Not much is known about the early life of Albert Large. It's not even known for sure when he was born, but it's believed to be around 1805.

His father, Sam Large, owned a farm at the base of Buckingham mountain. Sam loved to hunt and would often gather his friends and go fox hunting on the mountain.

But Albert loved animals. He didn't like that his father hunted and hated to see the pain and death that it caused the animals.

Albert grew up with no interest in "civilized ways". He wouldn't stay in school and was always truant. He loved to spend his time alone up on the mountain. The wilds of the nature were his delight. He would wander for days. He loved animals, wildflowers and birds. He would catch foxes by hand and keep them as pets.

The mountain was real rough terrain. There were many rocks strewn over the mountainside. Where they happened to be piled on top of others, it created crevases between them. Some of the openings were big enough that a boy could climb into them. Albert loved playing on the hillside, finding little caves between the rocks.

"Nobody really knew him. He was a strange fellow" some of his schoolmates would remember, years later. "Never played much with the boys. He was a big fellow, and strong. Could bend a crowbar, and vault over a conestoga wagon. He would have made a good wrestler, but never was much for fighting."

Because of his truancy and his love of spending time up on the mountain alone, Albert worried his folks a lot. "He nor his pop never hit it together no how".

As a young man, Albert met a neighbor girl named Mary. She, too, enjoyed nature. She loved talking to him about wildflowers and birds and the other animals. He taught her so much about them. Albert knew every plant around and what medicinal use they could be put to. People said he knew so much he could have been a doctor. And he taught it all to Mary.

Albert and Mary spent a lot of time on the mountain together, gathering flowers and feeding the animals. They would eat out of his hands. It was if he had a power over them.

While sitting on the mountain looking out over the valley below, Albert would talk to Mary about his love of forest life, his hatred of civilized ways. He said he thought that men were fools. They argued and fought. He liked the beliefs of the indians, and sometimes wished he could be one.

Albert enjoyed Mary's company. She was his closest friend. He loved spending time with her.

Then one day, while on the mountain together, he did something that would change his life forever. He asked Mary to marry him.

She was surprised. But she didn't want to marry Albert. To his disappointment, she said "No". She told him that she didn't think of him as a husband. And that she loved him, but as a sister loves her brother. He was too different for her. He had too much "pioneer" in him for her.

Without a word Albert got up and walked away, down the mountain. Mary walked home by herself.

Albert did not come around again for a long time. Then one day he showed up at her doorstep. He told her that he was going to go away. Then he kissed her.

Shocked at the show of affection, Mary cried and ran into her house. She never saw Albert again.

At least not for a very long time......

Years went by, and Albert was never seen or heard from. Nobody knew where he went or what happened to him.

About the same time as his disappearance, Mary met William Johnson. Soon the two were married and had four children.

As the children grew, Mary noticed something strange. Often when one of the children was sick, she would find herbs on her doorstep. She would think of Albert; that's the kind of thing he would do. But he was long gone so many years.

Many years would pass, and Mary and William, and the rest of the valley, went on with their lives. And Albert was all but forgotten.

One cold morning in October of 1848, almost 30 years after Albert disappeared, Chapman Fell was walking across the mountain on his way to work. He worked in the lime quarry owned by Aaron Ely.

He came across the mountain and down over the lime kiln. The wisp of smoke showed that the kiln was "in blast". As he got closer he saw something that startled him. There was a man laying on top of the kiln. The man had long, straggly hair and beard. His face and hands were gnarled and wrinkled. His clothes were shabby and ill-fitting.

At first he thought the man was dead, frozen in the cold night. But he soon realized the man was breathing a shallow breath. Then he realized what happened. The man had fallen asleep on top of the warm kiln, but the fumes from the kiln are noxious, and the man was slowly suffocating.

Chapman ran for help to the farm of William and Mary Johnson, a quarter mile away. William was a Quaker farmer and gentleman. He was startled when Chapman ran into his house exclaiming "There's a man lying half-dead atop the kiln". The two men hurried back to the kiln and partly revived the sickened stranger. Soon joined by a neighbor, the three men carried him back to the Johnson household. More neighbors came by to see what the commotion was. Mary made a pot of strong coffee for the stranger.

As the men laid the stranger on a settee, Mary saw him and stopped in her tracks, letting out a gasp. When questioned about her reaction, she could only whisper ...

"It's Albert Large!"

The stranger looked around, then closed his eyes and went to sleep. The rescuers took the opportunity to return to their daily chores, leaving him alone to rest.

While the men left the house, Mary sat with her friends in the sitting room. "Albert used to love thee" one of them said to Mary. "Yes, he wanted to marry me", she returned. "But thirty years ago, we were 18. I couldn't marry him. I loved him - as a sister" she explained. She went on to tell them of the days that she and Albert enjoyed on the mountain.

While Mary and her friends talked of Albert, time passed. Soon she got up to go check on him. When she stepped into the room where they left him, she found only an empty settee. Albert Large was gone.

He had disappeared again.

Unknown to anyone, Albert had never left the area. Instead he had gone up to his favorite spot, on the side of the mountain. He found a set of rocks that formed a cave. The opening was small enough he had to crawl through, but then it opened up into a bigger room. Not quite high enough for a man to stand straight, but big enough to keep him comfortable.

Over time, he built a wall to separate the cave into two small rooms. In one room he had a fireplace, pots, pans, dishes and glassware. In the back room he had a mattress to sleep on. He could roll a rock across the opening so that any passerby would not realize there was an opening. In those days, days or weeks would go by without someone passing on the mountain. The cave was secure from intruders.

After a while his beard and hair had grown to such lengths that he was unrecognizable. He could go by night to neighboring villages to find supplies, and food.

In the summer, hikers and lovers would roam the mountain, bringing them close to his cave. But he was unknown to all of them, hidden away in his lair.

Weather would be hard on him. One hard winter he was stuck in his cave for six weeks before he could dig out of the snow.

But Albert was content. He was at home on the rocky and rugged mountain. There were deer, raccoon and squirrel to keep him company. He loved to sit with only the animals and his thoughts. He would sit on the rocks on the top of the mountain looking out over the valleys.

At times, Albert would sneak down to the valley at night and walk among the neighbor's houses. He could hear them talking, and sometimes singing. He watched Mary through the window.

Once he saw William carving a roast at the dinner table while Mary and their four children sat and waited for the meal. It was a wonderful sight.

And no-one knew he was there.

It was almost 10 years later, after his discovery, and re-disappearance, and Albert was becoming more and more careless.

Once several children went up onto the mountain to play. One of the girls wandered away from the others. She came running back screaming "I saw a wild man!" But most people put this up to the imagination of the young girl, and the incident was soon forgotten.

Another day, William Kennard, a quarryman, happened to pass the hidden cave when he heard a noise "like a kettle being dragged by a chain". He was surprised by a "frightful" bearded face. Not sure if he was looking at an outlaw, or the devil himself, he ran for his life.

Then, on the evening of April 9th, 1858, a group of men saw a wisp of smoke coming from the mountain and tracked it down to what they finally realized was a cave. They called out, and Albert rolled the rock from the entrance and crawled out of his cave. After learning that he was Albert Large, the men left him, again, to himself.

Albert's life as a hermit was over.

News of the discovery of Albert Large, for the second time, spread across the valley. The next day people came from all over to visit the hermit's cave. Over the next few weeks, people came from many miles away. The story even was printed in a newspaper in England.

For the next few days, Albert tried to play the part that was forced upon him. The part of the celebrity hermit. He let the public inside his cave to marvel at his sparse residence. He tried to answer their endless questions.

He was not used to all this attention, and it was depressing him that he was no longer alone. He was sitting on a rock beside his cave, watching the nameless visitors crawling into his home and gawking at him.

One day, while watching the curious visitors file into his "home", he wondered what he would do, now that he was found. When he looked up, he saw a familiar face. The two looked at each other for a full minute.

"Mary? Is it thou?" he asked. "Yes, Albert" was the answer.

Mary invited Albert to live with her and William. After some discussion, Albert left his "home" behind and walked with Mary down the mountain to their house.

His cave was an attraction for many more weeks. And it wasn't long before visitors had stripped it for relics and souveniers.

For a time, Albert lived with the Johnsons. But he soon realized he was not comfortable living within the community. It was not a life for him. He had lived as a hermit for too long.

Within a year, Albert Large, for a third time, disappeared.

This time, never to be found again.

Albert claimed he was living on the mountain for 40 years but reliable resources say it was no more than 20 years and probably 18.

- "Bucks County Tales" by Arthur Bye - "The Hermit"

- "A Collection of Papers Read Before the Bucks County Historical Society", Vol 2, 1909 - "The Hermit" by Col. Henry D. Paxson

(Both of these books can be found at the Historic Langhorne Association)