|
Over the years there
have been so many articles written about this wandering
individual. Some accounts have him appearing for the
first time here in Harwinton in 1858. From the time
of his dramatic entrance on the stage of Connecticut
legend until he died in 1889, he walked a regular circuit
-- always clockwise -- from the Danbury area through
Watertown and Middletown, down along the Connecticut
River, westward through the Connecticut coastal towns
to New Canaan, then into Westchester County, New York,
before circling eastward again toward Danbury to retrace
his steps once more. With each circuit, he covered a
distance of 360 miles or more, walking about ten miles
every day.
Almost like clockwork,
every 34 days he would make an appearance at the same
place. "Host" families would set food out
for him. Like the motto of our postal service, it mattered
not what the weather conditions were as he kept his
self-appointed rounds intact, some claiming that his
appearance was within the same hour.
What a site he must
have been as he rambled into town. From his hat, from
which his grey-blue eyes pierced from underneath, to
his massive leather boots, he was a striking figure
indeed. His long leather coat was made from multiple
patches, with some obviously newer then others. This
coat had huge pockets which, undoubtedly, were bulging.
The same with his patched together pants. Whenever one
area wore out, he simply replaced that area with a new
patch. Legend has it that one could hear him coming
from a good distance as the leather creaked and groaned
with every step of his wooden soled shoes. It is said
that the entire outfit weighed 70 pounds!
The Leatherman walked
with a hickory stick and carried two bags straped over
his massive shoulders. One is said to have been leather
and the other was constructed of cloth. These contained
a pail, fry pan, axe, awl, jack-knife, leather patches,
tobacco and food.
The station master
at a railroad switching station in Milford kept a record
of his appearances for 6 years and found that the regularity
of his visits were not quite as systematic as legend
states. He found that the visit pattern did vary with
the shortest round trip was made in 34 days while the
longest was 40 days. None-the-less, he did record that
in 1884-1885 there were nineteen consecutive trips that
were exactly 34 days.
Next
Page
|
