A LOOK AT JAMES BEVERLY WARD, AGENT OF THE BEALE PAPERS

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UP-DATE on Poplar Forest, TJ's "RETREAT" near Lynchburg, Va.; foundation of a "MYSTERY HOUSE" being excavated near "Slaves Quarters". "Arkies" are intrigued; do you reckon...? Nah...

I hope the Arkies don't find what is really hidden at Poplar Forest?
 

Would be nice if the graves of Robert & Sarah MORRISS could be found; or even Robert MORRIS, ex-Mayor of Lynchburg, Va. in 1813...
If one compares the description of Robert Morriss in Margaret Couch Cabell's "SKETCHES AND RECOLLECTIONS OF LYNCHBURG" published in 1858 by C H WYNNE CO of Richmond, it becomes obvious that this book was used by the "unknown author" as source material.
 

If one compares the description of Robert Morriss in Margaret Couch Cabell's "SKETCHES AND RECOLLECTIONS OF LYNCHBURG" published in 1858 by C H WYNNE CO of Richmond, it becomes obvious that this book was used by the "unknown author" as source material.
AGREE!
 

And if she was writing about Robert MORRIS, Ex-Mayor of L'burg, Va. (1813), just spelling his name as MORRISS...
 

"SKETCHES AND RECOLLECTIONS OF LYNCHBURG" was published in 1858, after Morriss opened the iron box containing the ciphers.
In the Beale Papers, the "unknown author" is told 4 years later about Beale-"His character soon became universally known".
"Universally known" and "favored by the ladies", would make Thomas J Beale the Talk Of The Town of 1820's Lynchburg, but there is NO recollection of this 6 foot, black eyes and hair stranger, who made such an impression at Morriss's mentioned by Margaret Couch Cabell.
 

Adeline Ward McVeigh...?
Went to Jones Memorial Library in L'burg, today; asked staff to "pull up" whatever could be found on AWM; watched Nancy do her "puter" search... NOTHING! DANG! Got one or two more sources to check out; more R & I...
 

"The gentleman whom I selected as my agent..."
This line from the presented manuscript suggests that the "unknown author" had already chosen James Beverly Ward as his agent and "knew" beforehand, that Ward would accept this endeavor.
What this line really reveals is that the "unknown author" as first person narrator of the Beale story, is just another character to further the storyline, and also served to separate Ward from the treasure story from those who bought the pamphlet and neglected their "legitimate business" devoting their time to the task of locating the treasure in Bedford county based on those "authentic statements" of that "unknown author".
 

"The agent selected for the publishing and circulation" we know was James Beverly Ward. For JBW to be one of the beneficiaries would mean that the author was kin to JBW. He would have shared it with his kin. Everyone knows JBW was well known to Robert Morriss as RM was JBW's uncle by marriage. So that means we are looking for an author that is kin to JBW? Plus the author was young in 1862 when the manuscript was placed in his or her hands.
CSA Major F C Hutter was kin to Ward, but was not what would be considered "young" during the "2nd year of the Confederate War".
While Elizabeth Mitchell Morris died at Ward's home under the care of her niece, Harriet E Otey Ward, Robert Morris passed at under the care of his niece, Anzoletta Saunders, at her home. The widow Saunders did have two young sons still living at home while Morris was in her care. Was the Beale story told to one of these boys?
...and Robert Morris's relation to Ward was through Ward's wife, Harriet, niece of Morris's wife.

Then there is this from Morris, 6 years before the alleged interview during the "2nd year of the Confederate War":
"Major Thomas Lefwich...married Maria Warwick, daughter of W Warwick, in Amherst Co, Virginia on March 5, 1856, for love and affection which I have for my niece, Maria W Lefwich, conveyed her a great deal of personal property".

If Morris conveyed a "great deal of personal property" to Maria in 1856, did he convey anything to her sister, Anzoletta, who cared for him at her home?
 

CSA Major F C Hutter was kin to Ward, but was not what would be considered "young" during the "2nd year of the Confederate War".
While Elizabeth Mitchell Morris died at Ward's home under the care of her niece, Harriet E Otey Ward, Robert Morris passed at under the care of his niece, Anzoletta Saunders, at her home. The widow Saunders did have two young sons still living at home while Morris was in her care. Was the Beale story told to one of these boys?
...and Robert Morris's relation to Ward was through Ward's wife, Harriet, niece of Morris's wife.

Then there is this from Morris, 6 years before the alleged interview during the "2nd year of the Confederate War":
"Major Thomas Lefwich...married Maria Warwick, daughter of W Warwick, in Amherst Co, Virginia on March 5, 1856, for love and affection which I have for my niece, Maria W Lefwich, conveyed her a great deal of personal property".

If Morris conveyed a "great deal of personal property" to Maria in 1856, did he convey anything to her sister, Anzoletta, who cared for him at her home?

Since Robert Morris was business savvy just maybe he left a Will? We do not know if Robert Morris had sold off all of his properties? We do not know if he still had a large amount of money? Just maybe he left a Will?
 

If Morris left a will, who would have been the executor, a Saunders, Lefwich , or Warwick?
...and if he had personal property, who would have received these items?
...and IF the iron box, ciphers, letters were part of this personal property, who would have received these items?
 

They had "an" iron box, which could have belonged to Clayton Hart, as his wife was the daughter of Issac Otey, and the numbers covered torn slip of paper may have been his scribbled notes.
Ward never saw "the" iron box, so what George Hart had an Otey member show Pauline Innis did not originate with Harriet Emmaline Otey Ward.
 

If Ward's financial situation continued to deteriorate into the 1880's, it may have served as the motivation for the creation and publication for sale of the Beale Papers.
What did James Beverly Ward do for income after 1885?
The unsold copies of the pamphlet were burned, and a 2nd edition was never printed.
 

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