Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-02-04
Henderson's Hidden Treasure.

,
In front Of his favorite window where
he used to sit for hours and gaze out
into the back yard, stood two small
crepe myrtle trees, about three feet
apart. 1t was between these two trees
about three feet beneath the surface,
surrounded by wall made of brick
and lime rock, that the pot of gold lay
buried.
Nearly dozen year have rolled by
since last the old man sat and gazed
cat at that window.
During all these years, people have
wondered whore he concealed the
thousands of dollars he was known to
lave boarded up during life time.
That that window commanded
view of the spot where lay his hidden
treasure, was the general belief among
lis neighbors, and many an observation
was taken from that window in the
hope of finding it.
Mrs. Henderson said that the last
mat she ever saw of that glittering
rile of gold was when her husband
carried it out of"the house some time
before his death, in an earthen jar, to
place it where sneak thieves, bank
vreckers and burglars could never find
it, and she knew not where he put it.
The day before the Charleston earth
Iuake, the old man called his daughter
Mamie, to his bedside, and feebly en-
quired il anyone else was in the room.
On being told that Miss Lincey Tay-
or was there he said:
"Well wait until tomorrow, and |
will tell you something that will do
you good when I am gone"
To him tomorrow never came, That
night his eyes were closed in death,
md his lips were sealed forever.
The secret that would have lifted his
daughter and her then widowed mother
from abject poverty into luxury and
independence, was never revealed,
Tomorrow" the hand that had ac-
cumulated and buried that gold, cold
and stiff, was laid across the old mans
breast, and consigned to mother earth,
sad lonely, and pennless, returned
the widowed mother and orphaned
daughter, from the funeral to the rick
ETY. old two story building on Tallahas-
zee street, which had been moved from
Newport to Crawfordvlle when this
lace was first made the county site,
md had sheltered the family for years.
rs a store and dwelling house.
That night came the great CONFUSION
Of nature that rended mountains and
shattered cities, and the old two story
brick building, shaken and careened
was barely left standing, but the wild
ow and daughter, having no other
home, remained there, while they, as
sisted by county clerk J. J. Harrcll and
Judge w. T. Duval, diligently searched
and dug for the gold that should have
been theirs.
Failing in every effort to find their
hidden wealth, and forced to face
frowning world, on self reliance alone,
the old home place was abandoned and
sold for taxes, the widow and daughter
moved away, and the gold was partially
forgotten.
Yesterday morning, when Ex-Sherih
Alligood resumed hauling away the
scattered lumber of the old building,
which was torn down last week he dis.
| covered that some person or persons
had been there during the dead hours
of the previous night and made consid-
cradle excavations. The fresh dirt
had all been carefully put back and
covered over with dry leaves and old
lumber, but the efforts to conceal the
midnight work were not cutie success
full
4 crowd soon gathered and began
to investigate; the pit that had been
dug and refilled, was about ten feet