Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1872-10-03
FORTUNESIN LEAD.
Lucky Lot-Buyer and q Wealthy
Hermit.

Lucky LOf.Buyer ana wealthy
Hermit.
A correspondent of the New York
Tribune relates the following stories :
A few years ago young man bought
q building lot in Dubuque for 5000. In
digging for foundation he struck ore,
and Immediately called in three or four
friends to enable him to guy the sur
rounding lots. From cave in those
dots, which afterward made a first-class
cellar. at an expense of an additional
5000 for labor in excavating, &c, he
took out $4,000 worth OF lead, within
a fortnight. My informant is citizen
of this place, and was himself the hero
OF his story.
A WESTERN HERMIr-ToM KRLLY's CAVE.
There is shade of romance con
nected with another lead cave which
visited. There poor old Tom Kelly
lived and died; poor, though rich.
Tom was an uneducated Irishman, and
when he had discovered his cave kept
the fact to himself He smelted his
own ore and carried his lead down to
the river bank secretly, until he had
hidden in the bank about twelve
thousand dollars worth of lead.
This he shipped and went with it down
the river, reshipping it at New Orleans
and going with it to New York, where
he sold it, taking his pay in gold.
Perhaps the gold was heavier than the
lead. At all events poor Tom sat down
with his money-bags to rest, and as he
was a dirty looking old fellow, some
boys collected around him and began
poking fun at him. A great fear seized
Tom-a fear for bis lnoney-bags. He
snatched them up and started to
lying The boys followed, hootiDg.
Tom stumbled and fell. One of the
boys ahead of the rest came upon him.
Tom drew knife and stabbed the boy
through the heart. At the trial which
ensued it was shown that Tom Kelly
was more than half crazed, and he was
acquitted and kept in confinement as a
lunatic. Here his instincts as a miner
stood him in good stead he burrowed
out and escaped. Before long, Tom
was at work IN his mine again, but he
was now more secretive than ever He
built himself a stone house, where each
window was an embrasrlre pointing out
of which was a fixed loaded musk eft, and
the only man who ever got enough INTO
Toms confidence to examine the house,
says that there was also fixed musket
enfilading the doorway. He told this
person that he was having an iron
house made for himself that he thought
would be much more secure. In gen
eral it was but little, and only to mere
children, that Tom ever spoke. And
there came day, somo two years ago,
when Tom fonnd Unnecessary to prepare
to go to a house where he is likely to
be permanently safe. Two brothers,
almost as uncouth as Tom himself,
came lowering about the dying man.
He asked the priest to bring lawyer;
and when this was effected said: eff
you will send them out" pointing to
his brothers. Il will tell all But the
brothers would not go out of
the house, and Tom died as mute as he
had lived. Application to the proper
authorities in New York recovered
Toms gold which he had been too
much frightened to apply for after his
escape. The brothers left not one
stone of the house upon another, and
they found $4,000 in gold hidden in
and around it. Out OF Toms cave
they took in addition, it is believed,
ore to value of not less than 800, 900.
They divided their treasures as they
found gold or sold ore, by dealing out
coin or bills as if they were cards at
poker, one to each alternately. What
Is left of Tom Kelly's real estate looks
like the debris of an earthquake.