The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1879-04-18
SPEAKING Hardly Ever.

NELSON FURNACE, Ky, April I'm
1865, an old gentleman living about
three miles east of this place, named
Lloyd Wimsatt, was taken violently Ill
with a disease that kept him In confine-
ment for many weeks, and at one time
his family and friends as well as his at
tending physicians gave him up. Being
| under the impression that the next
hour would be his last, yet at the same
time possessing his faculties and with
full power of speech, Mr.. Wimsatt re-
quested that the clergyman then oficia-
ting at New Haven, KY, be sent for,
and the minister was early at the bed
side. The room was at once vacated
by the family, and for some time the
patient and the representative Of the
church were alone. What happened
then and there remains a mysterg, as
the patient recovered, and in a short
time was up and about; but ever since
then, save upon two occasions, he has
not uttered q word. Yesterday an
Enquirer reporter heard that Mr.. VIM
satt had spoken to his son, and in order
to be satisfied that he had, INTERCEPTED
Stephen Wimsatt, aged about 10, upon
the subject, the result of which wa as
follows:
"They tell me that your father spoke
to you last night. Is it SOP"
eyes, sir; he raised up in his bee and
said: ooh, Stephen My mother heard
it, and we all got up and tried to get
him to talk more; but he seemed to be
entirely speechless, as heretofore"
"Do you know what caused him to
lose his speech"
"Sickness, l think. He can hear, and
answers by sign. He will MT no.ice a
stranger, however"
"When did he speak last before
this?"
"About three years ago. l cut down
a tree and it commenced falling before
l noticed it, and he hallooed to me, say
ing, Look out, Stephen so 1 did look
out, otherwise 1 would have been
killed"
"What did he do after that exclama.
tion?"
"He then began making signs again,
and his utterance last night was the first
that any of the family or anybody thai
knows him has heard SINCE"
"Do you think there is n truth In
the neighborhood report that the cler
gyman commanded him to stop speak
ing in case he recovered from his sick
ness in 1862"
. "No sir; / am satisfied that part o
, his history is without foundation, fol
nobody knows what passed between
the priest and my father at that time
"Then you think he lost his speech
in consequence of that sickness"
I eyes. l think it was the work o
God; but that is about as far as l cal
go"
t "Then your father has only made th,
two EXPLANATIONS you speak of within
J the past fourteen years, so far as your
self or any of your family knows"
7 eyes, SIR
The subject of this sketch is a farmer
in moderate circumstances, and is ont
of those quiet, easy-going stay-at-homt
kind of men, who seem to aspire t.
nothing Of a higher sphere in life. He
has an interesting family, and attends
to | is daily labors with a sound body
mind and hearing, but either cannot OF
will not talk. There are people living
in the neighborhood who believe thai
he could talk, if he would; and there
are others who say positively that he
cannot talk now, or he would do SO, be-
cause previous to his sickness in 1866
he vas ar almost incessant talker. The
fact, however, of his making two dis
tinct u%tterances, understood fully by
those who heard them, renders the case
n very remarkable one, at any rate.