The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1879-09-12
TIE SAMSON oF TIE NEST.
FEATS OF STRENGTH ATTRIBUTED TO
4 WISCONSIN HALF-BREED.


/ 4 Milwaukee correspondent Of the
! Chicago Times writes as follows:
/ Honorable sat. Clark, Of Horizon. was in
/ town the other day, and, after telling some
] OF ms interesting "reminiscences of the early
days when JEFF Davis commanded al Fort
/ Wmneoago, where Mr.. Clark was post SUIT
/ Ter, he said by the way, You have heard
Of old Pete Pauquette 90 The correspond
/ ent had heard lOngaCo, and often. Of the re-
maTkable man, and knew that Mr. Clark
could give interesting facts concerning him.
and replied 'Oh yes he was the Samson
of Wisconsin. Tell me something about
him 90
Rather call him, said Mr.. Clark, s.the
Samson OF the world for without doubt he
was, in his prime, the strongest man who
has lived since the great gates Of the CITY
We're borne away. have never doubted the
Bible stories Of SamsOn's strength since I
first saw something of what Pete Pau
quette'S muscles were capable Of doing %
Then Mr.. Clark meditated awhile and re-
marked Il must have known PauquCtte as
. long back as 1880, and 1 think the first
, stories l ever heard of his prodicious
strength was told me by JefT Davis: ahI
JEFF was bright young officer. You see.
1auquette, who was a half-hrced. used 10
I make the vicinity of the old fort his head
quarters, and every now and then, as occa-
sion happened, we wUuld see some new, evi-
dence Of his wonderful powers of endurance
or strength. lie was not heavy manor
rather, Is not, for he Is still alive-lut he
was quite slim, although his arms and legs
were big with muscles. I almost dislike to
give instances of his featS as ] remember
them, they seem SO incredible. The first re-
markable cNcrtiOn / ever saw pauCuetta
make was to take an iron weight that had
been used as pile-driver and lift il clear
rom the ground, and swing il around more
easily than IcOuld handle a hundred pounds,
and have got some muscle myself Quite
a crowd Of us saw him do it. and We got the
exact weight of the iron 1t was 2fuu. /
don't believe man has ever lived who could
II except Pauquette, and declare De didn't
seem to exert himself much either One
day a party was proceeding by boat uD the
Fox, intending 10 go down the Wisconsin
When the portage came TO be made q woke
OF oxen was procured TO draw the boat
across. The boat was very heavy. and be
fore half the distance had been made one of
the oxen gave out completely. pauuuptta
was along, and what DO You suppose he did -''
Picked the schooner up and threw 10
across ~. Ycntureu the correspondent. -nE-
ious 10 imply faith i'm ANYTHING.
''Well not hardly that but ne took the
end of the yoke vacated by the pIsvaT-uut
OK and pulled against the other on. and the
novel team hauled the boat and traps across
all right, and Pete didn't seem to mind the
strain half as much as the OK did. Vow.
know that these assertions seem like rather
tough yarns"
''Oh, not at all. Years ago 1 heard "
Pauquctte's wonderful strength but never
before had the Opertunity OF listening % a
description of anything he had done. Go
ahead"
His muscles We're like iron in their hard
ness. ] have had him bare his arms 90 me
and l have taken a hammer and cracked
hickory nuts upon the muscles and it was
like cracking them on a stone. One feat
that / know of Pauquette's doing. and t0
which there were a number Of witnesses.
seems 50 absolutely impossible that n, one
Will believe the story if 1 tell it, but it j.
tTuc-tTuc a. life"
The correspondent interrupted the nara
tor To assure him that implicit faith was
matter Of principle with 4 truly good people.
and that the tale should be believed ANYHOW.
''Neli, il happpned NJ Green BAY. Every
body up that way had heard of Pete'S power
and was anxious to see some evidence nt Il.
The Sampson had a friend who kept q gro
cery store, and in the evening quite a crowd
gathered there in the hopes of seeing am ex-
MblllOn OF strength. Bauvuette came iu in
his quiet way, noted the crowd and took I'm
the situation at a glance y barrel OF hicE-
OTy nuts sat by the counter, and without a
word he took mp handful Of the dry. hard
nuts, held them out SO all could see and
then crushed them to pieces by simply clos
ing hlS hand on them, lust a. VOu or ] wDuld
crush handful of birds eggs JetT Davis
and other officers at the fort saw him Do the
same thing repeatedly and there Is no ones
ton OF the fact-that Pauqutte really did per-
form the wonderful feat as I have described
II. Even more strange stories of his great
strength used To be common. but ! have told
You only of things that ] myself saw and
know beyond doubt. His powers OF walking
running, etc, were almost equal TO his
strength, and he could probably 90 one hum
dcvd miles to WCStOn's sixty or seyent, T.
viii never be positively known how much
Pauqutte could lift when he was in his prime
but, judging from the way i'm which he hand
led the :, 2,oln-pOunds pile driver il Is reason
able to suppose that at that time he could
have easily raised double, or nearly double
that weight. At auv rate he ought To- 90
upon the record rs the modern Sampson. the
strongest man in the world.
Peter Pauqutte has long been known rs
a inan of almost SUpgThum8u strength. and
AT one time, a number of years ago. Mr
Clark prepared and read paper before the
Historical Society CD in which abundant
proof was furnished OF the half-brccd having
actually performed the astonishing featS Nr.
Clark has here aScribei 10 him. In the in
tcrcst of what Is rare and curious, the proof
that Is yet Obtainable ought 10 be gathered
and made a matter of record that could not
be disputed in relation TO the physical pow
erS OF the Samson of Wisconsin