{"id":3934,"date":"2026-07-17T20:00:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T00:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3934"},"modified":"2026-07-15T08:16:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T12:16:32","slug":"47-years-a-hermit-the-strange-afterlife-of-william-hewitt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3934","title":{"rendered":"47 Years a Hermit: The Strange Afterlife of William Hewitt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UrLSFpqX35Q?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In the late 1780s a man from Virginia\u2019s Shenandoah Valley, William Hewitt, crossed the Ohio River seeking to find solitude in the Appalachian wilderness after heartbreak changed his life forever. Living alone in caves and rough dugouts for nearly fifty years, Hewitt lived in peace alongside the Shawnee, served as a scout during the War of 1812, and became a legend across southeastern Ohio.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the strangest chapter of his story began after his death.<\/p>\n<p>Join us as we tell the haunting true story of the Hermit of Hewitt\u2019s Fork.<\/p>\n<p>Be sure to subscribe to the Stories podcast on your favorite podcast app.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for listening!<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_343\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3934-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72989352\/download.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72989352\/download.mp3\">https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72989352\/download.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72989352\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?powerpress_pinw=3934-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72989352\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"download.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?feed=podcast\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the late 1780s a man from Virginia\u2019s Shenandoah Valley, William Hewitt, crossed the Ohio River seeking to find solitude in the Appalachian wilderness after heartbreak changed his life forever. Living alone in caves and rough dugouts for nearly fifty years, Hewitt lived in peace alongside the Shawnee, served as a scout during the War [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,9,739,83,13],"tags":[1217,91,582,479,104,1377,1146,1843,1846,1844,1847,1707,1842,1082,1833,1830,800,1839,1837,1834,1831,1840,1835,1836,1067,1845,1841,1832,1838,1829],"class_list":["post-3934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oddities","category-personalities","category-the-1780s","category-the-1790s","category-the-appalachian-frontier","tag-american-frontier","tag-appalachia","tag-appalachian-culture","tag-appalachian-folklore","tag-appalachian-history","tag-appalachian-legends","tag-appalachian-podcast","tag-appalachian-wilderness","tag-cave-hermit","tag-early-ohio-settlers","tag-exhumation-story","tag-forgotten-history","tag-frontier-hermit","tag-frontier-stories","tag-hermit-story","tag-hewitts-fork","tag-historical-storytelling","tag-jackson-county-ohio","tag-northwest-territory","tag-ohio-frontier","tag-ohio-history","tag-pike-county-ohio","tag-pioneer-history","tag-shawnee-history","tag-stories-of-appalachia","tag-strange-history","tag-true-history-podcast","tag-war-of-1812","tag-waverly-ohio","tag-william-hewitt"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6TX4A-11s","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3934"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3936,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3934\/revisions\/3936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}