The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1898-02-16

true that watch was kept for any other
metal OF mineral that the rocks might
carry, other than iron, and that Mr..
Joder did carefully test the several
rocks encountered, and did find some
traces Of silver, but not of a paying
character.
The search was then abandoned IL
was found that the sum Of Sl95.OO had
been expended, leaving a balance Of
$500, which was returned to the share
holders. The books and papers relating
to the transaction are still in existence,
and can be shown. This is the foGnda-
tion for legend that has been floating
through Elk Lick township for fifty or
more years, and in which what was
fortune for those days should have been
wasted aud it has obtained even more
than local circulation.
How so intelligent a man as Profes-
sOr Leslie, who was associated with
Professor Rogers in the first geological
surrey Of Pennsylvania, and was at the
head Of the second geological survey,
could have been imposed upon as he
certainly was, and made to believe in
the truth Of these absurd stories, in
which there is not word Of truth,
passes our comprehension. Yet such
is the fact
In one of his lectures on "Man's ORR
gin and Destiny" he says: 81 have seen
shafts sunk in the glades of Somerset
county, Pennsylvania, under the dicta-
ton Of an old scamp who would lay in
his hunting-cap a small looking-glass
which bad eabalistic characters on the
back Of it, and was called an ''erd spie-
gel ;" and then, holding his own face
over il, he would describe the depth to
an inch of all the mineral wonders that
he saw beneath the surface. So strongly
did the imagination of this fetish act
upon his workmen-simple old German
immigrants from the motherland of SUI
perstitiOn as they were-that they af-
firmed with all their faith that when at
work at the bottom Of the shaft they
could distinctly hear invisible agents
laughing, talking, pounding, picking
beneath their feet, removing the treas
ure downward out of reach; for, Of
course, they never found it."
Without doubt Professor Leslie saw
the shafts; but the circumstances un-
der which they were sunk are just as
we have related them, and just as scores
Of others have been sunk in Elk Lick |
township, some in search Of coal, 9TH
thers for limestone, and here and there
others for iron ore some rewarding |
the labor bestowed on them. and others |
making no return whatever And 1t is |
only by these toilsome and expensive |
searches that any Of the treasures Of
the earth, whether they are gold, silver,
copper, lead or iron, coal OF limestone,
were ever laid bare, except, perhaps, in
a few isolated cases, when the diseOv- |
cry was the result Of an accident; and !
it it is the height OF injustice to hand |
down the names Of those who have ]
failed, and their name is legion, as
knaves or fools.
IN 1859 Mr.. Joder removed to Holmes
county, Ohio, where, We believe, he
had some relatives, and where his Co
are quite numerous. He
there only a couple of years,
and returned to Somerset county, be-
coming resident of Conemaugh town.
ship, where ne died in the month Of
April, 1868, at the advanced age Of sew
enty four years and four moaths.
His remains were inferred in the
Kaufman graveyard. BY his first
there were several daughters
and one son, BeDjamin j. Joder, Esq,
now residing at Waterloo, Iowa, but
who, for many years before going west,
was leading and well-knOwn citizen
Of Greenville township.
Levi J. JOder, of Meyersdale, and
Reuben ]. Joder, at one time we'll
known school teacher Of Somerset
county, are sons OF the second wife.