Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1898-08-03

living. and each is a grandparent.
Youeiis is as vigorous as a man of
so; his rs years he treats as ~playthings;
they have never added a feathers
weight to his mind or heart.
Surely somewhere among his collec-
ton he will find he has picked up a
charm for everlasting life or a drop
from Ponce de Icons spring of ever
lasting youth. He may not know its
name. but il must be there!
He has a charmed life. Once a steam
er on the Delaware exploded-people in
Easton tell you of it yet. Ben Youells
was on it, and so terrible was the con-
cussion hat he was violently pitched
over to the bank just near his little
shop. The only comment Youells made
on the accident was characteristic: IF
it had only thrown me a little further"
he said. sit would have put me in my
chair in front the shop"
Added to his great record as a barber
and his charmed life, he is assessor of
the Second ward and a collector of value
and marvellous skill.
Does it take the climate of Easton to
grow such men?
/ was looking for the dial for the
state house, and thought Youells might
know something of it. He didn't, but
he knew so much else and had so much
else that the dial was forgotten. He
was the man who knew that the old
tree planted in the Pennsylvania hos
nital grounds was from a branch of
the tree under which Penn made his
treaty. With every relic he has its his
tory.
The entire museum was unlabeled,
unclassified.
Newly things he has classified or in
regular relation to each other are the
stone relics. He has turned one side of
the wall over for a stone department.
Here are 81 boards. Thirty-one of them
show 72O arrow and spearheads of
white, gray, pink and jasper stones.
The other 80 boards show antiquarian
stone relics, such as pestles, toma-
hawks, rubbing stones, stone skinning
knives, axes of unusual size, pieces of
pottery, one double-edged AK, very rare
ly found and the other curiously con-
structed relics of indian life.
A conspicuous relic here is an Indian
mortar hat was the property of Parson
Heckenwelder. Mrs. Heckenwelder
was the first white child born east of
the Allegheny mountains. Above this
in value is the powder horn presented
to Tecumseh, by Gen. Howe, in 1893.
The pouches, moccasins, scalp locks,
scalping knives, wampum and beads
are rich and valuable.
He has another department made up
from balls, shells and hand ~grenades
r,.-1 -. l.F.ar- l,tt1aG a1le l,,ripn
the civil war. Capt. Reeder has given
him a huge knife. found on the battle
field of Pittsburg Landing. and Capt.
Yard. of the v. p. T., gave him a bugle
of the rebel army, captured in Florida.
His great souvenir of the civil war
is Gen. Robert +. Lees silvcr-mounted
hunting horn taken from Arlington
during the rebellion. Next 10 this is the
first confederate flag captured by the
union forces, June &c, 1861, by Sergt.
Joseph Oliver, OF the V. p. +. He has
also the handouts used upon Merry
man, who set fire to Gunpowder Greek
bridge in 81; the chasing of a ten-inch
shell, fired by the Monitor al the Merri-
mac; a gun carriage and casing made
from a part of the old ship Cumberland,
which was destroyed by the Merrimac.
but this is another piece of the con-
federate flag" 1 asked, what was
that?"
"Col. Ellsworth tore that down from
a staff erected on the Marshall house.
he said. land near it l have put a piece
of brick from Libby prison, \ portion of
the scaffold on which John Brown stood
when Lees men shot him, and a spear
,,SaJ h- ono IF Tphn Rrn1ynfc men when
they were hunted down in the round
house."
A piece of Paul Jones' ship, Reliance,
is alongside a sword with pistol attach
ed at the hilt, used by Maj. Gen. Ma
thaniel Green at the battle of Trenton.
This is indeed a curiosity, for it is prob
ably the only one of that make in
America.
Surgeon Barttle's scales that he used
at the battle of Trenton are keeping
company with a large pair of cotton
~epaulets worn by Peter Clayman in the
war of 1912, and near two such impor-
tant relics is a knife presented to the
ugliest man in Easton.
1t would be unfair to publish his
name.
"In the matter of knives, here is the
one owned by the famous Daniel
Boone Youells said, and another
from Andersonvi:le prison."
An Eskimo harpoon nine inches
long, brought from the Arctic regions
by DIR. Kane, and a piece of whale bone
taken from the shrouds of the British
ship R~esolute, constitute the Arctic
souvenirs.
Two pieces of wire attached to a
frame did not loo significant. but one
was a piece of the wire over which went
the first telegraphic message, used by
Prof. Morse in 1897, and pieces of the
first and second Atlantic cable.
His Pennsylvania relics. which the
Historical society would delight in, are
a piece of shingle from h roof of
Penn's house. a lock from the front door
of the same house and one of the keys
of the old Walnut street prison in Phila-
delphia.