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BONES OF A GIANT

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Sep 14, 2015

The most interesting spot in Addison township is the old graveyard at the Six Poplars, on the bottom-land of the Casselman river. There are fully one hundred graves in this old cemetery, and the names of the greater portion of those buried here are now lost in oblivion. Few of the headstones have inscriptions upon them. The six poplars are themselves objects of interest. The trees are so closely grown together near the ground that they form one perfect trunk of large circumference. About six feet from the earth they separate and form six tall and stately trees. One of the trunks was destroyed by lightning a few years since, but five of them still remain thrifty and vigorous. A gravestone reposed for many years in the forks of this many-bodied tree.

Near the tree is the grave of Richard Green, who was born in 1734 and died in 1808. Three Richard Greens are buried here, representatives of three generations. The last was buried about 1827, since which time few, if any, interments have been made in this graveyard. Mr. John Hanna, who assisted in digging this grave, states that in removing the earth be came upon a skeleton of such extraordinary size that it would seem that the bones were those of a man of gigantic stature. The body had been wrapped in a striped blanket and deposited in a coffin of chestnut puncheons, fastened together by wrought nails. The bones were collected together by the gravediggers and deposited in a hole at the bottom of the grave, and over them the remains of Green were then interred.

An old resident stated to Mr. Hanna that no person had ever been buried in that spot during the time of his recollection. The use of nails and a coffin indicates that the body was that of a white man. But who was the mysterious stranger who died here? And who were his companions that laid him to rest in this wild and lonely spot? The answer to these questions must ever remain a mystery.

(Source: History of Bedford, Somerset & Fulton Counties, PA; 1884)

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