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Known for many years as the "Giant Hermit of the Adirondacks", Old Bill Smith stood over six feet tell. He lived in the Saranac Lake N.Y. area.
William Henry Smith was born in Essex County in 1826. He married when he was 20 to a neighboring woodsmans daughter. He built a log hut and
lived there for about forty-five years. His wife died at a young age, Bill then sent his children to lived with other families. He lived alone from then on
with his dogs as his only companions. He named the area he lived the "Oregon Plains", simply because he had heard it someplace and liked the
name. He stopped cutting his hair and beard. When he died his beard was six feet long!
Old Bill was found dead in his hut on Oct. 31, 1895, with his faithful companions keeping watch over his body. Bill was 69 years old.
Click HERE to go to the NY TIMES Archive article of the original write up from Nov. 1895, of "Old Bill Smith".
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