High Waters In East Tennessee Unearth Giants

Captain W. E. McElwee was a prominent lawyer in Roane County Tennessee. The following is part of his bio from the History of Tennessee and Tennesseans by William Thomas Hale 1913 pg 2451.

“One of the oldest members of the Roane county bar, to which he was admitted in 1860, but now for many years retired, Captain McElwee has had the career typical of much that has been beast in the lives of Tennesseans, during the last half century-as soldiers, lawyers, successful business men and always a man of influence and the highest integrity of personal character.”

The article is suggesting that McElwee had previously unearthed a rather large skeleton. He did indeed unearth several skeletons from a burial mound in Tennessee but I could not find any measurements in the historical literature. The moral to the story is once again that these are burial mound human skeletal finds with human artifacts. These are real people (often prominent and well respected), real places and the historical events are often reported by respected historians in town and county histories. Smithsonian agents also unearthed a seven and a half foot skeleton in Roane County Tennessee, as listed in the 12th annual report of 1890-1891.