The Hawestone train robbery of PA?

[Muttlys]

Does anyone have any info on this legend?

 

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[jeff of pa]

REPORTS from Philadelphia Ledger & Lewistown Ledger.

On Dec. 1st. 1909. the PITTSBURGH EXPRESS coming from Washington D.C. to Pittsburgh, just passed Mifflin & Entered the "NARROWS" near Lewstown.
"JAMES LAWLER" of the Lawler Brothers. had a Pistol in each hand,
and Sticks of Dynamite in his pockets. He set the Dynamite off Shaking
the train.
The Engineer stopped, and James with a burlap bag mask on,
confronted him and the conductor. after entering the express car,
he fired several shots and wounded the conductor. "POFFENBERGER"
in his hand he forced the Conductor, Fireman and another to carry
bags of money up a mountain several hundred yards. then orderd them down the mountain.
ONE BAG : $5,049 in GOLD
2 BAGS Lincoln Pennies $100.00 Each, all 1909
and a small bag of $10.00 in silver Dollars.
PINKERTON DETECTIVES & Railroad Employees, plus law , found a trail of money up the mountainside. 1st. the Bag of Gold, ALL of it.
then another bag, then the others. the Bag of pennies was split open.
only $65.00 worth of Pennies were unaccounted for.

HE WAS Never caught for this, & Believed to have Died in the Mountains west of Lewistown. JOHN his brother was Hung in West Virginia.

THE VALUE of $65.00 worth of 1909-S-V.D.B.'s in near mint, ?



IN DEC. 1954, 3 hunters ALBERT & JOHN DUBENDORF & CHARLES BELL, were about a half mile east of HAWSTONE, when they found some pennies.

TOTAL : 3700 1909's

 

[eathabs]

Jeff, I'm only 45 minutes from Lewistown. There's still a few bucks in pennies out there.

 

[jeff of pa]

Jeff, I'm only 45 minutes from Lewistown. There's still a few bucks in pennies out there.

IF the general area where the hunters found the pennies in '54
could be located,
that would be the best place to look.
they didn't have detectors back then. so unless they screened all the dirt, they should have missed some.
LAWLER was probably Bummed when he realized he took a bag containing all pennies, and afraid to backtrack to check the
other bags he discarded earlier.
he may have filled his pockets, but 2800 pennies would still
be alot to pile in pockets.

 

[jeff of pa]

a little food for thought on this one.

The TRAIN was comming from D.C. to Pittsburgh.

So the Pennies were Most likely from the Philadelphia Mint
Originally.

This means to me They are NOT 1909 - S - V.D.B. Pennies.

They would be Most Likely 1909 Plain
OR 1909 V.D.B.

IF they were to grade at EF yet.

1909 Plain $3.00 Each that's a chance at $8,400.00

1909 - V.D.B. $6.00 Each $16,800.00

and by chance GRADED to MS-60 $15.00 Each

1909 Plain $42.000.00

Even at $1.00 a piece your looking at a possible $2,800.00
CACHE.

 

[Muttlys]

Thanks for the info everyone. I was born and raised in Lewistown and as a youth trampled all through the local mountains, as well as the old train tracks passing Hawstone. As a young lad, I remember stories of such a robbery. I will do some research based on your provided information and see what I can dig up (please excuse the pun). I will keep you all posted. Thank you again.

 

[eathabs]

Mutt, have you found any more info?

 

[Cannonman17]

Man! I would do all I could to locate one of the people who found the pennies in the fifties.. if you could get them to narrow the area down or even show you... wow, that would be cool.

 

[Rich in Central PA]

OK here is the true story..........

 

[Potter Poker]

Speaking of the Lewistown area, I used to live there back in '78, belonged to Fame Fire Company. Some of the guys there told me that back shortly after WWII ended, just across the Juniata river in Lewistown there was a rather large factory and the military used to send traincar loads of brass there to be smelted into, I think, brass artillery shell casings?? and after the war there was a lot of train car loads of brass left there and they "didn't know what to do with it all so they just dumped it off the tracks into a kind of culvert". Does this ring a bell with anyone?? Isn't brass worth quite a bit today? especially big ingots of it?? Is this story true??...potter poker

 

[1liquigirl]

Jeff you are right. Because it was a money train the loot was very well documented, the pennies that were being shipped were the beginning stages of the mint. They were Philadelphia mint VDBs. $16,800 is the cash deal on this one...

 

[1liquigirl]

I have worked on this lead for a few years now, and after some luck, I was told by one of the hunters from 1954 to look at the article that was printed in the Dec. 1980 Lost Treasure Magazine for the most accurate information on the finding. He is the only survivor of the 3 hunters and even though I spoke with his niece before I spoke to him, he told me he will not give out the actual area to anyone. He himself and his niece were interested though in receiving a copy of a song that was sung and recorded about the robbery. The pennies were divided between the three of them, and his niece told me she still has one. She got it out when I spoke with her on the phone, saying it was really moldy and cleaning does take away from the value so they hadn't been. She also said that they had taken the pennies to a local coin dealer who told them back then that they weren't worth much. I couldn't tell you how bad the condition of the remaining pennies would be if they were found today, but it doesn't sound good. I asked her to look for the VDB initials below the bust of Lincoln, but she couldn't confirm it to me and said she probably could see that if they were cleaned, so they must be in very bad shape. I posted this to save the time of any of you trying to locate the hunters, it's been done with nothing to gain. Even though the remaining survivor warmed up enough during my telephone conversation to give me his address to mail a copy of the song to him, after first turning me down on the offer, he expressed very distinctly to me that he never has revealed the actual spot where he found the pennies to anyone. I even asked him if he could help me clear up a few discrepancies within different news articles such as finding them under a few tarnished leaves vs. in a rabbit hole along with a deteriorating burlap bag. He said he couldn't remember. Once the copies of the song are made for them I'll see if his niece would let me take a few pictures of the penny/pennies that she has so I can post them here for your enjoyment. So, sorry all, but the search continues.

 

[jeff of pa]

I asked her to look for the VDB initials below the bust of Lincoln, but she couldn't confirm it to me and said she probably could see that if they were cleaned, so they must be in very bad shape.

The V.D.B. Isn't below the Bust on the o9
it's on the Back Bottom between the Stems on the Wheats.
& is Very easy to see on all my Dug ones

As far as the Song, I would have wanted to say,
No Location, No song.

Don't know if I would have.
But that is what I would have Thought

 

[Mr. Mojo]

Re: Anyone interested??

In Hawstone the local and only road is not very far above the RR tracks. Now the article stated 1/2 mile east of Hawstone. That may seem like a large area, but I would start within 1/4 to 3/4 mile and search near the road. I plan to hunt there in the future. Now is the best time due to foliage. You will cover the ground in a better pattern. Once the leaves poke out your search patterns will start to separate. This would take a lot of hunt and crawl, but it can be done. I do not believe that the robber went above the road, just to it. And any lost on a steep bank up the first incline is probably buried after a century off RR maintenance. Anyone interested in looking in April? I prefer to hunt with associates to speed the coverage.

Any takers?

P.S. I work in these type environments and I have not seen a snake in a long time. But this area would be a spot to see them. I do have snakeproof gators but rarely use them.

I will be in the office tommorow and try te calc the acreage that I feel needs covered

Chuck

 

[1liquigirl]

Mr. Mojo, I may see you out there. I have been working from the Blacklog Mountain's old look out tower and down the paths from that, you can drive all the way up there to where the tower was. But, other articles said Shade Mountain, which is even further yet from the tracks. And the report your refering to would be Blue mountain. If you're interested, I can get a list of property owners in the area that you want to search to get the ok. I've had help with getting a list of the owners on Blacklog so getting more would be just as simple. And to be honest with you, the men at the court house in Mifflin told me I was the first one they knew of who had done that. But that doesn't mean there isn't many others who are doing this too. Jeff, that was my mistake, but when I call her back with the song copies, I'll ask her to check the back. There haven't been any reports of anyone finding anything more, but that means exactly that. There may have been more found and they just haven't reported it. Would you report finding something if you hadn't the information on who the property owner was to get his okay to hunt there? But, then they may have not told the guys at the courthouse why they needed a certain owner's contact information after they found something. Not the best way to hunt though, in my opinion.

 

[Rich in Central PA]

Re: Anyone interested??

In Hawstone the local and only road is not very far above the RR tracks. Now the article stated 1/2 mile east of Hawstone. That may seem like a large area, but I would start within 1/4 to 3/4 mile and search near the road. I plan to hunt there in the future. Now is the best time due to foliage. You will cover the ground in a better pattern. Once the leaves poke out your search patterns will start to separate. This would take a lot of hunt and crawl, but it can be done. I do not believe that the robber went above the road, just to it. And any lost on a steep bank up the first incline is probably buried after a century off RR maintenance. Anyone interested in looking in April? I prefer to hunt with associates to speed the coverage.

Any takers?

P.S. I work in these type environments and I have not seen a snake in a long time. But this area would be a spot to see them. I do have snakeproof gators but rarely use them.

I will be in the office tommorow and try te calc the acreage that I feel needs covered

Chuck

Chuck, I may be interested if we can get together on our days off. My best days to detect are during the week as I work 3 days a week>>F,S,S. I'm about 65 miles away from Lewistown, but I'll make the trip and spend a day down there with all of you. See if you can narrow the area down a bit where the robbery took place via your local newspapers, they should have lots of info on microfiche. Let me know................Rich

 

[wainzoid]

What the heck.... I'd be interested in going along. I'm about an hour away. The newspaper article mentioned Altoona....I can maybe see what info they(Altoona Mirror) may have on the robbery.
Isn't there some roadwork going on now in the Narrows? Would that have any affect on the area? The excavation.
I'm self-employed, so with an advance notice...any day would suit.
Put on my snakeboots and have at it! And...a bag of morels would be a bonus.

 

[wainzoid]

From the Patriot-News:

Pennsylvania's Jesse James

A daring train robbery made the news in 1909, with headlines proclaiming that ''Pennsylvania's Jesse James'' had held up a Pennsylvania Railroad express.

As the train reached the Lewistown Narrows, about nine miles east of Lewistown Junction, Engineer Samuel Donnelly of Harrisburg was surprised by a series of sharp explosions beneath the engine. The engine had passed over three sticks of dynamite, which blew off the cowcatcher and headlight.

After he slammed on the brakes, a masked man armed with two revolvers leaped up the steps into the cab.

The train was carrying three large safes containing an undisclosed amount of currency and five bags holding about $6,000 in gold and silver bars, and money was stacked in a corner.

The robber threatened the crew and fired several shots at the conductor, Isaac Poffenberger, wounding his hand. The robber then ordered the crew to carry several large bags of coins into the woods, had them re-board the train and fired several shots as the train pulled away.

When investigators arrived at the scene, they found the bags still in the woods. The robber had passed up the gold and silver bars and snatched bags containing newly minted pennies.

Police suspected James Lawler, who had been arrested in a 1903 post office robbery in Centre County, of being the masked bandit. Lawler had been in the area for three days talking to railroad employees.

Lawler was never found.

 

[bstimely21]

I HAVE A NINE PAGE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ABOUT THE EVENT IN GREAT DETAIL. EVEN MENTIONING THE EXACT TIMES AND EXACT WORDS SPOKEN BETWEEN THE ROBBERS AND OTHERS. I HAVE BEEN RESEARCHING THIS STORY FOR A FEW YEARS AND TALKING TO MANY PEOPLE THAT CAN RECOUNT THE STORY. THE EXACT SPOT IT HAPPENED IS ACTUALLY VERY EASY TO FIND. ANYONE COULD FIND IT VERY QUICKLY NOT EVEN KNOW THE AREA. BUT SORRY CANT GIVE ANY SECRETS ANYWAY OR AT LEAST NOT YET

HERES A HINT. ROOSEVELT WAS PRESIDENT THAT YEAR.

 

[maipenrai]

Two and a half have went by, any developments on this?