BOSWELL, William
Source:
Greencastle Banner April 29, 1875 p3
William Boswell of Stilesville, Hendricks County died very suddenly at Indianapolis on Wednesday night of last week and the circumstances surround his death at first gave rise to the supposition that he had been murdered by poisoning. Boswell was a man of about 40 years old, a blacksmith by trade and remarkable for his immense size and weight. He was in the habit of getting on a big spree occasionally but was not a regular drinker. Last week he went to Indianapolis and got on one of his periodical drunks. On Wednesday evening he went into a saloon on South Illinois Street and while engaged in drinking and throwing dice, he suddenly fell forward on the floor. He was carried into a back room and a physician called, but with no avail and he expired about half past 9 o’clock. A post mortem examination was held, which disproved the theory that he had been poisoned but showed that his death had been caused by heart disease or apoplexy. Boswell was a remarkable man in many respects. He was 5’10 ½” in height, weight 315 pounds was by measurement 60” around the chest. The post morten developed several strange facts. The kidney was large, weighing 9 and a half ounces (ordinary weight 4 ¼-5 ounces), the liver abnormally large 7 ½ pounds; the heart, deprives of blood and membrane, 16 ounces; his skull was a fraction more than a ¼ of an inch in thickness. But the most wonderful thing discovered by the post mortem was the weight of the brain. The weight of the brain of Covier, the great French naturalist was between 59 and 60 ounces; Deputren’s 58; Napoleon’s and Daniel Webster’s an ounce or two less, whilst Boswell’s brain weight a fraction more than 61 ounces.