The Old Leatherman Rests Again

Wildflowers, a pine casket and four pennies.

Norm MacDonald, president of the Ossining, NY, Historical Society, along with a team of researchers and Dan DeLuca, author of The Old Leather Man, said each of these elements had special meaning at the May 25 reburial ceremony for the Leatherman at Sparta Cemetery in Ossining.

According to DeLuca, who has researched the Leatherman for more than two decades, children would leave pennies on fence posts for the man donning clothing made of leather scraps who quietly walked a 365-mile stretch of land through New York's Westchester County and much of Connecticut in the 1800s.

The curious character's regular route included Middletown, Meriden, New Britain and several other towns in central Connecticut. Here's one map of Leatherman's alleged route.

"In the stories that I've found, they talk about four pennies," he said after the ceremony, visibly tearing. "The next day they would find them, but they were always shiny."

DeLuca said he initially reached out to the Ossining Historical Society because he believes the mostly silent Leatherman has been falsely called Jules Bourglay and felt his headstone, which was added 50 to 60 years after his death, should reflect the name shown on his death certificate — The Old Leatherman.

As for the flowers, MacDonald said they may have been the types the Leatherman would see during his routine walks through area trails. The casket is believed to be similar to the pine structure in which he was initially buried.

And traces of that coffin, limited to just the nails believed to have held the headboard portion together, were the only clues unearthed  on May 22. The researchers had initially hoped to retrieve genetic information that could be tested to reveal information about the man who slept in a series of caves and lean-tos on his path, rarely interacting with other people.

"We were fairly certain that we would find skeletal remains," said MacDonald earlier today. "That turned out not to happen."

Connecticut archaeologist Dr. Nicholas Bellantoni, who oversaw the exhumation efforts, attributed the lack of findings to the acidity levels in the soil.

"Nature takes its course and then the remains, soft tissue and hard tissue, break down," he explained. "I was a little disappointed in that. I was looking forward to meeting him."

The Leatherman is believed to have died on March 20, 1889, at the George Dell Farm in what is now Briarcliff Manor, at about 50 years of age. Dorsey Funeral Home arranged his burial at the time, and did so — 122 years later — for the recent ceremony, too.

According to Bellantoni, development of the road during "the early 20th century," involved grading and stripping processes that "may have affected what was there originally," potentially disturbing the rest of the coffin. The nails were found approximately 25 cm below ground level, which he said was "sooner than I had anticipated."

Bellantoni said it was decided "the soil that would have been inside that coffin," along with the nails, would be moved to the new burial site, located up the hill from the former, near the cemetery's flagpole.

Don Johnson, a Connecticut history teacher who created the website Leave the Leatherman Alone to protest the planned exhumation, said he was glad to hear no DNA testing can be performed.

"I think that's great. That way, the research can continue above the ground where it belongs," he said.

Some Patch readers .

While the Leatherman's background, including his ethnic origin and religion, remain unknown, Reverend Dr. Tim Ives from the  presided over the reburial ceremony.

"I personally love that nothing else is revealed about the Leatherman," he said before offering prayers at the grave site.

As for the pennies DeLuca left with the Leatherman's remains — "They're dull," he revealed. "I hope they come back."