River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-03-06
A RECLAIMED HERMIT.
How a Connecticut Ran Passed Forty
Four Years in Solitude.

( How Connecticut Ran Passed Forty
Four Years in Solitude.
Dingman's Ferry, Pa, Letter to the Phila. Press.
I Austin Sheldon, the famous Pike
county hermit, has abandoned his cave
in the mountains and returned to his
birth place in Connecticut to spend the
remainder of his days. For many years
''Old Sheldon, the hermit" has been
one of the curiosites of this region, and
his cave has been visited by thousands
of people. He was born at Sunnyside,
Conn, in 1902, and is consequently in
his eighty-second year. In his boy
hood he learned the blacksmith's trade,
and arriving at mans estate, was mar
ried to comedy, respectable, young
woman, who became insane shortly
after their union Sheldon put
his wife in private asylum, where
he supported her until she
died. In 1910 he came to pennsylvania,
where he expected to engage in stock
raising. but he fell into the hands OF
some of the wild-land agents who infest
this region and they relieved him of all
his cash and decided him tract of Wild
land in Lehman township that was not
worth 10 cents an acre. When Sheldon
saw how he had been swindled out of
his hard-earned money he raved like O
mailman and partly lost his reason. He
took up his abode in cave on the pre-
misses, and there he has remained ever
since, desiring no human companionship
until within the last few years. In 1878
he became enamored of apretty girl liv-
ing not many miles from his subterran-
can home, and asked her to marry him.
She Indignantly refused, and her parents
forbade him to come near their house.
Since that time the old man has been
thinking of returning to Connecticut,
and when few days ago his sister, a
woman eighty years of age-his only
living relatiye-came to see him, she In
duced him to accompany her to Sunny
side, where she has comfortable home.
When, in 1877, the writer first visited
the hermit's cave, the recluse was a
most horrible looking object, although
since then his appearance has altered
for the better. He is as deaf as a post,
and those who desire to question him
are ODliR6u To 10 50 Ill NIlbluS. Liz
cave in which he spent fortyfour years
is twelve by fourteen feet, with gravel
floor The furniture consists of four
blocks of wood, which serve the pur-
pose of table and chairs, and one old
rocking chair in which he sleeps. He
has not slept in bed for forty-three
years, he says. He has about an acre
of ground which he calls his garden,
in it he grows little corn and few
potatoes Upon these vegetables, and
fruit, dried roots, and such game and
fish as he can trap, the old man lived
for nearly half a century.
He has an old Bible which he reads
every day, and he can quote chapter
after chapter with wonderful accuracy.
For thirty-six years the old man never
shaved or had his hair cut He wore
curious looking clothes, which he kept
fastened to his person with hickory
''withes' secured about his waist. He
never wore a hat For his defense
against wild beasts he carried long
knife, sharp as a razor, which he made
by grinding down an old file. He never
read newspaper since he came to Pike
county; never heard of the civil war,
and never heard of Lincoln or Grant.
He asked who they were and what
they did, one day last summer.