On Thursday, August 18, 1875, Asa Grundy thought it was going to be a normal day in Kits Swamp, North Carolina. His five-year-old daughter was playing with a neighbor child in a corn crib while he was stripping fodder in the field. Then he heard the children screaming, the dogs barking, and his wife screaming. Asa stopped what he was doing and ran towards the edge of the cornfield where all the screaming was coming from.
In front of him stood a monster that was carrying the children with one in each paw. The monster was heading towards the woods. When Asa appeared it surprised the monster making him pause for a second.
The father did what he thought fit as with all his strength he swung towards the monster. With a solid hit on the forehead, the monster fell to the ground and dropped both children. Before Asa could capture the thing it suddenly got up and ran into the woods with no trace of it being found.
Asa said that the beast had the face of a wanderoo, the body of a baboon and the arms and legs of a human. He claims that for the last few weeks a strange being had been preying upon poultry, garden vegetables and green corn in an alarming amount.
The inhabitants of Kits Swamp was now on edge as they kept an eye on the beast who was possibly after their children. Two particular residents were keeping a real close eye for the monster. The story goes that Eli Sparrow and Frank Hanson kept their eyes out for it determined to get it when they spot it.
The monster was lurking on the outside of a small clearing owned by Maria Harkley. At this time Maria and her two young children were picking blackberries. The three men were sitting on a pine tree log watching as the Monster started approaching the young Maria's young boy who was 50 yards away from his mother.
When the intruder was spotted the three men hid behind the log and kept an eye on the monster. They wanted to see what it was up to. The boy was now within range for the men to shoot if the monster came towards him. The men did not automatically shoot as they wanted to see the monsters intention, because they wanted to get it alive. But it became apparent that the monster wanted to kidnap the boy.
When the monster came 10 feet of the boy and seemed to want to lunge at him they shot him towards his lower half. The monster fell, but the before the men could get to him it ran into the woods. It outran its hunters, but the blood trail helped them find it.
They pursued the monster for two hours before happening upon chaparral that was too thick to go through. They then saw an opening and Story volunteered to go through. It was small and dark for Story. He had eventually run into a plank that he had to remove and it let the light come in. This was when he made eye contact with the monster.
The others followed after him. The monster seemed to have felt scared and trapped. It tried to defend itself sprung at Story and during the struggle, his gun went off. Which caused the creature to lose its life.
The three men brought it to town and many people had awwed at the monster. The skin of the monster was sent to Baltimore to be stuffed and put into an exhibit. It is unknown if it was really stuffed.
I only happened upon these articles and could not find out more about it. The story had to of been somewhat big at the time as a newspaper from London had an article about it. It is not known how much truth there is to the story.
If this story has any truth of this. Then it would mean that Kits Swamp North Carolina had a Bigfoot-like creature terrorizing the town, and they had caught it.
SOURCES:
Newbern Weekly Journal of Commerce August 21, 1875
Newbern Weekly Journal of Commerce September 11, 1875
The Times October 1, 1875
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