The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1891-06-18

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MARY Ann IIleI,
AK beautiful young wo-
M ~ man, mysteriously
n ~ disappeared from
eAJASh her fathers home,
AnEU4 two miles south OF
|% this place. A few
days ago her body was recovered in
an abandoned bog iron ore pit, with
out one vesfige of change from the ap-
pearance it had known in life. The
last shred of clothing was long since
destroyed by the action of the water
in which she had met her death, but
the same chemicals which had removed
the garments preserved the flesh. Not
only is the contour of the form perfect
as in life, but even the color has re-
NAMED unchanged. The arms and
shoulders are as white as marble, the
hands are brown, and one of them
still bears the stains of the berries with
which she was working the afternoon
of her disappearance. The cheeks are
slightly brown, but suffused with a
ruddy flush, which old settlers here
will remember as one of the girls
chief charms, and, were it not for the un
slightly cavities that once contained the
eyes, that petrified frame which has lain
almost half a century in the soil would
appear the peacefully sleeping figure
of a healthy, handsome young lady.
No event which ever occurred in
this section of the country has aroused
the interest that has followed this dis
covery. The girls parents are we'll
known. The mother died only a few
years ago, but the father is still living
on the farm he occupied at the time
of his daughters disappearance. Two
of her brothers still live in this county.
A third was killed at the battle of
Gettysburg. A sister, the only one
she ever had, was married in 1850,
and now resides at Belle Plains, Kan.
When the body was found at 8
O'Clock in the morning the men who
made the discovery fully believed it
the remains of some woman who had
either died or been murdered, and that
in any event her demise was very re-
cent, and that she had been buried in
the gravelly soil underlying the black
muck of what had been a swamp.
They at once notified the coroner, and
pending his arrival quite a crowd OF
persons gathered around the spot and
viewed the body, which had been un-
covered from the head almost to the
hips. Some of those present called
attention to the fact that the body
could not have been placed there re-
Gently, as the ground had not been
disturbed, and that the portion Of the
body still hidden was covered snugly
with earth, above which grass had
grown and sod had formed year after
year. Will Strunk, who had made the
discovery while digging post holes for
fence across the prairie, took his
pocket knife and struck lightly on the
exposed shoulder. The sound emitted
was the hard, metallic ring that comes
of blow on stone.
"She's petrifed !" cried some one
in the crowd. 1t was fact. And by
the time the coroner arrived the en-
tire frame had been exhumed, washed
clean from the dark sand and gravel
in which it had lain so long and
wrapped in linen lap robe.
For hours no one could conjecture
who the unfortunate woman had been
in life, but Baily Timmons, who has
kept store here ever since the Potta-
watomie Indians inhabited the country,
declared he believed the remains
were those OF Mary Ann Grier. John
and Absalom Grier, her brothers, were
summoned, but before they could
reach the place, their farms being sew
eral miles distant, the old man Grier,
now almost eighty years old, was
brought to the prairie in a buggy by
one of the contractors for the county
ditch.
The old man looked upon the face
before him a moment, then laid both
hands upon the body and broke down
utterly, weeping with all that bitter,
ness of grief which has never slept in all
these years.
"My girl" he cried. "My Mary!
thought she had gone away. | thought
you were bad" And it was more than
an hour before he could be persuaded
to leave her and go to his home.
The story of Mary Ann Grier is
easily told. In the first place it should
be known that this whole country is
full of kind of iron called bog ore.
In an early day it was extensively
mined by the farmers and hauled by
them to Michigan City and South
Bend, where it commanded ready
sale. In many instances it was the one
product of the soil which brought in
money. The iron is in small particles,
much like the ore from larger mines
and is excellent in quality, though moi
rich enough in quantity to repay the
trouble of mining it since the day o
railroads and the development o.
Pennsylvania mines. None of the ore
has been taken from these swamps
since 1850, although the swamp land:
all over northern Indiana are full. of it
Mary Grier was the eldest daughter
of Nicholas Grier, and was a belle II
those old days of 1s45 to 1850. She
was famous all over the county, which