Category: United States

Alvah Dunnning (1816-1902) was a Adirondacks Mountains (NY) guide skilled in tracking and hunting. He is unfortunately credited with exterminating the presence of wolves and moose in the Adirondacks.

Dunning was a fierce recluse, stereotypically cantankerous, temperamental, and hard to get along with, according to A History of the Adirondacks by Alfred L. Donaldson, published in 1921. Dunning disliked people, especially women and the wealthy urbanites who hired him as a guide and would not consume what they killed.

Dunning’s death is ironic: he stayed in a New York City home overnight while attending a trade show, and in his ignorance had blown out the bedroom gas lamp. He died of asphyxiation.

URL: http://www.adirondackhistory.org/newguides/dunning.html

A 2012 article in the Kingston (MA) Journal describes the the life and eccentricities of the 19th-century hermit Dan Fuller. Information is based on an 1893 interview printed in the Boston Journal.

Fuller was said to have grown up in the forest and was most comfortable away from civilized life. He lived in a hundred square-foot hut crammed with belongings.

Fuller subsisted on hunting, including monies from town-paid bounties on rodents, and was said to eat only game (especially birds he had shot or trapped) unless he received gifts of other foods.

Observers described him as simple, honest, independent, and likely not capable of holding steady employment.

Brought to our attention by a friend of Hermitary.

URLs: http://kingstonjournal.com/dan-fuller-the-hermit-of-kingston/
http://piqueoftheweek.wordpress.com/2011/02/26/lives-alone-the-story-of-kingstons-famous-hermit/

A summary article titled “Alone, Not Lonely: On Modern Hermits” appears in Modern Farmer. Hermits mentioned include Christopher Knight (the Maine hermit-thief), the Fredettes (of Raven’s Bread), Sister Michaela (of Sky Farm) and Gordon Campbell’s author of The Hermit in the Garden.

URL: http://modernfarmer.com/2014/02/hermit/

Catholic World Report offers a summary article on Catholic hermits titled “Modern-Day Hermits: Answering the Call to Solitude, Prayer” and the byline: “While we might think of hermits as relics of the Church’s medieval past, today there are many who devote their lives entirely to solitary prayer.” The article emphasizes canonical hermits and the traditionalist hermit brothers at Hermits of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel in Christoval, Texas.

URL: http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/2670/modernday_hermits_answering_the_call_to_solitude_prayer.aspx#.Um_uk1OTafO

A local Tennessee media source, the Johnson City Press, offers an article about Nick Grindstaff, a famous local hermit who lived near the Appalachian Trail, and whose grave site will receive a new gravestone due to the efforts of local residents. The article describes the hermit, his life, motives, and woes.

From the article:

The epitaph on Grindstaff’s tombstone has a lot to do with preserving his memory. It reads that the hermit “lived alone, suffered alone, died alone.” It is carved in granite along with the name “Uncle Nick Grindstaff” and giving his birth as Dec. 26, 1851 and death on July 22, 1923. The stone is encased in a chimney-like structure made of mountain stones standing more than 6 feet tall. A pamphlet written about Grindstaff by his friends Asa Shoun and R.B. Wilson reports that the gravestone was purchased shortly after Grindstaff’s death. They paid $208.07 for the stone to honor their friend.

URL: http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/article/111921/carter-co-hermits-gravestone-along-appalachian-trail-needs-repair