Connecticut western news., 1873-08-15
What the Old Oak Said.
Eleven Days in the Hollow of mn Oak
 Tree---A Strange Story.

Eleven Days 1n the Hollow Of mn Oak
 Tree---A Strange Story.
 In hurricane passing over the Ohio river and down the Miami valley a splendid grove of oakes on the Gold An derson farm" of MT. Rogers, in the latter locality, was almost wholly pros trated, and here is an amazing story de- rived therefrom and gravely communi- cated to the Miami Democrat
 Upon the morning subsequent to the storm (Saturday) MT. Rogers, in com pany with hired man" proceeded to inquire into the extent of the damage inflicted upon his premises, and the first objective point was the ruined grove. The centre tree of the plat was noble oak, the king over his fellows, and @ tree which had stood the ravages of time seemingly unscathed for several centu- ries. This tree had been snapped and felled by the storm. Upon examining the fallen giant for the purpose of ascer taining it's worth as rail-timber MT. Rogers made startling discovery. This was nothing less than the fact that the tree in falling had disgorged @ skeleton! The bones were disconnected, yellow as gold with age, and scattered prom'scu- ously over several square feet of pastur- age. The skull was almost intact; all the teeth save two-molars- still in their places, and there was @ scar on the left parietal bone which looked like the memento of some fierce cavalry charge. The humerus of the right arm was shattered, and save the three de- fects just mentioned the skeleton, when put together, was without blemish. The tree in falling, I should have mentioned, was rent asunder-a task not difficult of accomplishment when I refer to the fact that an examination found that at some remote date the very heart of the oak had been cleft by lightning. From spot twenty feet from the ground up wards to the first great fork-a distance of ten feet-a hollow extended, and from this cavity the skeleton had been hurled. If we but knew who he was, thought my informant, MT. Rogers, and strange to say, few minutes later the twain discovered that the tree had also disgorged 0 thrilling history. An old fashioned leathern pocket or memoran- dunn book lay in remarkable state of preservation, which no doubt had been dropped into the rent made by the lightning, and thus been preserved while it's master decayed. A few brass buttons of old and unique pattern were found near the memorandum, but it is with the latter that we have to deal. This old leather purse, entirely money less, contained sundry papers covered with rude pencilings quite difficult to trace, as they were written on the backs of army passes and military consign- ments which dated as far back as 1776. ME,. hD r. house, and set about to read the mem orandum of the captive of the tree. But owing to his failing eyesight he could decipher but little, and this'little con- glomerate mass of disconnections. But still he read enough to learn that the eyes that once shone in the now orbless sockets often looked upon Washington in the heat of battle, and amid the snows of Valley Forge and the skele- ton arm when covered with flesh and muscle had struck many stalwart blows for our country.
 The mans name, as gathered from the papers, was Roger Vanderberg, Q native of Lancaster, Pa., and captain in the revolutionary army. He was an aid to Washington during the retreat across the Jerseys, and served a time in Arnold's headquarters at West Point. In 1791 he marched with St. Clair against the northwestern Indians, and in the famous outbreak of that General on the Wabash. November 3, of the year just written, he was wounded and captured. But while being conveyed to the Indian town at Upper Piqua-a his- torical place we'll known to your readers he effected his escape, but found him. self hard pressed by his savage foes. He saw the hollow in the oak, and de- spite the mangled arm, and with theaid of @ beech that grew beside the giant then, he gained the haven, and dropped therein. Then came fearful discovery. He had miscalculated the depth of the hollow and there was no escape. O, the story told by the diary of the oaks de- spairing prisoner How rather than chose death by starvation how he and the snows Here is one entry in the diary:
 November 1Oth.-Five days without food! When I sleep I dream of lus- cious fruits and Jaoa0dng streams. The stars laugh at my misery It is snow ing now. I freeze while I starve. God pity me |!
 The italicized words were supplied by MT. Rogers, as the trembling hand oft-times refused to indite plainly. Never was such 8 record of suffering traced by human hand before. The en- tries covered a period of eleven days, and in disjointed sentences is told the story of St. Clair's defeat. MT. Rogers has written to Lancaster to ascertain if any descendants of the ill-fated captain live; if so, they shall have his bones."