File:Wild Man (of the Woods, New York, Woodhull) - 1869-07-30 - National Opinion (Bradford, VT), p. 1.jpg

Summary

National opinion. (Bradford, Vt.), 30 July 1869. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84022552/1869-07-30/ed-1/seq-1/>

Text

A Wild Man.

A Hideous Monster Roaming About The Neighborhood of Woodhull and Troupsburgh, N.Y.

A correspondent of a Hornellsville paper tells the following veracious story :

For the very strange story I am about to relate, I scarcely expect to, nor do I solicit belief. Indeed were it not that hundreds of reliable men and women in the county of Steuben are ready and willing to vouch for its truthfulness, I would never ask you to put it in print. The facts are as follows:

During the four weeks last past a wild man has been prowling around the woods in the towns of Woodhull and Troupsburgh, in the southern part of this county, com- ing frequently into the highways and cleared fields, to the intense terror of women and children, and even strong men, So great is the excitement in some parts of the towns mentioned, that schools have been broken up, parents not daring to send their little ones along the highways to the schoolhouses. At first the whole thing was considered a hoax, intended merely to frighten old women and children; but as many prominent citizens vouched for the actual existence of the wild man, and the disturbance of the schools was making it a matter of public importance, the people of Woodhull and Troupsburgh deter- mined to ferret the matter out. Ac- cordingly, on the 12th inst., about 200 men assembled at the residence of Mr. S. G. Brown, and proceeded to search the woods in that immediate vicinity, Under the leadership of Capt. J. J. Buchanan and the wri- ter of this article, crowds searched the woods for hours, but with no success further than the finding of camp fire and the track of a bare- footed man imprinted in the soft mashy part of the forest; and the whole party, at about 3 o'clock, p.m., returned to Mr. Brown's house, and getting ready their teams started back to Woodhull village. The party had proceeded scarcely fifty rods from Mr. Brown's house, when on the outskirts of the woods, and within 20 rods of the band of search- ers, appeared the veritable wild man of the woods! Myself, Capt. Bu- chanan, and others, immediately started in full pursuit. We ap- proached within six or eight rods of this strange being without attract- ing his notice, when suddenly, with a wild, unearthly shriek, he notified us that we were perceived. I drew my rifle, intending to halt him or send a bullet through his skull ordered him to halt, when he sprang with the agility of a deer toward the wood. I did not fire, because, on second thought, I doubted my right to take the life of any human being, however wild, until he had at least violated some law.

So far I have related facts: which will be vouched for by at least 100 persons, I will now give you a per- fect description of this wild man — or animal — or 'What is it,' — as he, she, or it appeared to me. He was barefooted, bare headed, and wore no clothing except an old pair of soldier's pants; his hair, which was black, sprinkled with gray, was from two to three feet long, frizzly and matted, hanging over his face, neck, shoulders and back, reaching half way to the ground; his beard reaching to the waistband of his pants, was jet black, This, to- gether with a springing, jerking hitch in his gait, gave him more the appearance of a wild animal than a human being; and though I am not of a nervous temperament may all the saints in heaven shield and de- fend me from ever meeting such a fiendish looking being face to face again. The long matted hair; the thick, black, uncombed beard; the wild, glaring, blood-shot eyeballs, which seemed bursting from their sockets; the savage, haggard, un- earthly countenance; the wild, beast- ly appearance of this thing, whether man or animal, has haunted me con- tinually by day and night; and I do not wonder that when this strange being rapped on the school house windows, children were frightened out of their senses and refused to be pacified; for although I have seen the chiefs of fifty different tribes of Rocky Mountain Indians, painted for the war path, and have looked with wonder on the stuffed gorilla, Barnum's 'What is it,' the man monkey, &c., I never beheld any- thing halfso hideous as the wild man of Woodhull woods.

I will close by saying that twenty- five years ago a man named William Little suddenly disappeared from Woodhull, and has never been heard of since; and as the farm on which the wild man spends most of his time was formerly owned by the ab- sentee, it is supposed by some that the wild man is none other than William Little himself, returned: in this disguise to the home of his youth. But I hardly think this the- ory the true one. I do believe, how- ever, that a woman and a baby are somewhat mixed up in the matter.

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