Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-06-03
HILL PEOPLE
NEARN. Y.LIVE
ASBARBARIANS
Man, Wife and Four Children,
CARRIED in Rags, Dis
covered.
WITHOUT FIRST NAMES

NEW YORK. June Sin the Ramapo
Range, barely thirty miles from New
York city, dwell the Hill people"
They Of the hills are a distinct race
Not black, nor white, nor yet red, but
an admixture of all three are the noun
taineers so near to cities, but so far from
civilization.
AS remote from the amenities Of mod
ern life as though on a PLATEAU in Thibet,
these hill folk come to public notice only
when one Of them crosses the path OF
city dweller.
Such an event came to pass when Mrs.
William a Servin, wife of ex-Assembly-
man Servin, was taking a walk through
the hills near Pearl River, \. Y, with her
daughter-in-law, Mrs. Forbes. Climbing
up a remote mountainous path they be-
held human beings whose like they had
never seen previously-four children so
RretchedIy clad and so encrusted with
dirt as to seem scarcely human; shack
that might have housed primitive peoples.
WHY MAN HID
IN MOUNTAINS.
The truant officer Of Pearl River was
notified He took action. And thus the
Essgy came out concerning the strange
family called Thompson
According to the authorities Of Pearl
River, this group is not to be classed
with the Jackson Whites" those noun
taineers of mixed blood. 1t is claimed
for the Thonpsons that they are pure
white, in this respect different from the
clan inhsbiting the Ramapos.
Nevertheless they resemble IN appear
ance and mode of life that race whose
existence is as weird as an old myth.
Thompson has no first names for his
children-if ever they had such he can
not remember them We may suppose
when he wished to speak to one of them
he called out Say" to which ever one
happened to be looking at him He could
not recall his own first name and recol-
lected only that after getting into some
trouble in ROckland County he had es'
capped to shelter in the mountains.
His motive for seeking seclusion on
the heights is the same as that Of the
antecedents Of the jackson Whites" II
stories about their origin are to be be-
lieved
ARIsToCRATIC NAMES
HANDED DOWN.
Ancestors Of the race were Dutch, IN
dams and negroes. To Houvenkopf Noun
tain came the slaves OF the early Dutch,
a seeding tribe Of Indians and slaves
who fed from the South in the days be-
fore slavery was abolished
Old aristocratic names such as Van
Dunk, De Grote and De Fries-families
now extinct-have been handed down by
the early settlers Of the Ramapos who
established squatter claims upon the land
where they erected cabins and novels as
their feudal halls.
Another tradition Las It that sections
of the Hessian army fleeing from the
Continentals and deserters from the Eng
hsh army ia 1776 hid upon these hills
and there remained part forebears OF the
jackson Whites" of today.
Some say that jackson Whites" origi-
nally was blacks and whites" others
claim that Jackson and White were names
of negroes who settled there.
No laws and no creeds govern these hill
dweI1ers-either in the Ramapos or in
other isolated spots.
Yet they are said to be a peaceful. gentle
and thrifty people; only at great inter
walls does a feud or murder break the
somnoIent quiet OF their sequestered lives.
They are unframed, but not unintelligent,
yet among the "Jacksons" there are many
phases of mental and physical degeneraey
due to continual intermarriage.
EYE PUT OUT
BY POKER.
But it is doubtful Il any enlighteninR
Influences ever shone upon the lives Of
the Thompsons. When found by investi-
gators after the report made by Mrs.
Servin. the head of the family came out.
a fourteen inch curved knife swinging
from a cord attached to his overaIls. He
has but one eye. the other living been
shot out, or according to rumor, put out
by Thompson's father with a hot poker
IN order to instill into his son respect
for parental advice.
The four children of the Wild family
wore queer garments, Of sizes originally
designed for their elders. They were
rounded up by their father to have pic
lures taken, upon which the photograph
ers inquired for their mother. Thomp-
son stoutly declared "she didn't count,
but was finally prevailed upon to BRING
her forth from their cabin lair. A towel
was wrapped about her head. She wore
a dress about six sizes too large for her
and carelessly pinned up for convenience.
She seemed dull Iistless, Indifferent to
life.
The cabins interior was filed with
pieces OF wood and piles Of litter. Theirs
were no beds visible; only wooden soap
boxes for seats. wooden pie plates to
substitute for chinaware, and empty tin
cans for cups.
Efforts to civilize the Thompsons are
being made by the Red Cross and by
individual women Of the Pearl River re-
gion.
OILING Up THE TOWN.
HARTFORD CITY Ind lima q