Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1885-11-27
WELL RIDDLED.
The Remarkable Experience OF a
Texan Farmer.
Badly Wounded Five Times-Carryins
Fffty-Eight Ballets In His Body
Physically wrecked, but
Mentally sound
IN. Y. Mercury.1

Durlng the past two weeks Mr. Harrison
Ii. Oliver, of Bolton, Bell County, Texas.
has been visiting relatives aud friends ON
West Twenty eighth street, in this CITY.
Mr.. Oliver is unquestionably the most re-
markable living repository of cold lead
ever known. He has received no less than
one hundred and one wounds, and fifty
eight Of the bullets, of various sizes, from
buckshot to en- ounce ball, still remain in
his body. A reporter of the Mercury called
on Mr.. Oliver Thursday to ascertain the
facts- Mr. Oliver is now only forty four
years of age, though he appears to be
sixty, his form being much bent, his hair
snow white and all his limbs more or less
disabled. Nevertheless, he has an unus-
ually handsome face and a most cheerful
smile, and has doubtless shown heroic
fortitude under great suffering. He was
sixteen years of age when he received his
first wounds. At that time he was living
on the plantation of his mother, near Con-
shatta, in Red River Parish, La. He was
out hunting with half brother The two
companions became separated. While
Oliver was moving through the bu shes his
brother took him for deer and fred both
barrels of a double barreled shotgun at
him. Thirty seven shots took effect and
the wounded boy lay for months at the
point of death. Only thirteen of the
shots were extracted. He Joined the Con-
federate army in September, 1861, being
member of Company c, Eighteenth Lou
iSiana Volunteers. The first engagement
in which that regiment took part was at
Pittsburg Landing, when il encountered the
gun-boats Lexington and E. o. Tyler, and
had sharp contest lasting about four
hours. Here Oliver received a severe but
not serious wound in the left shoulder
from a piece of she'll Though he had
scarcely recovered from his wound re-
ce;ved IN the gun-boat fight, Oliver went
with his company into tho battle of Shi-
lob. The Eighteenth Louisiana is the regi-
ment which General Beaurgard led into
the fray. Oliver was among those who
fell with the blood gushing from his
mouth, and his name duly appeared among
the list of slain. For more than q wear he
was supposed to be dead. 1t was in Octo-
Der, 1868, that the Eighteenth Louisiana,
having been transf, rred to the west side
of the Mississippi River, was encampsd on
Berwick's Bay, when Oliver suddenly ap-
peared before his old comrades who were
still living. His story was briefly told.
He had fallen, wounded in seven places,
minnie balls having pierced his left lung,
right shoulder, ris, ,ht arm, both thighs, his
right groin aud left foot. None of these
balls had been extracted except the one
in the foot. After laying twenty -four
hours on the field at Shiloh, Oliver had
been placed on transport and taken to
Louisville, KY. Here he laid in the
hospital for more than year, his recovery
astonishing the physicians. When he
reached bis regiment he was much emaci-
ated, but was still quite strong. He had
partially lost the uss OF his right arm and
had learned to write with his left hand.
He was only slightly lame from the bullets
in his legs. For several moaths Oliver
was kept at clerical work in the Quarter
masters Department, but in March, 1864,
he went into the battle of Mansfield. on
the Upper Red River. Here his bad luck
again befel him and he was wounded in
i've different places, a minnie ball imbed-
ding itself in his skull, another in his
cheek, one tearing through the f1eshy part
of his neck and two lodging in his left
shoulder. Four of these are still in his
body. This finished Oliver for the war,
and he was sent to his home a confirmed
cripple. In 1865, after the war had ended,
he went to New Orleans and submitted TO
an operation at the hands of DR.. Warren
Stone, who removed the bullet that was
buried in the skull and SO overhung the
brain as to give constant pain. On the
advice of DIR. Stone o liver concluded not
to have the other bullets in his body tam
pered with. Some years later he con-
suited Or. Gross, of Philadelphia, who
practically gave the same advice.
1t seems that this chapter of san
culinary accidents should have had
an ending here, but Oliver was doomed to
another certainly as painful, if not more
SO, than any he had ever before suffered
One day in the summer of 1873 he was
standing on street corner in the town of
Bolton. A dentist in the upper window
of a building near by mistook him for an
enemy for whom he was on the lookout
and fired at him with a doubled barreled
shot gun loaded with duck shot. Being
fired at from that range almost the whole
load took effect, fifty -one shots entering
his back. OF these, twenty four were
subsequently extracted, but thirty seven
remain. Oliver was confined to his bed
for two years, his life during that time
hanging by thread. A remarkable vital
ity saved him in this instance. as it had in
many others, though it left him a much
greater wreck than he had been. Both
his kidneys and his liver were perforated
on this occasion, and these wounds have
done more to impair his general health
than all the others combined
Speaking OF his condition, Mr.. Oliver
saids "Under the circumstances, 1 get
along pretty well Often am entirely
free from pain. The only agony / ever
feel, that is to say severe and overwhelm-
ing pain, ia in the region of my heart.
feel sure that bullet is lodged in the sac
inclosing that organ. About two years
ago l discovered a duck-shot In my right
side, just under the skin, and cut il out
with penknife. Only a year ago frag.
ment of a ball that had split in passing
through my cheek bone dropped from the
roof of my mouth. have three running
sores on my body, but they serve to keep
me in good health. They are kept open
and require constant care. NY liver
causes me more trouble than anything
else, and l have TO take strong medicine
ell the time.
Mr.. Oliver is now quite lame in one of
his legs Three fingers and half the palm
of his right hand have been amputated.
The entire bone between the elbow and
shoulder of the right arm has been taken
out. and that member Is almost entirely
useless, only serving to I'LL coat sleeve.
In walking he uses heavy cane, but ex-
cept when he is convalescing from his
wounds never uses a crutch. Mr.. Oliver
lives on his farm near Bolton. Mentally
he is one of the brightest men in the State,
being q fine classical scho lar and gentle
man of superior literary attachments.
RGg3n - for uork,no naonla Send In cts