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EDITED BY John C. Parish
Associate Editor of the State Historical Society of Iowa
| Volume II |
September 1921 |
No. 9 |
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Copyright 1921 by the State Historical Society of Iowa
(Transcribed by Gayle Harper)
THE CARDIFF GIANT
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One Saturday morning in October,
1869, two men were digging a well on the farm of William
Newell, some three-quarters of a mile from the little village
of Cardiff, New York. The. spot selected for this purpose was
at the rear of the barn, near a swale or marsh, through which
meandered a small creek. When the excavation had reached a
depth of about three feet one of the workmen struck his shovel
against some hard substance embedded in the loose gravel soil.
Attempts to pry out the object were unavailing and the
curiosity of the men was aroused. Perhaps they had visions of
a buried treasure chest — that subconscious memory of the time
when the pirate is the hero of the. child's imagination. It
took only a short time, however, for the shovels to reveal the
form of a human foot, and further digging, under the personal
direction of Mr. Newell, soon uncovered the whole of a
gigantic human figure, composed apparently of stone.
The
mud-covered diggers and the farmer, leaning on their shovels,
stared curiously at the figure which lay at the bottom of what
had now become a trench instead of a well. They were soon
joined by members of the family and by neighbors. What was
this stone giant? Some of the spectators recalled the finding
of a razor in a hollow tree on the same farm some years
before; perhaps, they whispered, here was the body of a man
who had been murdered.
Though rural
telephones and the now ubiquitous Ford cars were unknown at
that time, the news of the finding of the colossus spread
rapidly and people from miles around jostled each other on the
slippery sides of the muddy trench to get a view of the stone
giant. The figure which lay below in the mud and water was
that of a man measuring some ten feet two and one-half inches
in height, with shoulders three feet in breadth, and other
measurements in proportion. The right arm and hand lay across
the body, while the left was pressed against the back directly
opposite. The lower limbs were slightly contracted as if by
pain, the left foot resting partially upon the right.
There was
much speculation as to the origin of the giant and some of the
visitors were not slow to recognize its value as an exhibit.
Offers of trade and cash were soon made, but the farmer
preferred to wait until the real value of his prize could be
determined.
That he was
not slow to realize a good business proposition is evident
from the system of handling the crowds of sight-seers. A tent
was erected over the trench where the colossus still lay on
his bed of clay, and a charge of fifty cents was made for
admission. This apparently did not diminish the number of
visitors, for in spite of the fact that the crops were not yet
harvested and an election was pending, the farmer found
himself possessed of a veritable Aladdin's lamp which showered
half dollars upon him. It was not long before George Hull, a
relative of William Newell, appeared to claim a share in the
profits and this aroused some gossip since there was no
apparent reason for his participation. A sum of money
amounting to twenty thousand dollars was said to have been
received from the admission fees to the tent on the Newell
farm. Later J W. Wood, a professional showman, was secured to
manage the exhibition.
Andrew D.
White, President of Cornell University, who at the time was in
Syracuse, wrote the following description of his visit to the
farm:
The roads were crowded with buggies,
carriages, and even omnibuses from the city, and with
lumber-wagons from the farms—all laden with passengers. In
about two hours we arrived at the Newell farm, and found a
gathering which at first sight seemed like a county fair. In
the midst was a tent, and a crowd was pressing for admission.
Entering, we saw a large pit or grave, and, at the bottom of
it, perhaps five feet below the surface, an enormous figure,
apparently of Onondaga gray limestone. It was a stone giant,
with massive features, the whole body nude, the limbs
contracted as if in agony. It had a color as if it had lain
long in the earth, and over its surface were minute punctures,
like pores. An especial appearance of great age was given it
by deep grooves and channels in its under side, apparently
worn by the water which flowed in streams through the earth
and along the rock on which the figure rested. Lying in its
grave, with the subdued light from the roof of the tent
falling upon it, and with the limbs contorted as if in a death
struggle, it produced a most weird effect. An air of great
solemnity pervaded the place. Visitors hardly spoke above a
whisper.
Newspaper
men also visited the farm and wrote thrilling descriptions of
the "Cardiff Giant" or "Onondaga Giant", as the mysterious
figure came to be called. Scientists studied it and wrote
learned reports of its origin and antiquity. Most of these men
rejected the theory of petrification but they differed widely
in their explanations of the presence of the piece of
sculpture in the swamp.
John F.
Boynton, a graduate of a St. Louis medical school and a
lecturer on geology and mineralogy, at first believed that it
was the work of the Jesuit fathers two or three hundred years
before. The material he decided was Onondaga gypsum. Later he
decided that the statue had probably not been buried more than
three years. Another of the scientific examiners was convinced
that this was a petrified body. Experienced quarrymen of the
region, he declared, did not believe that a block of gypsum of
this size could be found in the vicinity. Furthermore, the
position of the body was not one an artist would choose; it
was rather a natural manifestation of physical pain. Dr. Amos
Wescott of Syracuse, in a letter to the Scientific American,
supported this view. There were no chisel marks upon the
figure, he asserted. Besides, its evident antiquity was proof
that it was not an attempt to impose upon "a gullible public".
Among those
who examined the giant was James Hall, State Geologist of New
York, who some years before had made the first geological
survey of Iowa. He was positive that the figure was a statue
carved from crystalline gypsum. In a letter written to Dr.
Wescott, Mr. Hall emphasized the antiquity of the statue and
called attention to the corroding or attrition of part of the
under surface of the body by the action of the water. "Such a
process of solution and removal of the gypsum—a mineral of
slow solubility in the waters of that region—must", he
declared, "have required a long period of years." In another
written statement he expressed the opinion that "to all
appearances, this statue lay upon the gravel when the
deposition of the fine silt or soil began, upon the surface of
which the forests have grown for succeeding generations."
In the
meantime imagination had, as usual, outstripped science, and a
number of myths and legends were developed to explain the
mystery. According to one of these, an Indian squaw, who
visited the statue, declared that it was the petrified body of
an Indian prophet who many centuries before had foretold the
coming of the palefaces and before his death promised his
followers that their descendants should see him again.
The ordinary
visitors, knowing nothing of art or archeology, were usually
content with the belief that this was a petrified human being.
"Nothing in the world has ever make me believe that he was not
once a living being", declared a woman as she looked down upon
the colossus. "Why, you can see the veins in his legs."
After some
time the "Cardiff Giant" was raised from his muddy tomb and
transported to Albany, much to the dissatisfaction of the
Syracuse business men who had profited largely by the influx
of tourists. It is reported that fifty thousand sight-seers
visited the Newell farm while the giant remained there.
P. T. Barnum
tried to purchase the figure but a local syndicate had already
secured control and his offer was refused. The new company,
one of whom is said to have been the original from which the
character of David Harum was drawn, paid $30,000 for a
three-fourths interest, Newell retaining one-fourth. A
pamphlet, "The American Goliath", was issued to advertise the
wonder, but a great deal of publicity was furnished by
newspaper discussions concerning the various theories as to
the origin and antiquity of the image.
The success
of the exhibition led P. T. Barnum to have carved a similar
figure which was likewise exhibited as the "Cardiff Giant".
The owners of the original attempted to secure an injunction
to prevent the display of Barnum's giant, but it was refused.
The rival did not, however, at once diminish the popularity of
the real giant which was taken about the country and exhibited
to large crowds.
There were
some, however, who were skeptical concerning the accidental
discovery of the stone giant. The appearance of George Hull on
the scene and his share in the profits were not sufficiently
explained by his relationship to William Newell. Residents of
Onondaga County began to recall that about a year before a
mysterious four-horse team drawing a wagon upon the running
gear of which rested a huge iron-bound box had been seen in
the vicinity of Cardiff and some claimed that they recognized
George Hull as the man who had been in charge.
Those
interested in the stone giant 'explained that the box
contained machinery for manufacturing tobacco products and
possibly some contraband tobacco—a feet which accounted for
the secrecy surrounding its movements. Dr. Amos Wescott, who
was one of the owners of the giant, declared in a letter to
the Scientific American that it was absurd to suggest that the
statue which weighed slightly less than 3000 pounds had been
transported on a wagon to the Newell farm, unloaded by the two
or three men in charge, and lowered to the place from which it
required fifteen men to remove it even with the aid of
machinery.
Andrew D.
White was shown a piece of the giant and he at once saw that
the material was not Onondaga limestone as he had at first
supposed but some kind of gypsum. This explained the point
which had puzzled him—the attrition on the under surface, o£
the figure. Professor Harsh of Yale, a paleontologist,
examined the figure and asserted that it was clearly of recent
origin and "a most decided humbug."
Thus was the
reputation of the "Cardiff Giant" endangered by gossip and the
opinions of scientists. Its fame, however, continued and still
the curious thronged to view it. Among those from afar who
visited the exhibit was Galusha Parsons, a lawyer from Fort
Dodge, Iowa, who stopped over at Syracuse to see the
"Petrified Giant". He immediately wrote back to a Fort Dodge
paper, "I believe it is made out of the great block of gypsum
those fellows got at Fort Dodge a year ago and sent off east.”
A number of
Fort Dodge citizens at once began some amateur detective work.
Skeptics in New York added. their testimony and gradually the
tangled threads were unraveled and the story of the "Cardiff
Giant" was revealed. In the summer of 1868 two men,
registering at the hotel as George Hull of Binghamton, New
York, and H. B. Martin of Boston, Massachusetts, arrived at
Fort Dodge.
The latter,
however, was a resident of Marshalltown, Iowa. They were so
secretive concerning their business as to be regarded as
suspicious characters, but they showed special interest in the
gypsum deposits.
Finally they
attempted to make a bargain with C. B. Cummins for a large
block of gypsum, at least 12 x 4 x 2 feet, explaining that
they wished to exhibit it in New York. They also told one of
the men at the mines that they intended to take the block to
Washington, D. C, as Iowa's contribution to the Lincoln
monument.
Mr. Cummins
refused the order, but the two men leased some land and
employed a quarryman named Michael Foley to get out a block of
the prescribed dimensions. This feat was finally accomplished,
Foley receiving fifteen dollars for his labor. The next
problem was the transportation of the mammoth block, weighing
about five tons, to the railroad station. The difficulties
were found to be so great that the block was reduced in size
so that it weighed less than seven thousand pounds.
Its owners
announced that it was to be shipped to New York, but the
records of the freight office at Boone—formerly Montana—showed
that it was billed to Chicago. Here a German stone-cutter
carved the gigantic figure from the block, Hull himself
serving as the model. Pin pricks by a leaden mallet faced with
steel needles were made to serve as pores, and the whole
figure was carefully treated to give it a semblance of age.
From Chicago
the statue, boxed and labeled "finished marble", was shipped
by an indirect route to Union, New York, addressed to George
Olds. Here the mysterious four-horse team appeared and the
giant, encased in an iron-bound box, began his wanderings in
search of his temporary tomb. Reports from various places
indicate that the route was circuitous and the answers of his
guardians to questions evasive and inconsistent. Machinery,
iron castings, a soldier's monument, and "Jeff Davis" were
among the replies to inquisitive persons. At one place, it was
said, a small boy secured an auger and attempted to do some
prospecting on his own account, but the owners of the box
foiled his project.
Having
arrived in the vicinity of the Newell farm, the box
disappeared. The story of the midnight burial of the giant
must be left to the imagination. It is not difficult to
picture the scene: the shadowy light of the lanterns revealing
the figures of the men busy about the inert figure, the rasp
of iron and the splitting of wood as the box was opened, the
creak of machinery as slowly and carefully the stone figure
was lowered into its waiting grave, and the water seeped up
around it. The earth was filled in and the top smoothed off.
Probably there was no one to repeat the burial formula but the
future developments indicate that the spectators were not
without a belief in the resurrection of the body they had so
carefully buried.
And so the
mystery of the "Cardiff Giant" was solved. The owners made
frantic efforts to refute the evidence but in vain, for in the
midst of their protestations, Hull, who apparently enjoyed the
joke and who had realized financially on the scheme before the
gossip about the planting of the giant had been verified, made
public the whole story of the swindle.
In addition
to confirming the main points of the story of the wanderings
of the gypsum-block and the stone giant, Hull explained where
he received the suggestion of the plan. While on a visit to
relatives at Ackley, Iowa, he had entered upon a discussion
with a Methodist revivalist and in the argument concerning the
belief in Biblical stories, Hull who was himself an atheist
received the inspiration of the burying and resurrection of
the giant.
These
revelations would seem to be sufficient to destroy all belief
and curiosity in the stone giant, but in spite of them a
graduate student of Yale, named Alexander McWhorter, made a
study of the "Cardiff Giant". He discovered on the figure an
inscription in ancient Phoenician letters and evolved the
theory that here was a Phoenician idol. No one else was ever
able to see this inscription, but McWhorter wrote an article
elaborating his theory and had it published in a prominent
magazine. Dr. White of the Yale Medical School also examined
the figure and of the discussion between these two men, Andrew
D. White says: "Dickens in his most expansive moods never
conceived anything more funny than the long, solemn discussion
between the erratic Hebrew scholar and the eminent medical
professor at New Haven over the 'pores' of the statue, which
one of them thought 'the work of minute animals, which the
other thought elaborate Phoenician workmanship, which both
thought exquisite, and which the maker of the statue had
already confessed that he had made by rudely striking the
statue with a mallet faced with needles."
But no
theories could restore the popularity of the "Cardiff Giant".
Some of the enterprising citizens of Fort Dodge- W. H. Wright,
Dr. McNulty, and the editor of The Iowa North West — collected
the evidence and published it in a pamphlet entitled The
Cardiff Giant Humbug, concluding with a modest advertisement
of Fort Dodge. These pamphlets were sent to New York and sold
in the town in which the "Cardiff Giant" was being exhibited.
The promoters made frantic efforts to stop their sale, but
enough were distributed to expose the claims of the giant.
Although it continued to be exhibited for some time in spite
of the appearance of a rival and the story of its real origin,
the returns soon diminished and the colossus was finally
stranded at Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where it was held for
storage charges. It was put on exhibition at the Pan-American
Exposition at Buffalo in 1901, but at the close of the
Exposition it was returned to Fitchburg, where it was stored
in an old barn.
It was felt,
however, that the old giant should be returned to its home at
Fort Dodge, and it was purchased by Joseph B. Mulroney from
the heirs of the estate to which it belonged and brought back
to Fort Dodge, where it has been exhibited from time to time.
It is now owned by Hugo Schultz of Huron, South Dakota, but it
remains in charge of the Brady Transfer and Storage Company at
Fort Dodge. Although in retirement, the "Cardiff Giant" was
the chief guest at a "wake" given in Fort Dodge to visiting
advertising men in convention there in the spring of 1921—an
honor, indeed, which the old giant well deserved.
RUTH A.
GALLAHER
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