The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-08-08
STRANGE NARRATIVE.
Freak Of the Late Storm-It Disen-
tOmbs n skeleton.
from the Miami CO., Democrat.l

incident connected with the terrible
hurricane that passed over the Miami
Valley on the evening Of the GLORIOUS
4th.
On the well-known sold Anderson
farm" whose fertile acres extend to the
banks'of the historic Miami, stands, or
rather stood, a fine oak grove. A fort
night since the majestic trees stood
erect and intact, but now o-thirds of
them are lying on the ground, hurled
down by the relentless fury of the last
great storm. Little did the storm de-
mon think when he set out upon his
mission of destruction that he was des-
tined TO rob tree of secret which it
has scrupulously kept for eightytwo
years.
/ have the facts of this storm Incl
dent from the lips of Mr.. - Rogers,
the present occupant of the farm re-
ferred to, and man of proverbial We
racity.
Upon the morning subsequent to the
storm Saturday Mr.. 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 center tree of the plat was
noble oak, the king over his fellows,
and tree who had stood the ravages of
time seemingly unscathed for several
centuries. This tree had been snapped
and felled by the storm. Upon exam
lining the fallen giant for the purpose
of ascertaining it's worth as rail tim
Der, Mr. r. made startling dis
covery.
This was nothing less than the fact
that the tree in falling had disgorged a
skeleton
The bones were disconnected, yellow
as gold with age, and scattered promis-
cuously over several square feet of pas
turage. 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
looked like the memento of some fierce
cavalry charge. The humerus of the
right arm was shattered, and save the
three defects just mentioned the skele-
ton when put together was without
blemish.
The tree in falling, l should have
mentioned, was rent asunder-a task
not difficult of accomplishment when 1
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 upward to the first
great fork-a distance of ten feet-a
hollow extended, and from this cavity
the skeleton had been hurled. eff we
but knew who he was" thought my in
formant, Mr.. r., and, strange to say,
few minutes later the twain discovered
that the tree had also disgorged thrill
ing history.
An d-fashioned 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 pre-
served while its 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
oneyless-contained sundry papers
covered with rude pencilings, quite diff
ficult to trace, as they were written on
the backs of army passes and military
consignments which dated as far back
as 1776.
Mr. Rogers conveyed the bones to his
house, and set aboat to read the men,
orandum of the captive of the tree. But
owing to his failing eyesight, he could
decipher but little, and this little a 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
SHOWS of Valley Forge, and the skeleton
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, 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 Ar
nold's headquarters at West Point. In
1871 he marched with st. Clair against
the Northwestern Indians, and i'll the
famous outbreak of that General on the
Wabash. Nov. 3, of the year just writ
ten, he was wounded and captured. But
while being conveyed to the Indian town
dU Upper lllSlOIlCul DluCt we'll
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 beach that grew beside the
giant then, he gained the haven and
dropped therein. Then came a 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 despairing 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 the SHOWS
Here is one entry in the diary:
Nov. 10. Five days without food!
when l sleep / dream of luscious fruits
and .fotCing streams. The stars laugh |
at my misery. 1t is showing now. 1 |
freeze while L starve. God pity me !"
The italicised words were supplied by
Mr.. Rogers, as the trembling hand Oft
times refused to indite plainly.
Never was such record of suffering /
traced by human hand before. The en-
tries cover a period of eleven days, and |
in disiointed sentences is told the story
A. [sI