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This article was sent to me by Patti of Lincoln County.
ARTICLE
THE LINCOLN COUNTY ADVOCATE - November 22, 1880
Jenny, Wisconsin
THE SKELETON OF AN UNKNOWN MAN FOUND
No little excitement was caused on Thursday last, when the report came that
the skeleton of an unknown man had been found in a logging shanty about ten
miles from this place, in a northwesterly direction. The shanty is located
on the New wood River, about a mile above its junction with the Wisconsin
River. It was formerly used by William Reed, a lumberman, and abandoned by
him two or three years ago, since which time it has not been occupied by
parties known. On the 10th inst., Mr. Peter Quinn, foreman of M. H.
McCord’s logging camp on the New wood, was engaged in tracing out a road,
when he suddenly came upon the deserted shanty, and entered it. The
interior of the structure gave evidence of long disuse and decay, and
therefore contained nothing worthy of attention, except what appeared to be
some cast off clothing lay spread out in a bunk on the opposite side of the
room. Upon approaching the bunk Mr. Quinn discovered that the clothing
contained the skeleton of a man; the flesh had entirely decayed, leaving
the bones bare. Mr. Quinn then being in a hurry to complete his
arrangements for the establishment of a logging camp half a mile further up
the stream, deferred notifying the authorities until last Thursday, the
18th, when Theodore Compton, Justice of the Peace, accompanied by Dr.
Whiting and a jury consisting of A. M. Nye, John Gustin, John W. Kline, A.
L. Ritchay, Dennis Dereg and E. M. Kaiser, all of this village, repaired to
the spot and held an inquest over the remains. The examinations made by
the physician elicited nothing that would throw any light upon the probable
cause of the death of the deceased, and the jury returned a verdict in
accordance with the fact. The clothes were carefully examined to discover
anything that would lead to the identification of the remains, but nothing
was found. The man must have been dead for some time, as there was not a
vestige of flesh remaining upon the bones.
The remains were carefully put together in a box and buried a short
distance from the shanty, several trees being marked to indicate the place
of burial.
As near as can be ascertained, the deceased must have been about 5 feet 9
inches in height; hair dark brown, and the indications were that he had a
full beard, somewhat darker than the hair. There were two teeth missing
from the upper jaw. The clothes had the appearance of being well worn, and
were patched in places. the coat, a single-breasted one, was dark steel in
color, with white threads running across each other, forming squares an
eighth of an inch in diameter; the vest was made of cotton material, and of
a color commonly known as pepper and salt; the pantaloons were half cotton
and half wool, checked, a patch of light colored material upon each knee;
an over-shirt made of brown and white striped shirting, and a black and
white checked woolen under-shirt; a black-wool hat, considerably worn, and
a pair of heavy cowhide boots, patched at the toes.
It is utterly impossible to ascertain who the man was, or where he came
from, as no one remembers ever having seen him.
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LATER-- Since writing the above, the report is received that a middle-aged
man, wearing clothes answering to the foregoing description, came to the
house of Ferdinand Krueger, a farmer in the town of Corning, several months
since, and stopped for a few days, representing that he was looking up land
for a homestead. He had with him a pack, the contents of which are not
stated, a gun and a small woodman’s axe. After his final departure,
nothing more was heard of him.