The picturesque and beautiful hunting ground, “Coal Hollow,” known to every urchin of this city, where many a “cotton tail” and the frisky squirrel have been slaughtered by the hundreds, is now supposed to be inhabited by a wild man, whose strange actions and appearance has excited the curiosity of the inhabitants of that immediate neighborhood, who have come in contact with this strange piece of humanity upon several occasions during the past week, and who immediately disappears within its dark and dismal ravines as soon as discovered; and it seems impossible for them to get him to talk with them, as he always turns a deaf ear to questions propounded to him, and leaves them none the wiser of his movements, and for what purpose he has selected this spot for his abode.
    He has been seen by quite a number of persons in that neighborhood, and all seem to think he is an escaped lunatic, and fear that the fires that have been raging and that have caused so much destruction to farming property, in the wood’s throughout the county, may have been started by him. They have organized a posse to capture him if possible and find out who he is and from whence he came. The young nimrods of this city who go in that direction to hunt had better be on the look out for this monster of the forest, as he is a giant in stature, and has the strength of a “Sampson,” and may attack them at any moment.

From— The Weekly Register. (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]), 27 Oct. 1897. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.