Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1877-01-05
a Mysterious Box.


a Mysterious Box.
Late one night last week two strange
white men appeared at Buntura's livery
stable and hired horse and light wagon
for the ostensible purpose of making a
journey into the country few miles to
see man on important business, but
later developments prove them to have
been seekers after buried treasure, and,
from all accounts, their mission was a
successful one. On leaving the stable
with the conveyance, they took aboard
third party in the person of colored
man, who had in his possession pick
and spade; they then drove quietly
through the city and out on the Wash
ington road until they arrived near St.
Cathsrine's creek, where they alighted,
and one of the white men produced a
roughly ly-sketched map of the immediate
neighborhood, which they proceeded to
inspect by the light of dark-lantern.
After occupying half an hourin compar-
ing the tracings on the map with the inn
mediately surrounding country, they ap-
parently came to the conclusion that
they were in the sought.for locality. At
this stage of the proceedings one of the
men drew forth his watch and remarked:
ut lacks just ten minutes of midnight,
the time at which we must begin our
work" He continued to hold the open
watch in his hand, and the three con.
spirators, breathlessly silent, ir the
dreary hours of midnight-when weird
spirits and hob-goblins are wont to stalk
forth-lay crouching upon the sward near
a. % 81 \: c.
rine's, waiting for the hour to come when
the fates decreed their work should COM
mence. At last the hands on the dial
denoted that the hour had arrived,
that witching hour of night when
church-yards yawn." Then the men
arose and, taking from the wagon a
miners rod" they began to march
in a circle around large cottonwood
tree, which stands some distance from
the road; each circuit brought them
nearer to the tree. After walking for an
hour, and when within six feet of the
tree, the miners rod" suddenly flew from
the hand of the man who had been car
rying it, and stuck upright in the earth
about three feet from the butt of the cot
tonwood. The colored man was here or
dered to bring his pick and spade into
requsition, and go to work digging at
the spot where the rod had located itself.
Through the remainder of the night he
diligently welded the pick and spade,
until the light streaks in the sky began
to signify the approach of morn, and as
yet NO treasure had been unearthed; the
sun rose in all its splendor, and still the
coony-colored servant was dexteroHsly
plying the pick and spade. The garden
ers and marketmen on their way to town
stopped in surprise at the unusual spec
tacle, and wondered what was the mean
ing of the strange proceedings. They
questioned the white men as to the OBJ
ject of their digging, but they were
dumb to all questions. By six o'clock a
considerable number of spectators had
assembled at the spot, and their presence
seemed to annoy the strangers consider
ably, but did not interfere with the work.
The hole by this time had assumed con-
siderable dimensions, being some eight
feet deep and several feet wide, when
suddenly the colored man struck his
spade on some hard substance, which
produced grating noise, causing the two
white men to become excited and some
what nervous, as if the object of their
mysterious undertaking was about to be
consummated. They had apparently
struck the looked-for object, but the men
thought it would not do to unearth it in
the presence of the numerous spectators
who had been attracted to the scene by
the strange proceedings, so one of them
suddenly discovered that their horse,
standing some few yards distant, showed
indications of sickness, and he immedi-
ately ran to the horse, at the same time
calling on the spectators to follow him,
which they did, and as soon as their
backs were turned upon the excavation
the colored man with his spade turned
up mahogany box about eighteen
inches long and six inches wide, which
the remaining white man hastily snatched
up and covered with his overcoat, and,
after ordering the colored man to fill up
the hole and meet them at a certain place,
he hurried to the buggy and, in COM
pany with the other white man, drove at
a rapid pace toward the city, leaving the
astonished spectators in state of bewil-
derment, and wondering what all this
business meant. There are many sur
misses regarding the contents of the box
and how 1t came to be buried at the
foot of the cottonwood tree. The pre-
vailing opinion is that the box contained
diamonds, specie and greenbacks, as one
of the men paid the livery bill with
musty twenty dollar greenback, issued
during the war, which was probably a
portion of the contents of the box. The
two white men are supposed to have for
merly belonged to Wisconsin regiment
which was stationed here during the war,
and the box and contents were, in all
probability, stolen from some residence
and buried by the parties who resur-
rected it, or by other members of the
same regiment who let them into the Sc
cret. II is rumored that the box and con-
tents were valued at $50, ,0O0.-Ndtehsz
(AiSS) ResS South