Gypsy Heart
Gold Member
Jim Gordon's Gold Cache
Considering the harsh frontier culture of the times Jim Gordon and his younger brother Eli didn’t have it too bad in 1832 when they moved from Greene County, Alabama to Newton County, Mississippi. It was here their father Govin Gordon. Jr. acquired some two thousand acres of land near Union. The Gordon family carved out a home and farmland from the virgin forest and the contrary red clay of Mississippi..........In need of cash, Jim sold most of his horses to the Confederate Army, keeping only a few of his best mares and stallions for future herd development. He also sold most of the cattle and hogs that belonged to him and Eli insisting on gold for payment, as he did not trust the Confederate currency and Yankees dollars were rare in the Confederate South. He planned well, having fewer animals to winter; what he did not plan for was a Yankee by the name Benjamin Greirson of the Illinois Calvary....................
In the spring of 1863 with little livestock left and facing the uncertainty the war had created, Jim informed Gabe that he was going to Meridian on business and would return in a few days. Jim secretly loaded the gold he had received from the sale of his horses onto a wagon then made the thirty mile trip to deposit the gold in a Meridian bank. The banker obviously eager to do business with his old friend and fellow horse trader offered Jim a considerable amount of Confederate money for his bounty, an offer Jim quickly rejected. Jim was willing to accept Yankee dollars and nothing else but as when he sold his horses there were no Yankee dollars to be had in Meridian, Mississippi. Jim returned to his farm where he buried the gold, never to be seen again by anybody, including himself. Jim Gordon went to his grave with only a few head of cows one mule and thirty-four acres of land, as the location of the gold and the fate of his wealth is still a mystery today.
http://www.carolshouse.com/familyhistory/gordon/fightinggordons.htm
Considering the harsh frontier culture of the times Jim Gordon and his younger brother Eli didn’t have it too bad in 1832 when they moved from Greene County, Alabama to Newton County, Mississippi. It was here their father Govin Gordon. Jr. acquired some two thousand acres of land near Union. The Gordon family carved out a home and farmland from the virgin forest and the contrary red clay of Mississippi..........In need of cash, Jim sold most of his horses to the Confederate Army, keeping only a few of his best mares and stallions for future herd development. He also sold most of the cattle and hogs that belonged to him and Eli insisting on gold for payment, as he did not trust the Confederate currency and Yankees dollars were rare in the Confederate South. He planned well, having fewer animals to winter; what he did not plan for was a Yankee by the name Benjamin Greirson of the Illinois Calvary....................
In the spring of 1863 with little livestock left and facing the uncertainty the war had created, Jim informed Gabe that he was going to Meridian on business and would return in a few days. Jim secretly loaded the gold he had received from the sale of his horses onto a wagon then made the thirty mile trip to deposit the gold in a Meridian bank. The banker obviously eager to do business with his old friend and fellow horse trader offered Jim a considerable amount of Confederate money for his bounty, an offer Jim quickly rejected. Jim was willing to accept Yankee dollars and nothing else but as when he sold his horses there were no Yankee dollars to be had in Meridian, Mississippi. Jim returned to his farm where he buried the gold, never to be seen again by anybody, including himself. Jim Gordon went to his grave with only a few head of cows one mule and thirty-four acres of land, as the location of the gold and the fate of his wealth is still a mystery today.
http://www.carolshouse.com/familyhistory/gordon/fightinggordons.htm
You keep finding good leads like this and someone is going to dig in the right spot one day. I had heard of the Fighting Gordons but never have done any research on them. The link is a good read for anyone who likes Mississippi or Civil War history.
