Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-01-18
BOGUS PETRIFIED WOMAN.
A Female Cordiff Giant Turns Up in
the East.

Washington Post: Some twenty
doubling scientists stayed away from
church yesterday and improved the op-
pQrtunity offered them to seek the
truth about the alleged petrified wo-
man which Mr.. e. J. Taylor has on eX-
hibition at 1915 Pennsylvania avenue
| Mr.. Taylor had been very honest in
wishing to have a thorough eXamina-
ton, and the scientists were curious
to conduct it in the interests of their
calling. They do not believe that flesh
will petrify under any conditions be-
fore it decays, and they went home
from their examination thoroughly con-
WINGED Of their own wisdom on the
point.
In fact, the petrified woman turned
out to be only a petrified humbug;
that is, the scientists declared that
it was not natural petrifactiOn. The
lump of rock was removed from the
bier on which it had been resting and
q hole bored into one of the lower
limbs. 1t was discovered that the CON-
position of the bOrings was nothing
but what might be made from sand
and Portland cement if they were
mixed in the right proportion. Some
of the anatomists, who were convinced
that it was not genuine before the eX-
animation was made, predicted that
the man who was pushing the bit
into the specimen would strike a rod
OF iron, but no rod was found.
The specimen purports to come from
the mountain Businesses near Fresno,
Cal, and the scientists unite in believ-
ing that DR.. Taylor is honest. but say
he has been deceived, and that it is
a product of a petrifaction factory
near Fresno, which is run by a certain
press" Bozeman. That factory, says
the San Francisco Examiner Of May
10, 1898, was running full blast at
that time, and had turned out six or
seven fine specimens, of which
"Packwood' man was the first, and
attracted considerable notoriety. BOze-
man has been turning out these fakes
for three years, and the models are
a likeness of his beautiful daughters.
Mrs. Mamie Bozeman and Miss
Norah are both said to have done duty
in the clay. and also a Miss Myrtle
Raymer, who was brought from San
Francisco. At the time the exposure
was made by the Examiner Mrs. Ma
ME Bozeman left for Missouri with
a man named J. J. COlwell. A long,
heavy box was deposited in the freight
shed about the same time by Bozeman,
directed to Missouri. Notices appear
ed a little later in the papers Of that
state announcing the exhibition Of a
petrified woman.
The contract on which the humbugs
were furnished called for the payment
of $1,000, and promised a petrifed wo-
man so cast as to be apparently the
petrified remains Of member of the
ancient race of mound builders of |
Central America. The figure was to be /
discovered, as though in good faith, in |
the coast range Of mountains and |
under circumstances likely to rise to
press reports favorable to the story |
that it is a genuine petrifaction.
The "PackwoOd'' man was on ex-
hibition in various towns and cities
in North Carolina during the month
of September, as having come from
Fresno, Cal, in an alkali district,
where everything petriies, even snakes
and toads. This fake was exposed by
the News and Observer and State
Chronicle, of Raleigh, n. c., on Oct.
Z, in a letter from the postmaster of
Fresno City, Cal. 1t stated that the
alleged petrifaction was made in that
county and planted in the Cantua
district, which is not an alkali district
but is unavailable because no means
for irrigating it are practicable.
The petrifaction was afterward dis
covered by Mr.. Packwood, and was
exhibited in the cities of California
with degree of success. This petri-
faction was followed by that Of a