The cave creature near Florida, New York

The reported encounters

The imported Monmouth Democrat clipping credits a Newton correspondent of the Philadelphia Times. Armstrong reportedly offered bread to a cave-dwelling figure. Ira Seybolt claimed to have shot at it, leaving hair behind. The clipping supplies no capture, physical examination, or later identification.

Why the location changed

The clipping was filed as a Sussex County, New Jersey story because it was attributed to a Newton correspondent. Glenmere Lake and the village of Florida, however, are in neighboring Orange County, New York. The correspondent’s location was not the scene of the alleged encounters. This entry is retained because it was part of the surviving source collection, but it is not a Pine Barrens event.

A longer version changes the details

The Wheeling Daily Register, June 18, 1881, credits the New York Herald. Here Sullivan offers bread. He describes a ragged blanket and initially thinks the visitor a sick man. The farmer becomes William K. Green, and the paper explicitly places the farm in Sussex County, conflicting with its Florida–Glenmere geography.

The reporter says Seybolt produced hair and asserts human or anthropoid origin, without identifying an expert or examination method. A reported sample is not a scientifically identified specimen. The versions disagree on names and location; neither establishes an unknown species.

Wheeling Daily Register, June 18, 1881, page 3, “What Is It”.