According to author Lambert Florin a treasure is said to be guarded by a ghost near the old stage stop and locals have seen a shadow moving along the road and a few other odd events.
I did some checking into this and did find the following additional info:
Grant House Of Pony Update
Add this to the story about the Grant House Treasure
In the book about early Madison County history entitled,” Pioneer Trails and Trials” I came across after much reading some information which might shed a little more light about the “Grant House”. Prior to coming across this book, finding anything on the Grant House was seemingly hopeless. But maybe now we have a little more to go on.
According to author Lambert Florin who wrote that there was a treasure buried behind the “Grant House” which was at one time a stage station, he was given the treasure story from local residents, one being a woman named Hill. Lambert Florin’s book has a copyright date of 1971, so any residents he talked to which provided the information about the ghost and the hidden treasure might not be around today, I know at the time of my visit the few I asked had never heard the story. I came across the interesting fact that Pony once had another site, this was back during the time of Pony (Tecumceh) Smith (also called Smith McCumpsey). There was a short lived camp called “Pony Gulch”, maybe the stage station was located here? But still there had to have been a stage station at today’s location known as Pony based upon the simple fact that the railroad didn’t lay its tracks to Pony until 1889. It would have been at this point in time one would think that the building was used for another purpose.
More research turned up a few names of men who drove the stage coaches. One was Andrew Jackson Fort who drove the route from Sappington to Pony to Norris prior to 1900. Between 1871 and 1900, Wilford Manley drove on the route from Sappington to Mammoth to Pony. There was also a claim that the treasure was buried with a murder victim, I did run across something else of interest, but do not know if it pertains to the murder victim. A Charles Reel had a stable where three men got into a gunfight and one of the men killed the other two. But then that gives us two bodies not one, still it points out that the times had their share of early demises.
Other information I uncovered was that a pair of brothers named Billie and Joe Boyer moved to the Pony area around 1871 to ranch. The ranch later became the Grant Ranch and was later owned by E. M. Brooke. Of these names the book only had information on E. M. Brooke. Mr. Brooke at one time was the president of the Jack Pot Mining Corporation which owned the Boaz Mine one of the better producers in the region near Norris. The Boaz later sold for $100,000, but I doubt that Mr. Brooke hid any money behind the old stage station.
More interesting details came to light with further reading about the local region. A book from 1885, “Warner, Beers & Co.” had some interesting details which at least helped to show the name Grant was a local person and supports the Grant House story to some degree. According to this book a Henry H. Mood was named as residents along with A. W. Paul, the Royer brothers? (could the Royer brothers be a misspelling and the name was supposed to be Billie and Joe Boyer?), James M. Grant and H.C. Harrison as residents of Willow Creek.
Maybe the key to finding the site of the old stage station is the story about a man born in 1828 who moved to Montana. His name was Henry H. Mood, he was with a party of hunters and liked the area of Willow Creek. He decided to stay and ended up owning around 4,000 acres and raised horses, which is what a stage station needs (fresh changes of horses). He called his property “Timothy Lawn” and was said to have been a stage stop for folks coming from Virginia City. Timothy Lawn was later owned by the Brooke family. With this last bit of information, seeking surviving members of the Brooke family just might shed further light on the story of a murder and rumors of a buried treasure at the old Grant House of Pony.
I did some checking into this and did find the following additional info:
Grant House Of Pony Update
Add this to the story about the Grant House Treasure
In the book about early Madison County history entitled,” Pioneer Trails and Trials” I came across after much reading some information which might shed a little more light about the “Grant House”. Prior to coming across this book, finding anything on the Grant House was seemingly hopeless. But maybe now we have a little more to go on.
According to author Lambert Florin who wrote that there was a treasure buried behind the “Grant House” which was at one time a stage station, he was given the treasure story from local residents, one being a woman named Hill. Lambert Florin’s book has a copyright date of 1971, so any residents he talked to which provided the information about the ghost and the hidden treasure might not be around today, I know at the time of my visit the few I asked had never heard the story. I came across the interesting fact that Pony once had another site, this was back during the time of Pony (Tecumceh) Smith (also called Smith McCumpsey). There was a short lived camp called “Pony Gulch”, maybe the stage station was located here? But still there had to have been a stage station at today’s location known as Pony based upon the simple fact that the railroad didn’t lay its tracks to Pony until 1889. It would have been at this point in time one would think that the building was used for another purpose.
More research turned up a few names of men who drove the stage coaches. One was Andrew Jackson Fort who drove the route from Sappington to Pony to Norris prior to 1900. Between 1871 and 1900, Wilford Manley drove on the route from Sappington to Mammoth to Pony. There was also a claim that the treasure was buried with a murder victim, I did run across something else of interest, but do not know if it pertains to the murder victim. A Charles Reel had a stable where three men got into a gunfight and one of the men killed the other two. But then that gives us two bodies not one, still it points out that the times had their share of early demises.
Other information I uncovered was that a pair of brothers named Billie and Joe Boyer moved to the Pony area around 1871 to ranch. The ranch later became the Grant Ranch and was later owned by E. M. Brooke. Of these names the book only had information on E. M. Brooke. Mr. Brooke at one time was the president of the Jack Pot Mining Corporation which owned the Boaz Mine one of the better producers in the region near Norris. The Boaz later sold for $100,000, but I doubt that Mr. Brooke hid any money behind the old stage station.
More interesting details came to light with further reading about the local region. A book from 1885, “Warner, Beers & Co.” had some interesting details which at least helped to show the name Grant was a local person and supports the Grant House story to some degree. According to this book a Henry H. Mood was named as residents along with A. W. Paul, the Royer brothers? (could the Royer brothers be a misspelling and the name was supposed to be Billie and Joe Boyer?), James M. Grant and H.C. Harrison as residents of Willow Creek.
Maybe the key to finding the site of the old stage station is the story about a man born in 1828 who moved to Montana. His name was Henry H. Mood, he was with a party of hunters and liked the area of Willow Creek. He decided to stay and ended up owning around 4,000 acres and raised horses, which is what a stage station needs (fresh changes of horses). He called his property “Timothy Lawn” and was said to have been a stage stop for folks coming from Virginia City. Timothy Lawn was later owned by the Brooke family. With this last bit of information, seeking surviving members of the Brooke family just might shed further light on the story of a murder and rumors of a buried treasure at the old Grant House of Pony.
