Samuel Crumpler 1795-1849
3 Oct 2022
A COUNTRY TRAGEDY
by Beau Parke
Samuel Crumpler paid the price for being so nice
and trusting with his bull;
He walked the field that blistering Summer's day
whilst checking acreage and gauging chores
unmindful of his young and powerful charge.
Then suddenly the animal took pace
and rushed and roared and snorted t'wards his face,
whilst Sam stepped back, yet still believed
the bull was easy to contain:
But on it went, momentum built
to such a speed and strength that Sam, alarmed,
tried frantic'ly to reach for branches of the nearby oak,
but failed to get the leverage he needed now
to avoid its frenzied, maddened surge;
He yelled in terrifying pain as he was pinned against
the trunk and gored relentlessly by this unreal, unreasoning
monster that he'd fed and nurtured from a calf;
The blood was spurting forth as sweat and slime and slaver
from the bull was intermixed with gore,
and bones were crushed till Samuel Crumpler's broken frame
was tossed into the air, now cruelly
scythed and crunched beyond all comprehension.
His sorrowing widow and nine sons and daughters
saw him laid to rest a few days later
in the Village Churchyard, knowing that local history
had been made at his expense for trusting that
young bull and lowering his guard.
Samuel Crumpler, wheelwright, carpenter and sometime farmer died,
aged fifty-five, in 1849; a kind and strong and gallant,
some say foolish, family man.
Samuel Crumpler was my 4th Great Grandfather, born on 11 January 1795 in Church Knowle, Dorset, England.
On the 12th August 1849 he was killed when his own bull gored him against an oak tree in a field at Lytchett Matravers.
Almost 173 years later, on the 23rd April 2022, Mrs Foot & myself went for a drive to St Marys Church at Lytchett Matravers and set off on foot to see if we could find the locally famous tree which we had heard still stood in the field.
It's a bit of a trek through the woods but we finally reached the field "Underdaykers" which is a local term for 100 acres, the approximate size of the field.
Right in the middle of the field we found the tree which has Samuels initals engraved with the year 1849 and a coffin inbetween.
The article shown, written by local paper The Poole Herald, was reproduced in newspapers around the World. The image here is taken from The Morning Post, Saturday August 18th 1849.