October 17, 1936
THE STATE
Page Seven
May Not Exhume Ney’s Body
INTERESTED parties claim they are cer¬
tain that Peter Stuart Ney anil Marshal Ney
were one and the same person. New evi¬
dence has been brought to light.
PLAN'S for exhuming the body of
lVtrr Stuart Xoy, buried in the
Third C’reek Presbyterian Church
cemetery near here, may In; abandoned.
C. W. Allison, historian and author¬
ity on the Ney legend, and Chief Frank
Littlejohn of the Charlotte police de¬
tective division, interested in the proj¬
ect, have announced that “the opening
of the grave is not necessary in view
of information that has been received
recently.”
“The information proves beyond any
doubt that the French soldier buried
near here under the name of Peter
Stuart Ney is Marshal Ney of France,”
Mr. Allison said.
He added that a section of the
archives of the Masonic Order had
been found and that they established
the identity of the schoolmaster who
came to the Carolines in 1816 after
the French Marshal ostensibly had
been executed in December, 1815. The
Ney enigma has been a subject of his¬
torical controversy almost since the
colorful old teacher was buried.
He was quoted as saying on his
deathbed: “I am Marshal Ney of
France.”
Handwriting Is Identical
In addition to the secret Masonic
record, details of which Mr. Allison
could not divulge, he said several hand¬
writing experts have declared samples
of writing left by the old schoolmaster
and known writings of Marshal N'ey
are the same.
So convinced is Mr. Allison of the
facts which he has in hand that he
has launched a plan to erect a shrine
in the form of a wall around the ceme¬
tery where the grave is located. The
memorial, to cost $25,000, will dupli¬
cate the wall against which Marshal
Ney was supposedly executed.
Clarence O. Kuester, manager of the
Charlotte Chamber of Commerce is co¬
operating in the plan.
Senator Robert R. Reynolds, of
North Carolina, has become interested
in the matter and has announced that
By JOHN W. HARDEN
he will ask Congress to erect a monu¬
ment at the cemetery, too.
Mr. Allison has delivered to the
Charlotte Public Library the cast of
the skull of the man buried near here,
made when the grave was opened in
1887. It is on display there. He has
assigned a value of $10,000 to the piece.
A Valuable Bust
Of corresponding interest is the fact
that the Fniversity of North Carolina
owns one of the six busts made from the
death mask of Napoleon, with whom
Ney fought. The University recently
declined an offer of $60,000 for this.
New evidence in the Ney case came
to light here, too, with the assertion
of R. N. Barber, of Waynesville, N. C..
that he was at the grave side when the
body was disinterred in 1887 :
“I am thoroughly convinced that the
1ик1у
I saw exhumed in Third Creek
Presbyterian cemetery near my old
home at Barber's Junction on May 3,
1887, was really the remains of
Marshal Ney of France,” asserted Mr.
Barber.
Mr. Barber said he was a young boy
when the bones of Peter Stuart Ney
were removed from the grave for ex¬
amination nearly 50 yenrs after burial.
“Some of the teeth had fallen out
and they were tilled with gold and in
perfect condition,” said Mr. Barber.
“The men in charge pointed out that
the bones and skull were those of a
heavy man, one of powerful and rugged
physique.
"Doctor Loughenour of Statesville
put the skull, which had fallen into
two pieces, together and made pictures
and a cast of it.
“I remember examining the skull
very well. On one side there was a
hole well above the ear, as if part of
the skull had been cut away for trepan¬
ning. The bone was porous around that
hole and looked as if it had decayed
around a cut place in the bone. The
piece of skull was missing and was
never found, lending credence to the
theory that this was the skull of
Marshal Ney of France, who was sup¬
posed to have had a silver trepan in
his head.
“Everything was decomposed except
for the skull and bones and bits of the
coffin that had been preserved around
the brass corner plates and screws. The
wood looked like cedar.
"The bones were put back in the
grave, but I was not there when they
filled the grave again and do not know
in what kind of box they were placed
for reburial.”
Gruesome Souvenirs
Mr. Harbor said gome Statesville
women grabbed up bits of Ney's bones
and were carrying them away as grue¬
some souvenirs, but they were stopped
at the cemetery gate and made to re¬
turn the bones. He said several thou¬
sand people gathered for the exhuming
of the body, the largest crowd lie had
ever seen up to that time.
The Waynesville man said he is
deeply interested in the current move¬
ment to exhume the bones again for
further study. He said he felt that
microscopic examination might lie
helpful in establishing definitely that
I’eter Stewart Noy who taught school
in Rowan County and was buried there
was in reality Marshal Ney. But he
placed most de|»endence in the testi¬
mony of handwriting experts who have
examined the known writings of
Marshal Ney of Franco and of Peter
Stewart Ney of Rowan County and
who have without exception pronounced
the writings to be by the same man.
“I know that the men in charge of
the exhumation 50 years ago firmly
believed that the school teacher was
in reality Napoleon’s great military
genius and strategist." Mr. Barber said.
“I have been convinced all my life
that they were the same man. Nothing
pleases me more than the finding of
incontrovertible proof that will estab
lish Ney's identity beyond the shadow
of a doubt.”