The Rock Island daily Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1872-1873, 1873-08-02
Ths Sailg Arsns.
ACaptain as q Kernel.

Ina hurricane passing over the Ono
River and down the Miami Valley on the
night of the 4th Of July, asplendid grove
of cakes ON the cold Anderson farm of
Mr. Rogers, in the latter locality, was al
most wholly prostrated, and here is an
amazing and almost incredible story deriv-
ed therefrom aud gravely communicated
10 the Miami County Democrat by one j.
F Clarke:
Upon the morning subsequent to the
storm Saturday MIR. Rogers, in company
with hired man, proceeded 70 inquire
into the extent Of the damage inflicted up
on his premises, and the first objective
point was the ruined grove, The centre
tree ofthe plat was noble oak the KING
over his fellows, and tree which had
stood the rayages Of time seemingly I'M
scathed for several centuries. This tree
had been snapped and felled by the storm.
Upon examining the fallen giant for the
purpose of ascertaining its worth as rail
timber Mr.. Rogers made startling dis
covery This was nothing less than the
fact that the tree in ia ling had disgorged
a skeleton The bones were disconnected.
yellow as gold with age, and scattered pro
miscuously over several square feet OF pas,
turage The skull was almost intact all
the teeth save m0lars-were still IN
their places, and there was scar on the
lell parietal bone which looked ike the
memento of some fierce cavalry charge.
The humerus Of the right arm was shat
tered, and save the three defects just men
toned the skeleton, when put together, was
without blemish. The tree in falling,
should have mentioned, was rent asunder
"a task not difficult of accomplishment
when | refer to the fact that an eXamina-
ton found that at s0me remote date the
very heart Of the oak had been cleft by the
lightning From a spot twenty feet from
the ground upwards TO the first great fork
"a distance of ten teet-a hollow extend
ed, and from this cavity the skeleton had
been hurled. five but knew who he was,
thought my informant, Mr.. Rogers, and,
strange 10 say, few minutes later the
twain discovered that the tree had also
disgorged a thrilling history. An old
fashioned leathern pocket OF memorandum
book lay in remarkable state of preserva-
tiou. which no doubt had been dropped in
10 the rent made by the lightning and thus
been preserved while its master decayed.
A few brass buttons of old and unique
pattern we're found near the memorandum
bur il is with the latter that we have to do
This old leather purse, entirely moneyless,
contained sundry papers covered with rude
pencilngs quite difficult 10 trace, as they
were written on the backs of army passes
aud military consignments which dated as
far back as 1870. Mr. Rogers conveyed
the bones 20 his house, and set about t.
read the memorandum of the captive OF
the tree. But owing TO his falling eyesghf
hr could decipher but little, and this little
a conglomerate mass of disconnections
But still he read enough 10 learn that the
eyes that once shOne through the now orb
less 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
man name, as gathered from the papers,
was Roger anderberg, a native Of Ian
caster, Pa. and a captain in the revolu.
tionary army lie was an aid 10 Wash.
ingtOn during the retreat across the Jer
scys, and served a time in ArnOd's head
quarters at West Point. la 1891 he
marched with st. Clair against the north
western Indians, and in the famous ont
break of that General on the Wabash, No
vember 8, Of the year lust written, he was
wounded and captured. But while being
conveyed 10 the Indian town at Upper
Piquaa historical place well known u
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 beech that grew beside the giant then,
he gained the haven, and dropped therein
Then came n fearful discovery. He had
miscalculated the depth Of the hollow and
there was no escape. q, the story told BY
the diary of the oak despairing prisoner
How rather than surrender 10 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 entryir
the diary:
November lOth-Five days without
t00dt When | sleep dream Of luscIou,
fruits and fotriag streams The star,
i1ug6 at my misery 1t is showing now
! freeze while starve GOD pity me-
The italicised words we're 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 entries covered
period of eleven days and in disjointeC
sentences is told the story of st. Glars de
feat. Mr. Rogers has written to Lancas
ter to ascertain ii any descendants Of thu
ill-tated captain live if so they shall hav,
his bones
Should no such descendants survive, the
narrator of the discovery proposes that thu
patriotic people of Miami county shall
erect monument to the luekless captain
memory. Perhaps, however, the matte
will be settled by a concession of the mill
tary skeleton to the acquisitive Mr.. Bar
mum, who, in that event. could not do bet
ter than secure the teller of the abov,
story, also, to explain the aforesaid add
ton 10 his great moral show