Omaha daily bee., 1886-09-15
HE IS FILLED FULL OF LEAD.
A Texan With l0l Bullet Wounds in b
Body.
story Told 10y n Southerner TO n Re
po.Ner Which Almost Surpasses
Belier-But the Man Strn Lives
Who Can Prove 1t.

Who Can Prove It.
Chicago Herald: Il see that Graham.
the man who went through the rapids at
Niagara in barrel, is going to show him
self In a dime museum the presen
week, sa d "a southcrner at TIE fremont
house last night Us he cross I'd his feet and
leaned back in one of tne big Office chairs.
Why do YOU know" he continued,
that there is a curiosity down south
that beats all these barrel men and arm
less acrobuts and fire -eltersy He is a lit
tie old man now, but if these museum
managers were to take him up here they
would make 4 mint OF money. His name
is Harrison II. Oliver, of Bolton, Bell
county, Texas, and he is the most remark
able repository OF cold lead in this coun
! try today. 1t may seem strange to you
young man, when / tell YOU that he has
received no less than one hundred and
ono wounds, and sixty of the bullets,
ranging ia size from buckshot to an
ounce ball, still remain in his body. He
was fifteen years old when he rece we'd
his first wounds. At that time he was
living on the plantation of his mother,
| htAl NONSudAJtl, III INtN INlNGI L fJIlNL,
| Louisiana. he was out hunting with a
half brother or cousin, ] forget which,
but at any rate they became separated.
! W hile Oliver was moving through
the bushes his brother thought him a
deer, and fired both barrels OF his shot
| gun ut him. Ihirty-seven shot lodged in
| his body, and the boy lay for months at
! the point of death. Only thirteen of the
missiles were removed. When the war
| broke out young Oliver Joined the con
| tederate army in September, 1861, being
! member of company {, Eighteenth
Louisiana volunteers. The first engage
ment in which the regiment was actively
| engaged was at Plttsburg landing, where
| ii encountered a leaden storm from the
! decks of the gunboats Lexington and L.
| o. Tyler, The fight lasted four hours.
! Oliver received severe wound in the
| left shoulder from piece of conical
| shell. Before the terrible cut had had
! time to heal Oliver went with his regl-
ment in the battle of Shiloh. 1t was dur
| ing this engagement that he received
what We're supposed to be mortal
wounds When the gallant Beau
regard led the Eighteenth
Louisiana into that deadly
storm of shot and shell Oliver
was among the first to fall. with blood
gushing from his mouth. His name ap-
peared IN the list of the slain, and for
| luOIt Iudu year uB WAS SuDpDStu 10 ne
| dead ii was in October, 1853. that the
Eighteenth Louisiana, having been trans
ferred to the west side OF the Mississippi,
! was encamped on Berwick Bay. when
Oliver suddenly appeared among his old
comrades. His story, which was briefly
! told, was to the effect that he lad fallen
! at Shiloh, wounded in seven places,
minnie balls having pierced his left lung
right shoulder, right arm, his right
groin, both thighs and left foot Not one
| OF these balls had been extracted, except
the one in the foot: After remaining
twenty-four hours where he fell Oliver
| was picked up, more dead than alive,
| placed on transport and taken to Louis
| vile, where he remained in q hospital for
more than year. When he reached his
regiment he was greatly emaciated. He
had partially lost the use OF his right arm
but was only slightly lame from the
| bullets in his legs. For several months
Oliver was Kept at clerical work Che hav-
ing learned to write with his left hand;
but in March, 1864, he went into the bat
tie of Mansfield, on the Upper Red river
Here his bad luck again befel him, aud
he was wounded in five different places
A mimic ball mbedded itself in his skull
another perforated his right cheek, the
third tore great hole through the fieshy
part of his neck, and two lodged in his
left shoulder Four of these balls are
|
for the war, and he went home a con.
tirmed cripple. In 1865 the bullet that
was buried in the skull and so overhung
the BRAIN as TO cause constant pain was
removed.
1T would seem that this chapter of
sanguinary accidents should have had an
ending here, but ii did not. One day in
the summer of 1878 he was standing on a
street corner il Bolton. A dentist in the
upper window of building near by mis-
took him for an enemy for whom he was
on the lookout and fired at him with u
double -barreled shotgun loaded with
duck shot Fifty-one shots tore their
way into his back. OF these twenty-four
We're subsequently, extracted but twenty
seven remain. Oliver was confined to
his bed for two years, his life during that
time hanging by thread. A remarkable
vitality served him in this instance, as il
had in many others, Both his liver and
his Kidneys were perforated These
wounds have done more to impair his
general health than all the others com
bined.
81 saw Oliver the other day on his farm
in Bolton. He told me that the only ag-
Ony he ever felt was in the region of the
heart, where, he feels sure, q bullet Is
lodged in the sac inclosinE that vital or
gan. Two years ago Oliver whitfield a
duck shot out OF his right side, and about
q year ago fragment of a ball that had
split in passing through his right cheek
bone dropped through the roof Of his
mouth and was swallowed while he was
asleep, Three fingers and the palm of
his right hand have been amputated, and
the entire bone between the elbow and
shoulder of the right arm has been taken
out and that member is now of little use
to its owner, except to fill the coat
sleeve.
When Oliver went hunting with hls
brother or cousin he weighed 135 pounds
Estimating the weight of lead in his
body 10 be two pounds, his avordupois is
Just the same as il was the day ne caught
the thirty seven bullets in the woods.
Its strange they don't get that old tel-
low and put him on exhibition
RIJYING ON MARGINS