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Socially Distanced
Perley Swett lived alone but was not lonely by marshall hudson
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n 1962, at the age of 75, Perley Swett, the Taylor Pond Hermit, dug his own grave. The hermit selected his final resting place beside a large boulder that would serve as his headstone. Using roofing tar, he painted “Taylor Pond Hermit” and the date of his of birth, “2-6-1888,” onto a board that he affixed to the boulder headstone. Including the date of his death posed a problem as he couldn’t predict the exact date of his inevitable fate, but Perley solved this dilemma by picking a date he
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liked. He chose “11-26-2013” and painted it onto the board, commenting that he would die on that date, if not before. Perley must have been feeling optimistic when he selected November 26, 2013, as that would have made him 125 years old. Satisfied with the physical arrangements of his final resting place, the hermit then put his wishes into writing to fend off any legal challenge to being buried in this selfdug grave. In a handwritten letter, Perley “commanded” that he be buried at the farm
where he had spent most of his life, alone for more than 25 years of it. Perley Swett, hermit of Taylor Pond, not only left behind burial instructions, but also many handwritten “last will and testaments” and other end-of-life instructions for the disposal of his property. The hermit wrote poetry and kept a daily journal, and, being part packrat, he saved all his quasi-legal documents, diaries, poetry, letters, newspaper clippings and other paperwork. These papers provide a peek into the life of the Taylor Pond Hermit, and allow us to piece together why he came to be living alone in the unpopulated woods where Stoddard, Sullivan and Munsonville collide. To begin with, Perley was born there and never really left. Perley’s grandfather bought the rocky hilltop farm in 1864, and he froze to death on it in 1876 while walking out for food supplies. The body was not found until the following spring. The farm passed to Perley’s mother, and Perley was born in the family home in 1888. In the book “Perley: The True Story of a New Hampshire Hermit” (by Sheila Swett Thompson, the hermit’s granddaughter) Perley’s father, Daniel, was described as “shiffless,” and when he died in 1922, as the coffin was carried to the grave, it was suggested “that was the fastest ol’ Dan ever moved.” Perley had three older siblings and three younger siblings, but they all moved off the ancestral farm, leaving only Perley and his mother. As Perley said, “How easy to become a famous hermit just by not moving or dying.” The road that ran past the family farm had been a stagecoach route before the Civil War when farms in the area prospered. A school district once existed there before the advancement of railroad routes, free land out west, the Depression and two world wars reshuffled the population away from remote New Hampshire farms. As the town changed and the neighbors moved away, the town discontinued maintaining and snowplowing the road. Perley’s home at the end of the road became more isolated and inaccessible during the winter and spring mud season. In 1911, Perley married Helen Whitney, and they raised six children on the farm. Unfortunately, Perley and Helen’s marriage had problems from the beginning. Perhaps Helen had been unfaith-
photo by quentin white courtesy of sheila swett thompson
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