The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-14
DREAM OF BURIED GOLD.
Only a Curious Stone Was Found,
However.
This Had Been Seen in a Vision by
Martha de Blois, But the Pot of Coin
Was Missing.

| vas missing.
From the Providence Journal
Twenty-Five years ago Martha de BloIs
| dreamed that in certain part Of lower
| South Providence a peculiar looking stone
marked the hiding place Of pot Of gold.
/ In her dream she could see the stone as
| plainly as she can now see the Broad
| street electric cars every day. 1t was a
very vivid dream. The stone was a re-
marzable specimen, as unlike its fellows
of the vicinity as the Rocky mountains
| are to Fruit Hill. Three feet under this
stone, according to the dream, was an old
fashioned three-legged iron pot, such as
hung from the big fireplace cranes Of
grandfather days. 1t was filed to the
brim with shining gold of ancient mint
and curious design. Such a pot as tradi
| ton says Capt. Kidd buried in lots of
places along the eastern seaboard.
Martha was very much impressed with
her vision, and quarter Of a century ago
she marked the spot where in dreamland
the pot was located. She went to the
place many times TO see that the earth
was left undisturbed. Finally she told
people in the neighborhood of her dream
and her firm conviction that gold was TO
be had for the digging Some were credu-
lous, some scoffed, and one or two con
WINGED themselves that Martha might be
right. One Of these was Mrs. Babcock,
wife OF Edward Manton Babcock, who
was one of the three sons of John Wash
ington Babcock, an early settler in Provi-
dence plantation. Babcock, theuIson:
died several years ago, and his widow is
now Mrs. James Munroe. She put so
much faith in Martha's story that twenty
years ago she was on the pont Of buying
ITWx IL
is what she said last Saturday.
John Washington Babcoclk, who died
several years ago, at one time owned
| 300 acres of South Providence land, EN-
bracing nearly all of the now thriving To-
| cality known as the Washington park
plat. He was farmer and also good
| house carpenter. He made money at both
| and was central figure in suburban life
on the southern outskirts Of the city. His
three sons lacked the shrewd thrift of the
old man, and their tastes, it is said, ran
to horse racing and a sporting life. Wash
ington park in those days was a great
| center for the sporting fraternity. After
horse racing, high wassail was held on
the Babcock acres and conviviality reigned
supreme in nearby public houses and pri-
| vate residences. 1t was merry while 1t
lasted, but by and by mortgage was put
upon the land, and then other mortgages
| followed, until the 200 acres were
about as good as gone from the Babcock
| grasp. At length the land fell into the
hands Of the Home Improvement Com
pany; and cottages and streets sprang
| into existence with remarkable rapidity.
| The level virgin soil has blossomed into a
smiling village, and Washington Park, as
It was, is now but memory, tradition.
John Washington Babcock has been dead
more than twenty years, and he was
"a years old when he died. Sixty
or more years ago he built farm house.
and 1t stands to-day, very much improved
from its original state, near the junction
| of Broad and Eddy streets. When ne
| dug the foundation of the house Broad
| and Eddy streets were little mor1 than
| COW paths, No other roads worthy the
name streaked the soil, and farm life was
as real there then as 1t Is now in Foster
and Scituate.
In the latter part of the ifties old man
| Babcock secured contract to build ten
houses in Apalaohicola. Fla, before that
| state was regarded as prime place for
consumptives. Martha de Blois now
nearly so years of age was slave In the
south before the war, and was employed
as cook by Contractor Babcock. She
| liked the treatment received at the hands
| of the northerners, and at the first oppor-
| tunity after the ten houses were fin
| ished she left her dear old southern
| hObAC anu al away W VIC nOElHs Due
knew Mr.. Babcock, and that is how she
came to arrive in Providence in 1859. She
was employed as domestic In the family,
| and her faithfulness was rewarded to
| such an extent that in her old age she has
a fairly comfortable home. Mr.. Babcock
l built her house, which now stands be-
1 tween Bahcock and Fisk streets. Sheis
typical southern negro, Of rather light
complexion, and as she goes about APP
| parently in good health, presents pic
ture that resembles strongly the stage
representation of colored character dur
ing slavery days
Moses Hennessy is a contractor and
gardener. He has dug most of his gold
out of the soil, although as yet he has
not struck pot of the precious metal
| He has made little fortune by lust dig
ging, and good deal of his digging has
been done on the original Babcock acres
for the Home Improvement Company. He
has dug streets laid out gardens and
made himself generally useful in the com
munity with the assistance of a gang of
Italians. Nose Is something of charac-
ter He has visited many sections of Eu-
rope, and his artistic sense has been
largely cultivated thereby He says that
many of the South Providence improve
ments are directly tracea BILE to the exper-
fence gained abroad, and points with
pride to several bits of originality dotting
this growing and developing section. Last
week he aud his Italian subordinates dug
away the bank that rose in front of Eddy
street. 1t was the beginning of a new
street that has already been named Indi-
ana avenue. II is to run from Eddy
street to the water front, lust
this side of Fields Point. The
bank was about six feet above the grade
and when the diggers dug 1t away, about
twelve feet in from Eddy street, they
came in contact with big stone. A few
days before large tree had been up
rooted right over the spot The Italians
dug carefully and unearthed dark, solid
substance about two feet high and with
diameter Of about ten inches. The sub.
stance looked like iron. II rested in a
wooden tray-like arrangement, with
hoop of cast-iron at its base, through
which rivets connected the hard substance
with the wood On top an iron rod, fas-
tened to the substance by melted lead
held a good-siSed solid lead handle. Fas-
tened TO the handle was a board On the
top of the board was cross dug into the
surface of the wood. On the side of the
black substance was chseled
another cross. The wooden cross pointed
east and west and the other north and
south as the find rested in the earth.
The Italians got excited. They came to
this country expecting to dig gold out of