Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1896 — HIS CRAVE WAS IN A TREE. [ARTICLE]

HIS CRAVE WAS IN A TREE.

Ccrman Baron Buried in the Hollow of an Oak. Ooe of the most curious mausoleums in the world was discovered the other day iu au orchard at the village of N'oebdeuitz iu baxe-Altenburg. A. gigantic old oak tree, which a storm had robbed of its crown, was up for public auction. Among the bidders happened to be Huron von Thuieuiei, scion of a family of ancient lineage that has given the world <>f literature one charming poet and the fatherlaud many distinguished statesmen. The Baron, who lives out neighboring estate, had ridden to the auction place quite accidentally. As no ouc seemed eager to help out the auctioneer, he started the bidding at a small figure. This aroused tile peasants’ suspicion; they thought there might lie some value in this old tree and tried for a time to outdo their feudal lord in recklessness. The battle raged for an hour, until finally the tree was knocked down to the Baron for “00 marks. Upon his arrival at Hie castle lie told an old servaut of his purchase, describing tlie tree and its situatiou. “Maybe,” said the man, “Your Lordship has bought one of your ancestors at the same time.” The old servant said lie remembered attending the funeral of a Baton Thttminel seventy or eighty years ago, and that the bo ly had been buried in a thousand-year-old oak, then standing on u plot of ground belonging to the parsonage. Investigation proved that the orchard had once been the property of the village church, and that at one side of the old oak was au iron shutter, rusty and timeworn, that the people of the town had always supposed to have been placed there by some joker or mischievous boys. This iron shutter proved to be the gate to the mausoleum of Baron Hans Wilhelm yon Tliummel, at one time Minister of State of 8a:;e-Altenburg, who died in 1824 and wished to be buried “in the 1,000-year-old tree lie loved so well.” The oak, which measures about ten feet in diameter, lias, for over a century, been hollow, so it was learned, beginning nt a point about five feet above its base. Iu this hollow Baron Hans caused to lie built a sepulchre of solid masonry large enough to accommodate liis collin. The cottin was placed there, as the church records show, on March fi, 1824, and the opening was closed by an iron gale. In the course of time a wall of wood grew over the opeuing, which had been enlarged to admit the coffln and workmen, and for many years it lias been com, pletely shut, thus removing the last ves. ■tige of the odd use to which the old tree had been put. The prosen t Baron caused the reopening of the mausoleum by removing the wood and placed a new wrought Iron gate in front of it. also improving the surroundings. The tree lias still some life iu it uud its ricli verdure is only now turning a violet tint. The coftln iu which Baron lluus reposes has ou one side grown to tlie tree, the dead and the live wood Joining in eternal embrace. *•