The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1876-03-29

TIE WILD FAMILY AGAIN.
Murder Of the Girl by her British Brother
Tho Murderer Captured and sent to
tho Insane Asylum--An Unparalleled
Story of snvnxery and Barbnrity.
In the fall of 1871 quite a sensation
was created by the discovery In the vii
derness of Wyoming county. Pa, OF q
family of wild people, consisting OF o
man and his two children. The latter
roamed the woods in nude condition,
subsisting on nuts, roots, etc. The man
lived in miserable hut, where his chill
dren sometimes slept. He was possessed
Of good education, and clothed In rags
and surrounded with filth, he spent bis
time in studying an old Bible. =.
He seemed to have profound knowl-
edge of Scriptural subjects, and was
well versed in ancient and modern bis.
tory. He possessed, also, extraordinary
elocutionary powers, and had invented
a system of short hand which he wrote
with remarkable speed, and read with
duency. Soon after the discovery OF
these strange beings man named Rob
ineon sought to make money out OF them
by exhibiting them about the country.
To obtain the children he was obliged to
kidnap them, and by course OF most
cruel treatment compelled them to sub
NIT to be partially clothed. When
clothing was first put on them they tore
it to shreds. The father was induced to
accompany them, and served as lecturer,
reader and shorthand reporter. -. ...-
The children were boy and girl
They were named William and Melvina.
The latter was twenty-five years old,
perfectly developed, but somewhat
dwarfed in appearance. The boy was
nineteen. There was q remarkable re-
semblance between them. Their heads
were small, with receding foreheads, and
were covered with long, matted white
hair. Their noses and mouths were
very large, and their eyes small. The
expression of their faces was idiotic.
They were mutes, so far as emitting in
telligible sounds was concerned, but
they had strange, harsh gibberish in
which their father insisted they com.
m!unicated understand dinghy with one an
other. The exhibitions Of this degraded
family were SO shocking to the sensibii-
ties Of the public that the exhibitor was
compelled to abandon his speculation,
and the "wild mutes," as they were
termed, were returned to their retreat
in the Wilderness, in the winter Of 1872.
They were gradually forgotten, but in
1878 their father appeared at Tunkhan-
mock and made the charge that his son
had killed his sister and attempted the
lie of his father, and asked that he be
taken in charge by the authorities. The
wild boy wasarrested with great difficulty
and lodged in Jail. All efforts to get him
to wear clothing were unsuccessful, and
he was so violent that no one dared to
enter his cell unprotected. Nothing
could be done with him, and some weeks
after he was secured he was returned to
the woods. Ever since he has been
source of annoyance to the authorities,
and he has at last been disposed of by
being captured and incarcerated in the
insane asylum at Danville by order of
court. The extraordinary story of the
family, as told officially by the father, is
as follows. It has no parallel in modern
times: .... ........ .....,.-
The name of the father Of the Wild
mutes is Thomas Wells Parke. He is
fifty-fve years old, and was born In Exc
ter, Luzerne county. He lived in that
place until he was fifteen years old, OBJ
tanning the rudiments of an English edu-
cation. Beyond the fact that when he
was that age his parents moved into the
wilderness of Wyoming county, to the
spot where he was discovered with his
family in 1871, and that they died there,
and were buried in the woods by his
own hands, nothing is known about his
entecedents. His father left fifty acres
of land, on which Parke's hut now
stands. When he was twenty-six years
old he married a girl of twenty, named
Mary Searles. She was sickly, and sub
iect to insane spells. The girl, Melvina,
was born in 1849, and the boy nearly
three years later. Their mother never
gave them any attention, and from the
time they were old enough to get about
they we're compelled to look out for
They never spoke word
in their lives, nor had garment OF any
kind on them until the Snowman took
them away. They early took to the
woods, and grew up like the animals
that infested the region. From digging
for roots ndhunting nests they acquired
the habit of going on all fours, and were
almost as fleet as deer. They were
equally agile in an erect position. They
subsisted on nuts, roots, bark, etc., and
also systematically hunted mice, rats,
rabbits, ground moles, and other bur
rowing animals, which they 'devoured
raw. They climbed the higest trees with
ease. and hunted birds nests, the con-
tents of which, whether eggs or young
birds, were choice food for them. They
wandered about in the most rigorous
winter weather, and sometimes remained
away from home days at time. Their
akin became almost black from exposure,
and at the time they were discovered by
the hunters their flesh was covered with
scars made by outs and scratches in the
woods. The skin of the palms OF their
hands and soles of their feet was thick
and as hard as horn. The disposition OF
The boy at that time was ugly and
He had made several assaults
On his sister, wounding her badly, and
had attempted to kill his n other, who
ran away from the hut in March, 1871,
and never returned. -.
Left alone with bis wild offspring, the
father noted with alarm the increasing
ferociousness of the boy, and, when ne
could control him, he tied him In the
hut for the safety Of himself and the
girl This increased his fury, and he
was released. The disposition OF the
girl was gentler, and she was quite do
cile. !
When they returned from their short
tour with the Snowman it was in the
midst of the severe winter Of 1872.
Parke had left home at the time he
usually gathered his crop of potatoes
and turnips, all he raised on his land,
and when he came back there was moth
ing for him to subsist on. His children
betook themselves at once to the woods.
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