The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (Wheeling, W. Va.), August 26th 1891
That Ohio “Wild Man.”
The Farmers Beating the Bushes in Search of Him.
The “wild man” or non-descript beast which has been frightening and annoying the residents on the Ohio side of the river opposite Moundsville, and killing and dismembering stock, as mentioned in the Intelligencer the other day, has become so bold in his depredations that the farmers have been driven to organized defense.
Yesterday twenty-five men, armed with anything from a shotgun to a pitch fork, went out to beat the bushes and search every nook and cranny in a radius of five or six miles in search of the monstrosity. It is the theory of some people that a crazy man wrapped in a buffalo robe or other fur has caused the excitement, but as hogs, sheep and calves have been killed it became necessary to do something.
In the night weird, blood-curdling cries are heard, and the next morning stock is found dead and hacked to pieces. The object is avidently not robbery for nothing is taken. It has been suggested that possibly the animal is a big bear escaped from its keeper, as nobody has gotten near enough to tell anything about it, except that it sometimes runs rapidly on all fours and at others goes as rapidly on two legs.
The thing was first seen by a man named Crow while out hunting. Though he is truthful, he was thought to have been excited, and the thing was regarded as a hoax until other reliable parties saw it and stock continued to be killed.
Disclaimer: This 1891 newspaper article was published prior to 1931. Under United States copyright law (specifically the 95-year rule), this work has entered the public domain and is thus free to use or republish. It is presented here as an interesting and folkloric newspaper oddity.
Note: This newspaper article is a follow-up to another Wheeling Daily Intelligencer article from August 24th 1891 entitled “A Human Monstrosity.”
–
Source(s): https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026844/1891-08-26/ed-1/?sp=8
[ Special thanks to: Theresa of Theresa’s Haunted History of the Tri-State for locating this article within the Library of Congress online archives. ]