The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1876-02-25
NO. ~.
A MICHIGAN GIANT.
TYpsilanti (Mich.) Sentinel.I

thirties, appeared for the first time
among gang of laborers on the Flat
Ro, and Gibraltar Canal, and he moved
among ordinary men like a son of Anak.
He looked eight feet high, at least, and
l three feet across the shoulders His arms
| sprang from his chest as large as any
middle-sized mans body, and tapered
| down to hand three inches thick, and,
when doubled into fist, as big and hard
as a rail splitter's maui. He gave out
| his age as seventeen, and he was grow
ing. He hired for the wages and work
of an ordinary man, but when he seized
a shovel, it went through the clay like a
breaking-up plow, and the handle soon
came off, if the blade held. An ordinary
az was but a feather in his hand. 1t
sank to the eye in the wood, and the
helve splintered. He dealt out strength
by the wholesale, and he could not
weigh out his force in the measure of
ordinary men,
When he stood among gang of labor
ers, the contrast made them look like
children. The strolling Indians would
stare in amazement few moments, and
then, with deep ''ughl" get out of
sight of him as fast as their dignity would
let them. He was put to do the work
of three pairs of oxen That was remov-
ing the trunks of trees, cut in ten or
twelve foot lengths, out of the way of
the diggers, not hitching to them like
oxen, to snake them away, but with his
right hand under the end, raising it,from
the ground, then balancing it across his
left forearm, he shot the sawlogs far to
one side with the ease that a skillful
workman piles his split cord-wood. And
thus, day after day, the giant moved un-
til the canal was built.
He appeared again on the boats that
piled along the Huron river, Michigan.
He was engine and tackle to handle
heavy freight. What others could not
shove or roll, he would pick up and cer-
ry, or toss. When the heavily freighted
boat struck on the ripples, he Just
stepped out of the stern and boosted her
over. Nobody would have felt surprised
if he had taken the boat and cargo right
under his arm, as a woman carries
dough-tray, and marched across by land,
when they came to long bends in the
river Nobody ever said he did this, be-
cause they never wanted to exaggerate
his feats any more than we do now.
But navigation did not pay, and that
stopped, too. Some of the fancy" heard
of the uneelebrated giant, and took the
notion that there was money in him.
He was as simple as q child. Any one
could lead him. 1t never got through
his skull that he was remarkable. The
sharpers meant to keep him so and
speculate on his prodigious power. They
coaxed him off eastward. At Buffalo
they sent him into dock saloon with a
sixteen hundred pound anchor under his
left arm, just as a chopper carries his ak,
to pawn il for drinks, and the keeper
was glad to treat them for carrying it out
again. Thus he and his friends travelled
on his muscle to the sea coast, and across
to England. They intended to get a soft
thing on some English champion. They
had too much of a good thing. A friendly
sparring, as an experiment, with pro-
fessional boxer, showed that a match
with any living pugilist was impossible.
The giants face could not be effectually
reached. Blows on the body might as
well have been planted on a sand bag.
When his unskil,ed maui came down, it
came with the force of a pile-driver, and
no matter what it met, the obstacle went
to the earth. By the ruse of represent
ing him large and strong, but green, they
made match of science and skill against
power, with a noted English pugilist.-
The parties came to the ground, but at
tine first sight of him his opponent
turned away, saying: 81 came to fight
with large man, not with mountain. +"
Seconds. referees, and all hands neclared
the match "off." Finding nothing could
be made out of him, his sharp attendants
deserted him. From Michigan to Liver
pool the route has been one of continued
dissipation, and he contracted the seeds
of disease. Deserted in strange land,
he was uncared for, an object of awe
and curiosity, useless to anybody else
and helpless to himself, he soon died of
consumption, and was buried in a pau
per's grave. Thus perished, perhaps,
the most magnificent specimen of phys
ical manhood that the United States
ever produced. He nsver learned let
ter, he never felt refining influence and
he never had a real friend.