The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1886-11-10
. A MODERN SAMSON.
Remarkable Feats With Cannon, Barrels
of Lead and Bar Iron.
From the Troy, New York, Times.

From the Troy, New York, Times.
l(ropose to give You short sketch
of the life Of man who was little
known outside of the village OF Grar
vile Corners, in Washington county.
where he was born and spent the most
of a long life. 1t IS known of him,
and can be proved, that he has per-
formed feats of strength unsurpassed
by any man that has lived in ancient
and nolern times, excepting, ofcourSe,
the Biblical Samson. His name is, or
was, Stcarn Carpenter. His vccupa
ton was that of q farmer. Being rat
urallv Of q very quiet, peaceful dlspo-
Sition and a member Of the society Of
Friends, he never did anything for
display to attract attention, but the
feats of strength he performed were
done more to satisfy himself and to
see how much he could lift than any
thing else. All his lifting was done
by main strength, without harness Of
any kind.
One of his greatest teats was lifting
a box filled with iron, which weighed
1900 pounds, which is equa! to lifting
$500 pounds in q harness. He lifted
it with ease with his hands by grasp
ing rope or chain which was bound
around the box to osecure it. lie didnot
know the weight of the box of iron at
the time, and was afterwards heard TO
say that had he known it weighed so
near a ton he would have put on the
othlr 100 pounds and lifted the whole.
At another time he lifted a cannon
tha; weighed ! 400 pounds and snoul-
dered it. At Comstock's Landing, on
the Champlain canal, near Whitehall,
one day while waiting for load Of
merchandise, he lifted barrel Of
Waite lead with ease. His neighbors,
when killing hogs, if Stearn happened
to be around, would ask him to guess
the weight of hog just killed. 1fit
happened to be big one, weighing
four hundred or five hundred pounds,
he would stoop down and twist his
fingers into the bristles, and in that
way would lift the carcass clear from
the ground ard guess on its weight.
He performed one the greatest tealS
of strength on record after he had
reached the age of serenty-five years.
He lifted two twenty-teur foot iron
rails by grasping one in each hand,
and walked OF with them. The rails
were resting on wooden horses, so lie
did not stoop down to lift them. Ore
day in having he was going from the
field with his men to the house Tor
dinner They were walking along the
road together when one OF his men,
for mischief, came up behind him, and,
by skilful trip, threw Carpenter
down. He gathered himself up and
said nothing about it. He walked on
to the house, and after dinner, when
returning to the field with his men,
they came along TO the place where the
man gave him the fall. lie suddenly
turned upon the man, and, grasping
him by the shoulders and the seat Of
his trousers, lifting him and hurled
him high in the air above him and
over a seven rail fence, by the side OF
which they happened to be walking.
The man came down in the meadow q
row or more from the fence, consider
ably shaken up, but lot badly hurt.
Mr.. Carpenter was not . gigantic man
in size He was about six feet tall,
and appeared much less than that,
owing to his massive build. There
was no superfuous flesh upon him,
but the muscles of his shoulders and
neck seemed to be piled upon him, 50
great was their size. This gave him
STOPPING appearance. In a crowd,
a casual observer would not be likely
to pick him out for one of the strongest
men that ever lived. Mr.. Carpenter
is living at the present time at Gran
vile Corners, Washington county,
n. Y, his old home, or was living the
last time heard of him. lie must be
over eighty years Of age.