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

As WOIkeI, dS d BOOu COOk anu dS
a famous housekeeper, and besides had
had the unusual advantage of fair
English education.
With the perpersity of her sex she
had chosen hair Drained fellew named
Whitesel, and had told her parents she
meant to marry him. Whitesel owned
an OK team and made living hauling
ore from the shallow mines to the forge
at Michigan City. He was warned
away from the farm by Grier and his
boys, but persisted in his attentions,
and finally received sound drsbbing
from the old man.
The following day he started north
with load of ore, and early in the
evening Mary left the house, saying
that she was going to neighbor's to
return some trihe she had borrowed
the day before. She was never again
seen in life.
Her parents and the neighbors be-
lieved that Whitesel had decoyed her
away, and they followed him clear to
Michigan City. But they could find
no trace of the girl. Fearing to return
to the neighborhood, Whitesel sold his
oxen and left the country. He has
never since been heard from. 1t was
known at the time that Mary Ann had
never reached the home of the neigh
Dor for which she had started. In the
light of events now known it is prob
able she meant to meet her lover, and
started across the low prairie land to
meet him near the creek road. She
must have fallen into one of the pits
from which the ore had been taken,
drawing down upon her as she fell an
avalanche of the loose but terribly
heavy soil. There must have been
water in the pit, as was almost invari-
ably the case, and this, with the iron,
must have produced solution that
tended to preserve and petrify the
body.
1t is we'll known fact that the
chemicals thus joined will fossilize
either flesh or wood, and that even
vegetables and fruit have been changed
by it from their natural condition to
that OF light and porous stone. In the
rooms of the historical society at the
county seat are number OF apples,
various blocks Of wood, and even
cabbage stalk that have been petrifed
or fossilized in the old pits from which
iron was formerly taken. In the case
of Miss Grier every portion of the
person seems perfectly preserved with
the exception of her eyes. For some
reason these organs seem to have been
constructed of matter which the chem
icals could not reach, and instead of
having been turned to stone they had
entirely disappeared. There is even a
discoloratien and enlargement of one
of the legs near the knee 1t is thought
perhaps this limb was broken in the
fall. The fossil there is defective, is a
mere shell, and seems ready to break
by its own weight
But the puzzle is not so much that
the body of this young woman should
have turned to stone as that her flesh
should in so large measure have re-
tanned its natural color. The portion
of the prairie in which the body was
found is covered with curious creep
ing vine whose roots penetrate to
remarkable depth, and local physi-
clans believe these may have printed
in the lime formation that took the
place of human flesh the very pig
ments of color originally there. They
have taken specimens of these roots
and the vines that grow from them,
and will submit them to Chicago ex-
perts for an opinion.
The pctri6ed body of Mary Ann
Grier lay for days in darkened room
at the home of her brother, where it was
visited by hundreds of persons, and
was finally inferred in the cemetery
by the side of the aged mother and
near the headstone which has been
erected to the memory OF that brother
who lost his life in battle. Old men
and women who knew Miss Grier in
life came from miles away to walk
past her in silence of awe and amaze
ment, to peer closely into the stony
face, and than to weep afresh for one
they mourned as worse than dead long
years ago.