The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1916-07-13
IN HICKORY BANK"
PIONEER HAD SAFE PLACE FOR
HIS STORE OF GOLD.
What Might Be Considered Accident
Was the Means Of Revealing What
Meant Fortune to Jim Apple
gate and His Mother.


One day In March, 1858, Jim Apple
gate, aged twelve, accompanied his IA
ther to the bank of little Indiana
town, where Mr.. Applegate drew out
the $1,000 for which he had sold his
farm, In $50 20-dollar gold pieces.
ut will pay you to keep an eye on
that pile of gold" cautioned the
banker.
Tomorrow I'll put It IN a hickory |
bank" said Mr.. Applegate.
The banker smiled as II he caught |
the point, but jim was puzzled.
"What is hickory bunk, par he
asked.
''It's pretty safe sort Of bank, son,
when you're travelling" was all his fa'
ther would say.
At the hardware store Mr.. Applegate
bought an acknowledgements
auger with an extra long shaft, and
then they went home. After that night
Jim saw the money no more. Mr.. APP
plegate kept his business affairs to
himself, and neither Jim nor his moth
er knew where II was.
The Applegate family was one Of
ten families that Travelled In prairie
wagons that year from Indiana to Ore
gOn over the famous Oregon trail. The
2,000-mile journey was less dangerous
than II had been 10 years before, but
there were still perlls, the most serious
of which was that from attacks by hos
tile Indians.
For that reason there was something
of q military arrangement to the march
even of these ten wagons, and each
night the wagons were drawn up In
circle and the yoke and chains Of ench
wagon were used to connect II with
that in front. Within this circular forti-
fication the camp fires were built.
On the eightieth day out they were
attacked by party of young Indians
who thought to take advantage Of the
smallness of the party. The sklrmish
was brief, but bloody and tragic enough
for that small band of emigrants. They
drove off the redskins, but lost two Of
their own number one Of the men
who were killed was Mr.. Applegate.
Mrs. Applegate left her husband, and
Jim, his father, under the fresh-heaped
mound upon the plain, and there also
they left the secret of the 'hickOry
bank" They ransacked the wagon
from top to bottom: they looked
through all of Mr.. Adplegate's private
papers and notebooks; but they could
not find the money, nor did the papers
contain any note or memorandum Of
its hiding place.
All that jim and his mother had was
n little over n hundred dollars In
money, five cows, tie OK team they
were driving, the wagon and the house
hold effects that 1t contained.
Westward from Fort Hall the road
was rough and mountainous. One day,
as they were descending the rorkiest
and toughest portion, the Appegate
wagon was in the rear. II was three
o'clock in the afternoon. Jim's mother
was driving, and he was walking be-
hind. occasionally throwing stone at
one of the loose cows or calves that
persisted In lettering. There were
abrupt breaks In the surface two and
three feet high. The rear wheels would
slide over these miniature preclpices
nnd hit the lower level with sudden
ness and violence that shook the whole
wagon and ratified the pans and ket-
ties Off their hooks.
After one of these "jump-Offs," some
what higher than usual, jim saw that
the hind wheels of the wagon were
turning drunkenly. They were lean
Ing in at the top and out AT the bottom
His mother drove on, unaware that
anything was wrong, and he ran to
catch up with her. A shining gold
piece In the middle Of the road caught
his eye. Ataluntn-like, he stopped "a
pick II up. Fifteen feet farther on he
found another. They began to appear
thickly, and he gathered them up as liz
went. Before he reached the wagon
his mother had driven over another
VI the "jump-ors," and the tops Of the
wheels leaned in so far that they hegaf
to rub against the sides of the wagon
bed Mrs. Applegate stopped the oxel
and leaned out TO see what was the
matter.
jim came mp and stopped down re
side the rear axle. yellow pile 1'
e 500 gold pieces lay there, and othei
S pieces were rolling out of nm augeI
hole that ran like the bore of rill,
$ through the center Of the splntereC
I hickory column Of the broken axe.
r That was the hickory bank.-Youth':
e Companion.