Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1904-01-14
A Kew to Hidden Gold.


yania's most famous murders has come
In the finding Of what is believed to
be key to the hiding place of $4,000
or more which the murderer buried
before his arrest
While repairing roadway near his
farm along the Niger Hollow road
six miles north of Williamsport. re-
Gently, John Montgomery selected
large stone To place over a culvert.
Upon dislodging the stone be found a
two-ouuce bottle III the hole thus form
ed. In the bottle were two pieces of
paper. one had been torn from copy
of Harper's Bazaar of the date of Jan.
,, go The other was a piece of white
paper evidently taken from ledger.
1t bore some writing and a small dia-
gram. Although the paper and ink
both bore evidences of age. the writ
ing and diagram were entirely legi-
BILE
The note read:
Look between chestnut ire" and
big stone under a small tree Nobody
can find this but me There is q curse
on il. n. W. -
The writing was plain and neat, al
though the spelling and punctuation
were faulty. In the lower right hand
corner was the diagram. 1t was sim
pie bit Of drawing consisting OF cir
cle and two objects, which might have
been made to represent stones, the OBJ
jects being connected with lines and
the lengths of the three lines were
recorded as being feet, 10 feet and 20
feet respectively.
In the light of information which
he possessed, Montgomery became con-
vinccd that the note had been written
by Nelson Wade, who was hanged in
WilIiamsport thirty years ago for the
couple.
Wade was a young man who became
short of money through ASSOCIATION
with fast companions. John Mcbride
and his wife lived in cottage west
of Wilhamsport, and were reputed to
have had $4,000 in gold hidden in var
ious parts Of their premises.
one evening in the summer of 1878
Wade went to the Mcbride home, beat
IN the skulls of the old pair and took
away all the gold he could carry on
his person.
Two days later Wade was arrested
and confessed all, but refused TO tell
where the money was hidden.
1t was known at the time that Wade
had slept the night after the murder
in a vacant house on the farm now
owned by Montgomery and where the
key TO the treasure has just been
found.
At that time the place where the
bottled message has been found was
densely wooded and mile from the
public highway, and it is hardly con
ceIvable that the message could have
been placed there except by Wade The
writing on the note has been compar-
ed with some of Wade manuscript in
the Sheriff's office, and the resembl-
ance is unquestionable.
a few weeks before he found the
message, Montgomery turned over an
other stone at the same point and un-
der it found a nickle of the coinage Of
1868. His first thought after the sec
ond find, was that the two objects in
the diagram resembling rocks referred
to the rocks under which he found
the bottle and the nickle. The former
stone is so straight that one would
think it as made so by chisel
Taking this straight line as guide
Montgomery measured off ten feet and
was pleased to find that the distance
from the extremity thus formed to the
nearest point OF the other rock was ex,
acrly five feet, thus conforming exact
Iy with the diagram
Continuing this lattor line to point
twenty feet from the rock, he dug for
gold but did not find any. Now Mont
gOmery thinks he has made a mistake
and that ho should extend the line,
not twenty feet from the rock, but
twenty feet from the intersection of
the other two lines.
When the ground thaws out sutfioi-
outly Montgomery proposes to blow up
all the ground IN the vicinity o: the
rocks in the hope of finding the booty.
As tine diagram was made thirty years
ago, the reference TO certain trees is
not of any advantage to the searohers,
Tor N. II q. hive disappeared.