Joanne O Connor
Special to The Citizen
Proudly wearing his Civil War uniform, Billy Claxton (1843-1923), the Hermit of Owasco Lake, is pictured above in front of his Koenigâs Point ocean house.
Billy was born on Jan. 10, 1843, in Hastings, New York. In 1860, with his mother, Mary Ann, and sister Hannah, he moved from the Lake Ontario area to Mandana. Here they lived with their relative Alexander Hamilton Allen, who with his Revolutionary War tract of land, had built a tavern-inn. That site became todayâs Mandana Inn. Along the west side of Skaneateles Lake, the Claxton family worked harvesting teasel plants in the farm area of what is now Laxtonâs Florist Greenery. The Laxtons were in the teasel farming business for over 100 years until it died out due to the invention of mechanical nappers that could comb wool faster, and at a better price. The old 1840 teasel drying barn was taken down just a year ago. A new and booming industry at the time, with f
1871-1916: The sad and lonely story of the ‘Hermit Author of Skaneateles’
Posted May 15, 2021
An inset drawing of Brainard Munn from his book La Petite Belle. Courtesy of the Skaneateles Historical Society archives
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In 1871, a new book, “Love on the Wing,” written by Charles March, created a sensation in the town of Skaneateles.
Nearly every resident wanted a copy of it, not because it was very good, or even told an interesting story, but because the townspeople could easily identify themselves and their neighbors as the book’s characters.
“The book was well read in Skaneateles,” the Syracuse Herald would later write in 1899, “for out of the long list of characters in it every one of the village recognized a great many personal friends.”
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