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I can tell several funny stories on my parents, but surely
wouldn’t want to embarrass either of them!
I do have a funny tale about my great-great-grandfather
[which is about as far back as I can go with funny tales!].
It seems that during the Civil War, gr-gr-grandfather Bean
decided that with renegade soldiers making their way toward his home, that he
would hide his cache of gold. [This was in 1863. And gr-gr-grandfather was
considered one of the wealthiest men in the state at the time. His cash assets
worth over $50,000 in 1862. And his property well over a $50,000, then.]
The gold was to remain hidden until either the War was over,
or there was no longer any threat. This was in 1863.
On January 1st, 1864, gr-gr-grandfather was
leading a posse after some renegade soldiers, as part of the “home guard”. He
was 72 years old. As he led the group into a hollow, they came upon a cabin
where the outlaws were hiding. On approaching the cabin, one of the renegades
was hidden in the cabin loft, and as gr-gr-grandfather stepped toward the cabin
after dismounting, he was shot and killed.
Unfortunately, he did not tell anyone where the gold was
hidden. And the cache of gold has never been found. It was reported to have
been worth tens of thousands of dollars back then.
Over the past 150+ years, many have tried to locate the
gold. Metal detectors and shovels and picks were routinely carried into the
forest near the family farm over the years and hopefuls searched and dug for
the treasure.
About 65 years ago, a cousin decided to search. After
several days of walking through the forest he came upon a strong signal with
his metal detector. The spot where he got such a positive hit was in a wet,
marshy piece of the property. Undeterred, however, he enlisted the aid of
several cousins in the dig. They dug for two days; when finally they hit
something sharp and metallic.
[The problem was that as fast as they dug, the boggy mud and
slime was covering up the spot just dug!]
Working as hard and as fast as they could, the uncovered a
large squared iron top, about 40” x 40”. Unable to extract the giant
monstrosity, and with bated breath and every single man believing he was
suddenly going to become unbelievably wealthy, they enlisted the aid of a mule
to pull the thing from the bog.
The mule heaved, and pulled, and heaved, and pulled, until
finally it pulled the object from the ground.
Imagine the amazement when the “thing” was an old cast iron
cook stove!
Not to be undone, they searched through the interior of the
stove in hopes the cache of gold was hidden inside.
There was nothing but mud and slime.
For years the joke was that the Bean men found the treasure
of old William Bean…his treasured cook stove.
The story about the gold is believed to be true, as William’s
wealth was well documented. Whether he hid it, or he lost it [he was a true
Confederate sympathizer, and may have had his gold exchanged for Confederate
dollars] is not known. But there are those still living who recall the great
search for it, and the find of old William’s treasured cast iron stove!
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