PLANNING TRIP TO MEXICO,
NOW
A. H. Verrill-Most
Versatile Citizen
BY JOHN COLLER
Special to The Miami Daily News
From
The Miami News - Jun 1, 1951. Digitized by
Doug Frizzle, June 2012.
LAKE WORTH,
June 1 — Now in his 80th year, A. Hyatt Verrill is without doubt Lake Worth's most versatile citizen, and that same claim
might well be made to include a lot more of Florida.
Author of 114 published books
of amazing variety, this man qualifies as a noted archeologist, painter,
authority on shells of the world, a
student and author on piracy and hidden treasure, a cabinet maker, expert rifle
marksman, under water photographer, circus performer, to name a few.
Born in New Haven, Conn.,
where his father was professor of
geology and zoology at Yale for 40 years, Verrill came by his traveling and
collecting pursuits naturally. He also studied art at Yale but admits that he
learned little to add to his natural ability.
While a young man he toured the West Indies and
he and a companion lived on a
deserted island entirely "from the land" as an experiment. He wrote his first
books following this trip.
From
1922 to '26 he was in Peru,
representing the Museum of the American Indian, of New York, studying the
ancient Incans. Gathered from the tombs and burial mounds of that ancient land, Verrill
has not only made some remarkable
finds but has pieced together the most authentic
history of that ancient race.
He is now completing a group of eight paintings of old Incan
chieftains and princes, dressed in native costumes. Clothing, helmets, arm and
leg bands, breast plates and other
accouterments found in the mounds,
plus talk with the natives and
thorough study, he has written volumes concerning one of the
world's earliest civilizations, hundreds of centuries before Christ,
He was a personal friend of
Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley, and the
latter helped Verrill make up as an Indian in Buffalo Bill's wild west circus.
Verrill is one-sixteenth Indian and his wife is half Indian.
He has been made a blood brother in two Indian tribes and is an authority on the Indian of North, Central and South
America. He knew Will Rogers in his earliest days of the stage.
The Verrill’s are now packing
for another trip to Mexico, and at
80 years of age, is looking forward to new adventures with the same zest that has marked this frail but wiry
man all through his many years.
He has driven a car since
1902 and is proud of his record of never having had an accident or even a
parking ticket. On this trip, however, he is not going to drive. He is going
with Capt. Paul Daniels, of the
Nu-Way Leather Shop, who is going on
a buying trip. With them is also
going Bud Waite, of the Waite Bird
Farm of Boynton Beach.
Verrill is going to take them into the
remote parts of Mexico
and deal directly with the natives
in buying birds and small animals, including spider monkeys and marmosets.
Verrill and his wife are also going to add to their
collections and materials for more writing. Mrs. Verrill keeps a complete running diary from
day to day for writing reference.
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