Handbook N-P - Fulton County Public Library

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The remains have aroused much discussion and several people first thought that it was
part of the skeleton of a Mastodon or a Dinortherium, but their theories were disapproved today.
James Hoover came into the Sentinel office, examined the relics, and at once said that it was the
remains of a Mammoth. The size and structure of the teeth proved his assertion.
40,000 Years Old
The Mammoth lived on this earth about 40,000 years ago, according to the best
authorities, and inhabited the northern regions. In the year 1799 a full size Mammoth, in perfect
state of preservation was dug out of the ice in Siberia. The one found had long hair over the body
with a fine coat of redish wool next to the skin. Judging from the size of the teeth the one on
exhibition at the Sentinel office was probably about six months old.
[Rochester Sentinel, Monday, April 14, 1913]
MORE BIG BONES ARE FOUND
More bones, supposedly those of a mammoth or mastodon, have been unearthed by the
A. C. Davisson dredge, which is now at work on the Rentschler ditch near Fulton.
The bones were dug up in a swamp on the John Frye farm, southeast of Fulton, and
consist principally of ribs full two inches wide, and what are thought to be leg bones, six inches in
diameter. Frye himself picked them up after they had been dug out of their resting places, six feet
under ground.
It is two miles from this place to the Charles Yankee farm, where the jaw bones of a
mammoth, exhibited in the Sentinel window, were found, and consequently it is hardly thought
that the sets are part of one skeleton. Further investigation may be made of the find, which will be
reported to Washington.
[Rochester Sentinel, Thursday, July 24, 1913]
STILL MORE BONES ARE FOUND
Again has the Davisson dredge working on the Rentschler ditch, east of Fulton, unearthed
bones of prehistoric animals, the machine this time throwing up a number of well preserved
specimens presumably from the skeleton of a mastodon or mammoth.
The bones were found in a swampy part of the Arthur Frye farm, two and one-half miles
east of Fulton. Among them were a jaw bone, with teeth in it eight inches wide; a piece of tusk
broken, but about half remaining and in good shape; thigh bone three feet long, smallest part 12
inches around, largest part 29 inches around; hip bone, three feet long; and several other bones.
The bones were picked up by Frye after the dredge had cast them out on the bank of the
new ditch. They are valuable relics and were found three miles from the Yankee farm.
[Rochester Sentinel, Saturday, August 2, 1913]
BONES OF PREHISTORIC BEAST WERE UNCOVERED
Several large bones of what is thought to have been a mastodon were uncovered several
days ago on the farm of Robert Ewen six miles southwest of Rochester. The farm is better known
as the Newburn farm.
The bones were unearthed while Mr. Ewen and several men were digging a trench in
which to place tile. The bones were under the earth’s surface but three feet.
The tiling was done to drain a pot hole. It is believed that the huge animal in some
prehistoric day was either feeding or drinking water at the point where some earth transformation
took place which either killed or trapped him.
Several vertabrae have been uncovered as has a large bone from one of the limbs. This
bone was some five feet long. What is thought to have been a knee joint has also been unearthed.
It was a foot in diameter.
In years gone by a number of mastodons have been found west of Rochester and
northwest of this city near Argos. The last such discoveries were made four years ago near Argos
by a farmer.