Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1879-09-06

The Feats of a wisconsin Half Breed
The saMp son Of the Worlds-No Doubt
Now About The Old Testament


The sampson OF the worl mo Doubt
Now About The Old Testament
Stories.
The Hon. Sam. Clark of Horizon was
In Milwaukee the other day, and after
telling some of his interesting reminis-
cences OF the early days, when Jeff Davis
commanded at old Fort Winnebago,
where Mr.. Clark was post sutler, he said
to Chicago Times reporter: by the
way, you have heard of old Pete Pau
quette?" The correspondent had heard
long ago and often, of The remarkable
man, and knew that Mr.. Clark could
give some interesting facts concerning
him, and replied: "0h, yes, he was the
Sampson of Wisconsin. Tell me some
thing about him." "Rather call him.
said Mr.. Clark, 'the. Sampson of the
world; for without doubt, he was, in his
prime, the strongest man whohas lived
since the great gates sOf the city were
borne away. i have never doubted the
Bible stories about Simpsons strength
since | first saw something of what
Pete Pauquette's muscles were capable
of doing" Then Mr.. Clark meditated
awhile, and remarked: 81 must have
known Pauquette as long ago as 1880,
and / think the first stories ever heard
of his prOdigi0us strength were told me
by JEFF Davis; ah, jeff was bright young
officer. You see, Pauquette, who is a
half-breed, used to make the vicinity of
the old fort his headquarters, and every
now and then, as occasion happened,
we wOdld see some new evidence of his
wonderful powers of endurance and
strength. He was not heavy man or
rather, is not, for he is still alive, but
was quite slim, although his arms and
legs were big with muscles. | almost
dislike TO give instances of his feats, as
| remember them, they seem so incredi-
bic. The first remarkable exertiOn
ever saw Pauquette make was TO take
an iron weight that had been used as a
pile driver, and lift it clear from the
ground and swing it around more easily
than IcOuld handle leo pounds, and
have got muscle myself. Quite crowd
Of us saw him do it, and we got the ex-
act weight of the iron; it was Zoo
pounds. don't believe man has ever
lived who could do it except Pauquette,
and declare he didn't seem to exert
himself much either. One day party
was proceeding by boat up the Fox, in
tending to go down the Wisconsin.
When portage came TO be made, yoke
OF oxen was procured to draw the boat
across. The boat was very heavy, and
before half the distance had been made
one Oh the oxen gave out completely.
Paquette was along, and what do sup
. pose he did?" picked the schooner up
and threw it acrOss?" ventured the cor
respondent, anxious to imply faith in
anything. 49,
: "Well, hardly that, but he took The end
} OF the yoke vacated by the played-Out
t OK, and the novel team hauled the boat
and traps across all right, and Pete
. didn't seem to hind the strain half so
> much as the OK did. Now, [ know that
these assertions seems like rather tough
!. yarns"
, ooh, not at all. Years ago / heard of
, Pauquette's wonderful strength, but
? never before had an opportunity of lis
/ tening to a description of anything he
e had done. Go ahead"
+ His muscles were like iron in their
J hardness. Ihave had him bare his arm
: to me and / have taken hammer and
cracked hickory nuts upon the muscles
g and 1t was like cracking them on a
:, stone. One feat that | know Of Pau
0 quettes doing, and to which there are a
t number OF witnesses, seems so absolute
Y ly Impossible that no one will believe
the story If tell it, but it is true, true
7 as life. The correspondent interrupted
: the narrator to assure him that implicit
4 faith was matter Of principle with 6
5 truly good people, and that the tale
i should be believed anyhow"
t well, it happened at Green Bay
K Everybody up that way had heard O.
e Pete's power, and was anxious to Sc,
}, some evidence of it. The Sampson hat
!; a friend who kept grocery store, ant
e in the evening quite a crowd gathered
J, there in hopes of seeing an exhibition O
y strength. Paquette came in, in hi
n quiet way, noted the crowd, and took il
s the situation at glance. A barrel O
Il hickory nuts sat by the counter, and
s without word, he took up handful O
e the dry, hard nuts, held them out so al
!" could see, and then crushed them t.
pieces by simply closing his hand OF
them. just as you or would crush
handful Of birds eggs. jeff Davis an,
other officers of the fort saw him do tn
4 same thing repeatedly. and there is n
= question of the fact-that Paquette di,
~ perform the wonderful feat as hav
3 3 described it. Even more strange stOrie
= OF his great strength used to be com
: mon, but I have told you of things tina
= | myself saw and know beyond doubt
Z His powers Of walking, running, etc
= were almost equal to his strength, an
. in fact are well preserved now, and h
= = could probably go 100 miles to Weston
. 80 or 20. 1t will never be positivel
e known just how much Paquette coul
% lift when he was in his prime, but judg
e ing from the way in which he handle
I, the 1000 pile driver, it is reasonable t
y suppose that at that time he could hav
) easily raised double, or nearly double
p that weight. At any rate he ought t
+; e go upon record as the modern Samson
. the strongest man in the world"
L Never Allowed TO Dance with Squaw
n Awell merited repartee was dealt b