Wild-men reports · Passaic County
The Mountain View escape
Contemporary source summarized
An unidentified man was captured near the Mountain View railroad depot after several days of sightings, but escaped before county authorities could take custody of him.
The report
The Mountain View station agent told Paterson authorities that an unidentified man had wandered nearby for two or three days. Witnesses described him as barefoot and without a coat or hat; some said he had appeared entirely unclothed. He reportedly spoke little beyond the word “grass,” and the article characterized him as mentally ill.
Local residents detained him in a railroad flagman’s shanty and asked Paterson police to collect him. Because city police lacked jurisdiction, the sheriff instead directed that he be brought to Paterson for hospital care. While the station agent was at dinner, however, the man either escaped or was released. He was last seen moving toward the Preakness Mountains. The report said residents had been unwilling to escort him on the train and that the sightings frightened local women and children.
The date and the people behind the report
A matching account in the New-York Tribune fixes this episode to October 1887. Its October 16 issue says Station Agent Dean of the Lackawanna railroad telegraphed Paterson “yesterday” after the man was caught. It names Sheriff McKee as the official who instructed the captors to send him on the next train. The same report records the man’s only intelligible request as “I want grass.” Those particulars identify the communication and custody problem more precisely than the undated clipping.
The Tribune states that he escaped from the flagman’s house while awaiting the train. The saved Paterson-based account leaves open whether someone released him. Neither source establishes what happened afterward, and the description of a man around thirty differs from the older wanderer reported in 1878. There is no demonstrated identity connecting the two episodes. New-York Tribune, October 16, 1887, p. 9.
Source
- Paterson Press, “A Wild Man at Large,” reprinted in an unidentified newspaper; date and page not visible in the source collection clipping. The year 1887 comes from the archival filing label.
The account reflects period terminology and assumptions about mental illness. This is a new summary of the clipping, not a transcription.