Eddyville Iowa treasure tale. Could anyone please help determine the exact location?

Crow said:
Hello BeauS

Ya doing well.

Try some small spelling variations as some times people who collected the census taken down info misspell names. look for her husband in 1900 or 1910 census.

Crow
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Hello Crow, I found Jos Shaw listed in the 1900 census as "Joseph Shaw," a laborer in coal mining. Married to Sarah Shaw living in South Fayette, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. A couple things here, a few of their neighbors were coal miners as well.

If you look further down their household you will see someone by the name of "Thomas Bennett" born in 1842 from England. He was a boarder, a non family member, and a coal miner. Looking back at the story and the December 30th, 1927 article I posted a few weeks back, LeBarge stayed at the house of Jos Snow and paid a regular board.

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BeauS said:
Hello Crow, I found Jos Shaw listed in the 1900 census as "Joseph Shaw," a laborer in coal mining. Married to Sarah Shaw living in South Fayette, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. A couple things here, a few of their neighbors were coal minors as well.

If you look further down their household you will see someone by the name of "Thomas Bennett" born in 1842 from England. He was a boarder, a non family member, and a coal miner. Looking back at the story and the December 30th, 1927 article I posted a few weeks back, LeBarge stayed at the house of Jos Snow and paid a regular board.

Imgur
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Hola BeauS

Yes it is strong possibility. That this is correct name of the women who rented a room to la barge? Her residence was not far from Pittsburgh. So technically its not unusual to say she was from Pittsburgh. It might pay to check Thomas Bennett weather he was still a border with them in 1910 Census?

To not too far a stretch to say between 1900 and 1903 this Le Barge rented room of them.

Kanacki
 

BeauS said:
Hello Crow, I found Jos Shaw listed in the 1900 census as "Joseph Shaw," a laborer in coal mining. Married to Sarah Shaw living in South Fayette, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. A couple things here, a few of their neighbors were coal minors as well.

If you look further down their household you will see someone by the name of "Thomas Bennett" born in 1842 from England. He was a boarder, a non family member, and a coal miner. Looking back at the story and the December 30th, 1927 article I posted a few weeks back, LeBarge stayed at the house of Jos Snow and paid a regular board.

Imgur
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Hello BeauS

Well done! Jos was short for Joseph. De long might of deliberately disguised the name in the original story and years later in 1920 reveal the real last name of the house keeper. Perhaps it was an attempt to protect thier privicy from would be treasure hunters?

Ya doing well keep researching... I will see if this Jerome has a death certificate.

Crow
 

Hola BeauS

The time for us is to move on , before I do I want to thank you for the fantastic posts. It has been a pleasure to seeing you evolve. Just remember to do one thing for yourself. Take down the given location off your posts as there many who never post will take every bit of your hard work for nothing. Remember play your cards well and never give trump cards away so easily.


I say that on behalf of me and Crow as he is unable to do do. Regardless of the outcome of your research you have great prospects and future ahead of you.

Kanacki
 

I want to thank you guys for your support, I learned a lot from both of you! I will remember to follow the things that are true, and be wary of the things that could be false. I will take down the location and keep researching!
 

BeauS said:
https://sites.google.com/site/nationaltreasuresonline/national/iowa

Looking on Google maps, Crane cemetery is north of along the Des Moines river. It's located on Jason trail, and there is a left turn directly north of the cemetery. I know it's just a tale, but would that be the spot to look? Is it safe for me to check out that area?

I'm new to metal detecting, would have to purchase a detector and pinpointer.
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Where did you learn about this story, with the Crane Cemetery, I know this story and have been there doing some detecting, but I have not heard about this cemetery.
 

I was once told gold was detected but not found, northwest of the cemetery between a curve on a road and the city limits about 20 years ago. Then I was told between rr tracks & a curve. Person would not say much more than that. Have also been told others have detected possible gold in the same vicinity. But excused it as possible glacial gold traces.
 

"I work with a girl who is from. She said her Elementary school teacher had a skeleton in her classroom that was recovered by the road crew in that town."

That's funny, I am also from Eddyville, and I recall in 4th or 5th grade, hearing that story about the skeleton. I recall the treasure/murder story as far back as I can remember. I read about it in a book called "Tales of Old Eddyville" written by Eddyville Resident Frank Brown.

You ask any Native Eddyville resident and they will know the story, Or some version of it.
I hope you find it
 

I know this is an old post but this story has been a fav of mine for almost 40 years lol.

I've been an historical researcher for over 40 years. Specializing in buried and lost gold coin hoards.

I don't understand why, but all I see in this post is people looking for a Jos Snow or Jos Shaw or Josephine Snow/Shaw? The article mentioned MRS. Jas Snow/Shaw. That would ALWAYS be the title of the WIFE of a James Snow/Shaw. You shouldn't have been looking for a woman by that name, you should have been looking for the wife of a JAMES. Of course looking for a name as popular as James Snow or James Shaw in old records in the Pittsburg area would surely bring dozens and dozens of results and might be next to impossible to determine the correct one.

Contrary to many people's belief on this post, I believe this story just MIGHT be true.

Why?

1. The postmaster talked two people into going with him to look for this gold himself before he made the info public.

2. The postmaster wasn't the one that claimed to have found the skull.

3. It wasn't like the two men involved in the murder took time to dig a hole in the middle of the road to bury the skull. They threw it into a wagon rut and covered it up. A wagon rut could have been plenty deep enough to bury a skull, and it would have only taken a couple minutes to cover it up.

4. As far as taking the time to burn the skull or drawing attention to themselves by building a fire ....... the fire was already burning. Besides, they probably would have heard any wagons or horses coming long before anybody could have seen them. I have horses, and there are horses and buggies in my neighborhood - you can hear them coming from a surprising long distance.

5. Just because the woman that supposedly sent the letter to Eddyville didn't give her contact info doesn't mean it was a hoax. Maybe she just didn't see any need to? She said she didn't know what was in the letter. Why would somebody go to the extreme of writing a letter like that, describing an area exactly like it really looked, just for a hoax? (it's POSSIBLE - but very, very HIGHLY unlikely)

6. Just because a handful of townspeople in Eddyville stated that the postmaster probably made up the story to sell papers, doesn't make their statement true. Think about it ......... dozens and dozens of people from town searched for the treasure. If they didn't think it was real they wouldn't have done that. It was only AFTER the fact when it wasn't found that THOSE rumors started. It would have been an natural tendency on the searchers part to say that if it was never found ........... what else COULD they think ...... if they quit looking for it, they wouldn't have wanted to believe that it was really there.

Now sure there is also evidence that points to this story being made up, but you can say that about almost all stories of lost treasure. Maybe somebody in town DID find it and kept quite?

I'm just saying, don't always be so quick to discount stories like this as a hoax just because it doesn't fit into YOUR idea of logical thinking? OR the fact that you can't find every piece of evidence that you want, to prove that the story is true, doesn't mean that it's not.

I'm just saying ...............

There wouldn't be any such thing as lost treasure if they all had all the documentation that you're looking for, because it would have all been found. THAT'S EXACTLY why there IS LOST TREASURE still out there lol

Oh well, don't ya just LOVE these stories? ha ha ha
 

The gold is burried under hwy 63 at the bend where the eddyville cemetary is visible.
 

I'm just now reading this. Excellent information. I'll be doing more research this winter, hopefully we can figure something out.
 

The newspaper articles mentioned that the three men sold their claims for $45,000 cash money. Why would there be three gallons of gold? Also a gallon of gold would be about $20,000 dollars worth not $15,000? I believe this story to be a hoax. There were a lot of these stories taking up newspaper space from the early 1870's to the early 1900's. Good luck in your search.

Also I have not played very much poker but don't four kings beat a straight. I know it probably doesn't beat a straight flush but the newspaper says a straight beat four kings and he accused him of cheating and killed him. Something wrong here some where?
 

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@Rockets83- Have you heard of Cemetery Hill? Apparantly a watertower was built on it?
 

I can't find anything out there on these "Characters" of the story. As of right now, I consider them characters. W.W. DeLong was a real person, postmaster at the time, and was also a Mason who knew the land very well.

The people of the story he was given so far are not real. Jerome LeBarge, Melalley, William Gunton, Mrs. Jos. Snow.

Melalley who? Yes, most likely Mrs. Joseph Snow. I can't find any articles on any of these people. Wouldn't there be articles about a murder in Eddyville? Or a missing William Gunton out there? It's based on the same story, about the buried gold.

I'll get on Ancestry and keep searching for these people. There's also very little on this skull found. Wouldn't there be plenty of articles about a skull being found?
 

There was a treasure Hunter/author who wrote about hunting for the Eddyville gold. I will do a YouTube video on their adventure. Early posts of roads and such in this thread are dead on.
 

BeauS said:
I can't find anything out there on these "Characters" of the story. As of right now, I consider them characters. W.W. DeLong was a real person, postmaster at the time, and was also a Mason who knew the land very well.

The people of the story he was given so far are not real. Jerome LeBarge, Melalley, William Gunton, Mrs. Jos. Snow.

Melalley who? Yes, most likely Mrs. Joseph Snow. I can't find any articles on any of these people. Wouldn't there be articles about a murder in Eddyville? Or a missing William Gunton out there? It's based on the same story, about the buried gold.

I'll get on Ancestry and keep searching for these people. There's also very little on this skull found. Wouldn't there be plenty of articles about a skull being found?
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I once had the newspaper article about the skull being found.
 

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