Henry Ziegland, a farmer from Honey Grove, Texas, was the victim of an extraordinary and tragic coincidence. On June 5th 1903, he was killed by a bullet that had been fired at him 20 years earlier.
The story of Henry Ziegland is one of the most remarkable tales in history. It began in 1883 when Henry broke off his engagement with his fiancée Maysie Tichnor. Devastated by her heartbreak, Maysie committed suicide shortly after. Her brother was so enraged that he decided to take revenge on Henry and shot him in the face with a gun.
However, unbeknownst to Maysie’s brother, the bullet only grazed Henry’s face before embedding itself into a nearby tree trunk. Believing he had escaped death, Henry continued living his life as normal for the next two decades until one fateful day in 1903 when he decided to cut down the tree where the bullet was lodged. Rather than chopping it down like he normally would, he decided to bore some holes in it and pack it with dynamite.
As the dynamite detonated, the tree exploded, hurling the bullet through the air and hit Henry directly in the temple killing him.
This sounds a little fanciful…so is it? Well, no one has ever come forward and corroborated the claim, but no one has ever been able to prove it wasn’t true either. I was actually able to locate a newspaper from 1913 where the story appeared.
So, I don’t think that we’ll be able to determine whether this event actually happened, but it is interesting nonetheless and definitely plausible.
Henry Ziegland’s story is both tragic and unbelievable but serves as a reminder that we should always be mindful of our actions because even if we think we have gotten away with something unscathed, there may still be consequences waiting for us down the line.
