Death by Oak January 10, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Beach has recently been having nightmares about narrow corridors. This story is a form of reverse therapy. It also taps into other stories told in this place of men and women who get into trees and can’t get out afterwards.
It is well known that during the French Revolution, the wood Kusel, near Deux Ponts was often the scene of various actions, and that the Prussians encamped in it a considerable time; consequently the wood was so nearly ruined, that only a few oak trees were left standing, here and there. These trees were sold in the month of March last, 1803, and one lot fell to a citizen of Strasburgh [sic] for fifty florins. Soon afterwards ordering two of them to be cut down, one of them, the largest, was no sooner divided for the purpose of removal, than to the astonishment of the labourers they discovered a human skeleton, from which all the flesh having wasted away, nothing remained near the body at the bottom of the tree but some bits of blue cloth, and part of a hat. A purse half decayed was also found, containing about 100 louis d’ors in gold; and from the buttons about the blue cloth, it was concluded that the deceased had been a Prussian officer, who not knowing the tree to be hollow or, probably sleeping near the top of the trunk of it [!?!?], had slipped in, and from cold, or a variety of circumstances, being unable to extricate himself, had there perished. The fact, however, can be attested by the proprietor, the purchaser of the trees, and several other persons.
This appeared in English in 1820 and was allegedly from the Politisches Journal.
Any other bodies in trees? Drbeachcombing At gmail DOT com
Lots of suggestions about Bella in the Wych Elm
29 Jan 2018: Val writes ‘Since you didn’t specify that it had to be a *human* body, I present to you “Stuckie the Mummified Dog”. Stuckie was discovered inside a chestnut tree logged in 1980 in the southern US. He was a hound dog who probably got stuck in the tree chasing a raccoon. It’s estimated he had been mummified for 20 years at the time of his discovery. He is on exhibit now in “Forest World” in Georgia.
Chris from Haunted Ohio Books 29 Jan 2018 with the email of the month: The skeleton in the tree, complete with diary of last moments and directions to notify next of kin, is an evergreen legend in Victorian (and, I suspect, earlier) story and newspaper. Here are some choice examples. Editors borrowing such stories would change the location to somewhere local and perhaps name the discoverers as well-known people in the area. Here are two terrific examples which I shared in The Ghost Wore Black:
This next story comes from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, another newspaper that seems to have printed a great many ghost stories, which may indicate an editorial interest in the subject or merely that they were willing to supply plausible “true” stories to an avid public. This sensational story is less fictionalized than many of the Globe-Democrat’s offerings although it has a convenient ending.
Face Looked From the Tree
Story of the Supernatural From the Rio Grande.
The Tree Cut Down and in Its Hollow a Skeleton and a Deed To a Fortune Were Disclosed.
[Cottulla [Cotulla] (Tex.) Spec. St. Louis Globe-Democrat.]
It is not often that three or four reliable, well-informed men in their sober senses come in contact with a ghost in broad daylight. Additional interest attaches to an affair of this kind when a dozen or more citizens investigate it and discover something that is entirely beyond all human solution.
Edwin Keenes is a well-known cattleman of Burleson County, Texas. Jud Harris, Ed Addison, Oscar Ellis and Howard Smith are thoroughly reliable stockmen who have all been raised in this section of Texas. Last Thursday these gentlemen came into the town of Summerville [Somerville] in Burleson County, Texas, and aroused the curiosity of the people by relating a very extraordinary story—so extraordinary and so much like a ghost story that the gentleman themselves said that they did not expect anyone to believe them. They talked and answered questions with some hesitation, and although they are all distinguished for their infinite humor they looked very grave. They said that they were driving a herd of cattle through the timber in the Davidson Creek bottoms, when the attention of Smith and Addison, who were a little in advance of the others, was attracted by a peculiar looking object in a large oak tree. It was near 12 o’clock, and there was not a cloud in the sky or the least fog to obscure their vision.
BOTH MEN SAW THE OBJECT
At about the same instant and both stopped their horses. “Why, there is a man up there in that tree,” said Smith. “A funny looking man,” said Addison, “I can’t see anything but his head and shoulders.” By this time the other members of the party had come up, and they all stopped around the tree and gazed at the strange sight in amazement. They could plainly see the head and shoulders of an old man. It looked as if the part of his body that was visible stuck out from a cavity in the tree. The object was about 50 feet from the ground, and at that point it looked as if the main body of the tree had been broken off and two great limbs rose from the broken trunk on either side. The cattlemen rode around and viewing the strange object from different points, they looked, as they said, “with all their might.” They concluded that the man was standing in the hollow of the tree. They called to him, but it did not change its position. They regarded it with awe and trepidation, from the fact that it presented a very ghostly appearance. Its hair, which was very long and unkempt, was as white as snow, while the features were very suggestive of a corpse. While they were gazing at it in wonder, one of its long, bony-looking arms slowly raised in the air, and slowly moved in the direction of the herd of cattle. They could plainly see
THE LONG, COLORLESS FINGERS
None of these men are without the courage of the average cowboy, but they did not stand on the order of the suggestive gesture. The impulse to reach the herd in the shortest possible space of time seemed to have possessed the whole party simultaneously. As they rode along after the cattle they discussed the matter over and over and no other subject that was started during the evening seemed to be worth talking about. They had about come to the conclusion that “Their eyes had been made the fools of their other senses.” Then Peter Jamison rode into camp laboring under the wildest excitement. The first thing that he said as he dismounted from his horse was, “Boys, I have either seen a ghost or an old man’s head sticking out of a tree.”
They were all most thoroughly interested and they determined that they would visit there again the next day and make an investigation that would solve the mystery. Around their camp fire that night no other subject possessed any interest, and their sleep was disturbed by visions of the ghostly looking old man in the tree. On their return trip the next day they had to pass the same tree, or, rather, they made it convenient to do so, and to their utter amazement, there was the same head and face occupying the very same position. They felt a little bolder than on the previous day, and
MR. SMITH ADDRESSED THE OBJECT.
In as polite terms as he could summon, and asked, “What are you doing up there?”
There was no reply. Another member of the party more bold than the rest said: “I believe I’ll bark him,” drawing a revolver and aiming at a part of the tree a few inches from the object. “Don’t shoot him!” they all protested. The young man fired, and the ball knocked the bark from the tree only a few inches from the object. Again the long arm slowly raised and the pale, bony fingers could be plainly seen. Around the camp fire on the previous night they had concluded that what they had taken for an arm had probably been a limb of the tree swayed by the wind. They now saw the arm and hand as plainly as they had ever seen anything in all their lives.
Once more the arm motioned for them to move on. The meaning of the gesture could not be misinterpreted, and with one accord the party turned their horses into the trail and rode away.
They came to town and told their story. Some people laughed at them. They expected that. Others asked questions, and suggested getting a crowd together and making a further investigation. Several citizens volunteered their services to help sift the matter to the bottom, but there was only one member of the party who had already seen the strange object who cared to pursue the subject further. This was Mr. Jamison, who agreed to go and point out the tree. Yesterday morning 10 or 12 citizens of the town, several small boys and two negro axmen went with Mr. Jamison and there is not one among them who will not
REMEMBER THE STRANGE OCCURRENCES
That he witnessed as long as he lives. We did not expect to see anything, and were sure we were going on a fool’s errand and would be laughed at when we returned to town. We were all as much astounded as gratified when Mr. Jamison halted in the woods and hesitatingly said: “He is there yet. There he is in the same place.” Never did any set of men strain their eyes looking at a strange object as we did. There was the head and face of an old man. We could not be mistaken. We could see his hair, his ears, nose, eyes and mouth as plainly as we could see a little bird that had alighted on the same tree. Several members of the party addressed the object, but it made no reply. After consulting for a few moments we concluded to cut the tree down, and one member of the party took the ax and struck the tree a few blows for the purpose of seeing whether the object would protest or not. It remained perfectly motionless, though one of the negroes declared that it moved its lips. The negroes were told to get to work and cut the tree down, but they refused to touch it, and could not be moved to do so, either by threats or bribes. They would not stay to witness the work. Each of us used the ax in turn and as the tree was hollow, we soon had it ready to fall. Then John Stallins summoned the courage to address the object and inform it that we had cut nearly through the tree, and that a few more blows would certainly cause it to fall. Then we witnessed something that
TRANSFIXED US TO THE EARTH.
And nearly congealed our blood. The object in the tree—mortal or ghost—plainly raised both arms. Not a man would have remained a moment if he had possessed the power to move. The arms slowly descended and the hands pointed to the root of the tree. Just then the great oak swayed in a little breeze, and the next instant fell with a crash. Every man ran away. After a few moments we got out of breath, and while resting we somewhat recovered our courage and concluded to return and get the ax at any rate. Cautiously we approached the stump and the first man who looked at it threw up his arms and uttered such an exclamation of terror that we thought he was hurt and ran to him. Another surprise was in store for us. Protruding from the hollow end of the tree was a lot of bones and old rags. We were all too much agitated to do much talking and we stood there for several moments gazing at the skeleton, for skeleton it proved to be. In falling the trunk of the tree had split open and some of the bones had rolled out on the ground. After we had somewhat regained our sense we tore off a fragment of the trunk of the tree, and the
WHOLE SKELETON WAS EXPOSED
To view. The clothing was rotten and fell to pieces when touched, but there was a gun and leather shot pouch by the side of the bones that time had not entirely destroyed. While some of the party were looking at the skeleton others had examined the top of the tree where we had seen the strange object when the tree was standing. There was a great hole in the tree where the trunk had been broken off many years before. This was large enough to admit a man’s body, but there was not the least evidence that the place had been touched by human hands. The bark was rough, and looked as if it had not been disturbed. We looked for human tracks, but found none. We made the dogs smell of the place and tried to get them to find a trail. They acted with indifference. We looked trembling about, expecting to see our old man perched in some other tree.
“Well,” said Uncle Dave Smiley. “No one will ever believe us, but as long as I live I will at any time be ready to swear that I saw an old man looking at me from that hole in that tree.” We returned to the skeleton and, after gathering all the bones together, we placed them in one of our vehicles and took them to town. The gun and the contents of the shot pouch enabled several citizens of the county to
IDENTIFY THE SKELETON
And reveal the strangest story that any mortal ever recorded.
Just 13 years ago David Marslin, who was a famous hunter in this country, went out in the woods to hunt deer one Saturday evening, and was never seen or heard of afterward. The people of the neighborhood turned out en masse and searched for the man for weeks without ever finding the slightest clew to his mysterious disappearance. The great mystery was solved yesterday, when his son and many of his neighbors identified the gun and shot pouch found in the tree as the property of David Marslin. That was not all. In a leather pocketbook in the shot pouch was found a valuable deed, so valuable that it makes Marslin’s children—a boy and a girl—very rich young people. The children knew that their father owned and had a bona fide deed to a league of land in Western Texas that is now worth $100,000, but they could never find it. The children claimed the land, but the law gave it to another in the absence of this deed. Their title is now perfect and lawyers tell them they will have no trouble to establish their title. The boy is working in an oil mill, and the young lady, who is very pretty and amiable, lives with some of her relatives. Of course, nothing else is being talked of in the town. People who laugh, shake their heads and declare that they do not believe in ghosts admit this affair is
BEYOND THEIR COMPREHENSION
And together the strangest thing that they ever heard of. A large crowd went out to see the tree and some old hunters think they have solved the problem as to the manner in which Marslin came to his death. There is a large leaning tree which almost touches the tree in which the skeleton was found. They think that Marslin either fleeing from or in pursuit of some animal, crawled up the leaning tree and stepped on the large oak, where the two approach each other, which is not far from the hole from which the human-like head was seen. Here, in a scramble with some animal, or by accident, the hunter slipped into the hole in the tree, and descended into the hollow where he was helpless, and where he must have died a horrible death. Marslin had a famous pack of hounds and he greatly enjoyed seeing his dogs fight bear, wildcats and coons, and he would often climb trees to make the animal jump out into his pack. It is highly probable that he was engaged in this kind of sport when he lost his life.
The mystery of the human face in the tree is beyond all human solution, but the skeleton and the deed and the happy result of the affair are things that are before our eyes. An old German philosopher, who is a graduate of half the universities in Europe, laughs and says, “glamour” furnishes a key to the whole business, and now the astounded citizens are asking each other, “what on earth is glamour?”
Cincinnati [OH] Enquirer 24 April 1897: p. 3 TEXAS
