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Wild
Woman of the Navidad
by Murray Montgomery
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The
Navidad isn’t really much of a river, as rivers go – it’s not very famous and
can’t be compared to the stunning Guadalupe or majestic Colorado, when it comes
to beauty. But the little old Navidad just might have a claim to fame that the
others can’t equal. You see, the Navidad has a past of mysterious and wild creatures,
of the two-legged variety, living along its winding path.
In the early
days of Texas, settlers living near the banks of the Navidad, southeast of Hallettsville,
were subjected to visits by beings of unknown origin – several hairy and stealth-like
individuals roamed through the brushy bottoms of the river – witnesses indicating
that there was a male and female.
Many folks back then were convinced
that the male half of the duo had died and only the female remained. She became
known as the “Wild Woman of the Navidad.”
In his book Tales of Old-Time
Texas, well-known author J.Frank Dobie hints that there might have even been
three of the creatures running together. But many of the old timers agreed that
there had been only two from the beginning. There were many who speculated on
the origin of the “never-seen” beings. Some thought they were run-away slaves.
But as Dobie writes, “To settlers living against the deep woods and dense brush
along the Navidad River no explanation was conclusive.”
From about 1836
through 1845, folks were still unsure if the surviving creature was male or female.
One settler, Samuel Rogers, saw three sets of tracks in the spring of 1845. Indicating
that instead of one person, as previously thought, there might have been three
individuals of suspicious origin.
So now there was a group of “wild people.”
Rogers had a hired man by the name of Hall who also had misadventures with the
creatures. Hall claimed that they had taken one of his trace chains. Shortly after
this incident, only one set of tracks were seen in the area and again folks began
to speculate that two of the wild people had died. From the size of the remaining
tracks, they decided that the living subject was a male.
The wild man would
take what he needed from the farms in the area. He would slip into the fields
and steal potatoes. In his journal Rogers wrote, “When the corn was in roasting
ear he would come nearly every night to get a supply.” Rogers along with some
of his neighbors came close to catching the wild creature once and during the
chase he dropped a basket containing various items. Rogers added this entry in
his journal, “This [basket] contained a shirt of mine, a novel, a Bible, and many
other articles taken from the house. The shirt had been torn and then the rent
sewed up as skillfully as any woman could have sewed it.”
After the near
capture of the wild man, the settlers decided to get serious about hunting him
down. Eight of them searched along the junction of the Navidad and Sandies Creek.
They didn’t find him but they did find places where he had been hiding out. “One
of them was a live oak that forked about 30 feet above the ground. This fork formed
kind of a flat place on which he could lie down and sleep,” said Rogers.
Depending
on what source you are reading, you will find back-and-forth opinions on whether
or not the wild creature was male or female. I think many like to believe that
it was a woman for some romantic notion and the like. In J. Frank Dobie’s book,
he indicates that in the late 1830s there were reports that the being was indeed
a woman. According to Dobie, settlers on the lower Navidad began to see tracks
of two human beings. Indications were that one was male and the other a female
with small delicate feet.
Various sources indicate that these individuals
avoided any real mischief and stayed secluded. They only took small portions of
food and the settlers tolerated this practice. Dobie includes in his book a narrative
by one of the residents living along the river who came in contact with the wild
people. next
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