The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-07-24
NAN FALLS ON
HID DEN
LOOT
Wall CrumbIed and Pitches
MOrehead Into Treasure
Hole.

FAIRFIELD, July 24.-Frank H.
Morehead returned TO his home at this
place yesterday in a most dilapidated
condition. carrying a potato sack half
full of v~aluables. into which he had
fallen. literally; silverware, watches
and jewelry, weighing 100 pounds alto
gether and worth anywhere between
$1,000 and $4,000, not to mention $50 in
cash..
The finding OF h treasure, buried
by burglars, probably was the lucky
climax of a series of mishaps. More
head had been fishing in the Passaic
River, and finally found himself on its
bank two miles from Pine Brook viii
lage, from which he had started in a.
canoe. All hat was left was TO walk
back to Fairfield. He remembered that
a road runs along the base of precipi-
tous Hook Mountain, a half mile away,
and, instead of following the winding
river bank, set out for the road.
Just before reaching it Morehead ar
rived at the site of a little house which
had been burned in 1903. Only its black
ened, crumbling foundation walls re-
main; what were once its cellar and
garden are filled with cat-briers and
blackberry vines and overgrown with
rank vegetation. AS Morehead was
picking his way past the corne of the
foundation wall the earth on which
he stood and the wall gave way under
his weight and he fell head first in the
tangle of briers. Sore and bleeding
from many and deep scratches, he was
trying to scramble from the hole when
he saw an object at his feet; 1t turned
out to be a furnished s~ugarbowl of
solid silver.
Searching carefully in the ruins of the
wall, Morehead found many large pieces
f, of silverware, besides 100 forks n
spoons, all of the solid metal. He
found, too, a small wooden box. half
decayed, In which were several gold
watches, rings and other jewelry and
$50 in silver money.
Morehead gathered together his treas
ure trove covered 1t loosely with earth
and made his way to the road. A farm
ers' boy passed carrying a coarse potato
sack, for which Morehead paid the
princely sum of fifty cents. After the
boy had disappeared Morehead returned
to the cellar, packed the silver and jew
elry in the bag and waited until a
ldIiIiSI ullNiiS Ny SoiAoSAeS0 " NH'
him home for 81.
The house in the cellar of which the
valuables were buried was last occupied
by two men who went to live there
early in 1902. During their years occu-
pancy Of it several burglaries were
committed at Pompton Plains, Lincoln
Park and Mountain View, all within a
few miles. The two men, who made no
friends among the neighboring farmers,
were suspected of these burglaries, but
they disappeared when the house vas
burned.
When Morehead returned to Fairfield
his best friends scarcely knew him. He
started out wearing a new khaki fishing
suit and carrying a $40 rod. He was to
get a conoe at Pine Brook; just before
he reached the Passaic there he fell into
a hole, badly bruising himself and
breaking the tip of the rod. Afterward
his canoe was upset and he would have
lost his rod, but the hook sank deep In
his cali as he went overheard and he
lowed the rod ashore. He got home
with a sprained ankle, his face covered
with scratches. bruised from head to
foot, his suit in tatters and mudgrimed
but "all's well that ends WELL"