Year: 1877

A letter from Rockford, ILL.,, to the
Springfield Mass Republican contains
the following;


In this vicinity, we learned, was a very
singular character by the name of Hern-
don. He is 80 years of age, and has
wife and two sons of 20 and %. About
three years ago Herndon received Wis
itation from the spirits. He was sitting
at his table with his pencil in his hand,
when he felt an unseen power guiding
his pencil over the paper which lay be-
fore him. When the power had ceased
acting upon him he read upon the paper
a command to 90 into secluded wood
and to make an excavation, and he
should find something which should be
of great value to him. Impressed so
strongly with what he had felt and wit
messed, he went to the spot in the wood
which had been indicated, and found a
hole about 10 feet deep and eight feet i'll
diameter, which evidently had been
caused by the action of water, and here
he commenced to dig All one winter
he lived and dug in his hole, before any
one knew any thing about it. When at
last it became known, and numbers
hocked from the country around to see
"Herndon's Hole, as il is known about
here, he was not laughed out of his idea,
but, purchasing the land in which his
hole existed, the next winter he and his
two sons labored together, sinking it
deeper and deeper. The winters only
are devoted to the work, a small plot of
ground being titled for the winters sup
ply of food. 1t was not with the ex-
pectation of finding him at his work
that we made our way through the woods
in the direction which had been indicated
to us. On our way, we overlook a
young man, and asked him if he could
direct us to "Herndon's Hole" He
said he was going there himself,
and would show us. We then made
bold to ask him if he knew this HerndOn
or any thing about his hole. He startled
us by answering that Herndon was his
father, but he was not offended with my
inquiries and said he had worked with
his father in his search, and they con-
templated commencing again as soon
as cold weather set in. They were
already within 80 feet of the spot, where
his father had been told the treasure
was hid. The nature of the rock through
which they had dug, and the general
revelations of the work had been in per-
face accord with the writings which had
been revealed to them. We now came
to the spot in a small clearing in the
wood. A rude windlass, pile of rocks
and dirt, and wooden curbing over
hole in the ground revealed itself, We
leaned over and gazed irto the darkness
below, and the young man looked in
with us. An excavation had been made
about eight feet square and 80 feet deep.
The young man pointed to some stone
steps leading off into a creVice in the
rock, and said they had excavated 20
feet further in that direction, making
depth of 70 feet in all. "What do you
expect to fnd?" we asked. The question
was answered evasively, and we saw
our inquisitiveness had betrayed US, and
we turned to 90, not until, however, we
had written our name in small diary
which the young man produced, and
received an invitation when winter set
in to come and descend into the hole and
view the work and the discovery which
would undoubtedly be made at that
time On returning from our trip we
learned that the discovery which was
expected would be of q religious
character, and would be either written
on metal or stone, and would throw
great light on the creation of the world
and of man, and of many subjects on
which people according to Herndon are
astray because of insufficient light.