Edwin Woodring

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.

Press Coverage

• "A PENNSYLVANIA PROPHET. He Lives in a Hut in the Woods and Wants a Religious War.", People's Register (Chambersburg, PA): 2, 2. Jan. 1891, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121091200/a-pennsylvania-prophet-he-lives-in-a-hu/ 
• "EDWIN WOODRING IN TOWN. THINKS HE HAS SOLVED PROBLEM OF PERPETUAL MOTION.", The Allentown Leader (Allentown, PA): 8, 13 Nov. 1907, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121090225/edwin-woodring-in-town-thinks-he-has-so/ 
• "LEHIGH HERMIT IN THE COUNTY HOME: Edwin Woodring, Famous Prophet No Longer Able to Care For Himself", The Allentown Leader (Allentown, PA): 1, 8 Feb. 1917, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121090526/lehigh-hermit-in-the-county-home-edwin/ 
• "HERMIT EXPIRES AT THE AGE OF 94: Edwin Woodring Prophet & Mechanic, Long Lived in Cabin in the Woods", The Allentown Leader (Allentown, PA): 1, 19 Mar. 1918, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121090622/hermit-expires-at-the-age-of-94-edwin-w/