Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1907-05-16
HUMAN HEAD
FISHED UP

CNluoiiCe VI Wldb was III dll prOD
:. ability a dark and mysterious tragedy
came to light at this place on Satur-
day, when coal digger fished up hu-
man head from the bottom of the riv-
er. The gruesome find was made by
Frank Baylor and Charles Forney,
who for some weeks past have been ex-
tracing coal from the river above
town
On Saturday morning as usual the
two young men steamed up the river
with their dredge and resumed work
on the deposit of river coal opposite
Boyd s station. To be exact, the dredge
was anchored opposite Logan run,
about three hundred feet from the
southern shore of the river and two
hundred feet from the small island
that lies in the river at that point.
They were having good forenoon
and the day promised to pan out we'll.
AS each bucket on the endless chain
contrivance that scoops up the coal
from the river bottom came to the sur
face it was heavily laden with black
diamonds reduced to the peculiar form
known as "river coal. " MI. Baylor
stood beside the buckets prepared to
throw out stones or any other extrane-
Gus matter that might come up with
the coal. Mr. Forney sstood in anoth-
er part of the boat and had charge of
the engine. The uniform motion ana
the hum of the machinery had its us
ual drowsy effect and the work was
becoming exceedingly commonplace
and monotonous, when something oc-
CURED that aroused the men as they
had never been aroused before and
brought about state of intense excite
ment, not only on the coal digger, but
throughout the whole community.
1t was shortly after 10 O'Clock. Mr..
Baylor had averted his face for mo-
ment and was just turning to keep his
eye on the buckets, " when an object
met his gaze that nearly froze the
blood i'll his veins. One of the buck
cts, moving slowly, had lust appeared
above the water containing with the
usual quantity of coal human head,
doubly CHASTITY by reason of advanced
composition. There was no room for
even moments doubt. The nose was
gone. but the other features were in
tact. The eyes, blue in color, were
partly open and added to the ghastli-
ness and horror of the spectacle. 1t
required only moment for Mr. Bay
lor to act and he yelled
Shut her down, Charlie, shut her
down, l believe there is mans head
in the bucket
Charlie instantly obeyed and sue
ceeded in bringing the machinery to a
standstill before the bucket dumped its
gruescme burden into the dredga. He
then stepped over to where his COM
panion stood and viewed the CHASTITY
thing as it hung suspended over the
water. He agreed that it was a hu-
man head
That the young men were aSitated
is putting it mildly. They had an idea
that the occasion was one that called
for the coroner and they were not sure
that they had any right to remove the
head from the exact position in which
it was found. 1t was finally decided
that one should hurry down to Dan
vile and notify the authorities while
the other should remain ON the spot
and watch the head. The latter task
fell to Mr.. Forney while Mr.. Baylor
hurried down TO Danville.
The first thing to determine was
whether the island near which the
head was found was in Montour or in
Northumberland county. For this in
formation the young man on arriving
in Danville applied TO District Attor-
ney g. p. Gearhart 1t developed that
the island is in Northumberland
county and that Montonr county had
nothing to do with the head.
The matter was laid before Justice
of the Peace E. W. Young, of Gear
hart township, who called up Coroner
G. W Dreher. of Shamokin. The lat.
ter instructed Justice Young to hold
an inquest and to hand the head over
to an undertaken, who, it WAS order
ed, should bury it at the expense of
the overseers of the poor of Rush town
ship.
Undertaken Frank Henrie agreed to
take charge of the head and drove up
to Boyd's station to receive it. 1t was
not until after the hour of noon that
the undertaken arrived. Meanwhile
Mr.. Forney in his gloomy vigil was
Joined by the crew of a neighboring
dredge. All agreed that in their ex-
perienoe on coal diggers many odd OBJ
iects had been fished up from the bot
tom of the river, but that the present
! find was many times more remarkable
than anything ever heard of before.
Considerable time was spent in a fruit
less search about the spot Tor any 9TH
er portions of the mans body that
might remain. The water, however,
was six feet deep and the current was
strong so that the search was unsatis-
factory.
Justice E. W. Young, acting coroner,
/ held an iuuuaSt i'm tho Offica of Iuctioa