The bulletin. (Irwinton, Wilkinson County, Ga.) 191?-19??, August 30, 1912, Image 6
' 11111 , | TT | LOST TREASURES OF AMERICA Gold and Jewels Still Waiting to be Found by Some Modern Adventurer. BY : Buffington Phillips 4 (Copyright, by the Ridgway Co.) TIE greatest treasure in the United States, a vast sum that awaits some one’s finding, is one concerning which I have sought the exact truth for the several years that I have followed this fad of col lecting treasure-trove data. The pub lication of the story or stories about it may bring to light the men who can say definitely what is what. However any man who cares to set out after It In a business-like manner may turn himself into a multi-millionaire be tween Christmas and Fourth of July. This much Is certain: somewhere on the upper reaches of the Missouri river lie four large barges, lost in 1866, laoded to their utmost capacity with gold estimated in amount from $7,000,000 to $25,000,000. Just at the close of the civil war some rumors of the finding of gold in the Black Hills of Dakota and Mon tana drifted into the towns on the border of civilization in the northwest. It seems odd to think that fifty years ago that region was a frontier, but there are hundreds of old Indians now living on the reservations who then were fighting braves and fifty years ago they had never seen a white man’s face. In the spring of 1866 some old pros pectors In the back drift from Califor nia found gold in one of the tributaries of the Missouri, said now to be the north fork of the Cheyenne. Why it is no more certain will appear. Others of thier Ilk “smelled” the discovery and a band of no more than forty drew into the region, making a won derful strike, the richest that has ever been made on America soil according to all accounts. The strike was made In what is now called Deadmen’s Gulch, named to suit the story, but called in the old records Federation, Desperation and Starvation Gulches. The gold was alluvial, washed down from the northern ledges, now being worked by the rich Caledonia Qaurtz Mine Company near Deadwood. The gravel banks and flats were inexpres- sibly rich with it and all summer the forty men toiled feverishly, extracting as much as they could before the win ter should descend upon them, shut off their fish, game and vegetable food supply and drive them to civilization, where the knowledge of the vast wealth of the Black Hills and the re mainder of the auriferous region would 'become public property. f When the ground froze and they -could work no longer they cut timber and made four large barges of shallow draft and on them laoded the gold In provision boxes, and mule and deer skins made into rawhide sacks. Even then they were compelled to leave some of it behind because the barges would not carry it. The hostile Indians who had not dared attack so large a party in the mining camp with its excellent de fenses and those who were apparently on friendly terms with the miners now took a hand in the game. After the hardy forty had reached the Missouri and had negotiated a portion of its distance they tied up one night, not long before Christmas. They were at tacked by a large band of Indians, who massacred every living soul, sank the barges and took all their belong ings except the gold, of which they did not know the value. Some accounts hold the Blackfeet responsible, others the Ogalala. How the news ever got to the world I cannot say, save as the Indians told of it and friends of the dead men traced them into the country from which they never came out. Gradual ly the story took form and it set the prospectors wild. They ranged the region from the Bad Lands to the Big Horn river for twenty-seven years and then came the great discovery in the Black Hills. The gold left behind at the point of embarkation was finally found. Old workings which showed the vast quantities taken out by the forty pros pectors were discovered and for a few years a torrent of alluvial gold poured out of the Black Hills. Then the whole thing settled down to the staid and regular quartz proposition. The Kansas City Star some years ago printed a circumstantial story stating that a young Indian student at Haskell had told a professor that his father was one of the braves in the massacre, knew where the barges were sunk and was still living on the reser vation. It may be that the river has changed its course and left the barges under a thin layer of gravel, easily ac cessible on dry land. The way to find the treasure is to trace down the Sto ries, locate some of the old Indians and induce them to locate the spot and point it out from memory. It should not be difficult. In 1759 there was lost in the Bay of Islands, at the mouth of the St. Law rence river, the good ship Primrose, with a store of gold and silver and jewels aboard her. The exact amount of her treasure is unknown, but it must be vast. Full of wild romance is the story of the “Devil Duval's Horde” on the top of the Rocks of Perce on the Gaspe peninsula, only about twenty tour hours ride by train from New York City. Certain British laws must be repealed before It can be recovered, however. It is in one of the out-of way places of the world and very lit tle is knowrf by the general public about it. The superstitious French fishermen, unchanged in a hundred and fifty years, still await the return of the fierce pilot to claim his own. The Rock of Perce, named for the adjacent fishing village, is one of the true natural wonders of our continent. When some convulsion of nature rent the coast this rock was split from the nearby mountain and left standing, a grim monument to the caprice of the gods of sea dnd land. Several hun dred feet high, with a comparatively flat top, its sides are beetling and one side is about two hundred feet higher than the other. Once it was pierced by three arches through any one of which a small ship might sail, but now one of these has collapsed, leaving only the two huge galleries. Captain Duval was a French priva teer who returned only a small por tion of his loot from English and oth er ships to the French authorities, and after the declaration of peace he became an out-and-out pirate. He protected the French fishermen and was generous with them. They, in their turn, protected him as the Eng lish peasant protected Dick Turpin. At last he was hard pressed by the English, and having in his service a Micmac Indian who knew a secret trail to the supposedly inaccessible Rock of Perce, he collected all his caches of treasure in the maritime provinces and brought them to Perce. The Indian carried a line to the top of the rock and hauled up a block and fall. Then two prisoners were hauled up, and next Duval himself. Boats containing the great treasure chests stood by below. The tradition is that they were a day ano a moonlight night getting it all up. Then the Indian was sent down and Duval himself was lowered away. His rapier was dripping with blood and when he reached the boat he stood up, and with a harquebus shot at the tackle till it was cut clean, too high up the rocks for any one to reach. “Devil Duval” sailed away and never returned. For years the winds battered and the sun and rains rotted the ropes on the walls of the rock till at last they disappeared. So many lives were lost in attempts to scale the rocks and re cover the treasure that a law was passed forbidding any one to make the attempt without the necessary le galized concession from the governor o 1 the province of Quebec. Only the wild sea-birds, making their nests in the top of the rock, know the story of the two prisoners and the chests of treas ure on the bleak heights. But an air ship could learn it. Carleton Island, in the St. Lawrence river, was an outfitting place for Tory raiding parties and an arsenal was es tablished there. A pay chest was sent to the post with a large sum of money. The chest disappeared and its loss was reported to General Haldimand at Montreal. In 1879, Colonel Horr of Cape St. Vincent, received a visit from a stranger, who requested the use of a boat and, being granted it, he rowed to Carleton Island and returned in a short time with a heavy iron chest covered with clinging wet clay. Col onel Horr, thinking nothing wrong, helped the man row to the steamboat landing and he was never heard from again. In a few days William Majo, one of the owners of the island, sent a boy into the pine thicket for stray ing horses and there the lad found the flat-stone-lined hole where the chest had rested. There are two extensive areas of buried treasure in the thickly popu ’ lated parts of the United States. One, • the lesser, is on the general lines of Sherman's march to the sea. North I and south of it, plantation after plan ; tation, town after town, have their : stories of treasures ranging from a few hundreds of dollars to hundreds ’ of thousands which were buried for > fear the Union army would get them. . Many were never recovered because -of the failure of the owners to locate ' the burial places. The surest way to lose a treasure is to bury It, It seems. 1 The earth In some mysterious way spreads a mantle of oblivion which can not be pierced by the memory of man and takes back to her bosom the treasure that was wrested from her. The other area is in the east, be ginnig at about Camden, N. J., and ex,- tending north to Albany and thence to Portland, Maine. In that field lived the rich Royalist and Tory families. The sudden turning of the tide found the Tories In possession of a great quantity of gold coin, gold and silver plate and jewels, and fearing they would lose these, they burled them and then fled. Comparatively little of it was ever exhumed and the area is dotted thickly with localities where a search would be highly profitable. Os them I can mention a few only. At Sound Beach, Conn., Ilves Mrs. Jane Louden, 101 years of age. Her husband, knowing that on the home farm a wealthy Tory family had buried gold, hunted until he found several pots containing several thousand dol lars each. A neighbor also acquired sudden wealth which he did not ex plain. Every one knew there was a great joint family cache somewhere near. It was known for many years that on Lord Edmeston’s estate near West Edmeston, N. Y., his personal repre sentative, Perdifer Carr, had buried a treasury, The property known as the Burdick Farm, having been bought by Henry F. Burdick in 1850, was the site. In 1904 a tenant named Cheese borough plowed-. Into a ease of china and glass, breaking half of it before he realized what the obstruction was. By reason of design and quality the re mainder, however, was worth a small fortune to dealers in antiques. It was the Edmeston ware. The law suit that followed for possession made the case famous. Where is the remainder of the treasure? Joel Coryell, sexton at Romulus, N. Y., digging a grave on what was a Tory estate in 1776, found a large quantity of money in an old pot. The grave belonged to Thomas Mann, but Coryell kept the gold. Walter Butler, the notorious Mo hawk Valley Tory, returned to the val ley at the end of the war with a force of Tories and Indians to dig up the treasures he had buried and those that had been burled by other wealthy Tories who had told him where to re cover it in their behalf. When he had finished his work and was returning, the pursuing Colonials under Colonel Marinus Willet, overtook the treasure squad beyond Johnson’s Hall on the bank of the West Canada In northern Herkimer county. The treasure was too heavy for the fleeing party so It was dumped in the shallows and horses were ridden through the water to make it muddy. Butler was killed, the raiders driven away and the spoils await present-day seekers. While there is some dohbt as to au thenticity, there is said to be a $16,- 000,000 cache of Spanish doublons, buried by Captain Kidd, on Esopus Island in the Hudson river, not far from New York City, while at the very gate of New York is a forgotten treas ure of many hundreds of thousands. This famous treasure was lost when the British frigate Hesarar, a pay ship sent in for the British soldiers during the revolutionary war, went down in the East river. It will be easy to look up the old Admiralty records and get the full Information that may lead to the finding of the treasure. The facts pertaining to Klopper Smith's horde are as follows: “Der Klopper” was a very brutal and much feared knight of the road on the west shores of the Hudson from Nyack to the Catskills and he robbed the wealthy Dutch In an unmerciful man ner. He had no opportunities for spending his ill-gotten wealth and hoarded it somewhere. At last he was captured and before his execution at Newburg confided to a keeper who had been kind to him that he had sacks of gold and silver and jewels buried in a spot on Storm King Mountain, just north of Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, some thirty-five miles north of New York City. No search has ever been made. In the hey-day of Mississippi river steamboat traffic, a great deal of sun ken treasure accumulated in the Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee, Missouri, Red and Arkansas rivers. A pay boat on Its way to Grant’s army at Vicksburg with more thyi two million dollar^ aboard was fir/d by some of her crew who meant to rob her. The paymas ter’s men defended the money till the . boat sank. James B. Eads, who built the Eads bridge at St. Louis and the ■ i Eads jetties at the mouth of the Mis . | slssippi, invented an apparatus by use > I of which he could reach some of the i I treasure-wrecks in shallow water and । 1 recovered several million dollars. All -. j . of it could/ be reached with compara ■ tlve ease now. * Just above Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a steamboat said to have been the Car -1 lyle J. Harrison, with several hundred thousand dollars in gold to pay for cotton, was sunk in 1869. None of It has ever been recovered. There is a fascinating story about an old barge that is burled In the Mis souri sand-flats near Fort Rice, North Dakota. With it is burled silver worth more than half a million dollars. At the time when the unsuccessful pros pectors were toiling, empty handed, back from the gold fields of California, a little band of men struck a rich find near what is now Virginia City, Mon tana. The built a rude camp and, with the poor implements that they had, work ed feverishly for many months until they had taken out all that their packs could carry across the miles of uncivilized country they must cross to the navigable rivers of the upper Mis souri. Tolling across the mountains, always in danger of massacre, facing starvation and privations, breaking roads in the frozen flats and blazing trails through the forests, they finally reached the river near Painted Woods, and there built a rude barge and load ed it to the water’s edge with the rich silver ore. Traveling by night, in constant feat of Indian outbreaks, they wended slow ly down the partly frozen river, know ing that soon they would reach the frontier town and safety. It was in ’64 and the few scattered settlements had been deserted. No Indians had been seen for days and, taking cour age, they traveled faster and with less caution. When they were near Fort Rice they were attacked by the In dians and all of the little band were killed with the exception of one man, Pierre Laselle. Ignorant of the wealth aboard, the Redskins sunk the float, and Pierre Laselle escaped to Fort Rice leaving behind him no trace of the expedition; the secret of the hardships and toil and wealth were with the river and with him. He told no one anything about it for some time —not until he had enlisted in the army and maneu vered so as to get back to be near his treasure. Then he took an old Quak er, named Richard Pope, into his con fidence and at the urgent request of the Quaker his son was also told the secret. Three months later the litle party, well armed and well provisioned, went quietly to the spot that Laselle remem bered so well, only to find that the river course had changed and "a bar of sand had formed over the barge. Not dismayed, however, they dug un til they found the prow of the old scow and on the very eve of success they too were attacked by the Indians and Laselle was killed! Pope and his son, too badly frightened to work again within the year, went back with the secret to the town and while there young Pope died. After many years the old Quaker took another man, named Emerson, and with the drawings that Laselle and he had made they went back to the place of trove and found that the sand bar had grown and that the river ran many hundreds of feet away from the spot where the fortune lay buried In glistening sands. Where Pope said the old diggings would be found a young cottonwood tree was flourish ing. They spent weeks digging for many feet around the place, but found nothing. Some mistake had evidently been made in following out the former instructions, but the barge was there, because Pope and Laselle found it on their first visit: Pope Is dead, but Emerson is still alive and has the old drawings, letters and records. Maybe he can be Induced to part with it, and maybe not, but somewhere In the flats near Fort Rice is a snug little fortune awaiting some finder. Behind the city of St. Augustine, In some likely spot, another rich treasure is located. When It was a rich Span ish town, a favorite putting-in port for the heavily laden Spanish galleons that were coming through the Straits of Florida to avoid sailing the waters made dangerous by Peter the Terrible and Sir Henry Morgan, its wealth at tracted the attention of the free-boot ers and word of their preparations to attack and loot the city was carried to the captain-general. For weeks the city was in a state of great perturbation and when some English ships, probably privateers, ap peared off the coast, the public treas ure, the church treasure and the valu ables of the wealthy citizens were as sembled, removed Inland and hidden. For months the state of suspense con tinued until the Spanish Admiral Quin tana appeared with his fleet. Then the St. Augustinlans thought they could safely bring back their wealth. To their horror the three prominent men entrusted with the secreting of it, either could not find It or pretend ed they could not. One fled to Spain before the anger of his fellow-citizens and his flight cost the lives of the oth er two. They were assassinated as soon as the flight became known. The archives of the Spanish admir alty have full record of the affair and the true key to the treasure trove can best be found by searching the family papers of the man who fled. He never returned, but without doubt he left the valuable information to his heirs. Where millions await the finder in wilder and more uncertain spots is far more interesting ground than the localities where thousands lie under the very noses of the townspeople, or where the plow passes every year over the buried trove. All through the west are rich mines which have been ; found and lost. FRESH EGGS IN GOOD DEMAND Little More Attention .to Details Will Result In Profit, Repaying Time and Labor. (By PROF. A. G. PHILLIPS, Kansas.) The demand for eggs seems practi cally unlimited, more especially for the better grades. The growth of the storage industry has tended to equal ize prices by increasing the de mand in summer when fresh eggs are plentiful and supplying the defi ciency in winter when fresh eggs are scarce. Since the demand is greatest for the best grades, it seems obvious that a little more attention to details will result in a profit amply repaying the extra time and labor involved. It is not the purpose here to enter into any discussion of the ways of increasing the production of eggs, but simply to point out the possibilities x J ■ j ■ ) r .J J V L! .'. : , J WiHlMic -J: «• - An Excellent Egg Candler. of profit as a result of extra care in handling and marketing the eggs now produced; the extra profit is to be made by obtaining the top retail price, and, as consumers become acquainted with the product, by ob taining a premium of from one to five cents per dozen over the regular price pair for ordinary eggs. In order to obtain top prices for eggs, they must be uniform in size, uniform in color, and uniform in quality. The uniformity in color is not always important and depends on the market; uniformity in size ex cludes small eggs and unusually large ones as well; while uniformity in quantity calls for absolutely clean eggs that have been gathered promptly after being laid, kept under the best possible conditions, and marketed not more than three or four days after they are laid. TEACHING HEN GOOD LESSON Poultry Gate as Shown in the’lllustra tion Will Save Cussing and Garden Truck. Barrels of perspiration may be saved by the poultry gate shown herewith, which is reproduced, with the article from the New England homestead. Whoever has uninten tionally acquired the hen chasing, hen-cussing habit may cure himself with this little device. In the fence, preferably at a point near where the fowls are fed, a little door about 10 by 12 inches is hung on the inside of the yard, so as to al ways swing shut without springs. It is stopped from swinging outward by the peg shown at the right. Mrs. Hen, returning repentant* from the garden, will poke her head into every mesh of the fence in her efforts to rejoin her happy companions. The gate will thus allow her to enter without excitement or commotion from the lord of the harem from the irate owner. But another advantage may be gained by using the gate in connec tion with the laying pens. If the two gates are used, one opening inward Garden or Nest Gate. In front of the nest, the other open ing outward at the back or the side, so that the hens may go to another yard after laying, the poultryman may know which hens have and have not laid. Thus he may avoid the trouble usually connected with ordi nary trap nests. Breeders for Next Year. This is the season of the year to buy your breaders for next, as now the large breeders are selling at bar gain prices in order to have the room needed for the growing stock. Atlanta Directory B “Tonks cl»l Attention. All kind, ot Photo Supplies. Send for Catalogue. OLEH PHOTO OTOCH CO. 11l PeacMrsa Atlaiti. 8a mm. wm rt-a. IgwOWZ CURED. QUICK / ■ W RELIEF. Reduces fl ■ swelling 15 days. “ Shortness of breath relieved in 30 hours, i COLLUM DROPSY REMEDY COMPANY Dept. K, 512 Auetell Bldg., Atlanta, Ga. ^^mc.smith typewriters Edison Dictating Machines. 011110 BL Standard Folding Typewrite:** H. M. ASHE CO, So. Dealers Atlanta. Oa. Jacksonville. Ft* THE OLD RELIABLE FRICK ENGINES and the best Steel Wire Cable Saw Mill on * earth. Also large Engines and Boilers sup- ZCX 4 * plied very M , -7, IHO promptly. HMM Circular Saws, Engines and Mill Xjy Repairs, all kinds of Patent ' Dogs, Steam Governors, Com Mills, Feed Mills, Grain Separators, Saw Teeth, Locks, Mill Supplies, and all kinds of machinery. — ; SEND FOR CATALOG AVERY & CO.. 61-53 S. Forsyth St., Atlanta, 6a. The average man can make a fool of himself almost as easily as a wom an can make a fool of him. As a summer tonic there is no medicins that quite compares with OXIDINE. It not only builds up the system, but taken reg ularly, prevents Malaria. Regular or Taste less formula at Druggists. Easy. “I put the wrong couples together at that dinner and I don’t know what to do about my mistakes.” “Why, re-pair them.” For BUMMER HEADACHES Hicks’ CAPUDINE is the best remedy—no matter what causes them—whether from tho heat, sitting in draughts, feverish condition, etc. 10c., 25c. and 5Uc. per bottla,at mediclna stores. Never trust your secrets to the mails —or the females, either. Men and women who are odd might get even by marrying. The Marvel of It. “There is one thing in life which al ways struck me as queer.” “What is that?” “While so few are successful in look ing for an opening, almost every one can find himself In a hole.” Couldn’t Happen to Them. Mike got a job moving some kegs of powder, and, to the alarm of his foreman, was discovered smoking at his work. “Je-ru-sa-lem! ” exclaimed the fore man. “Do you know what happened when a man smoked at this job some years ago? There was an explosion that blew up a dozen men.” “That couldn’t happen here,” re turned Mike calmly. “Why not?" “ ’Cause there's only you and me,” was the reply.”—Everybody’s Magar zine. * IF WIFEY HAD HEARD. [r ““ 11 ~~" '■ ' ■■ 4X— n । — Jack —Who’s that bobbing up and down out there? Jim—Probably my wife. She’s al ways bobbing up when she’s not want ed. A Large Package Os Enjoyment— Post Toasties Served with cream, milk or fruit —fresh or cooked. Crisp, golden-brown bits of white com — delicious and wholesome — A flavour that appeals to young and old. “The Memory Lingers” Sold by Grocers. Fortum Cereal Company, Limited. 1 Bailie Creek, Mich.