Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-07-09

Ann Slater, and, lnexpllcable as it
seems. the two formed mutual aztec.
ton so strong that they refused to be
separated, and when the girls father
arrived at Delhi to take her back to
Massachusetts,, she and Lucy Ann
Slater had left the poor>housc, and no
trace OF them could be found. It was
subsequently learned that Lucy Ann
mad assumed the character OF a man,
and under the name of Joseph Israel
Loedell, hadabeen married by Wayne
coanty justice of the peace to Marie
Louise Perry, a few days after they
ran away from the poor, house.
In the summer of 1869 a couple call
ing themselves the Rev. Joseph Israel
Lobdell and wife appeared in the
mountain villages in the western part
OF this (Monroe) county. For two
years they roamed about the region,
living IN caves in the woods, and sub
sistlng on berries and roots, such
game as the long rife which the
man carried might provide, and the
charity Of the people. In 1871 they
became such a nuisance that they
were arrested On a charge of vagran-
cy, aad lodged in the Stroudsburg
jail. Nothing was known Of their
history, and nothing could be obtains
ed from the couple that would throw
light on their antecedents,
On the very night that the myster-
lous couple We're placed in jail here,
Mary Slater, Lucy Ann LohdeIl's
daughter, who had grown to be a
beautiful young woman, was seized
by two men near her her foster faith
ers house in Damascus, and was
gagged, bound and thrown into a
wagoa, which was driven rapidly
away toward the Delaware river.
In the voice of one of the men the
girl recognized that of George Kent,
a young man whose attentions she
had refused a few days before. Miss
Slater was so maltreated by the men
that she became unconscious. She
was aroused by the sound Of rushing
waters. The men lifted her from the
wagon, and, carrying her to the river
bank, threw her into the stream She
remembered nothing more. A. day-
light next morning she regained con
seriousness again. She was lvinx on
a small island in the river. She was
discovered by man who lived near,
who took her off the island in a boat.
Before she could give any account of
who she was or how she came to be
on the island she lost her reason, and
was permitted to wander away. She
was found three days later in the
Sullivan county mountains, a raving
maniac. 1t was several days before
she could give an account of her
mysterious disappearance. Kent was
arrested but escaped from custody
and was never recaptured.
The story of the abduction, outrage
and attempted murder of Mary Slater
was printed in the local papers, and
one day it was read in Stoudsburg Jail
by Joseph Israel Lobdell," and from
his rawlings over the outrage it was
learned that she" was the woman
Lucy Ann Slater, and the mother of
the girl. The result was that the two
singular outcasts were returned to
Delaware county. But they soon re-
sumed their wild life, and for FIVE
years lived in the mountains Of
Wayne county. One day In 1876
they appeared in Honesdale, where
"Joseph" was taken into custody as a
lunatic. His companion, who insist
ed that he was her husband in name
and fact, prepared a remarkable peti-
ton which she presented to the court,
asking for the custody Of her hus'
band. In this petition she made the
startling affirmation that the prisoner
was not only a mother but father
as well, the petitioner declaring SOL
EMMY that she had herself born a
child Of which the prisoner was a
father. The court ordered the Iunatic
to be delivered to her companion, and
the two returned to Damascus town
ship. They lived there until 1880,
when the authorities interfered and
sent Lucy Ann to the lunatic asylum.
The grief of her companion at the
separation was pitiful, and after a
few months she went away, returning,
it is supposed, to her parents in Mass
achusetts.