The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-01-19
Buried Treasure.

Lue uedbn OF james MOTIFS OF the VIII
lage Of Colville produced the first wave
OF excitement the place had expert
enced since the chimney of the Metho-
dist church had burned out seven
years previously. Mr.. Norris was an
old bachelor. He was a crank and q
miser. 1t was sure that he had plenty
to live on, and yet he lived alone and
in squalor. He lent money where any
one would pay him 10 per cent inter-
est and he was the owner of several
pieces Of real estate. Among them
was On old cider mill. II was in the
rear end Of this that the old man had
his residence. In the fall he ground
apples and made cider for all who
would buy, and this was his only
work
II had been talked over a hundred
times by the villagers that Norris had
his money buried where robbers could
not get II and that In case he died sud
denly his heirs, II any came forward,
would have great trouble In finding Il.
This was real cause of worry to
many citizens. Some of them even
went so far as to advise the old man
! to tell them the exact spot 80 as to
save time in digging. When he re-
fused to do so It was taken as another
! evidence Of his meanness On the
morning that his death became known
the village of Colville was as excited
| as IL a circus had come to town. Now
the disputed point as to how much he
was worth and how much money he
had buried would be known to all.
There were some who would have
gone hunting for that money right
away had not the justice Of the peace
stepped in and taken charge.
Men came from a distance Of fifty
miles to help In that search At one
time the searchers numbered nearly
thousand, and so many strangers had
to be lodged and fed that Colville took
on boom. The first thing was to
search the old mill. Men fought each
other as they crowded into II. Then
the half acre of sterile soil around It
must be explored, then the marsh and
the piece of woods back Of It. Most of
the searchers gave up after a day or
two, but some continued on for fort
night At the end, however, nothing
had been found.
Five years passed, and then came
the next brain storm. A tin peddier
drove into the village to remain over
Sunday On Sunday afternoon he wan
dered down to the old mill to have a
look at the ruins. A high wind on Sat
urday night had brought roof and
frame TO the earth. In "mousing"
around his eye was caught by the fiut-
ter Of a piece of paper and an hour
later the village was seethlng. The
peddler was no hog He had found a
good thing, but was ready TO dlyyy
with the public. II he got $4,000 out
Of II the villagers might share the rest
That piece of paper was the key TO the
old misers buried treasure. 1t must
have been concealed I'm hollow beam
all the time. The writing on II ran as |
follows:
"oct. 18th, 1SSs.-B one b Of @ today
p W Of the OF"
The town didn't think much OF that
peddler when he entered 1t. He was !
dler who took paper, rags, sheepsliins,
old iron, beeswax, butter ana eggs and
such things In exchange for his Tin
pans and dippers. Before Sunday had |
passed, however, men were taking off |
their hats to him and wondering when
he would be governor of the state. He |
was the only one that could make any |
sense Of the paper, and he didn't give
1t away until after he had been invited
to dinner by the justice. Then he read
It Off as:
Buried one barrel Of cash today
seven PAGES west of the big oak tree"
1t was evening when the puzzle was
solved. Lanterns were lit and bon
hres built and the seven PAGES paced
Off. They struck at spot where
there had been no digging, and the
justice appointed ten men TO guard
the place for the night. In the morn
ing the ruins would be searched for
more papers. There must be others.
When mlser begins TO bury barrels
of cash he does not stop at one He
goes right ahead and buries ave or
six In order 10 make the search after
his death interesting.
Hasty breakfasts or none at all were
eaten next morning, aud then the
ruins were searched Not an inch of
beam or board escaped scrutiny twice
over Nothing further was found ex-
eept an old tobacco box, and that was
empty. groan Of despair followed
the conclusion OF the search. The
miserable old man had buried only
one barrel OF cash, after all, and the
tin peddler was TO have $4,000 out OF :
that. -Four men began to dig at seven
PAGES due west of the big oak tree.
The ground had settled down as hard
as asphalt, but had II been cast iron
they would have stuck to the Job
There were 900 people In circle
about them when the shout OF dis
eoverX went up, One Of the picks bad