Possible Meaning of this Symbol Sought

[Texas Jay]

Here is a carving that my late treasure-hunting and research partner and I discovered several years ago. It's located in Texas in an area where there were Knights of the Golden Circle after the War and Spanish before them. There are many carved names, initials, and treasure-related symbols in the immediate area where we took this photograph. Most of them are from the late 1800s after the Civil War ended. I was going back through my large collection of photographs we took when I realized that I had never arrived at a conclusion as to the meaning of the question mark symbol (with a straight line instead of a dot at the bottom of it) in the place where a single digit (year) should have been. Maybe someone on here would like to give me their opinions as to its meaning.



Here is a link to my Knights of the Golden Circle website:
Home - Knights of the Golden Circle

~Texas Jay

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Just looks like "William Jobe" left his mark.

 

[dog the treasure hunter]

Travel from West to East approximately 187 feet, you will find the ladle poured ingots. View attachment 1514630 View attachment 1514631

 

[Texas Jay]

His mark is a date with the last number being a question mark with no dot? That doesn't make sense.

Just looks like "William Jobe" left his mark.

 

[dog the treasure hunter]

With the M after the W, may mean go East to West to find the ingots from the "JOB" Coins melted to ingots.

 

[Texas Jay]

Travel from West to East approximately 187 feet, you will find the ladle poured ingots. View attachment 1514630 View attachment 1514631

Thank you, dog. Considering the area that it's in and the information we gathered about the area, your interpretation could well be the answer. I've researched the last name "Jobe" a bit but have found no one, by that last name, in the county or adjacent counties. I will do a more thorough search on census reports for 1870 and 1880 when I have time and see if there are any Jobes listed.
~Texas Jay

 

[Texas Jay]

With the M after the W, may mean go East to West to find the ingots from the "JOB" Coins melted to ingots.

The W is on the east side of the carving and the E is on the west side of the carving, dog, if that is significant.

 

[dog the treasure hunter]

The W is on the east side of the carving and the E is on the west side of the carving, dog, if that is significant.

I dont know if it is Texas Jay. My thought was we read left to right, so travel West to East, but the M is opposite of the W,so i thought it is coded to go East to West. With a possibility of the loot being from a inside JOB. Melted down coins to ingots. If the W is on the East end, pointers in the script seem to point East. View attachment 1514809

 

[Chadeaux]

Thank you, dog. Considering the area that it's in and the information we gathered about the area, your interpretation could well be the answer. I've researched the last name "Jobe" a bit but have found no one, by that last name, in the county or adjacent counties. I will do a more thorough search on census reports for 1870 and 1880 when I have time and see if there are any Jobes listed.
~Texas Jay

1860 Census Cherokee County, TX lists a William Jobe (female, according to census), age 13, born in Georgia ... probably not your person.

Then there is the William Jobe in the 11th regiment (Robert's Regiment) of the Texas Infantry from 1861-1865. If you know the area this regiment was made up of, that might be a good place to start.

 

[Texas Jay]

I dont know if it is Texas Jay. My thought was we read left to right, so travel West to East, but the M is opposite of the W,so i thought it is coded to go East to West. With a possibility of the loot being from a inside JOB. Melted down coins to ingots. If the W is on the East end, pointers in the script seem to point East. View attachment 1514809

Hi dog. I took the photo from the north. Other information that we collected indicates that the treasure alluded to is composed, at least in part, of gold that the Spanish mined, not melted down gold coins. A crude smelter was reportedly found in the area many decades ago. Yes, the pointers in the carving are pointing east.
~Texas Jay

 

[Texas Jay]

1860 Census Cherokee County, TX lists a William Jobe (female, according to census), age 13, born in Georgia ... probably not your person.

Then there is the William Jobe in the 11th regiment (Robert's Regiment) of the Texas Infantry from 1861-1865. If you know the area this regiment was made up of, that might be a good place to start.

Thank you, Chadeaux. I looked up the 11th Infantry Regiment and found that in March 1861, they served in New Mexico. At that time, Texas Rangers along with KGC soldiers had begun their Confederate Western Expansion movement through New Mexico and Arizona. See Donald S. Frazier's book Blood & Treasure for confirmation of this. In mid-1862, they were assigned to Gen. Benjamin McCulloch's Division. Ben McCulloch was also a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle so that fits somewhat into my theory that the treasure in the area had been rediscovered by the KGC sometime during or after the Civil War.

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qke06

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search...oldierId=4E1D74AC-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A

~Texas Jay

 

[Chadeaux]

Thank you, Chadeaux. I looked up the 11th Infantry Regiment and found that in March 1861, they served in New Mexico. At that time, Texas Rangers along with KGC soldiers had begun their Confederate Western Expansion movement through New Mexico and Arizona. See Donald S. Frazier's book Blood & Treasure for confirmation of this. In mid-1862, they were assigned to Gen. Benjamin McCulloch's Division. Ben McCulloch was also a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle so that fits somewhat into my theory that the treasure in the area had been rediscovered by the KGC sometime during or after the Civil War.

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qke06

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search...oldierId=4E1D74AC-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A

~Texas Jay

After I posted earlier, I ran across information that many of the members of that unit were mustered out of Cherokee County.

 

[Texas Jay]

I appreciate your assistance, Chadeaux. I've learned over the years that thoroughly researching treasure leads is critical to being able to locate a big treasure or to determine whether or not it's worth pursuing.
~Texas Jay

 

[orangeman]

I think there is a a code there the job part of it is different not near as big and the E looks funny. The two : dots what do they mean might be a separation

 

[WaterScoop]

I believe that the dots represent possible trees or rocks.

 

[Texas Jay]

I think there is a a code there the job part of it is different not near as big and the E looks funny. The two : dots what do they mean might be a separation

Yeah, those two drill holes after the M have me puzzled too. They are there for some reason and the oversized E looks very suspicious. Hopefully someone will be able to help us understand their meanings. I even thought that the JOB could have been referring to the Book of Job. I looked through parts of that book the other night but the only thing that I found that could be relevant was its mention of "the men from the east" and "the men from the west".

 

[orangeman]

JOB. 18 7. Did you look at that.

 

[orangeman]

And his steps shall be straitened. Is part of it.

 

[orangeman]

Did the KGC use any Greek in code. M=40 in the Greek and E=5000.

 

[orangeman]

40 West strait to 5000. Just playing with this.