Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-04-27
EXCENTR|C PEOPLE.
Messrs. Billy Armstrong, Stub Clark,
Nick Wrinkle and Elvin Barker.
Hermits of Wood County.

Most cities and towns have their Ex-
centric people over whom the inhabi-
tants exercise a sort of mild espionage
and find interest in noting their latest
peculiarities or relating the excentrici
ties that serve to keep the public in
terested in the subjects. Some, by theil
excentricities that often verge Oh
philanthropics, make warm places in the
hearts of the people from whom they
are removed by individualities that fl
lily into the common place phazes Of
life. 1t takes times that try mems souls
to call out the hidden strength of their
characters and bring to the surface the
touch of nature that makes all men kin
There has never been a great reform
never revolution. or strife for free
| dom but the leaders were counted "ex-
centric" Lowell says "Men are born
at all angles to the parallels Of nature. y
The greater the angle the more pro-
nounced the excentricIties and Just
where the dividing line comes between
mania and we'll balanced reason were
hard to determine. There are martyrs
who would tie themselves to the stake,
and by eternal vigilance to their own
woes and sacrifices fan the faint blaze OF
adverse circumstance to a devouring
| flame; And there are martyrs whose
lives are made unspeakably sad, and
infinitely tender by self devotion that
will never be known until that day
when "the last shall be first and what
was counted black here, will shine all
white in the light of eternity.
An incident in the life of an editor
brought about this train of thought, and
memory and observation brings the
conclusion that Wood county is able to
furnish her quota of excentIic people
whose lives have been at broad Fright
angles from the parallels of nature. )"
| We remember some and "by their
| works ye shall know them"
| whose excentricities were of humane
and noble character, whose quiet and
unostentatious greatness it were sacri-
lege to unvail to the public gaze. We
| revere their memories. We have among
us here, and in far away portions of our
| country those who have been counted
as of peculiar ways" as of "excentric
habits who are criticized and derided
by the commonplace, who see not be-
yond the exterior, but whose lie holds
a purpose and work that will reach
into all the years to come Such ex-
centric people are worthy of all honor.
But there are other phases of excentri
city less heroic, more commonplace
and having curious or amusing phases
that awake an interest. We find ro-
mantle and sentimental phases in I'M
couth forms and uncanny ways.
A hermitage addsimmensly to a towns
attractions, and hermit is source of
wonder and curiosity. "Some we
remember and we'll ne'er forget"
Thirty years or more ago "Uncle Billy
Armstrong" and "Stub Clark" used to
be familiar figures on our streets, both
were veritable hermits though they had
periodical spells of visiting the "county
seat' where they invariably got on q
big spree" that ended only when
money and credit run out. Uncle Billy
was famous for his war stories he having
been the hero of many hair breath es-
capes, and blood curdIing encounters;
Uncle Billy lived alone in hut near
Nasonville for years, tilling patch of
ground summers, and living "some
way" through the winters. Rumors
told of wealthy relatives in the east,
but none ever came to visit or modest
him. At last SO the story goes one
bright summers day he was found dead
in his lonely hut; an empty whiskey
bottle and strong oder of burning po-
tato bugs coupled with the fact that he
picked and burned the pests each day,
gave rise to conjectures that he had
died In his normal state of intoXlcation,
from the poisonous fumes of burning
bugs.
Clark was queer freak of humanity
Both legs had been amputated when on
going home one night from town in his
usual state of drunkenness, with the
thermometer at 40 below zero he lay
down on the ice to "sleep a bit" and
was rescued by passers by to live a
cripple. He made baskets which he
painted fantastically and sold at good
prices, worked little garden and lived
alone in hut in the dense woods near
Seneca for years. Another hermit
| whose name we have forgotten lived in
Seneca III moderate, seeming civili-
zation. A veritable woman hater-he
knew the name of every bird, shrub or
tree in the county. Queer stories of
ghostlv visitors, and uncanny sights and
sounds kept his seclusion unbroken, land
he lived and died leaving only blank
pages for the world to read. Several
hundred dollars were found among his
possessions after he died but no clue to
his uncompromising aversion to the
female sex.
Skipping two decades we will linger
for thought or two over the hermits of
our own little town. To the students in
human nature we have an opportunity
to study characters who have gradually
grown to be sat right angles with the
parallels of nature" and who fairly
represent a class of people that possess
a peculiar interest.