Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-09-05

The Samson Of The West.
FEATS OF STRENGTH ATTRIBUTED TO A WIS
CoNSIN HALF-BREED.

FEATs OF STRENGTH ATTRIBUTED TO WI
CoNSIN HALF-BREED.
- Milwaukee Correspondence of the Chicago Time,
2 Hon. Sat Clark of Horizon was i'll tow
e the other day, and after telling some ,
1 his interesting "reminiscences of the earl
/ days when JEFF Davis commanded at Fol
Winnehago, where Mr. Clark was po.
sutler, he said BY the way, yon hay
, heard of old Pete Pauquette?' The col
l respondent had heard long ago and ofte
t of the remarkable man, and knew tha
Mr.. Clarke could give interesting fact
concerning him, and replied: "Oh, yes
he was the Samson of Wisconsin. Tel
me something about him ?"
Rather call him." said Mr. Clark
''the Samson Of the world; for withou
doubt he was, in his prime, the stronges
man who has lived since the great gate
of the city were borne away. | hav
never doubted the Bible stories of Sam
sons strength since first saw somethin!
of what Pete Pauquette's muscles wer
capable of doing"
Then Mr. Clark methtated n while m,
remarked 81 must have known Pau
quette as long back as 1880, and
think the first stories | ever heard of hi
prodigious strength were told me by JET
Davis; all, JEFF was n bright young OIL
Ger. 1ou see, Pauquette. who was
half breed, used to make the vicinity o
the old fort his headquarters, and ever,
now and then as occasion happened W,
would sec some new evidence of his won
derful powers of endurance or strength
He was not a heavy man, or rather, i,
not, for he is still alive, hut he was quit,
slim, although his arms and legs were big
with muscles I almost dislike to give
instances of hisfeats, as remember them
they seem SO incredible. The first re-
markable eXertion | ever saw Pauquettt
make was TO take an iron weight that had
| been used Nv pile driver and lift it clear
! from the ground and swing it around
more easily than | could handled hun
dred pounds and have got some mus
Gle myself. Quite crowd of us saw him
do 1t, and We got the exact weight OF the
iron. 1t was =, 600 pounds. | don't be
heve man has ever lived who could do
1t, except Pauquette, and L declare he
didn't seem to exert himself much either
One day party was proceeding by boat
up the Fox, intending to go down the
Wisconsin. When the 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 of the oxen gave out COM
plctcly. Pauquette was along, and what
Won suppnse he did? ~
Picked the schooner up and threw it
across - venturcd the correspondent,
anxious 10 imply faith in anything.
.sW,11 NOT ln,.lI,. tl,.4 l,,,t l.. - II
end or the yoke vacated by the PLAYED
out OK and pulled against the other OK.
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. Now, l know that these
assertions seem like rather tough
warns.
''Oh. not at all Years ago | heard Of
Pauquettes wonderful strength, but
never before had the opportunity OF lis
tening to n description of anything he had
done. Go ahead"
His muscles were like iron in their
hardness. | have had him bare his arm
to me and | have taken hammer and
cracked hickory nuts upon the muscles
and 1t was like cracking them on Il stone
One feat that know of Pauqueile doing.
and to which there were a number Of wit
nesses, seems so absolutely impossible
that no one will believe the story if | tell
1t, hut IT is true, true as life"
The correspondent interrupted the
narrator to assure him that implicit faith
was a matter of principle with a truly
good people, and that the tale should BE-
believed anyhow.
We'll, it happened at Green Bay
Everybody up that way had heard of
Pete's power, and was anxious to see
some evidence of it. The Samson had
friend who kept grocery store, and i'll
the evening quite crowd gathered there
IN hopes of seeing an exhibition OF
strength Pauquette came in in his quiet
way, noted the crowd, and took i'll the
situation at glance. A barrel of hickory
nuts sat by the counter, and without a
word he took up a handful OF the dry,
hard nuts, held them ont so all could see,
and then crushed them TO pieces by sim
ply closing his hand on them, Just as you
or l would crush handful of bird eggs.
JEFF Davis and other officers at the fort
SAW him do the same thing repeatedly,
and there is no question of the fact that
Pauquette really did perform the wonder
full feat as ] have described H. Even
more strange stories of his great strength
used to be common, but 1 have told you
only Of things that myself saw and
know beyond doubt His power of walk
ing, running, etc, were almost equal To |
his strength, and i'll fact are well preserv- |
ed now; and he could probably go 100 |
miles to Weston's 60 or 10. II will never |
be positively known Just how much Pau
luette could lift when he was in his |
prime, but, Judging from the way Le
handled the 1900 pounds pile driver, it
is reasonable to suppose that at that time /
he could have easily raised double, or |
nearly double, that weight At any rate .
he ought TO 90 upou the record ns the
modern SnIna1l, the strongest man i'll the |
world - /
Peter PauIuette has long been known |
rs man OF almost supeihuman strength, |
and at one time, a number of years ago,
Mr.. Clark prepared and read n paper be
fore the historical Society % i'll which
abundant proof was furnished of the half
breed having actually performed the as
feats Mr.. Clark has here
iscribed to him In the interest OF what
Is rare and curious, the proof that is yet
,btainable ought Ia be gathered and
made a matter of record, that could not
ne disputed, in relation Ia the phyaical
bower of the Samson of Wisconsin.