Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-03-15
A Former Resident orNapOleon Dead.


The subject Of the subjOinsd article was formerly
a resident Of this eouuty, being = brother Of Mrs.
Daniel BieIford;
Daniel MeCartney died on the 18th Of Novtmbtr.
in MuscAtine, Iowa, being little 10 ysars old.
10 view of the claims OF Mr.. Mccartney and his
fnends 10 his ability 10 remember the oocurren-
ces OF each day since he was boy Of len years, l
feel that something more than passing notice Is
required. He removed with his father and mother,
Robert and Lydia Mccartney, when he was 16 years
old from Wash ington county, Pa, and srttled in
Washington township, Morrow county, Ohio
After living here two years the family went to live
In CardinRton, the same county, where the father,
Robert NJ cCartney, died after, lea wing his con
Daniel to be supported by his relatives who lived In
various parts Of the country His pGbility to sup
port himself was caused by his defective vision,
and although his sight became so much improved
as to enable him to learn to read when he was
about A years old yet 1t was with such great dlf-
Guilty that his cqui sions can be said In no way 10
be due to his reading viii give a few extracts
from the Journal oil Speculative Philosophy, writ
ten by our State Superintendent in which he speaks
of several examinations he gave Mr.. Mccartney
In the rst he gave him "a dates belonging to nine
| teen 1ehIrs me- khNo luo Aayc VI NhS
week correctly In an average offour seconds vita
description Of the weather with the associating cir
cumstanccs. In the second examination ho was
given 81 dates in 20 different years, for which he
gave the days Of the week, the weather and ssso-
ciating circumstances. The average time for CIV
| ing the day of he week wac five seconds. In the
| third examination he repeated the 55 dates pre-
viously given TO which he gave the same days of
| the week the same description of the weather and
the same associating circumstances, In some cases
| adding others That the reader may more clearly
understand what has Just been written, will give
Mr.. McCartney's answer to question of my own:
''Wifc and were married ON the 2sth day Of jam.
ary, 1886, give the day of the week, the kind of
weather. etc.," He gave answer in a few seconds.
"You were married on Thursday, there was snow on
the ground, good sleighfng and not very cold;
father and were hauling hay, sole came off the
sled, we had to throw the hay OF, put new sole on
the sled and load up again before We could CO.,
Meeting Mr.. Mccartney perhaps dozen of yes's
afterwards said to him, you told me the kind OF
day was married on. 1 looked him in the eye
which was the same as SAYING, "If your memory j,
as good you claim, you can repeat what YOU said
on the former OCCASION" lie replied instantly,
"Yes, it was on the 2Sth day Of January, 1886,
and repeated the same story of his father and him
self hauling hay, cts. My wife asked, ''what kin 3
of day was the 10th of February, 1872 He in
stantly threw up his hands and exclaimed, "oh
how 1t snowed!'' Which we knew to be true. Al
the same time read (perhaps half DOZEN pas
sages from The bible, taken at random. Their exac
location, book, chapter and verse were immediate
> ly given. 1 then gave him number of mathe
, | matical problems, such as multiply 1856 by 392
what is the cube root of 357 9 etc TO all of whcl
he gave answers obtained mentally and all were cor
rectly given. will give few extracts from com
mitccs report of The result OF an examination hel(
in Columbus, March 29th, 1871, which was suficien
10 snake the skepticSm to the correctness of al
Mr. McCaTtneys claims. The Hon. L. E. Whit,
conducted the arithmetical examinations, Rev
Phillips the blica determination and T. c. Menden
hall, of the Columbus high scool attested the ac
curacy of answers as to the days of the weeks
One of the srithmeical questions asked was
''What is the cube root Of TAI 625, to which cor
rect mental answer was given in a few seconds
Another problem was, ''increase SO to the sixth
power;' he gave the answer obtained mentally IL
ten minutes, 496, 1884, 200 96l. The committee con
cluded their report in these words: "Mr. McCart
ney 8 experiences seem to be ready to appear be
fore him at his bidding in all their original dis
tinctness, which shows clearly that among thu
prodiges of memory recorded In history in the ron
rank must be placed Daniel Mccartney" From th
Cleveland Leader Of April 10TH 1871, gave the fol
lowing extract: "The exhibition was most full
and unanswerable argument In support of til,
claim that Daniel Mccartney has no peer, his pc
cular gifts are more varied and wonderful than an
other know of several attempts to exhibit Mr.
Mccartney 10 the public, all of Ohich proved to b
failures as far as money making was concerned TIL
last attempt know of was made bya promiuen
citizen of our own county in 1871. When m
opinion as to the success of the enterprise Wa
| asked, told the agent that 1t would be Il failure
=
mind, but because tie capital he intended to inves
was intellectual (the powers Of souD and not phys
CAL sald if you were showing the double headed
|, baby the public would be charmed at the sight N
one would be poo not to be willing to give hi
fifty ents. But bis prominent traits were those 0
, the mind which scared so farabove the majority o
the public as 10 be lost to their view. How very fe,
, people there are who can r"alicr the powers of
mind that can solve an arithnletica problem In tn
cube root mentally in a few seconds. Or how fe'
are there who could realize the powers of memor
by which Mr.. Mccartney could summon ever
prominent act of his life into his presence with a
their original distiuctE ess; or how very few ther
are who could tell whether the statements made b
him were true or false. No one could tell unless h
had kept record Of the occurrences of days an
dates of the last so or GO years. Such record hf
! been kept by many of our citizens, to whom the mn
jority must look for knowledge of the facts. I
early life Mr.. Mccartney made profession Of re
ligion by uniting with the Methopist Episeop,
church, and remained worthy, consistent membe
? to the ccse of his life.