The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-08-06
A Revolutionary Skeleton.
THE REVELATIONS OF AN OVERTURNED OAK
A STRANGE STORY, IF TRUE.

In a hurricane passing over the Ohio river
and down the Miami Valley on the night of the
4th Of July, q splendid grove of oaks on the
'Old Anderson farm of Mr.. Rogers, in the
latter locality, was almost wholly Frustrated.
In connection Herewith the following story is
communicated to the Miami county Democrat,
by Mr.. j. F. Clark
Upon the morning subsequent to the storm
Saturday, Mr. Rogers went, in company with
a hired man 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 centuries. This tree had been snap
ped and felled by the Storm Upon examining
the fallen giant for the purpose of ascertaining
its worth as rail timber, Mr.. Rogers made a
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 prOmiscuously
over several square feet of pasturage. The
skull was almost intact; all the teeth save two
-molars-were still in their places, and there
was a scar on the left parietal bone which look
ed like memento of some fierce cavalry charge.
The humerus of the right arm was shattered,
but save the three defects just mentioned the
skeleton, when put together, was without blem-
ish -it
The tree in falling, should have mentioned,
was rent asunder-a task not difficult of accom-
plishment when refer to the fact that an ex-
animation found that, at some remote date, the
very heart of the oak had been cleft by light
ming From spot twenty feet from the ground
upwards to the first great fork, a distance of
ten feet, hollow extended, and from this cav
ity the skeleton had been hurled. IF we but
knew who he was, thought my informant, Mr.
Rogers, and, strange to say, few minutes later
the twain discovered that the tree had also dis
n fbril1ipn hiStnrv IN old al
leathern pocket or memorandum book lay in a
remarkable state of preservation, which no
doubt had been dropped into the rent made by
the lightning, and thus been preserved while its
master decayed. A few brass buttons of old
and unique pattern were found near the memo
randum, but it is with the latter that we have
to deal. This old leather purse, entirely mon
eyess, contained sundry papers covered with
rude pencilings quite difficult to trace, as they
were written on the backs of army passes and
military cOusgnments which dated as far back
as 1776. .HsU D. ln5 .H =
"Mr Rogers conveyed the bones to his house,
and set about to read 9he memorandum of the
captive of the tree; but, owing to his failing
eyesight, he could decipher but little, and this
little conglomerate mass of disconnections
But still he read enough to learn that the
mans name was Roger Vanderberg, native
of Lancaster, Penn, and captain in the revo-
lutionary army. He was an aid to Washington
during the retreat across the Jerseys and serv-
VI III <AluOfo dt w rest
Point. In 1871 he marched to ST. Clair against
the Northwestern Indians, and, in the famous
outbreak of that General on the Wabash, No
vember 3, of the year just written, he was
wounded and captured. But while being con-
veyed to the Indian town at Upper Piqua, he
effected his escape, but found himself bard
pressed by his savage foes He saw the hollow
in the oak, and despite the mangled arm, and
with the aid of a beech that grew beside the
giant, tree, he gained the heaven, and drop
ped therein. Then came fearful discovery.
He had mscalculated the death of the hollow
and there was no escape o, the story told by
the diary of the oaks despairng prisoner !!
How, rather than surrender to the torture of
the stake, he chose death by starvation; how he
wrote his diary in the uncertain light and
SHOWS! Here is one entry in the diary:
November TO- Five days without food
When / sleep dream of luscious fruits and
fo,cing streams. The stars laugh at my misery
1t is SLOWING now. freeze while starve
God pity mel" ..lI ,...-...
The italicised words were supplied by Mr.
Rogers, as the trembling hand Outlines re-
fused to indite plainly. Never was such a rec
ord of suffering traced by human hand before.
The entries covered period of eleven days. and
in disjointed sentences is told the story of ST.
Glars defeat. Mr.. Rogers has written to Lam
caster to ascertain if any descendants of the
Inflated captain live; if SO, they shall have his
bones. Should no such descendants survive
the narrator of the discovery proposes that the
patriotic people of Miami county shall erect a
monument to the luckless captains memory