Wardensville Wildman

 The Wardensville Wild Man Hoax 

27 November 1873
The Weekly Register (Point Pleasant, WV)
Source: Chronicling America

Yes! This is the kind of Wild Man story I love to find and share for Wild Men Wednesdays! Wardensville is located in Hardy County, West Virginia, and in 1873 was home to a wild man who wasn't obviously a regular human man. This creature was entirely naked but covered in coarse yellow hair. He had the appearance of a very high forehead and was quite large. There's still a possibility that this was a misidentification of a feral human, but I think it's also a good contestant for actually being something non-human. 

UPDATE MARCH 2025:

And, it was too good to be true. While researching a totally different topic, I ran across a follow-up article, dated a month later. It seems that a local hunter known around the area as old "Uncle Billy" had some turkey traps set up that were disturbed by several youngins'. To dissuade them from further bothering his property, he waited until they came back, then stripped naked and ran out of the woods screaming gibberish at them. 

South Branch Intelligencer (Romney, WV)
26 December 1873