The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1877-09-06
The Skeleton Il, tbs Shaft.

| one CT the saddest mysteries brought to light
| TOR years was almost literally unearthed i'll Craw
! lord county Michigan, few days ago, and IN the
| most singular manner possible VIM. ii. French,
a Pittsburg dry goods clerk, and Fairweather Mar
tln OF Chlcago, old schOolmates, were hunting and
| exploring through that part of the state and tax
ing vacation. On the evening of the 9TH inst,
| French shot turkey which came near their camp.
| The bird was wounded. and could not fly away.
but half flew and half ran along the ground be
| fore him. He had not followed it over 200 feet
| from the camp when he found himself going down
| into the bowels of the earth. In the uncertain
light of evening he had fallen into old shaft or
pit, having mouth only three or four feet across
| and almost concealed by weeds and bushes and
| being. as afterwards aScertained by tape line
measurement, twenty seven feet deep When
| French went down he bumped from side to side
| and landed all in a heap at the bottom. elbow
skinned, knees battered, and the rest of his body
| pretty well shaken up. The bottom of the pit
feet from side to side 1t had been dug out as if
men had sunk a shaft down that far and then
started out to dig drifts The soil was very hard
and in some places the shaft had been cut through
| rock.
| 1t may be imagined that the clerk was not long
| IN raising an alarm. but the depth Of the pit so
muzzled his voice that his companion had a long
seach to locate him While this hunt was going
| on. French discovered that he had company down
there. 1t was so dark that he could see nothing
and he was prevented from knowing the size Of
the pit After finding that he had no broken
bones. he felt about him little. and laid his hand
on what he soon knew to be human skeleton
and musty odor at once filled his nostrls His
yells for assistance no doubt considerably in
creased by this discovery and when assisted out
OF the pit by means of the strong line carried with
the camp equipage, he was in mood for Joking
II was decided to make an examination Of the
place by daylight and, when morning came Mar
tin was lowered down the shaft The bushes were
cut away from the mouth to give him light. and
enough filtered down to enable him to see every
thing.
There was skeleton there, enough and
sight it must have presented in the gloom down
there. The figure of man sat with his back to
the wall, one knee drawn up. and the other leg eN
tended. The hands rested on the ground on either
side, and the head had fallen over the left should
er. 1t was not corpse. not skeleton. but num-
my. Most of the hair had fallen off the skull
and the clothing had nodded until breath would
blow it to dust. There boot the right
foot, the other one lying on the ground some dis
lance away. The soles could be torn off as easily
as one tears blotting pad. The flesh on body
and limbs had greatly decayed, leaving knees
elbows and other joints entirely bare, but where
any flesh remained it had shriveed down and
turned the color of sheet-iron. Martin and his
friend We're, of course considerably excited over
the discovery but they took all pains and precau-
tons to find a clew to the mystery. On the ground
was small heap OF dust which had once been Il
hat. Against the wall, and within reach Of the
mummy was 4 bundle OF clothing.
W hl.e Martin making these discoveries be
low. French was scouting around the mouth of the
shaft Lying almost at the edge of it were the
rusted barrel Of rifle and the head Of light axe
The stock had rotted from the gun. and the handle
dccayed from the axe while the metal itself was
nearly eaten with rust. When the unfortunate
hunter or explorer, fell into the pit aS he doubt
less did. he might have been CARRYING these art
cles III his hands or the sudden tumble might
have dSlodged them from his pack: still further
1Sfr1,t hmm
the pit for few seconds before falling and sought
to Tighten his load. There was no evidence Of a
camp lire near by though the lone man might
have had one there.
Feeling quite certain that a cleW to the mystery
would be found III the pack about the skeleton.
Martin proceeded very carefully in his search
The clothing over the bundle of bones pulled to
pieces soon handled There was a large
Russia leather wallet living between the shriveled
left arm and the bare ribs and this was so far gene
that ii required the most delicate handling Some
portions of II were lost before ii reached Sunlight
above and the odor from it was almost suilocating
In the mass of dust and bones Martin made still
more important discovery He fonnd IL mrmoIan-
dun book having an almanac i'll it, and the DAYS
Of the week printed on alternate pages. The book
was well bound and. owing to its thickness. had
stood the rarageS of time much better than even
the thick soled boots. The almanac was for the
wear 1866, and must be taken as proof that the
stranger fell into the pit III that year He could
not, OF course, have an almanac later than the
year III which he lived and would not be- likely to
carry one over a year old at the most Many of
the leaves fell ont and crumbled away and por
tons Of many others were lost hut enough were
left, and enough of the writing could also be made
out to form OF the saddest chapters in the
history Of the wild forests Of Michigan. Written
in ink We're the following words. found here and
there throughout the book: Thence west ship
ment, acre tract, government" trade for"
shall have for. Thence by lake to"
"Grand Haven is for" ''lOhn NJ. A." de
mand for about" No 456 south O
The above parts of sentences We're CLEANED from
perhaps the first twenty leaves in the book The
rest seemed to have been filled with writing in
pencil, and in one or two instances with red lead
pencil W ords could be made out now and then.
but the only complete sentence found reads:
Southwest corner marked x on lone pine tree
standing on knoll; stone pile at foot of tree
The unfortunate man had written his name ON
the inside OF the first cover Of the book The
presence of the name would be family seen. but
not even a single letter could certainly be made
out. Martin thought the first name looked like
William" while French feels quite sure that it
WAS Charles There was evidently an initial
standing for a middle name and the last name
was short enough for Nv 0od, Gregg on Brown"
AS near as they could make out, there were moi
over six letters in the name
The bundle was lifted out with all possible care
and in IT were found two pairs of WOODEN socks
two WOODEN SHIRTS. Il vest the blade of a razor.
buttons and bits Of paper which resembled small
portions OF greenbackS. Not OF the articles of
clothing was much more than dust. and the slight
est breath tore them to pieces No book card or
anything to furnish 4 clew was found in the bun
die nor Ill the boots nor about the pile of black
encd bones. The skeleton was lifted ont of its
long resting places in hopes that knife Of tobacco
box might be found, but the search WAS in vain
After half days hunt for Il clew the Young men
made another discovery The bones Of the left leg
Of the skeleton were broken. That was the first
discovery From the bottom of the pit for ten feet
up, except i'll place the sides were full of crit
and rock; i'll this one place. which was a stratum
OF red clay the poor man had cn inches about foot
apart, hoping To reach the mouth Of the pit by that
means He mad cut inches to within thirteen feet of
the surface and in an evil moment he had lost his
balance fallen to the bottom and rendered all
hopes vain by breaking his leg He could do
nothing then but wait for death He might have
had small supply of food-perhaps enough to last
four or five days Near where the skeleton was
found were nine plain marks Oh the wall each one
standing for figure ~. He had made them to
stand for days He could tell when day ended and
night came, and, suffering terrible mental and
bodily pam, he had made mark to indicate the
passage OF time, and hoped for release in some way
before he should be called upon to make another
Worn out at last, he had braced his back against
the wall and died
For ten long years at least the dark pit has pre-
served its secret from the world. Days and nights
and weeks and months have rolled away and time
has shrivecd the flesh and blotted out of existence
everything that might tell to the world who the