The Lenape Stone; or, The Indian and the MammothMercer, Henry C.
History
The Lenape Stone; or, The Indian and the Mammoth
Mercer, Henry C.
Delaware Indians; Mammoths; Picture-writing, Indian
After we had cut the corn in the field, and as I went in to
husk, I happened to pass near the place--I always remember the
place,--I was thinking of the other piece, and was hardly in
the field before I picked it up. I noticed the marks and the
shape, and saw at once that it was the missing piece. It had
notches around the edges. I put it in my pocket and laid it in
the drawer. My wife never saw it. It was the little piece. I was
married then and in my own house, and there was nobody about the
house, so I did not lock it up.
This was in the fall--after the exhibition at Doylestown
(October), in 1881. When I went down to Mr. Paxon's father's,
Squire Paxon's, to pay my tax, on the 9th of November, 1881, I
took this piece along. Young Mr. Paxon was not at home, but I
waited till he came back. I said I had something "pretty nice"
for him, and showed him the missing piece. He thought when he
saw it that I would make him pay pretty dear for it, but I told
him that I would give it to him. I had not rubbed or cleaned it.
He put the pieces together and said "that is the missing piece."
He took me up to his room and gave me some minerals. I advised
him to glue the pieces together with "hickory cement." I had
some of this cement at home, and offered to give it to him.
The next spring I saw the stone again, all washed and cleaned.
It did not look altered--only clean and rubbed off. I saw it
again this February (1884), when you and Mr. Paxon came to see
me, and I saw no change in it.
I never sold a relic before I sold those to Harry Paxon, and
never knew any one from Philadelphia that took any interest in
Indian relics. I used to give things away to relatives of mine,
often boys--my cousins, when they came up from town. They had
never seen any thing like an arrow-head before. I never gave a
stone to any one but a relative. William Hansell, my brother, a
little boy, saw me pick up the small piece of the Lenape Stone.
I never heard of any one in this neighborhood interested in
Indian relics before Mr. Paxon.
The first things that I remember giving away were a couple of
black arrow-heads that I gave to James Aikens, in 1871. He lives
in Germantown. This was before I found the stone.
[Signed] BERNARD Z. HANSELL.
Sworn to before
BENJAMIN S. RICH, J. P., Nov. 6, 1884.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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