A Priest, A Prostitute, and Some Other Early Texans by Blevins Don;

Author:Blevins, Don;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493026159
Publisher: Lone Star Books

Wild Man of the Navidad ‘THE THING THAT COMES’

The Navidad River starts its southeasterly, seventy-four-mile journey near the town of Schulenburg in Fayette County. The waterway, named by the Spanish for the Nativity of Christ, ends its travels where it joins the Lavaca River below Lake Texana in Jackson County. The river cuts across today’s Highway 90A between Hallettsville, the Lavaca County seat, and the small community of Sublime to the east. The stream is short, virtually nonnavigable, and limited in recreational benefit. But there was a time when the Navidad had a mystery all its own.

In the mid-1830s a particular section of Navidad bottomlands in Jackson County was home to an unidentifiable creature that stirred up rumors and speculation for miles around. A yeti? The Abominable Snowman? Whatever he—or it—was, the mysterious figure managed to avoid detection and capture for more than sixteen years. The first indication that a ghost or some other illusive figure traversed the bottomlands occurred in 1834. Settlers began noticing that sometime during the night, someone was breaking into homes and stealing food. At that time the area was sparsely populated, and it was possible for such sneaking about to take place. There were, however, some puzzling aspects to these robberies.

The intruder was able to pass watchdogs that continued sleeping and did little watching. Once inside, whoever was stealing food took only half of what was in the larder, leaving the other half completely untouched. The oddest quirk of the episodes was that the intruder completely ignored items of value, such as money and jewelry, but often took tools and kitchen utensils. The implements were returned sometime later, having been shined and sharpened and generally made as good as new. The invader did not limit his purloining to food from inside the homes. He often ran off with vegetables from gardens and fruit that the occupants had picked. One of his boldest tricks took place during slaughtering season. He sneaked onto farmers’ sites and replaced fatted hogs with skinny ones.

The thief also took clothing hung on lines to dry. This was a real puzzler because when the individual was finally spotted, he was wearing only a loincloth around his hips. No trace of the stolen clothes was ever found, and, as far as anyone can tell, he never wore them.

Fact or fiction? Who, or what, was this unexplainable creature? Recorded incidents prove that the so-called Wild Man of the Navidad was definitely not fiction. In 1850 hunters in the area organized a posse to seek out the man of mystery. With the aid of numerous search dogs, the posse was finally able to track him down. They forced their quarry to climb a tree in an attempt to avoid capture. The men did not intend to harm him, so they called for him to come down. The Wild Man either did not understand English or feared what would become of him if captured. He neither responded nor alit from his haven in the tree. Eventually, a member of the gang climbed the tree and brought him down.

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