The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-09-23
FOLKS WITH CLAWS.
A QUEER COMMUNITY IN WEST
ERN NEW YORK.
'ts Members Have Feet and Fingers
Like Eagles' Talons-TheY Are
Intelligent and Thrifty--A
Puzzle for Scientists.

L., SChTCo lulTty ulioo AAS~~
the busy, busting city of Buffalo, there
live number of strangely deformed
people who are known in the vicinage
as the clsw-fngered or claw-footed
tribe. As the appellation would in
dicate, these peculiar folks are afiict.
ed with the oldest malformations OF
the extremities, causing their hands
and sometimes feet to more closely re-
semble the claws or talons Of some
huge bird of prey than the normal ex-
tremities of human beings.
There are several families of these
queerly formed people living in the
scattered hamlet which bears the bib
lical title of the Valley of Zoar. The
title seems q misnomer, for there is
no Sodom or Gomorrah adjacent to
threathen the destruction of the con-
tented villagers. The Valley of Zoar
is located in one of the most pictur-
esque spots in the State, nesting, as
it does, in a hollow of the heavily
wooded hills which form the "high
banks" marking the sinuous course OF
the swift running waters of the Catta-
raugus River.
Here, in almost absolute seclusion,
the claw-fngered tribe live and work,
without exciting special comment.
There are in the neighborhood OF fifty
individuals in the community upon
whom the deformity appears. Think
what feast for dime museum manag.
ers they must present Yet they are
good, honest, law abiding, industri.
Gus citizens, who calmly pursue the
even tenor of their way, happy and
contented in their frugal lot and sim.
pie, old fashioned homes.
The remarkable malformation is not
confined to either sex, and is evident.
ly of hereditary nature. The unfor.
tunates are perfectly formed men and
women otherwise, of average intellect,
with q tendency toward square jawed
features and undersized stature.
Whence they came and at what period
they settled in the valley is mystery
which not even the Oldest inhabitant
can solve.
According to the legend, the found
er of the family was named Joshua
Robbins, who came from New England
early in the century. In support of
this statement, the aged Indian showed
q well worn powder horn OF ancient
pattern with the above name roughly
cut in its side. the Senecas at that
time travelled at will through the
trackless wilds of natures playground.
A band of Indians had started on
big hunt, when snowstorm overlook
them and they encamped in the forest
on the north bank of the Cattaraugus,
below the lower limit of what is now
the reservation. Suddenly claw-fn.
gered, claw.footed man, mounted
upon a weary, bedraggled little pony,
rode into their midst, and fell ex-
hausted at their feet. He was imme-
diately seized and bound.
When his popularity was discovered
the Indians quickly released him, be-
lieving that he was magician or
medicine man direct from the Great
Father. He WAS taken to the chief of
the village, Dowango, who installed
him with great honors as head medicine
man of the tribe. For many years he
dwelt among them. and all sorts OF
miraculous powers were attributed to
Arlactona, as they called him.
MOf his antecedentB the Indians
learned nothing, though it was under.
stood that he had been tilted by his
sweetheart because of his deformity.
Being of sensitive nature, he had de-
termined to hide his misshappen
hands and feet in the solitude of the
wilderness. Finally he disappeared
from the Indian camp as suddenly as
he had appeared, and they knew him
no more. It is believed that he dis
covered community of pioneers, with
one of whom he married and settled
in the valley now called Zoar.
: Whatever credence may be placed
in the Indian tradition, certain it is
that the claw fingered people have
been seen in the valley for three OF
four generations. While they are not
ostracised socially by the rest of the
community, they are looked at ask.
ance by their mole fortunate neigh
bors, and strong prejudice exists
against them. In consequence, there
is much intermarrying, and this fact
may account for the perpetuation of
the malformation. There are more
than half dozen families of Rob-
binses among the afflicted ones.
In some instances, their fingers
curve in, separately, like the claws of
an eagle; others have the digits grown
fast together, and somewhat curved,
and some have been known to have
hands like stumps of arme, short, thick
and square ended. Sometimes only
one hand is affected, sometimes both.
Again, both hands and feet may be
claw.like, or perhaps the right hand
and left foot, or vice versa. Some
children, born of claw-fngered parents
are normal and perfectly-formed.
These have, in some instances, married
other members of the community who
bore no relationship to the tribe.
Upon the arrival OF their offspring they
have been shocked to find the malfor
nations of the grandparents in baby's
little plnks hands and feet.
The disease, if it may be so called,
seems to be hereditary through
either father or mother, there being
apparently no rule to the contrary.
One of the strongest and strongest
characteristics of the deformity is the
unique prominence and irregularlty
&c ~. Snuo.,,J +oa ;oin4u Tho lioo