The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1882-11-08
A WILD WOMAN.
A Tale from North Carolina like
the Stories Told in the Great
Forests of the Old Country.
From the Louisville Commercial.

For some months past there have
been rumors of a terrible apparition,
which has terrorized all the women
and children in Clear Creek town
ship, not far from the city of Char
lotte, n. G.. The women say that
for two weeks they have been sub
ject to terrifying visits in the alb
sence of their husbands from crea-
ture like shiny black negress with
long hair and cleaning eyes. She
asks in hardly distinguishable glib
bership for baby to eat, and makes
effort to get hold of the children.
The men, getting tired of the fears
of their wives, determined to try
and catch the creature, and for the
last week crowds of farmers have
been daily and nightly chasing her
without success.
The first effort to catch her was
made week ago by John Roberts,
blacksmith. The wild creature
had appeared several times at a fire
which it was the habit of Carey
Moore, colored, of the neighborhood
to light after dark in the yard of his
house for the preparation of his
meals. Roberts was put to watch
for her, and she appeared even be-
fore the flames were well kindled.
She presented such a wild look in
the half-light, and asked for food in
such wild fashion, that Roberts was
demoralized. He recovered, how
ever, made an outcry, and attempt
ed to seize the woman, but she slip
ped through his hands, and disap-
peared in the dark shadows of the
woods.
One morning Maj. Stephen Cos
we'll caught sight Of the creature,
and chased her across an open field.
He was badly hurt in his efforts to
keep up with her, and reported that
she outran q buck, and cleared four
corn rows at a leap. That same
night she was again enticed from the
woods by the kindling of a fire, and
was chased by thirty men without
success. Capt Marsh Allen, later
in the day, met her in the neighbor-
hood with her face torn and bleed
ing, and a long bloody knife in her
hand. The creature was naked and
so unearthly and terrible in appear
ance that he says he Is not sure it is
human being. Her hair reached
almost to her feet, but was kinky
like that of the African. 1t is not
mere fright which has caused the
country people to organize in their
attempts to catch the creature that
has been living in the swamp and
forest businesses for a year or more.
Some months ago it is reported an
infant was spirited away from it's
parents yard while they were in the
corn field, and was never heard from
and the disappearance was from
that section of the country in which
the wild woman has been seen, and
mothers white and black are in ter
ror for fear their little ones may al
so become food for the cannibal ne
gress. Yesterday the farmers, some
| mounted and others on foot, assem-
bled for the purpose of surrounding
swamp in which the creature is
known to be hid. At first it was at
tempted to run her down with blood
hounds, but they refused 10 chase
her, which deepened the supersti-
tious feeling with which the men as
we'll as the women of the commun-
ity began to regard her. The men
made the attempt to catch her, but
without success. The excitement
among the negroes and simple coun-
try folks is intense. By the more
intelligent farmers from that section
the theory is advanced that the crea-
ture is some half-witted woman who
has been SO long hunted down that
she lives in terror of human beings,
and, therefore, lives like an animal
i'm the forests, her necessities having
forced her to eat anything she can
get, including human flesh. i