Jasperflynn: Created page with "{{Infobox Location | type = Campus monument | location = Eastern Tsuga College campus, entrance to Verdant Scholars Memorial Grove | founded = Late 1970s (commissioned) | owner = Eastern Tsuga College / Verdant Historical Society | first_appearance = Making the Grades: Kelly's Unveiling }} == About == '''The First Witch Statue''' is a monument on the Eastern Tsuga College campus, standing along the worn path t..."

2026-04-21T20:52:12Z

Created page with "{{Infobox Location | type = Campus monument | location = Eastern Tsuga College campus, entrance to Verdant Scholars Memorial Grove | founded = Late 1970s (commissioned) | owner = Eastern Tsuga College / Verdant Historical Society | first_appearance = Making the Grades: Kelly's Unveiling }} == About == '''The First Witch Statue''' is a monument on the Eastern Tsuga College campus, standing along the worn path t..."

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{{Infobox Location
| type = Campus monument
| location = [[Eastern Tsuga College]] campus, entrance to [[Verdant Scholars Memorial Grove]]
| founded = Late 1970s (commissioned)
| owner = Eastern Tsuga College / Verdant Historical Society
| first_appearance = [[Making the Grades: Kelly's Unveiling]]
}}

== About ==
'''The First Witch Statue''' is a monument on the [[Eastern Tsuga College]] campus, standing along the worn path that marks the unofficial entrance to the [[Verdant Scholars Memorial Grove]]. It depicts '''Sarah Osgood''', a woman who arrived in the Verdant region in 1693 and co-founded the Verdant Scholars. Sarah Osgood may have been Tituba of the Salem Witch Trials — a connection the Verdant Historical Society suppressed at the statue's commissioning and has officially downplayed ever since.

The statue acquired its "First Witch" nickname in 1992 following a student journalism article that brought the Tituba connection into public circulation for the first time. The nickname has stuck. Visitors regularly leave small tokens and offerings at its base.

== Description ==
The statue stands along a worn grassy path leading from the main ETC campus into the [[Verdant Scholars Memorial Grove]]. Its placement at the grove's entrance has led many to view it as a guardian figure for the space beyond. The path it marks shows decades of use.

No detailed physical description of the statue itself has been established in canon beyond its subject and placement.

== History ==

=== Commissioning (late 1970s) ===
The statue was commissioned by the Verdant Historical Society following [[Eloise Delacroix]]'s mid-1970s discovery of documents in the Delacroix family archive. Those documents revealed that one of the Verdant Scholars founders was a woman of dark skin named Sarah Osgood. They also suggested she may have been Tituba Barbados of the Salem Witch Trials. The Historical Society celebrated the Sarah Osgood identification as a progressive milestone and suppressed the Tituba connection entirely, promoting only the "forward-thinking woman founder" angle at commissioning.

The statue sat largely forgotten through the 1980s, profiled occasionally in the ETC student newspaper under headlines like "Who Is This Statue?"

=== The 1992 article ===
In 1992 an [[Eastern Tsuga College]] journalism student was researching the statue's history. [[Margot Delacroix]], then approximately 16 years old, had recently discovered [[Eleanor Ashburne]]'s original diaries hidden in the Delacroix family vault. The diaries contained entries connecting Sarah Osgood to Tituba. Margot sought the journalism student out and gave them photocopied pages from the diaries, acting without her mother [[Eloise Delacroix]]'s knowledge and almost certainly against her wishes. She was furious that the real history had been buried.

The article ran. It brought the Tituba connection into public circulation for the first time and directly contributed to Verdant's rebranding as "A Safe Harbor Among the Hemlocks." The "First Witch" nickname emerged from this piece and has never left.

Eloise almost certainly knew who the source was. The subject was never raised between them.

=== The Salem conflict ===
Verdant's 1992 pivot to the Tituba narrative created immediate friction with Salem, Massachusetts. The Verdant Chamber of Commerce defused the situation by officially downplaying the Sarah Osgood and Tituba connection, stating publicly that the documents were likely forged and that Sarah Osgood had simply fled persecution herself. The tension between the Chamber's official position and what the documents actually suggest has never been resolved.

== Sarah Osgood ===
Sarah Osgood arrived in the Verdant region in 1693, one year after the Salem Witch Trials ended. She co-founded the Verdant Scholars on the site of the [[Verdant Scholars Memorial Grove]]. Whether she knew the grove's significance as the location where [[The Hemlock Veil]] had been cast in 1667 and renewed since has not been established in canon.

The question of whether Sarah Osgood was Tituba of the Salem Witch Trials is one of the most significant unresolved historical questions in the SSU. The documents suggest it. The Chamber of Commerce officially denies it. [[House Subconium]]'s position has not been established in canon.

== Connection to the SSU ==
The First Witch Statue serves as a landmark in [[Making the Grades: Kelly's Unveiling]], where [[Kelly Spaihts]] uses it as a late-night meeting point with [[Mark Rogers]] in Book Three. Kelly texts him to meet her by the statue near midnight. She leads him into the [[Verdant Scholars Memorial Grove]], unaware of the grove's history or significance.

== Canon notes ==
* No detailed physical description of the statue has been established
* Whether Sarah Osgood was Tituba has not been confirmed in canon
* House Subconium's position on the Sarah Osgood and Tituba question has not been established
* What Eloise Delacroix retained from the documents beyond what she shared with the Historical Society has not been established

== Related articles ==
* [[Verdant Scholars Memorial Grove]]
* [[Eastern Tsuga College]]
* [[Margot Delacroix]]
* [[Eloise Delacroix]]
* [[Eleanor Ashburne]]
* [[House Subconium]]
* [[Visit Verdant]]

[[Category:Locations]]
[[Category:Eastern Tsuga College]]
[[Category:Supernatural]]

The First Witch Statue - Revision history