The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1873-08-08
BItryjRg 4Jire.

les. which show the position changed
and limbs distorted, from which the
inference is drawn that the cOrpses I
had revived in their cof1ins and strug-
oled to get out This is not only i'm
probable but impossible, for if n man
were buried "alive and kicking in
stant suffocation and death would fol- (
low. The distortion observed in dis
inferred bodies is merely the result of
decomposition. But now a new style
Of story has been devised which baf-
8es all our objections. 1t dispenses
with coffin or earth burial, and con-
trives circumstances which the most
skeptical cannot deny to be within the
range of possibility The following
story. now going the rounds, is, we
/ believe, to be first credited to the Mi
anna County Democrat:
..In hurricane passing over the Ohio
river and down the Miami valley on the
night of the 4th of July. a splendid grove
of oaks on the 'Old Anderson farm of a
Mr.. Rogers, in the latter locality, was al
most wholly prostrated.
Upon the morning subsequent TO the
storm Saturday, Mr.. Rogers in company
with hired man, proceeded to inquire
upon his premises, and the first objective
point was the ruined grove. The center
tree of the plat was a noble oak, the king
of his fellows, and tree which had stood
the ravageS of time seemingly unSCathed
for several centuries. The tree had been
snapped and felled by tie storm. Upon
examining the fallen giant for the purpose
of ascertaining its worth as rail timber,
Mr.. Rogers made 4 startling discovery.
This was nothing less than the fact that
the tree in falling had disgorged a skcle-
ton ! The bones were disconnected, yell
low as gold with age, and scattered pro-
miscuously over several square feet of
pasturage.
The skull was almost intact: all the
teeth save twO-moars-were still in their
places and there a on the left
parietaI bone which looked like the me-
mento of some fierce cavalry charge. The
humeris of the right arm was shattered,
and save the three defects just mentioned
the skeleton when put together, was with
out blemish. The tree in falling, | should
have mentioned was rent asunder-a task
not difficult of accomplishment when | re-
fer TO the fact that an examination found
that at some remote date the very heart of
the oak had been cleft By lightning. From
a spot twenty feet from the ground up
wards 20 the first great fOrk--a distance of
ten teet--a hollow extended, and from this
cavity the skeleton had beer hurled. If
we but knew who he was, thought my in
fOrmant, Mr. Rodgers, and, strange to say,
few minutes later, the twain discovered
that the tree had also disgorged a thrill
ing history. An old-fashiCned leather pocE1-
ct or memorandum book lay in a remark
able state of preservation, which no doubt
lad been dropped into the rent made by
the lightning, thus being preserved while
its master decayed. \ few brass buttons
of old and unique pattern were found near
the memorandum, but it is with the latter
that we have to deal.
''1his old leather purse. entirely money
less, contained Sundry papers covered with
rude pencillings quite difficult to trace, as
they were written on the backs of army
passes and military cOnSignments, which
dated far back as 1886. Mr.. ROGERS
conveyed the bones to his house, and set
about to read the memorandum of the
captive OF the tree. But owing to his fail
ing eyesight he could decipher but little.
and this little conglomerate mass of dis
connections 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 SHOWS of Valley Forge and the skele-
ton arm when covered with flesh and mus
Gle had struck many stalwart blow for
our country. The mans name, as gath
cred from the papers, was Roger Wander
berg, native of Lancaster, Pa, and a
captain in the Revolutionary army. He
was an aid to Washington during the re-
treat across the Jerseys, and served a time
III ArnOld's headquarters at West Point.
''In 1871 he marched with St. Clair
against the Northwestern Indians, and in
the famous outbreak of that General ON
the W abaSh, November 3 of the year lust
written, he was wounded and captured.
But while being conveyed to the Indian
town at Upper Piqua-a historical place
well known to your readers-he effected
his escape, but found himself hard 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 be-
side the giant then, he gained the haven
and dropped thUrcin. Then came Il fear
ful discovery. He had miscalculated the
depth OF the hollow, and there was no es-
cape. ., the story told by the diary of
the oak 5 deSpairing prisoner How. rath-
er than surrender to the torture of the
stake, he chose death by starvation how
he wrote his diary in the uncertain light
and the SHOWS Here is one entry in the
diary:
:" November 16.-Five days without foodI
When L sleep l dream of luscious fruit and
To"lng streams. The stars laugh at my
misery 1t is showing now. l freeze
while | starve. God pftg me p
The italieised words were supplied by
Mr.. Rogers, as the trembling hand oft
times refused to in6ite plainly. Never was
such record of suffering traced by human
hand before. The entries covered a period
of eleven days, and in disiointed sentences
is told the story of St. Clair's defeat. Mr.
/ Rogers has written to Lancaster to ascer-
tain if any of the descendants of the i'll
fated captain live; if SO they shall have
his bOnes.'
Here is q story that buries a man
not in n coffin or grave but a tree,
and if you can cOntrive to get your
subject into it, nobody can deny that
he may live therefor a while. But
even an editor who is used to writing
under all sorts of difficulties. might
find it difficult to keep a diary when
wedged in an oak! The nal rator of
L; !. I i