By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com
Nah. Well, maybe.
We’ve collected several local stories of buried coins plus the discovery of coins older than your great-great grandmother. The following stories reveal some of the loose change that could be waiting discovery, plus a copy stories of rare finds right in our back yard.
If only X marked the spot
From the May 3, 1940, Bluffton News - An old English copper coin, dated 1806, was found by E.D. Boutwell in the flower bed he had made on the John Rogers farm, three miles north of Bluffton on the Dixie Highway. A likeness of George III, King of England, can be distinguished plainly and also the inscription of the date.
A hole was punched through the coin, leading to the belief that an Indian had obtained it from English traders, perhaps at Detroit, and wore it on a string or leather thong as a necklace. If this assumption is correct the coin likely was lost on the farm long before there were any settlers in this area, and in all probability before the fighting of the War of 1812.
Also, there is the possibility the coin might have been lost by a British solider, for the English had extensive movements on troops through this area about the turn of the nineteenth century.
Pioneer’s buried gold coins
Is $57,000 – estimated value in 2023 – in gold coins buried somewhere in southern Richland Township?
If so, it is our version of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine, supposed to be tucked away in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix, Arizona. No one ever found either gold cache. Or, did someone find one or both, and simply kept it a secret?
Our buried gold mystery involves Daniel Casey, perhaps the second settler in southern Richland Township. Described as an eccentric bachelor, he built a cabin on the banks of the Riley Creek, beside a spring, one-half mile west of the Riley Creek bridge where an old orchard stood on S.W. Bentley’s farm bordering today’s County Line Road.
There were no banks, so Casey told neighbors that he believed the best way to keep his money was to bury it. He had brought considerable gold coins from the east, which some have said was as much as $2,000.
Casey grew old. He was found dead one day outstretched on his cabin floor. A search was made for the gold but it was never found. This is a great story, even if it ends here, but it doesn’t. A retired Bluffton College alumnus decided to search for the buried treasure. He obtained a copy of the oldest available map of Richland Township, dating from 1880.
After studying it, he determined that a road on the map no longer exists. That missing road was a crucial point in discovering the Daniel Casey gold. Jesse Huber, former Bluffton News editor, wrote the Daniel Casey story.
Following his time as editor, he regularly contributed stories to the News. Often his stories related to Huber relatives who were among early Swiss settlers in southern Richland Township. Huber probably knew more details of the buried goal than he placed in the story.
What became of the coins? Does an 1880 Richland Township map, showing a road no longer in existence serve as a clue or is this just another story like the infamous Nova Scotia, Canada, Oak Island, buried treasure?
Jesse Huber didn’t share his opinion in writing and the BC alum never shared the results of his search. Perhaps the gold coins are still within a shovel’s reach below ground one-half mile west of the Riley Creek bridge beside a spring in southern Richland Township.
Another backyard to dig up
Also from the Bluffton News - Next, consider the case of Edward Bright, who in the 1820s bought land along what is today U.S. Route 224, two or three miles east of Findlay. He, too, was known to have large sums of gold. None of it was found after he died. It’s probably buried at the same depth of Daniel’s Casey’s underground deposit, if that helps anyone attempting to discover either site.
Dillinger’s buried loot
Enter John Dillinger, public enemy number 1. At noon on Monday, Aug. 14, 1933, Dillinger’s gang robbed the Citizens National Bank of $2,100. While that episode in Bluffton’s history connects the town forever in the Dillinger lore, what became of the loot was never resolved.
The complete story at https://www.blufftonforever.com/post/buried-treasure-in-bluffton
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