The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1884-11-14
A FRUITLESS SEARCH.
A Long and sUnavailing Huns for a
Hidden Treasure.


A queer character known as "Old
John" Eberhardt was found dead re-
Gently on the ferry road, near the.
cemetery. in Camden, N. j. He had
spent his life in searching for money
which he affirmed had been hidden
somewhere by his mother. His story,
told in the Philadelphia Times, is as
follows: For some weeks after his
mothers death Eberhardt said nothing
about his fortune, but appeared uneasy
and drank heavily. One morning,
about two months after her death, he
was seen closely examining the ground
of the garden in front of the Linden
street house where he and his mother
had lived. The lease ran out shortly
afterward, and the landlord found to
his surprise that it could not be re-
newed, as his tenant could not pay the
rent. Soon afterward in his cups he
told his story, which has since been
common property in Camden:
Mother had queer notions" he
said, "about money. Although she
had plenty, which was left her by my
father, who kept general store in
Herkimer. N. Y, she was always
afraid of becoming poor. On this ac-
count she kept little piece of land in
the outskirts of Oriskany until near the
year of her death. 1t was wholly I'M
productive and the taxes were an
annual drain, bit she said that if we
lost everything beside we could go
there and raise enough from the soil to
live on.
Finally the year before she died she
lost all faith in investments and securi-
ties of all kinds. and, as [ believe, con-
verified all she had, amounting to about
SOS, 900, into cash. She hid thatsome-
where and drew from it for our house
hold expenses and what money l
wanted. but where she did hide it l
never knew. although she tried to tell
me when she died-she was taken very
suddenly with apoplexy and never
spoke-I believe never will know. OF
course looked all through the house,
in every closet and desk and cupboard,
not only for the money but for any pa
per that might give clew to its invest
ment II it were not hidden about the
house, but it was gone"
Eberhardt's story was so naturally
and forciDly told that at first many
people believed it. The owner of the
house, George Q. Sears, permitted the
digging up of the garden flower-beds,
gravel-wa2ks, grass plats. and all in
the search for the buried treasure. The
new tenants of the place also let
long-haired seventh son with q divin-
ing-rod loose over the place at Eber-
hardt's request. 1t was no use, the
hazel rod wouldn't turn down. Some
one else lent the man the $40 necessary
for the divining-rod experiment.
After this, which was half a year
after his mothers death the man
seemed to loose his mental hold on the
great belief of his life. His search was
extended from the garden into the
street, and once it is said, though it is
so long ago that no one vouches posi-
lively for the story, he was arrested
and locked up, after a weeks" feeble
excavation with stick, for digging
hole in which butchers horse had
bruken his knee. HIS small rnoans,
his scant credit and most of the charity
called forth by his story were exhaust
ed in a years time, and since then he
has been regarded generally in Cam
den as pauper idiot.
That there has been much light on
his mind, clouded by his great nisfort-
une or hallucination, no one who has
seen him of late years could believe.
He was ragged and stopped, with a
frowsy gray beard, and went about on
a continual poke with . knotted stick,
that forever searched in the dust, mud,
or snow, for the buried treasure. His
research has led him rs far out of town
as Riverside. How or where he has
lived of late no one seems to know.