blow fire out” of a burn to stop the pain and have it heal without scarring. I heard a few stories of people coming to her but never heard anything about any details of the doing. So far as I know, there was no passing of it on. Cannot recall if I ever had a wart.
My mother Supposedly could draw fire out; Totally False!! Her Hot breath made the burn pain Worse !!!
I have a wart on a ring finger, and it drives me crazy. Today I will try rubbing it and hope it disappears because it makes taking a ring off and on a pain!
No one in our family had warts so I have no experience with them except working as an RN for many years. “In the medical world they are caused by the HPV (human papillomaviruses) which enter the skin through small cuts and cause extra cell growth. The outer layer of skin then turns thicker and harder, forming a wart. Warts are mainly spread by direct skin contact, but they may also be spread by touching objects like towels or razors. They are more likely to infect moist and soft or injured skin. Warts are a common skin complaint, particularly in childhood. As a child’s immune system strengthens and without medical treatment, about 65% of wart infections go away by themselves within two years.”
My daughter had gotten a wart on her hand that I had been treating and trying to smother out but nothing worked. My mother in law saw her wart and told us that her grandmother had taught her how to what she called (talk the wart off). She said it was a secret though and she couldn’t tell us what she said. She cupped my daughters hand and softly spoke into her cupped hand something that we couldn’t hear. Sure enough the wart went away. I couldn’t believe it.
Morning everyone. When I was little I had one wart on my pointer finger. One of my aunts told me to rub chalk on the wart every day. A few days later it was gone. I hope everyone is alright. Anna from Arkansas.
My youngest brother had warts all over his hands and when he was around 8 or 9, our granny told him to pick some leaves off the green bean vines and rub each wart with the leaves and then put the leaves under the bean vines and when they rotted his warts would be gone. He wasn’t so sure about it, but he did it, forgot about it, and sure enough the warts soon disappeared.
I too had warts on my hand when I was about the same age and we had a neighbor, “Granny Hyde,” who was said to remove warts. My mom took me to see her. She took a small pocket knife and lightly touched, not cut, each wart — making an x. In a few days my warts went away as well.
Makes one wonder why warts were so common and how so many different “methods” seemed to produce results!
My late husband told me decades ago that when he was a young’un, he had a wart in his hand. Putting him to bed one night, she was holding his hands in hers. Noting it, she said some ‘mumble jumble’ & rubbed the hands, kissed him on the forehead & said good night. Couple days later, he noticed it was gone. When mom got off work, he pointed it out to her and asked what she had said that night. Mom’s eyes opened real wide. “To be honest, I don’t know. Makes me a bit scared.” His mom came from rural Alabama to Miami as a child. Drove transport for the military during the war.
I loved the post and all of the replies. When I was growing up in Western New York state, I had always heard that warts were caused by toads too.
Nothing “witchy” or “mystical” would have ever been considered or even spoken of in our home. But I do remember my mom putting a baby asprin on my wart and covering it with a band aid. She did it several times and eventually it was gone.
Completely off topic…The Weather Channel has mentioned Brasstown twice since 7 AM with notice of severe thunderstorms, high winds and possibly a tornado. Apparently, there was a lightning strike within 1 mile of Brasstown. Wilson Holler seems to be protected by the mountains around you so, hopefully, there won’t be any damage to your homes nor to your garden. I would hate to see any of your hard work destroyed. May God keep all of you safe.
Does Stamey Creek every flood?
Myra-we have had heavy storms since about midnight. Lots of wind and rain, but we are all well. The creek does get out sometimes, but the places it escapes are farther down the road from us 🙂 I hope everyone else is okay too.
Growing up in East Tennessee there was a gentleman in our community, that was the seventh son of a seventh son people would go to for wart removal. He always would mumble an unrecognizable phrase as he rubbed the wart, my mother said it was a bible verse.
Must have been successful for many people visited him for the cure
I have heard and have known of warts being removed in ways already mentioned and of course, “wart doctors” (not sure I’ve heard them referred to that way). I had a renowned wart witch try to remove one by rubbing a penny on a wart I had on my knee, but it failed to go away. I’d like to add the ones below, but keep in mind these are folk “remedies” and are not sound medical advice (LOL):
Find a rock the size of the wart(s). Rub the wart with the rock. Place the rock in a paper sack (poke). Tie a string around the opening of the sack. Place the sack in the forks of a road. Whoever opens the sack takes the wart.
Slightly cut an X on the wart to remove and let a black hen peck it.
Also, cutting an X on a wart to barely make it bleed and putting the drop of blood on a potato that has been cut in half. Bury the potato under your doorstep and when the potato rots away, so, goes the wart.
Steal your neighbors dishrag. Rub it on the wart(s) and bury it underneath your doorstep. The wart will disappear in a few days.
I’m sure I’ll remember so more later.
my neighbors came from a very isolated town in GA. Their granny would buy your warts. while I never had any my baby sister was covered all over her hands. She sold hers yo Granny and they never came back
Like Garland, both of my hands were covered in warts when I was about 14 years old. I tried that creme that was suppose to remove warts but all it did was make them sore. I don’t remember the name of this creme but it was advertised to remove warts. Aunt Mattie, my mother’s cousin, told me if would count them and tell her how many she could take them off. I laughed and told her I didn’t believe it, but they were counted and within a week they were gone and I have not had anymore. That was over 55 years ago, I am still skeptical, but I guess the proof is in the pudding. She also said she and her brother could also talk the “fire” out of a burn.
I hope everyone is safe this morning, it has been a stormy night and maybe more storms this morning. I was woke up at 2 o’clock during the night by my phone going off about a tornado warning for my area, but I don’t think it touched down, reminds me of a tornado that came through this area on May 5, 1933, this one seemed to be following the same path. It came within 150-200 yards of my grandparent’s home before turning and destroying the home of some relatives killing 6 of them.
My grandmother would buy your wart. She’d rub a penny over it and give you the penny. You couldn’t spend it until the wart was gone. I would put mine in a box covered in shells (souvenir of Florida). I kept other treasures there as well.
Good Day Tipper and family,
I was around 10 when I had a wart on my pointing finger. My Dad took me out to the hen house, made me pick out 3 kernels of corn, turn away from the birds and rub the wart with the corn and then throw it over my shoulder. Dad watched till the chickens ate the corn then let me go play. No more wart! Send my best wishes to Granny.
My hubby always told me his maternal grandmother could remove warts. She supposedly rubbed them with a dish rag, said something, buried the dish rag and the warts disappeared. He said his dad always said she was a witch. Lol.
I had a small wart on one of my fingers. I had heard that you could take a smooth stone and rub it on there and it would disappear. Well, I did that and it worked. Not sure what rubbing it with something does, but it never came back and never had another one.