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J. W. Chester in cutting timber on the old Samuel Adams homestead in
Woodland township, noted for its beautiful white oaks, found 14 bullets imbedded about six feet above the ground in a large tree four feet
in diameter. Outside these bullets were about 50 rings of tree growth. These facts were submitted to Dr. Henry Shimer of Mt. Carroll
to determine the date imbedded He said that as four years are required to heal a wound on
a limb from the sting of a locust, it would require 10 to 12 years to heal the wound in a
tree made by rifle bullets, before the ring growth would begin to form, which would make the date fired about 62 years before, or in 1832, which was the year of the Black
Hawk war. As the location was only three and one-half miles to the old Savanna fort
near the old site of the Dupuis mill, it is probable the bullets were imbedded by occupants of the fort shooting at a mark, or by Indians prowling about the fort.
Carroll County Mirror April 1864 |
