Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/59

 camped and fought together in many campaigns, was an event never to be forgotten. No such reunion had occurred since the grand review at Washington in 1865, just before the close of the war. Most of the distinguished Iowa officers who survived were present and took part in the interesting exercises and again greeted their old comrades. It was the proudest day in General Baker’s life as he was continually reminded of the warm affection entertained for him by “his boys.” Every soldier wanted to take him by the hand. It was the first and last general reunion of Iowa soldiers.

In the month of October, 1869, it was reported in the newspapers that the petrified body of a man of gigantic proportions had been unearthed in digging a well near the village of Cardiff, some thirteen miles from Syracuse, New York. Upon investigation made by a reporter of the Syracuse Journal, who hurried to the spot, the following facts were learned. In digging a well on the farm of William Newell at a depth of three feet the spades struck what appeared to be a rock of large size.

Mr. Newell cautioned the men to be careful and taking one of the spades began to remove the earth until he uncovered an immense stone giant. He directed the workmen to carefully excavate the earth around the petrified man, as he called it, until the form was entirely uncovered, disclosing what appeared to be a human body in a state of petrifaction and of enormous size. The news of the discovery spread rapidly and soon an excited crowd of villagers gathered around the grave of the giant. The report of the affair was soon carried to Syracuse and crowds hurried to Cardiff to look at the wonderful discovery. Mr. Newell erected a tent over the giant, made an excavation around the body and had the water pumped out. He stationed guards about the tent and a doorkeeper collected half a dollar from each of the rapidly increasing crowd of visitors. The Syracuse newspapers published glowing descriptions of the “petrified giant”