Pennsylvania Dutch folk magic and powwowing

John George Hohman

Johann Georg Hohman was a German immigrant who settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and became one of the most influential figures in the transmission of Pennsylvania Dutch folk magic, publishing Pow-Wows, or Long Lost Friend (first in German in 1820, then in English in 1828), a foundational American folk grimoire combining healing remedies, protective charms, and magical invocations rooted in the powwowing tradition. The book drew on European folk magic sources including the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses and circulated widely among rural Pennsylvania German communities as a practical handbook of domestic magic and healing. It remains a touchstone for American folk magic practitioners, particularly in the Appalachian and Hoodoo-adjacent traditions that absorbed its formulas.