Hancock History
A Look Back... 
The Elmwood Wildman

Earle Otis (1882-1981) related this story recorded on a 1972 Hancock Historical Society audiotape.   "Long about 1917 near the Reaveley Farm on North Elmwood Road, there appeared at the edge of the woods, near dark as the days were getting short, a long tongue-like flash of light showing up a figure of a man. This would happen once or twice a week and people came for miles around to see this. Three fellows hired me and my Model-T to try to solve this mystery. One of them had a double-barrel shotgun and he and another fellow sat in the backseat. Suddenly, "BANG!" the shotgun went off, the bullet went between me and the fellow sitting next to me and shot out my windshield. Well, that was the end of them! The "wildman" was caught and it turned out to be a hired hand from a neighboring farm. He would fill his mouth with gasoline and as he spit it out he'd put a match to it. A couple of fellows tried it at a Grange meeting and 'twas quite a sight!"

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