Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1909-02-10
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Buried Treasure.

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 crank and a
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 an old cider mill. 1t 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
1t had been talked over q hundred
times by the villagers that Norris had
his money buried where robbers could
not get it and that in case he died sud
denly his heirs. IL any came forward,
would have great trouble in finding it.
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 SO 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 If 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 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 a boom. The first thing was to
search the old mill Men fought each
other as they crowded into 1t. Then
the half acre Of sterile soil around it
the piece of woods back Of it. Most of
the searchers gave up after 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 peddler
drove into the village to remain over
Sunday On Sunday afternoon he wan
dered down to the old mill to have
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 piece of paper, and an hour
later the village was seething. The
! peddler was no hog. He had found a
| coed thing. but was ready to divvy
with the public. If he got $4,000 out
of it the villagers might share the rest.
That piece of paper was the key to the
old miser's buried treasure. 1t must
have been concealed in hollow beam
all the time. The writing on it ran as
follows:
"Oct. 18th, 1Sss.-B one B of c today
7pw of the b o t.
The town didn't think much Of that
peddler when he entered it, He was
looked upon as just common tin ped
dler who took paper, rags, sheepskins.
old iron, beeswax, butter and eggs and
such things in exchange for his tin
pans and clippers. Before Sunday had
passed, however. men were taking OF
| 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
it away until after he had been invited
to dinner by the justice. Then he read
it of 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
| fires built and the seven PAGES paced
| Oh. 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 miser begins to bury barrels
Of cash he does not stop at one. He
goes right ahead and buries FIVE or
six in order to make the search after
his death interesting.
Hasty breakfasts or none at all were
eaten next morning. and then the
ruins were searched. Not an inch Of
beam or board escaped scrutiny twice
over. Nothing further was found ex-
cept an old tobacco box, and that was
empty. A 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 $1,000 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 it been cast iron
they would have stuck to the job
There were 600 people in a circle
about them when the shout Of dis
c0very went up. One Of the picks had
| ctrupk tho ha rrol There woc q uroot