Bennington

LONG, Isaac G.

Vermont Historical Magazine, No. XI, October 1867, p 212
(extracted from a section on the history of Peru, Bennington County, Vermont)

For some time previous to February 1832, the wolves so molested the sheep in 
Peru, that two young men, Joseph LONG and Joseph BARNARD, took their guns and 
watched for them, one night, where they had been the previous night and 
killed several sheep. Soon they were heard howling, but passed by, about 
forty rods from the barn, on to where Joseph SIMMONDS now lives, and took 
their meal from a horse which had been killed there, which, is supposed, they 
scented in the distance. The next morning it was decided the wolves must be 
ferreted out. Seth LYON and Isaac G. LONG started in search of them, on 
snowshoes, with food sufficient to last some time. It was warm and pleasant 
when they set off, but soon the weather became intensely cold. They followed 
the track of the wolves, until Mr. LONG's snowshoes became unfastened, and 
the hands of both men were so stiff with cold they cold not fasten them, when 
he was obliged to leave them. They came to a branch of Otter Creek, but 
instead of following the wolves farther, followed the river down. They were 
obliged in some places, to go so close to the shelving edge of the stream, 
that, being almost frozen, they could not keep their balance, and fell into 
the water two or three times. They had been out three days and two nights, 
when Mr. LONG, sinking into the snow at every step, became so weary he could 
go no farther. Mr. [Seth] LYON left him, to seek help, expecting that he 
would perish before aid could be obtained. At length he came out at Danby 
Borough, and with others went back for Mr. [Isaac G.] LONG, who was carried 
to the Borough senseless, his right hand frozen tight to his gun, which he 
has used as a cane. His boots had to be cut from his feet, and his body was 
badly frozen. He lost all the toes from his right foot, and the great toe 
from his left. He was then fifty-two years old, and though he lived fourteen 
years after, his health was never restored. His widow is living, in her 
eighty-first year; she is feeble, but can read, and sews very neatly, without 
glasses.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly