The Saint Paul globe., 1897-11-22
n ENUlNE
PETRIFIED
~ ...... MAN.

Special Correspondence of the Globe
PERRY, To-. Nov. 12.-In the pos
session of Mr.. j. K. Olds, prominent
real estate broker of this town, and
guarded by him as one of the most
valuable of treasures, is the recently
discovered body OF a genuine petrffied
man. There is not the slightest doubt
that the petrificatiOn is genuine, and
this fact, taken in conjunction with
the peculiar circumstances attending
the discovery of the body by Mr.. Olds,
makes the specimen, both from a sci
entific and general standpoint, one of
the most interesting studies on record.
Mr.. Olds stumbled on the body of
the petrified man while searching for
wild plums and following a cattle trail
along the edge of Beaver creek, about
two and half miles from here. His
first thought was that he had stumbled
upon a long hidden tragedy, and in
this he was not far from the truth.
What appeared TO be the hand and
mart of the arm of man was protrud-
ing from the bank Of the creek. When
Mr.. Olds had recovered from the first
shock of the discovery, he procured a
spade from nearby farm house, and,
with considerable effort, managed to
unearth pert of the body to which the
hand and arm belonged. 1t proved to
be the remains of a finely formed and
very large man. Two pecultarities
about the body struck Olds at once.
The first was that his spade when it
accidentally came in contact with the
dead man gave forth a sound as
though the metal had struck rock in
stead of supposed human flesh and
bone The second popularity was that
the man had been killed by a terrific
blow. for the head was smashed in at
the base CT the brain.
Olds returned to town and got to-
gether q party. consisting of Allen
Breed. mayor of this city, Drs. Aiken,
Trouth and Miller, and several citizens,
! and going back for the body the party
eXhumed it, and carried it to the ind
| er's home. A meeting of the doctors
oe Perry was called Immediately to eX-
anime the stone figure that looked so
/ unlike human work. and they unani-
n?ously agreed after a careful eXani-
nation that the body was that of q
petrifed man. Olds was offered his
/ own price for the petrified body. by
more than one Of the medical men who
! examined it, but he refused to part.
room for doubt in the minds Of those
! who have been made suspicious OF pet
rified men through the misguided eff
! forts of museum proprietors to foist
upon a conflding public specimens of
/ "petrified" bodies that have been man
ufactured in the museum workshop,
/ the writer has obtained from the man
/ who found the petrified body, and also
! from the leading physician among
/ those who examined it, a written dec
/ laration of their connection with the
/ Interesting discovery.
Mr.. Olds very readily wrote the fol-
| lowing:
The petrifled man found by me last
! week, is, without doubt, genuine
| specimen of limestone petrifaction,
/ and is a subject deservedly worthy of
/ scientific study. l have in my posses
! sion the written statement of one OF
! the physicians. who examined the body
when first found that it is the remains
| Of a man perfectly preserved by petri-
faction. j. Is. Olds.
The physicians statement is as fol-
lows:
81 was present when the body was
taken from the ground and was one of
the physicians who thoroughly ex-
amined it few hours later, and, from
the facts brought out in that exami-
nation, l untesitatingly express my