Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-03-14
The Man With Two Graves.

General Wayne is one of the few
famous men who have tICo graves, each
equally entitled to commemoration.
He died of gout at Erie, Pa, then Fort
Presque Isle, in 1896, when he was on
his return from his successful Indian
campaigns in the Northwest. He was
buried at the foot of the flagstaff in the
fort, and there lay undisturbed for
nearly twenty years. Then there came
through the woods from the other end
of the State, in sulky, his son, in
search of his fathers bones. He en-
gagged DIR. John G. Wallace, who had
been through the Indian wars with
General Wayne, to exhume his bones,
and pack them in box, that they
might be strapped to the sulky and
taken through the woods over the
mountains to the family residence in
Chester County. When DIR. Wallace
opened the grave he found, to his great
surprise, the body in an almost perfect
state of preservation. The flesh had
not decayed. But it was impossible
for young Wayne to carry the coffin
and contents in his sulky. So DIR.
Wallace, who seems to have been as
devoid of feeling as one of the Indians
whom he fought, decided, on his own
motion, and without consulting Mr..
Wayne, to separate the General bones
from their ehveloping flesh and thus
enable them to be removed. To ac-
complish this, boiling had to be re-
sorted to, and was resorted to, and the
bones were then denuded of flesh by
the use of knives, and were packed and
carried away by young Wayne, and
buried near the homestead in which
General Wayne was born and in which
his descendants still live. This account
of the ghoul like proceedings of DR..
Wallace has an incredible sound, but
it is literally and strictly true, and will
be corroborated by any old citizen of
Erie. Young MIR. Wayne knew moth
ing of DR.. Wallace's operation until
many years after. He was then great
ly shocked and declared that he would
never have permitted such treatment
of his fathers remains, but would have
returned them to the grave and post
poned their removal TO more con-
venient season. Wallace, who was a
useful and prominent man in his day,
thought that he was doing everything
for the best, and meant no disrespect
to the mortal part of his old friend and
patient and army comrade, General
Wayne.
Over the Generals bones, in Chester
County, a monument was raised. But
his flesh was returned to it's grave at
the foot of the flagstaff in Fort Presque
Isle, by DR.. Wallace, and forgotten.
The fort, a mere stockade, crumbled
away, the flagstaff decayed, and the
precise location of the grave was lost.
Some four years ago, however, a dig
ger for relics on the site of the old fort
unearthed a coffin-cover, into which
brass-headed nails had been so driven
Us to form tho iultials ga. W." with
the figures of Wayne's age, date of his
death, ETC. This determined the loca-
tion of the grave, and there has since
been in Erie feeling that it should be
marked by monument of some sort.
1t has, in fact, been surrounded by
chains, supported by four pieces Of
superannuated artillery, and also
marked by a flagstaff, but something
more permanent is desired, and will
doubtless be built-if not by Legislative
aid, then by local subscription.-BufalC
ErDreSS