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Edwin Woodring

From Kook Science

Edwin Woodring (September 9, 1826 - March 17, 1918), also known as the LeHigh County Hermit, was an American hermit resident near Chapman Station in LeHigh County, Pennsylvania who claimed to be the reincarnation of the spirit of Elijah and John the Baptist and prophesied a coming religious war against the Catholic Church that would last forty-four months. Prior to his religious conversion, reported to have taken place in the 1870s, Woodring was said to have been a carpenter, mechanic, and pioneer farmer.

In 1907, it was reported that Woodring had been working on "perfecting perpetual motion" in his isolated cabin on woodlands owned by L. S. Lichtenwalner near the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad line, and that the "secret" was "being made clear to him in revelations." It was also reported ten years later that he had also "tinkered with a flying machine," and had built his own automobile. Neither account contained any detail about the designs of these claimed inventions.

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