FRANK BOYETT – YESTERDAY’S NEWS
The Gleaner – Sunday, June 29, 2014
Buried treasures probably still out there somewhere
The possibility of finding buried treasure makes people’s hearts thump a little faster.
I think it’s part of our DNA. I know it’s certainly part of mine. I’ve always been the type of fellow who goes poking around in odd places just to see what’s there, on the off chance I’ll find something valuable — or at least interesting.
And you don’t have to go all the way to Arizona to search for the Lost Dutchman Mine or its equivalent. I know of several good buried treasure stories right here in Henderson County. And I suspect there may be more. (Did that get your attention? I’ll explain myself in a moment.)
The best story I know dates from late March of 1924, although it had its roots in 1864. That’s when James E. Rankin was shot and killed by a band of guerrillas during a raid on his store at Second and Main streets, the site of the current Soaper building. The building that preceded the Soaper, which had been built by Rankin, was being torn down in 1924 so the hotel could be built.
Workmen involved in the demolition found something very interesting in the basement as they were preparing to knock off for the day: A 3-foot-square of brick topped by a slab of stone. Mystified, they began attacking the monument with pick, shovel and crowbar. They discovered a copper box about 4 inches deep when the slab of stone was removed.
I can only imagine their awe when they opened it and found “200 twenty-dollar gold pieces and 115 five-dollar gold coins of ancient vintage, and a quantity of silver money,” The Gleaner reported at the time. “Also, there was a roll of Confederate money varying in denominations from a three-dollar bill up to a $500 bill.”
That money would be worth far more than its face value today. Even the Confederate money would have considerable value to collectors.
I suspect that money was hidden there by Rankin for safekeeping during the Civil War. It must have been early in the Civil War because by 1864 it would have required a much thicker wad of Confederate money to have anything of value. It probably remained there after his death because no one else knew about it.
I sure hope that story isn’t an April Fool trick that reporters all too often engaged in back then.
The second story of buried treasure I want to pass along today also deals with Confederate money and dates from early February 1898. According to a report in The Gleaner, Noah Cunningham discovered a buried pot of Confederate money and “an old Indian bulldog pistol” on Col. Bona Hill’s farm in the Scuffletown area.
“Many stories are afloat as to whether or not there was other money of gold and silver in the kettle,” The Gleaner story said. The story carried a lengthy interview with Col. Ned Conway, who said he suspected there was more to the story than Cunningham was telling.
Hill’s younger brother, Homer, was one of the elite guards of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and after the war he came home with a large amount of Confederate money. “Some of this Confederate money was given by him to an old negro, Nelson Hill, who lived on the farm and it is no doubt some of the same money that was found in the kettle.”
The story went on to report that “it is a fact that during the war Col. Bona Hill buried fourteen thousand dollars in gold in the garden on this same farm and which sum was afterward dug up and used for the purpose of paying for his farm which was recently sold to Aaron Waller.”
The final story I’ve got for you today dates from a century ago. It involves Ben T. Kimsey, who lent his name to Kimsey Lane and whose house still stands at the intersection of Kimsey Lane and Larue Road. The Gleaner of June 30, 1914, reports Kimsey was traveling in his buggy when he noticed a farm hand named Jim Cooksey digging around an old tree.
“I asked him what he was doing and he said he was digging up money. I thought he had lost his mind and got out of my buggy and investigated. While he dug, I heard the spade strike metal and in ten minutes he uncovered about 25 pennies. Some of them bore dates back in 1834. Then I began to dig and soon found a Mexican dollar minted in 1877.
“It may seem strange to some people but nevertheless it is a fact that hundreds of old coins have been dug up on one of my farms, the place known as the Hillary Baskett farm on the Texas railroad.”
Interesting, don’t your think? I’m sure there’s more treasure out there in Henderson County. After all, there were virtually no safe places to keep hard money during the Civil War, which was a time when the uncertainty of life became even more uncertain.
And bootleggers more recently also have probably hidden their ill-gotten gains, as well as those misers who mistrust banks. The only problem is finding it.
75 YEARS AGO
E.S. Jordan, an average citizen, raised objections to the granting of entertainment permits by County Judge R.F. Crafton, claiming that County Attorney Odie Duncan had performed “meager and insufficient investigations” on the applicants, according to The Gleaner of June 27, 1939.
Jordan pointed out that seven of the applicants had been fined multiple times for having slot machines on their premises. Their names, and the number of times they had been fined, included Clarence Wood and H.B. Jennings (8); H.E. Ferrell, Hampton and Hoffman Kasey and William M. Walker, (7); J.W. Poling, (5) and Carl Pearson, (4).
50 YEARS AGO
Gov. Edward T. Breathitt reaffirmed a pledge made earlier by former Gov. Bert Combs that Audubon State Park would have a golf course, The Gleaner reported June 30, 1964.
The project had originally been estimated to cost $100,000, but the low bid came in at $195,000, which caused it to be temporarily shelved. Land clearing had started in 1963, but actual construction of the course didn’t begin until November 1964.
25 YEARS
A riot June 24-25, 1989, at the Earle C. Clements Job Corps Center near Morganfield resulted in the expulsion of more than 200 students, according to coverage in The Gleaner over the following couple of weeks.
The violence sent Director Gerald Oettle to the hospital with a broken nose, while fire gutted a classroom. The incident prompted investigations by the Kentucky State Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Kentucky
