“A Mountain Romance”

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 raftman named Henry Slater. Mrs. Stater was 17 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 a 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, in 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 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 narrow escapes from death by wounded bear, panther, and deer, and her sufferings from cold, hunger, 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 backswoods favorite of a few years before. Her child had been placed in the poor-house 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 (Penn.) farmer. The mother remained in the poor-house, and became yearly more miserable and wretched.