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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.
Remembering the Helenwood Devil
Reuben Caruso “Crusie” Sexton created quite a stir in Summer 1921 when he “unearthed” a giant devil in an abandoned coal mine east of Helenwood. The Devil of Scott County — also called the Helenwood Devil — made newspaper headlines throughout the region, brought scores of tourists to Helenwood by train to catch a glimpse of it, and wound up being displayed at the World’s Fair.
Of course, the real story was that Sexton didn’t “discover” the devil at all. He made it, out of clay. It was entirely a work of art. But it looked real enough to deceive many, and it made Sexton a nice chunk of money in the process.
To understand why so many people fell for the devil — which was allegedly a 6-foot-4 petrified being with four-inch horns protruding from its skull and wings stretching out of its shoulders, a chain binding one of its arms to one of its legs — you have to understand Helenwood in 1921.
Originally established as Homestead in the 1850s, Helenwood grew up with the opening of the Southern Railroad in 1880, and exploded when coal was discovered nearby along Sulpher Creek. As the town grew, so did the saloons. And as the saloons grew, so did the town’s reputation as a place that bordered on lawlessness. There were more killings in Helenwood from the 1880s to the 1920s than in any other part of Scott County. Many folks said it got its name from “Hell in the Woods.”
Little wonder, then, that folks believed Crusie Sexton had really found Satan himself.
The truth is that Crusie Sexton — the son of Bill Sexton (1869-1912) and Eldora Jeffers (1876-1965) — had been stationed in China during his time in the U.S. Army (he was a World War I veteran and was even held captive as a prisoner of war). There, he observed giant statues and decided to make one of his own when he returned home.
Crusie was a 26-years-old when he worked on his devil that summer. Every day, he would steal off to the old coal mine, where he was carefully crafting the being out of bed clay. When he finished, the creature was larger than the average man and reportedly weighed over a ton.
The devil’s features were so lifelike that it is said that Sexton scared himself while he was inside the dark mine working on the creature.
Sexton’s mother, Eldora, became concerned that her son was slipping off to the coal mine every day. She convinced herself that he was cooking moonshine. One day she followed him to see what he was up to. When she entered the mine and saw the devil, she was nearly scared to death. From there, word began to spread.
Sexton moved the devil to the home of his relative, Jerry Smith, who lived close to the railroad in Helenwood. As word spread that there was a giant devil in the man’s backyard, trains began to carry people to see it. The tale spread through railroad communities from Cincinnati to Florida, and folks would pay a quarter to look at the devil for 20 minutes. Like the tale of a caught fish, the story became bigger and bigger as it spread further and further. Some folks who traveled to Helenwood to see the devil reportedly fainted at the sight of it.
By August, there was so much notoriety surrounding Crusie’s devil that the New York Times wrote two stories about it.
In September, J.C. Pemberton, an Oneida resident, paid $2,000 for the devil and put it on display at the Somerset Fair in Pulaski County, Ky. It was the top draw at the fair. Pemberton placed iron bands around the box, put four padlocks on the box, and drove nails into the lid. He stationed a guard with the box, and hired a professor from an “Eastern school” to claim that the statue was an idol from an early race. Crusie signed an affidavit stating that the statue was authentic.
The devil was later sold again, and was shown at the Chicago’s World Fair of 1923. It would never come back to Scott County, but no one is quite sure what ever happened to it. Some believe that it is in a museum “up north” somewhere, though there’s no evidence of that. Others believe the clay simply disintegrated.
In recent years, the story of the Helenwood Devil has generated renewed interest online, and some devout fans even insist that it might have been real.
As for Crusie Sexton, he married Sibyl Robinson on Dec. 30, 1921, shortly after selling his devil to Pemberton. They divorced in Michigan a few years later. He later married Stella Craig, an Anderson County woman, in 1934. He died on June 16, 1936, at age 41. The cause of death was undetermined; Dr. M.E. Thompson wrote on the death certificate that Crusie was unconscious when he arrived. Crusie was buried at Sexton Memorial Cemetery in the Paint Rock community.
Thank you for reading. Our next newsletter will be Threads of Life tomorrow. If you’d like to update your subscription to add or subtract any of our newsletters, do so here. If you haven’t yet subscribed, it’s as simple as adding your email address!
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Our Newsletters:
• Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
• Tuesday: Echoes from the Past (stories of our history)
• Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
• Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
• Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
• Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)