Gypsy Heart
Gold Member
Several Scotchmen settled within the present limits of the town of Kortright before the Revolutionary war; some at the head of the Betty's brook, some at a point on the Delaware river below where Mr. James Sackrider now lives, known as the "hog's back", and others on Wright's brook. Of the latter the following story is told: Among them was one who for those times was considered wealthy, if, indeed, gold could have constituted wealth in so isolated a spot. After the war broke out the murders and lawless depredations committed upon the lives and property of the frontier settlers gave this man a timely warning. He saw safety only in flight. Although favorable inclined to the British government, a heavy bounty had been offered for scalps, and the Indians were as likely to sacrifice friend as foe. The family prepared to leave. The arrangements were completed, their goods boxed and buried or otherwise secreted in places recognized by themselves through the agency of marked trees, the owners intending to return and possess themselves of their property as soon as peace should be restored. The Scotchman, fearing to take much money with him in his flight, pondered long and earnestly in what manner most effectually to conceal his pile; at last he bethought himself to bury it. Selecting a spot favorable to his purpose he sank an excavation at the roots of a hollow tree, in which he deposited the wallet containing, as he asserted upon his dying bed, five hundred guineas, and carefully replaced the dirt, and designated the spot by a marked line of trees to the junction of Wright's brook with the Delaware river. He south refuge in Canada, and while there his family became the victims of a contagious disease. One by one they were consigned to the grave, until he alone remained. At last he was taken ill himself, and when upon his dying bed he called the physician who had attended him during his illness, and revealed to him the secret of his hidden treasurers and all the attending circumstances. Immediately after the declaration of peace the physician, not doubting from the minute statement of the dying man that he could easily discover the concealed treasure, made a journey into the county in search of it. He arrived at the place now known as Bloomville, concealing the object of his mission from every one, and accounting for his strange conduct by pretending to be searching for herbs of rare medicinal properties which a friendly Indian had told him abounded in that region. He readily discovered the line of marked trees; but alas! He had come too late. The improvements of the Scotchman were now occupied by an enterprising settler, and upon the identical spot where the treasurer was concealed years before was now a waving a heavy crop of wheat. The physician now made careful inquiries of the occupant, who stated that in plowing the field the plowshare had struck and smashed in the end of a wooden box, which upon examination he found to have once contained clothing, but of which only a few decayed remnants remained. He had also plowed up a set of harrow teeth and an iron wedge, and those were all that he had discovered. After a futile search of nearly a week the physician was compelled to abandon his quest and return to meet other engagements.
http://www.dcnyhistory.org/books/munkortright.html
http://www.dcnyhistory.org/books/munkortright.html
