Richland beacon., 1877-08-18
THE MYSTERY OF 4 MUMMY.
STARTED TO DEATH 1T THE ROT
TOM OF Il PITIN TIE HOODS.
THs Sad Story Toll by Niic PI,ta Narks-.l"
-ilnInac Of lSGd-C Clothing BiorA 10 Dast
at Il Byea,A-Nnc Days of Horror.
From the Cncinna,i ,Ennnirerl

From the Cincinnati Enquirer
DErRoIr, July - One Of the saldest
mysteries brought to light for years was al
mos; literally uucarrhcd in Crawford county.
this State, a few days ago, and in the most
singular manner possible. VIII H. French,
! a PIirshurGh dry goods clerk. and Fairweat,ci
Martin OF Chicago, old schoolnatrs, were
hunting IA! exploring through that part of
the Siate On the evening Of the 9Th inst
French shot al a turkey which came near their
camp. The bird was wounded and could
not fly 4 way, bat half flew and half ran
along on the ground before him. He had not
followed j; over TWO hundred feet from camp
when he suddenly iouud himself going dowh
mo the bowels of the tarih la the un-
main l.: .: evening h. had fallen into AN
Co.,. s..Jil O. ut. hnving Il mouth only three or
io@T :-e; across, and almost concealed by
weeds ani bushes, and being rs was after
wart ascer;ain"d by tape line il=asnrem-nt.
. twcn-y->cven Zee: deep When French " cnt
down hr bumped from side TO side. ana
laEdcd all in a heap al the bottom, elbows
skinned. knees battered and the rr>, If hi.
body pretty well shaken up. The bottom of
the Il' wa- much larger than the mouth, being
almost ten feet from side 10 SHE. Ii had been
dug out, as il men had sunk a shaft down
t'at tar and then started oHt 10 dig drifts.
he sol! was very harl, and in some places
the shaft had been Gu; through rock.
Ii may be imagined that the cler; wa. not
long IA raising, the alarm, hut the depth Of the
PIT so muzzed III, voice thai his conn lanop
searched long To iinl him While this hunt
was going on French discovered that he had
company down there. Ii was 50 dark that he
could see nothing, and lac was prevented from
kn"wing the size Of the ii,. After finding
that he hal 40 broken bones, he iclt about
him little and laid his hand on what h.
knew to he Il human skeleton, and "A mu,ty
otor at once filed his no>iri!s His yellS for
assistance were no doubt considerably in.
creased by tins discovery, and when assisted
out Of the pit by means of the s,out line cur
RED with the camp equipa2e he was in 40
mood for joking. 1t was decided 10 make an
examination OF the place by daylight, and
when morning came Martin was lowered
down the shaft. The bushes were cut away
from around the mou,h t. give him Gsh;,
and enough Of it filtered dl wn 10 enable him
10 see everything.
There was 4 body there. sure enough The
figure o.. a man sat wIh lis back 10 the wall.
one knee drawr up aud the other leg extend
ell The hani> rested oE the ground on either
side, and the head had fallen over on the left
shoulder. II was no; 4 skeleton but a num-
my. Most of the hair had fallen oil the skull. /
and the clothing had moulGercd until brea,k
would blow ii TO dust. There was boot on
the right foot only. the other one yng on the |
ground some distance away. The soles could I
he torn OF as easily one tears blo;iin" pal /
The flesh on body ami limbs had greatly de- /
cayed, leaving knees, elbows, and other Joints !
lilrely bare, but where any flesh remained /
II had shrivelled down und turned the color of .
sheet lfon. Ga the ground was small heap
OF dust which lad once been hat Against /
the wall, within reach of the mummy, was a .
bundle Of cloIhing.
hI!c Martin vas making these discoveries
below, French was scouting around tie mouth /
oi the shaft. Lying aim">, az the edge # II
were the rnsted barrel OF rifle and the lead .
OF If lat axe. The stock had rntted from the
gun and tie han:ile had decayed from the
axe, while the metal itself was nearly eaten
with rust. When the unfortunate hunter or
explorer fell into the pit. rs he doubtless did
he might have been carrying these articles in
his hands, or the snd,!en stumble might have
dl-l"d-ed them from his pack, or he might
have hung 10 the bushes at the clge of the pit
for a few seconds before falling, and sought to
tighten his loa:I
Feeling quite certain that clue 20 the nys.
terry would be io1nd in the pack or abou, the
skeleton, Marin proceeded very carefully in
hS search. The clothing over the brndle Of
bones fell to pieces as soon as handled. There
was a large Ru>sian-leaiher wallet lying be-
tween tie shriveled left arm and the bare
ribs, and this was 50 far zone thai il required
the mo>t delicate handling Some portions
stT ln-t 1,..f,.
above, and the olor from it was almost suiro-
cating. In the mass of dust aud bones Martin
made a still more important discovery. lie
found memorandum book, having an
almanac in it and the days of the week
printed fn alternate pages The book was
well bound, and owing to its thickness, hal
stood the ravages Of time mnch better than
even the thick soled boots, Tie almanac was
for the year 1865. AID must be taken as proof
that the stranger fell into the pit in that year.
He could not, Of course have an almanac
later than the year in which lie lived, and
wonid not be likely to carry one over year
Old ~ the most. Many Of the leaves fell out
ana rr'mble3 away AMI portions of many
oiae!s were lost, hat enough were lcft and
enough of the voting could be made ont, to
form one of the saddles, chapters in the history
Of the wild forests of Michigan. Written
with ink were the following words, found
here and there through the book:
"Thence west;" "shipments; :" "acre tract
Government "trade for a." shall
have tor Thence by lake To-"
Grand Haven is ior-;' John VI. A."
demand sor abon,-;' mo. 456 South
c.
The above parts cf sentences were 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. Words could
be made out now and then, but the only
complete sentence found reads: "Sou,hwesi
corner marked by X on lone pine tree stand
ing on knoll; stone piled az root Of tree.'
The unfortunate man had written his name
On the inside Of the first cover of the book.
The presence OF a name could be family seen,
but not even single lc,lcr could certainly bc