A Mountain Romance, Ottumwa Weekly Courier (Article, 1877)
Full Text
A MOUNTAIN ROMANCE.
Strange Life of Unhappy Women--A Singular Family History--The Female Huntress of Long Eddy--The Strong Love of Two Women.
(Correspondence of the New York Times.)
DELHI, N.Y., Saturday, April 7, 1877
The discovery of two former inmates of the Delaware County Poor House living together in the woods of Wayne county, Penn., has recalled one of the most singular family histories ever recorded. In 1854 Lucy Ann Lobdell, daughter of an old lumberman living on the Delaware in the vicinity of Long Eddy, was married to a raftsman named Henry Slater. Mrs. Slater was seventeen years old, and was known far and wide for her wonderful skill in shooting the rifle, not only at the target, but at deer and other game, for which the Delaware Valley was then famous. After one year of married life Slater deserted his wife and a babe a few weeks old, and has never been heard of since. Mrs. Slater's parents were very poor, and objected to her making her home with them. She occasionally placed her child in their charge, and laying aside the habiliments of her sex, donned male apparel and adopted the life of a hunter. The mountains of Delaware, Sullivan and Ulster counties of this state, and the Delaware river counties of Pennsylvania, were at that time almost unbroken wildernesses. For eight years Mrs. Slater made her home in their midst, roaming alone over the vast territory, and finding shelter only in rude cabins, which she erected here and there. She made her appearance at the settlements only when in need of ammunition or supplies, exchanging skins and game for what she required. Her wild life was one of a thrilling adventure and privation, and it was not until she was broken down in body and mind by its hardships that she returned to the haunts of civilization. Her narrows escapes from death by wounded bear, panther, and deer, and her sufferings from cold, hunter, and sickness, during her eight years' life in the woods, she recorded in a book entitled, "The Life and Adventures of Lucy Ann Lobdell, the Female Hunter of Long Eddy." She also records in this book that she "killed 168 deer, 73 bears, one panther, and numberless quantities of small game of the glade," in the time noted. When she returned to Long Eddy she put on woman's clothing. She had grown prematurely old, and was but a wreck of the young backwoods favorite of but a few years before. Her child had been placed in the workhouse at this place, and after wandering about the valley for some months she became an inmate of that institution also. Not long afterward the child was adopted into the family of a Wayne county (Pa.) farmer. The mother remained in the poor house, and became yearly more miserable and wretched.
In the winter of 1868 Marie Louise Perry, daughter of a well-to-do and respectable family living near Boston, eloped with a young man named James Wilson. The young lady had but recently graduated from one of the Boston schools, and was about 19 years old. Wilson was a railroad [employee]. The couple went to Jersey City and were married. In the spring of the same year Wilson deserted his wife, and went to parts unknown in company with a Miss Hall, the daughter of his landlady. His wife learned that they had taken the Erie Railway west, and she resolved to follow them, hoping to discover their whereabouts. She stopped at towns along the road and when she reached Lordville in this county, her money was exhausted, and she was taken sick with fever, and was removed to the poor house at this place at her own request. The above is substantially her story.
Having recovered her health at this place, it was supposed that Mrs. Wilson would at once communicate with her relatives and return to her home in Massachusetts; but she had made the acquaintance of Lucy Ann Slater, and, inexplicable as it may seem, the two formed a mutual affection so strong that they refused to be separated, notwithstanding the great difference in their characters, habits and antecedents. In the sprint of 1869 both Lucy Ann and Mrs. Wilson disappeared from the County House, and were not heard of in two years. During that year a couple calling themselves the Rev. Joseph Israel Lobdell and wife, appeared in the mountain villages of the western part of Monroe county, Pa. For two years they roamed about in that region, living in caves in the woods, and subsisting on berries, roots and the charity of the people, until they became so great a nuisance that they were arrested in Jackson township, and committed to Stroudsburg jail. While in jail, the discovery that Rev. Mr. Lobdell was a woman was made, and soon afterward a raftman from this section chanced to be in Stroudsburg, and informed the authorities that their prisoners were the missing paupers from Delhi. The Pennsylvania authorities returned them to their old quarters in this place forthwith. They remained here for some time, when they again ran away, and have since been roaming about in Pennsylvania, living in huts, caves, jails and county houses. A gentlemen from this place being at Aldenville, Wayne county, Pa., a few days since, found the pair domiciled in a bark hut near that place, and were known as man and wife. When their identity became known, the strange fact was developed that a lady who had been particularly charitable to the couple, was years ago engaged to be married to Lucy Ann, the latter having spent some months near Bethany dressed as a man. Her sex was discovered accidentally, and she had to fly the place in the night to escape being tarred and feathered. This was a short time before she entered the poor house at Delhi. There is now on record in the courts of Wayne county, a document that was drawn by Mrs. Wilson, the companion of Lucy Ann, it being a petition for the release of her "husband, Joseph I. Lobdell," from jail, on account of "his" failing health. The pen used was a stick whittled to a point and split; the ink is faultless, and the language used a model of clear, correct, and argumentative English--a really superior piece of composition, showing that the writer, now a voluntary outcast and the associate of an insane, foul and unsexed woman, is highly educated, and capable of adoring the best circles.
Mary Slater, the daughter of the strange being whose history has been briefly given, has not escaped her share of misfortune. Growing to attractive womanhood in the family of the kind farmer who rescued her from the life of a pauper, she incurred the hatred of a young man named Kent, who sought her hand in marriage and was refused for another. In August, 1871, he planned and accomplished her abduction, one dark, stormy night. She was drugged, grossly maltreated, and thrown into the Delaware river, near Coshocton. She was washed ashore on an island, where she was found in a semi-unconscious state by a river man next day. Taken to his house she was restored to life, but not to reason, and unknown she wandered into the woods, where she was found a raving maniac, and nearly dead from exposure and hunger, three days afterward, and restored to her friends. She in time recovered her mental and bodily vigor only to learn that the young man she was to marry was her half-brother, being the illegitimate son of her father, Henry Slater, according to the testimony of people who professed to know. Ken, the fiendish abductor, although arrested and lodged in jail, managed to escape the justice he so richly deserved.
