Gold
Diggers, We!
By Sherlene Hall Bartholomew
After reading my
last column, Internet cousin Allen Leigh wrote to
ask whether I planned to tell you readers about treasure
in “The Search” of a more concrete sort.
I guess gold was on Allen’s mind since, as discussed in that column, the
deputies who rounded up the Harpes Brothers for murdering
our Langford relative Thomas found his personal belongings
in the robbers’ possession. But all the gold that Thomas
displayed at the Inn--for which he was murdered, was nowhere
to be found!
My first instinct was to tell Allen I intend to keep to myself all secrets
about gold to be found. However, since James Jackson,
another ancestor who buried treasure, was called to head
the “Order of Enoch” (United Order) in the early Toquerville,
Utah area, I suppose that, staying true to his legacy,
I can tell you about his gold.
(The United Order, in case you didn’t know, was an early effort by “The
Saints” to share and share alike, with the rich and poor
voluntarily sharing their resources, so that all, while
equally yoked in labor, could enjoy an improved standard
of living. Some of those in the Order turned out to be
Latter-day Ain’ts, so the practice finally went down,
as it likely would today.) I do admire James, though,
for heeding the call and at least trying to make it work.
According to Toquerville town historian, Dr. Wesley P. Larsen, [i] James owned five hundred acres--more
than anyone else in town, getting a beautiful yield from
his land. It’s my guess that he was invited to head up
the Order because he stood to give more than most, with
all this sharing.
|
James
Jackson, Jr. 1826-1897 with 1st wife
Annis Bedford |
Known for his disciplined industry, James was one of those few who were
prosperous enough to be invited to enter the practice
of polygamy--before it was made illegal, that is. Besides
his first wife, Annis Bedford (my ancestor), he was also
sealed at the Endowment House in Salt Lake City to two
additional women, Martha McFate and Sarah Ann Stapley.
His three wives bore him twenty-three children, for whom
he provided well.
Always one to magnify his legacy, James made sure his daughter Rose Ellen,
my ancestor, continued the practice. When James Harvey
Langford Jr. came asking for Rose Ellen’s hand, James
granted it--on condition that James also marry her older
sister, Mary Lydia, the same day. And that’s how the
never-boring Langfords came into our family!
 |
James
Harvey Langford Jr. with Rose Ellen Jackson,on
their wedding day, 27 Mar 1884, St. George Temple |
[Do you see a similarity between James Harvey, Jr.’s photo here and Elza
Langford’s image, displayed at the head of my last
column?]
I don’t know how those early pioneers made a living out of all that sand.
Our car battery went dead near the Toquerville Cemetery
and in that blazing heat, I wondered how anybody lived
long enough to die and be buried in that place! James
must have had great faith to accept the call when Brigham
Young sent him and others there, as called to the “Wine
Mission.”
Practical man that he was, Brigham declared that if the Gentiles were
going to buy wine, they might as well buy it from “the
Mormons.” Since the Word of Wisdom was not as emphasized
then, it might be said that it was not only Gentiles who
helped the industry prosper, but we won’t go into that
now. The important point is that James Jackson’s grapes
were a good source of income, as were other products of
his fields and orchards. As Larsen relates: “Like many
other Dixie pioneers, James hauled, with team and wagon,
fresh fruits and vegetables to nearby towns, principally
the mining towns of Silver Reef in southern Utah and Pioche
in eastern Nevada. He received five cents per peach,
which at that time was a large price. His son Jesse Jackson
relates:
Highway
Robbery
Through the years, James Jackson
spent considerable time traveling between Dixie and Salt
Lake City by team and wagon, hauling dried fruits, sorghum,
wine, etc. Then he would bring home clothes and other
household items for his large family. Among the things
he brought home was a large box of shoes, called “ankle-jacks,”
of assorted sizes from which each boy could select his
own size. . .
One time Father took . . . one of
these trips to Pioche with a load of produce. After selling
out and making preparations to return home, Father noticed
some men watching him. See, in those days there were
no greenbacks, the money being all in gold and silver.
He carried his money in a buckskin bag. Being suspicious,
Father nailed the bag of money on the underside of the
“reach” of the wagon.
Sure enough, when they had traveled
some distance from Pioche, they were held up at gunpoint
by this group of highwaymen who ransacked the wagon thoroughly,
but could find no cash and so had to let Father proceed.”
James might as well have let himself get robbed, for all his family realized
of that and his other gold. It was exciting for our family
that day in 1995, when Wes Larson walked us through town
to show us the now white-stuccoed home at 132 North Toquer
Boulevard that James Jackson Jr. built, in which my ancestor
Annis lived (he built a separate home for each wife).
Unfortunately, the house seemed deserted; its windows
staring blankly back at ours.
As we stood there, Dr. Larsen pointed out a lot to the right of the house
that also belonged to James. Explaining that there was
no bank in town, he retold a legend I had heard before--that
James buried his gold in that empty lot, but died without
telling his family where to find it. Larsen said folks
in town dug all over that lot, trying to find where that
gold was planted. I poked around a bit, myself, but it
didn’t sprout up and present itself to this worthy descendant.
There’s another reason cousin Allen has gold-dust on his brain. Shiron
Wordsworth, another Internet “find” I mentioned last time,
had written him a letter, also copied to me that I guess
I’ll let you in on. Writes Shiron:
Noises
in the house
Will the coincidences never end?
Rockcastle Langfords have their own delicious combination
of ghosts and gold. Grandmom had two Langford ghost stories.
The one I’ll share with you here involves Liberty Langford,
Elza’s grandfather.
According to our family legend, Liberty
buried his cash money for safekeeping. To keep it completely
safe, he told nobody where it was buried--not even relatives.
Unfortunately he was suddenly stricken in his old age
and rendered unconscious before he could tell anyone where
the gold was buried. And since he could neither read
nor write, he didn’t have the option to leave a note as
to where the Langfords could uncover his hoard. Shortly
after his stroke, Liberty died.
A few nights after his death, there
were strange and persistent noises in the house, including
banging in the fireplace, the sound of footsteps walking
the hall—the usual sensations ghostly visitors evoke to
make their presence known. These noises continued night
after night. Grandmom said that Liberty’s daughter mentioned
the disturbances to some fellow citizens of Rockcastle.
Well, I guess! One night of such fun would have motivated
me to relocate—and pronto!
The good citizens of Rockcaste assured
her that this was her father, trying to communicate with
her, and that when the noises began again, she should
say, “What in the name of the Lord do you want?” Liberty’s
ghost would then be compelled to answer her.
Plucky Langford that Liberty’s daughter
May was, this sounded like a good plan. The noises did
come again in the night, and this time May spoke up:
“What in the name of the Lord do you want?” This time
Liberty came through. He told her specific directions
about where to find the cash, telling her to go a certain
number of paces to a large tree and to dig down so many
feet to a large rock. Beneath the rock, a few feet down,
the gold would be found.
According to Grandmom, Langfords
dug all over Pine Hill and under every tree that could
possibly be described as large. No treasure. Grandpa
Liberty must have felt that he’d done his duty--he never
banged in the fireplace or walked the halls, after that.
I guess he thought that if his children were too dense
to follow directions, the problem of the lost gold was
theirs.
It’s not odd that Liberty should
have buried his money. Mt.Vernon didn’t have a bank until
1900. A body had to stash the loot somewhere, and to
leave it lying around the house in Rockcastle County would
have been foolish, indeed. The 1870 census says that Liberty’s
real estate was worth $2500, and the value of his personal
estate, $1,000.
Liberty was still alive in 1880,
so I assume that he might have added to the cash between
1870 and 1880. The Mount Vernon Signal during the
time span between 1887 and 1911 records an incident where
a farmer’s plow turned up a stash of gold. I don’t think
it was Liberty’s because no tree was mentioned in this
newspaper account, and I’ve seen Pine Hill—you wouldn’t
want to try to plow it! The discovery of buried gold
does prove, however, that people buried their money before
there was a bank in Rockcastle.
So now we have Thomas’ sterling in
Crab Orchard and Liberty’s cash somewhere on Pine Hill.
And, Sherlene, you say your relative’s stash is in the
desert? What are we waiting for? I say, “LET’S DIG!”
By now you know the real treasure involves new cousins found—not to mention
learning more about our kin. So let’s dig, indeed! We
promised last time to tell you how to unearth these fascinating
cousins, while probing your ancestry. It’s so easy. Here’s
how:
I found most of the fascinating Internet Hall cousins I told you about
in other columns by posting a query on the Allen County,
Ohio website. Many counties now include a link on their
site for county history and genealogy, where you can post
a query. It is important to read other queries relating
to your surname—some reader may have already answered
your question.
For example, I thought it would be fun to try and find out more about
this Thomas Langford who was murdered, so I looked for
a Mecklenburg County, Virginia website by doing a search
on Google for “Mecklenburg County.” After entries came
up, I noticed that the fourth site listed was “Mecklenburg
County, VA Genealogy,” which helpfully explained that
the county was formed in 1765 from the Lunenburg County
seat. There was a section titled “Shortcuts to Neighboring
Counties of Mecklenburg” that also could be very helpful
to researchers. The site advised me that I was their
147,809th visitor!
Looking through other listings on this county site, I found a “Queries”
link, which instead of routing me to a local page, as
did my Allen County search, forwarded me to a search on
Rootsweb.com, where I could access a Mecklenburg Message
Board or “All Boards.” Not finding anything that seemed
to apply on the Mecklenburg search, I tried “All Boards.”
In the “Search” box I listed “Langford.” Up came 2,000
queries! That was more than I wanted to search through,
so I did another search for “Thomas Langford,” which still
brought up a very long list, so this time I got more detailed
and tried “Thomas Langford murdered.” To my great interest,
a reader there volunteered an account about his murder
by the Harpes brothers that reported a new item of Thomas’
clothing, found in the possession of the robbers--an expensive
white-linen shirt, with the victim’s initials embroidered
on it, through which a bullet-hole had traveled. As source,
this helpful reader indicated another history I can read,
detailing the event. In this account, the robbers supposedly
did have Thomas’ gold in their possession!
Another interesting item that came up at Google were entries for a Mecklenburgh
County in North Carolina.
So I looked for Langfords there in case, by chance, this Thomas came from
there, instead of Virginia. There I found an account
of a George Langford who was hanged for killing his wife,
after which various members of his family moved out of
state! I think I’ll go back to searching for my people
in Virginia.
I need more information to post an intelligent query about this Thomas
Langford, so will see if I can learn more about him before
posting a query. It is most helpful to those relatives
who would like to trade information, if we keep our questions
simple and are as specific as possible about the ancestor
involved, as in: “I am looking for the parents of my
3rd ggf Peter Staley, b. 19 Jan 1794 in Berkeley
Co., VA, d. 16 Jan 1854 in Lafayette, Allen, Ohio. He
m. Hannah Hall, thought to be the daughter of James A.
Hall and Keziah Kain.” It is also helpful to indicate
your willingness to exchange family and research information.
Researchers all over the world can now pick up the names in your query,
as they search the Internet, looking for their ancestors.
As they respond to your question, you can compare information
and identify those who are new-found cousins. As you
correspond back and forth, you will soon become friends
with some, sharing fascinating information about everything
from talent and temperament proclivities to recipes that
have come down in the family. Shiron Wordsworth and I
recently compared notes, only to learn that skin cancer
is prevalent in both our Langford lines—another indication
that we are related and reinforcement to schedule regular
visits with our dermatologists. In such ways, “The Search”
not only brings life, but can even save life!
Mann’s
the MAN!
Alan E. Mann, A. G., is a popular speaker at BYU family history/genealogy
conferences. I attend as many seminars of his as possible,
because he makes computers and the Internet sound logical--even
to a non-techie like me (actually, the problem with computers
is that they’re too logical—especially for . .
. er, creative types like me, but that’s another
story).
Making his teaching accessible even after-the-fact, Mann posts the main
points of his lectures on the net for his conference audiences,
updating his syllabus with new or changed links and emerging,
cutting-edge information.
At this year’s confab, Brother Mann gave a seminar titled “Internet Search
Techniques for Genealogists.” One section in this talk,
“Use Unknown Relatives,” tells how to contact others also
doing research on our lines and names specific sites where
we can find them. He has graciously consented to let
me share his copyrighted site with you, even though it
is technically there for conference attendees who have
paid for the privilege. Find his very helpful suggestions
and read it all at www.alanmann.com/articles/search.htm
Then tell us about what you find!
Uniform
approach
While doing all this, you might want to wear the official genealogist’s
uniform.
A few years back, Cyndi Howells, indefatigable compiler of the famous
“Cyndi’s List,” was a featured speaker at BYU’s Genealogy/Family
History Conference. She walked out on the stage, before
a packed assembly hall, in her bathrobe and pink, bunny
slippers! To roaring applause from a knowing audience,
she declared: “I find it entirely fitting, at a conference
like this, to model the standard genealogist’s uniform.”
She was, of course, referring to the fact that once we are possessed by
this magnificent obsession, we family historians have
a hard time remembering to eat, never mind get dressed
in the morning! After all, we dig for buried treasure
of the lasting sort!
Sherlene Hall Bartholomew, copyright 2003
