14 GR 10 .46 885 A 906,361 OF University of Michigan Libraries 1817 ARTES SCIENTIA VERITAS HERMITS Tales of Some Wisconsin Hermits and Misers THE SLAB OF GOLD, OLD BOTTLES, JUNK COLLECTING, IYSTERY MAN, BLACK RIVER, HERMIT SAGE, HERMIT HOARD, BURIED TREASURE, CATS, WOMAN HERMIT, INVENTOR RECLUSE 004 Dedicated To Earl S. Holman Earl Sugden Mrs. Robert E. Friend CHARLES E, BROWN Wisconsin Folklore Society Madison, Wisconsin 1945 1 1 1 > GR fac klone driech 10.3.45 48579 110 . We B85 . HERMITS 10-20-49 MFP “OLD DUTCH” FRANK-He was a mixture of white and Indian. He had been a mail carrier on the Military Road route from Green Bay to Lake Superior. When he retired he went to Thunder Lake in Marinette County and there built a log cabin home. Here he lived by hunting and fishing. His only companion was a large black tomcat. The white settlers of the nearby regions thought him cracked. One night he dreamed that there was a big thick slab of pure gold in Thunder Lake. It was sunk in the water right near the shore. The spirit told to raise it from the water. He must get it before the Fourth of July, if not, it would sink from sight. If he got it, he would be the “richest man in the whole world. He would be elected President of the United States and could share his wealth with all poor people." He explored the lake bank and found some pyrites which he thought precious mineral. He procured a shovel and dug industriously in the sand and water for weeks. He struck quicksand and nearly lost his life. He rigged a rude derrick with a bucket and grappling hook and continued to excavate in likely places. The big slab of gold continued to lure him. But the Fourth finally came and he had failed to get the treasure. Frank disappeared and was never seen again. “OLD BOTTLES” was a character known to many people residing in the West Side downtown district in Milwaukee in the 1890's to the early 1900's. Attired in very shabby clothes, with a burlap bag carried over one shoulder, he roamed the alleys hunting for discarded bottles in ash-cans and junk heaps. His continual cry was, “Bottles, bottles, bottles!” He would talk with no one. His only reply to any question was his familiar cry. He was partly or wholly insane, but harmless. His origin and history was a mystery. His bottles of every kind he sold to an East Side East Water Street old bottle firm. The few pennies he thus obtained kept him alive. He received no help from any city charity, so far as known. “Old Bottles” lived alone in a shack built of old boards and bottles and with sheets of rusty sheetiron for a roof. This was located on the edge of a big rubbish dumping ground at the western limits of the city. Its furnishings consisted of a small square of rush matting on the floor, a small rusty iron stove, several small wooden boxes, which served as a table and cupboard, and a discarded wooden chair without a back. His bed, in one corner, con- sisted of several dirty blankets and other rags. He had an iron kettle, tin pans and cans and an earthenware water jug. When anyone came to see him he just closed his door. He wanted no company. When “Old Bottles” was found dead in his shack one morning, the coroner turned his body over to the local medical college. HORICON MARSH HERMITS—In. a ramshackle log cabin on the edge of the big Horicon Marsh near Mayville lived two brother her- mits, Herman Stroede, 77 years of age, and Julius, aged 74. After their parents died these men lived on a small piece of land once a part of their father's farm. The farmer owner permitted them to live here. These men were quaint characters, everyone knew them. They were collectors of junk, going to the village together and bringing their spoil home in a child's wagon. Nothing escaped their hunting. Around their cabin, rotting in the rain and sun, were piled hundreds of old shoes, pails, umbrellas, old clothes, tools, old papers and tin cans and pans. None of this junk was ever sold. The brothers had a passion for attending fairs and had walked to many of them. Herman hiked to the Chicago (1893) and St. Louis (1904) world's fairs. Both men attended picnics and band concerts at Mayville. On such occasions they wore their world's fair medals. Herman did most of the work about the place while Julius "brought things home." “BAGLEY JOHN”-A mysterious man, spoken of by this name, some years ago, lived the life of a hermit in the Mississippi River bottom- lands, near Bagley, in Grant County. There he had built among the tall weeds and brush a rude shack of boards and brush. He was a real "Mystery Man.” He would never talk to anyone. He came to town now and then with a basket or bag to buy groceries. He made his wants known by signs or by presenting a written slip of paper to the storekeeper. For his purchases he often paid with a gold coin. Thinking that he might possess more money of this kind some town roughs tried to trail him but he always gave them the slip. He was supposed to have a gun in his shack and no one cared to approach it. He was a powerful man. He was thought to be in hiding for some law-breaking offense in a down-river state. "BLACK RIVER”-This recluse lived in a shelter built of stray boards, sticks and stumps in the large sandy, once pine woods region, between the Lake Michigan shore and the Black River, south of She- boygan. He had "little of anything." He was on friendly terms with the fishermen and surrounding farmers, but he avoided other people. He was happy in his retreat. He just wanted to be left alone. It was said that he had left the comforts of civilization because of a trouble- making wife and relatives. He subsisted on turtle eggs and turtle meat, on fish which he caught in the river, rabbits which he trapped and on vegetable food which the German farmers gave him. He had a deck of grimy cards with which he played solitaire and several old magazines which he read again and again. Now and then he got hold of an old newspaper or two. After living for a number of years on the Black River sands he drifted away to some other port. HERMIT SAGE-Years ago, with State Senator George W. Wolff of Rhine, we visited John L. Sexton, noted Sheboygan County hermit- sage, in his neat home on the edge of the extensive Sheboygan Marsh north of Elkhart Lake. His bedroom in which we were received was piled on the bed and all around the four walls with bundles of news- papers. There was no chair or place where we could sit. We con- versed with this fine old pioneer on subjects of early Indian and county history. He had a fine old face, long white hair and a long white beard. Sexton had a fine record of public service. He taught the first school in the county in a log school. In 1861 he was the postmaster at Russell. He had held other public positions. He was well educated and frequently wrote articles for the newspapers. He had a good garden at the time of our visit. On the night of June 28, 1911, he was murdered by Tony Umbrello, an Italian, who thought that the old hermit had money. “WILD CAT” WILSON-Several years before the Civil War he came to La Pointe on the Lake Superior shore. He could not get on with local officials and chose Hermit Island as his place of retreat. He hired Indians to remove the brush and timber. He paid them with Mexican money. He had money and spent it freely. He was a drinker. Some- where on the island he was thought to have a hidden treasure of gold and Mexican dollars. He was handy with a gun and no one dared to try to search for it. He was found dead on his island and was buried near the old Mission on Madeline Island. Since then treasure hunters have dug everywhere for his gold and silver hoard but it has not been found. OTHER HERMITS-A Swiss hermit lived on the outskirts of Sauk City. He had a number of cats and stray cats which he adopted. Holes were cut in the bottom of his house door for little and big cats. Living on his farm near Cross Plains was a hermit-miser. Here he lived for 35 years by himself. He spent very little for food or cloth- ing. When he was persuaded to leave the farm his relatives found that Geniges had stowed away about $6,000 in tin cans, boxes and old clothes. Near Albion, on a small farm in a dilapidated cowshed lived an 84-year-old inventor-hermit. He was at work on a model of a "boltless and screwless" bridge. This he hoped to patent. When he was in bed and it rained he put a washtub on his stomach. He wanted to be alone “in order to think.” Sarah Hardwick, a woman hermit, lived for 25 years in a board shanty in the wilderness near the junction of the Yellow River with the Mississippi. She had a small vegetable garden and a ginseng patch. Newspapers she got from a clam fisher- man. These she read through and through. She wanted to "keep up with the world.” North of Neillsville a college and university trained recluse named Killips lived in peace and contentment in a small tar- paper covered hut. He had many books which he read. Many other interesting hermits living in every part of Wisconsin might be described. 470 MAR 21 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PHOTOMOUNT PAMPHLET BINDER PAT, NO. 877188 Manufaclured by IGAYLORD BROS. Inc. 1 SucneN.Y. 3 9015 03146 8112 DO NOT REMOVE OR ~RD MUILLES