The record-union., 1891-07-09
MISSING FORTY YEARS.
Strange Find of a WOman's Body
Near Wanatah, Ind,
Pit Nearly Half Century, Discoy-
cred Unchanged In Appearance-A
Scientific Marvel.
A special dispatch from Wanatah, Ind,
a, liz, Clinnnrn IInl.,II s,nN

A special dispatch from Wanatah, Ind,
TO the Chicago Herald says:
Mary Ann Grier disappeared from her
fathers home, two miles south of this
place, nearly forty years ago. a few days
ago her body was recovered in an aban-
doned bog iron ore pit, without one
veStige of change from the appearance it
clothing was long ago destroyed by the
action Of the water in which she had met
her death, but the same chemicals which
removed the garments preserved the
flesh. Not only is the contour of the
form perfect as in life, but even the color
has remained 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 sui1used with a ruddy flush
which old settlers here win remember as
one of the girls chief charms, and, were
it not for the unsightly cavities that once
contained the eyes, that petritied frame
which has lain almost half century in
the soil would appear the peacefully
sleeping figure of a healthy, handsome
young woman.
No event which ever occurred in this
section of country has aroused the inter
est that has followed this discovery. The
girls parents are well 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. \ sister, the
only one she ever had. was married in
1880 and now resides at Belle Plains,
has.
FINDING OF THE REMAINS.
When the BODY was found at s 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 de-
misc was very recent, and that she had
been buried in the gravely soil under
lying the black muck of what had been n
swamp. They at once notified the Coro-
ner, and pending his arrival quite a
crowd of persons gathered around the
spot and viewed the body, which had
been uncovered from the head almost to
the hiDs. Some of those present called
attention to the fact that the body could
not have been placed there recently, 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 grownan sod had formed
year after year. VIII Strunk, who had
made the discovery while digging post
holes for a 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
q blow on stone.
''She's petrifed ~ cried some one in
the crowd. 1t was a fact And by the
time the Coroner arrived the entire frame
had been eXhumed, washed clean from
the dark sand and gravel in which il had
laid SO long and wrapped in a linen lap
robe.
For hours no one could conjecture who
the unfortunate woman had been III life,
but Bailey Tmmons, who has kept
store here ever since the Pottawatomie
Indians inhabited the country, finally
arrived and declared he believed the re-
mains were those of Mary Ann Grier.
John and Absalom Grier, her brothers.
were summoned, but before they could
reach the place, their farms being several
miles distant, the old man Grier, now
almost so years old, was brought to the
prairie in buggy by one of the contract
ors for the county ditch.
The old man looked upon the face be-
fore him for a moment, then laid both
hands upon the body and broke down
utterly, weeping in the bitterness of that
grief which never had slept in all these
years.
MY girlr' he cried. my Mary! I
thought you were gone awayi Il
thought you were bad" And ii was
more than an hour before he could be
persuaded to leave her and return to his
home.
HOW THE GIRL DISAPPEARED.
The story of Mary Ann Grier is easily
told. In the first place it should be
known that this whole country is full of
4 kind of iron called bog ore. In an early
day il was extensively mined by the
farmers. and hauled by them to NIichi-
gan City and South Bend, where it COM
nanded a ready sale. IN many instances
ii 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
not rich enough in quantity to repay the
trouble Of mining it since the day of rail
roads and the development of Pennsyl-
Vania mines. None OF the ore has been
t2kcn from these swamps since 1850,
although the swamp lands all over north
ern Indiana are full OF it.
Mary Gricr was the eldest daughter of
Nicholas Grier, and was a belle in those
old days of 1915 to 1850. She was famous
all over the country, which was then new
and sparsely settled, and was sought in
marriage by many an excellent young
man. She was known as a worker, as a
good cook and as a famous housekeeper,
and besides had had the unusual advan-
tage of fair English education,
With the perveTsity of her sex she had
chosen "A hair-brained fellow 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
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