The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-07-27
Old Mag, the Hag.

A letter to the Philadelphia Times, I'M
der date of Equinunk, June 2, has the
following:
The hunters from Che western pant of
Sullivan county. New York, just across
! the Delaware river from here, report the
finding the body of woman's who has
been missing from her home III Mon
gaup valley for several months. Her
death was a most horribly tragic one and
a fitting end to strange life. Her name
was Margaret Conkling and she was
known throughout the country as "Old
Mag, the Hag." She was one of q large
family Of half savage people known as
the De Groatses, the Hinkses, the Hen
ions and the Conklings. This family is
said to number of about $50 men, women
and children, than whom more degrad-
ed lot of people it would be hard to find
in the United States. They dwell in
small caves and cabins in the wooded
hills of Sullivan county and on the semi
cultivated slopes of Orange county Their
living is made principally of stealing,
bunting and fishing with nets in forbid
den streams. Some few of them are
expert weavers of willow baskets which
they carry to towns and sell. The cash
proceeds of these sales were invariably
turned into whiskey and tobacco. and the
women were as dissipated and abandon
ed to vice as the men. They also plan.
ned robberies and depredations of every
kind, and every basket-selling tour is
sure to be followed by raid upon barns,
chicken coops and cellars. The people
are familiar with every inch of ground in
the Delaware valley, and they can easily
hide themselves in the mountains, and
manage to escape the officers of the law.
The Conklings are of Indian descent
the Seneca breed, they claim-and they
bear all the facial marks of their ances-
tors, while their habits are even more
indecent ard less clearly than those of
their savage ancestors. They intermarry
exclusively, and no divorce is necessary
to separate man and wife il either p8rty
desire such a separation. The results of
this defiance of the laws of physiology
are evident in the forms of their chill
dren. Many of them are idiots, some
are born without ears, some without
limbs. and there is one singular being,
now living, it is said in a lonely hut
near the lake on the western edge of
Sullivan county, that would be more of
an acquisition to Barnums show than
Jumbo" was. This being has neither
nose, eyes nor ears, and only two teeth
can be found in it's head, while its feet
are dubbed and its hands resemble the
fins of big fish more than human
members. Yet this singular creature
lives and seems to enjoy life. A Month
cello hunter, David Boyle, who often
goes to that part Of the county
fishing, has seen this what is
it?" eat raw fish. raw potatoes, and
even raw skunk meat with evident relish.
The mother of this nonstrosity is q
woman six feet in height, and her hus-
band is her own uncle. The mother has
quite a decided moustache and beard,
while the father is but three fee eight
inches high, hare-lipped and hunch-
back dwarf.
Such is the race or family to which
"Old Mag, the hag," belonged, and
among this tribe of savages she was re-
garded as a sort of queen, and treated
with as much Difference as gypsies pay
to their sovereign. She was reputed to
have been the seventh daughter, and
was, in consequence, believed to be en-
dowed with the magic power OF curing
all sorts of diseases and bone fractures.
She was also fortune-teller of great
skill. Her appearance was very singu-
lar. She was nearly six feet nine inches
in height, her skin was saffron yellow,
her hair long, coarse and black as a
ravens wing, and her chin was covered
with q beard at least three inches in
length. She adopted a regular Indian
costume, and lived alone in her small
cabin on the shore of Big Pond, just Cd
the edge of the great cranberry marshes
of Sullivan county. Her house was con-
stantly besieged by city people from
New York and Philadelphia, who we're
summering in Sullivan, and who came
to have the future revealed to them by
this wonderful fortune-teller. She made
lots of money, and knew how to save il.
She never spent cent except for liquor,
and one of her peculiarities was that she
would never allow any human being to
sleep in her cabin, not even one Of her
own kindred, and those of the tribe
Who visited her always went prepared to
slsep out of doors. There was annually
gatheripg Of the whole family and these
conversations were the widest orgies i'm
aQinable, and more than one member OF
the great family has been missing after
the long debauches In some lonely cabin
or cave in the rocks.
sOld Mag" was last seen alive several
months ago end was then ~ frisky as
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