Omaha daily bee., 1884-12-29
T~RNNEssEEs WILD MAN,
The Lady Who Employed Him Givcs
an Account of His Strange
Proceedings.
Nashville American.

4 ahhANAANAAAs
An article was published here yesterday
entitled "Tennessee's Wild Man" men.
t~ionlng Miss Maud st. Pierre as the lady
in whose employ the "wild man had
been previous to his disappearance. Miss
St. Pierre vss In this city to-day on bust.
meas connected with tho railroad which
she Ia building from Anderson Station,
Tenn, to her mines, Sho said to q re.
porter: The report concerning Mr..
Neal, my secretary, and myself is incor-
rect in some respects. There is nothing
mysterious at all about me. am simply
q business woman My success in busi-
ness has been q surprise to many people
who think q woman can know nothing
about business, and on this account sew
eral stories have been started about me.
l purchased %, 900 acres Of coal and min.
ing land in Anderson, Franklin county,
Tenn. Some time ago l opened mines
and began building q railroad from them
to Anderson, q distance of two and q
half miles. The Nashville and Chatta.
nooga railroad has agreed to furnish the
Iron aud engines for 1t, and II will CON
meet with that road. l have also con-
structed q solid wagon road, three miles
long, from the mines. Much OF 1t Is
built through solid rock. 1 hire and pay
men personally, and am compelled to be
IN horseback nearly all day, but l never
carry large sums about me, and have
never made the slightest claim to any re.
lationshlp to Myra Clark Gaines. l
employ fifty men and pay them on the
LIST of every month. Mine are the only
mines In the south that produce q good
quality Of semi. bituminous coal. The
mines are deep and long, and the miners
average ninety bushels a day. There is
nothing mysterious about me. l am
q native of Louisiana, have been
abroad and am in business to
make money. ] am going back to my
mines tomorrow, and now that | have
told you who l am will tell you about
my secretary. His name Is John A.
Neal, and he belongs to one of the first
families of Alabama. He is a cousin of
the late VIM. M. Lowe, a member of
congress from Alabama, and is gentle
man In every respect. he was employed
about a year when he disappeared. He
had bsen sick for a short time. On June
8 he left his house at Anderson about
noon, and went UP in the glen a short
| distance away. He was missed almost
Immediately, and a party started in search
of him not more than twenty minutes
later. The flowers of a button hole bou.
quet, which he had worn, were found
scattered over a rock in the glen,
but no other trace could be found of him.
| All hands turned out, and the woods and
mountains for miles around were thor
oughly searched. Parties were on the
lookout for him for weeks. The many
caves in the mountains thereabouts were
carefully gone through several times. l
used every means In my power to find
some trace. The ponds were dragged,
all my men were included In the search
ers, and l hired detectives and offered
large rewards. A reward Of 81, 900 Is
still standing, and | would gladly pay it
for his recovery. l did this simply be.
cause he was In my employ at the time
and because of his widowed mother, who
Is almost frantic at the loss of her sor.
"How or why he disappeared / can NOT
say. l had sent him down to Anderson
from Huntsville, fifty miles away, to get the
money from the bank with which to pay
the men. 1t is possible that some rutian
may have known this and may have fol-
LEVIED and killed him, but I don't know
anything about 1t. There were five dis
appearances In six weeks,a that time, all
of them within a radius of fifty miles.
The rumor that he is found seems to be
very likely true. A number of rumors of
his having been seen have come to me
from time to time. A colored woman
said she saw q man in ragged clothes run
In and out of a deserted church
at Benefits Cave, which Is six
miles from Anderson. Search par.
ties went there but no traces
of the man esuld be found. The woman
was quite certain that 1t was Mr.. Neal
and she knew him veil. Another time
an article In the Scottsboro Herald states
that a man had seen Mr.. Neal while
hunting in the woods near there. l be-
lieve the report that he was found In
Sweeten's Cave is correct. The caves are
so many and the paths In theTs 80 intri.
cate that a person might easily hide in
them for a long time without being dis
covered. l think he is suffering from
temporary alteration of the MIND. The
story about him having had delirium tire.
mems is false, for he never was under
tn o influence of liquor"