This original dug well relates to one of the several fascinating legends of Zachariah and Elizabeth DeWitt. As reported by Ralph McGinnis in The History of Oxford, Ohio, from the Earliest Days to the Present, Zachariah heard Elizabeth's screams as she discovered that their baby was gone:
"Finally, when the despairing mother had about given up hope, a thin, but indignant wail was heard proceeding from the vicinity of the open well in the cabin yard. Mrs. DeWitt knew the voice of her offspring. She rushed to the well, and peering down, saw her pride and joy floating on the surface of the water. The voluminous skirts of the infant's dress had caught the air in its descent into the well and it had been bouyed up nicely. The child was fished out with a garden rake, wet and petulant, but unharmed, and lived to four score and ten."
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