$250,000.00 Outhouse

[jeff of pa]

First:find out if there is a 1200 block of State Street in Chicago.
then Find out IF it was there in 1868.
If not Where WAS IT ?

then find out if a FELIX CONWAY lived in Chicago
on State Street in the 1200 Block & where if he did.

IF all this pans out, get a Sanborn map and find the Privey
in 1868.

IF everything pans out to this point, Make a deal with the Land owner
To repair the property after you get done "Bottle Hunting" the Privey Sight and find that Cement Bottom

 

[wishbone1958]

Very interesting story... would of loved to of read this when i lived in chicago for 45 yrs... I know exactly where this location is... may be a little difficult to find this privy because the area is very commercial.. lots of development there.. it could be covered up and gone for ever never to be found.. thanks for the article anyway.. there are lots of good stories.. keep up the good posts.. god bless.....

 

[Illinois Jeff]

There would have to be some serious research. State street runs a long distance and it would need to be determined if the address was around 1200 North or 1200 south. If it were 1200 North, there are many high rises there now. I am not sure what is on the South end but that neighborhood was not very good several years ago. Chicago is also developing more in these areas not to mention that the "1200" address may not be completely accurate. Not that i wouldnt like to find the treasure but it would be a crap shoot trying to pinpoint it.

 

[serpent]

better late than never on posting to this topic. i have read this story before but have never looked into it. it would seem to me that Chicago would have very good historic platt books and property records to get someone into the ball park so to speak. It would be a matter of finding the right technology to operate in a very urban environment. At that depth it is safe to assume that it is either still there or long ago recovered if there is a sky scraper built over the site. but asphalt wont hurt the operation, a very good pulse induction machine could overcome that. Using any sort of lrl/mfd technology would be greatly hampered do to electrical interferance. The records are the key, it should be possible to get within the legal limits of the property as it was in that day to begin the physical search. I live an hour or so away, anyone want to do the research send me a private message, but you'll have to do the archival work, I dont have time to go up there, I'm in the middle of research and search projects this spring already. But I will bring my MFD and pulse induction machine up there to pinpoint the very large stash. thats what I like about the pulse induction.. it doesnt lie and is good on a target like that to 15 feet i would think, I admit I am still learning the subtle operation of pulse induction technology but have made great strides this spring with it. Ive got MFD operation down to a science and know that it would be shaky in that urban environement. But I'm an optimist and 250.000.00 would be worth tens of millions today, it could be done.

 

[rcawdor57]

There are HUGE buildings over that area now. Not likely to be found.

 

[rcawdorswife]

My brother use to live in that area if it was North State St.about 15 years ago. Could be the front lawn of a high rise or the grassy area of the circle drives.

 

[Gimmie The Loot]

If anyone is looking into whether Felix Conway is real, today's 1200 N Block of State Street would have been 384 State street in the 1800's. They renumbered the streets in 1909. I can't find much info about South State except this would have been around State And Roosevelt which is now single family 2 or 3 flats. Reletively new but I'm sure was warehouses and factories in early 1900s.

 

[Dogsoldier]

I've heard a few variations of this story,but I find a few holes in them.Like this one.I don't believe doctors knew what cancer was in 1868 or the means to figure that out.I believe the most common phrase back then was consumption.

 

[Daedalus]

I've heard a few variations of this story,but I find a few holes in them.Like this one.I don't believe doctors knew what cancer was in 1868 or the means to figure that out.I believe the most common phrase back then was consumption.

Yeah they did know of cancer , I have my Great Great Grandfathers Medical books and it shows it in there and the types . They new quite a lot about it , it's just that they could do nothing about it .
One of the books has the publish date of 1887 and that has about the treatment of the Cancers and how to test for it and the types it could be . Another book is 1856 from a medical Collage in Boston and it has about the Cancer of the Bone and liver , have not looked up more. So they could have known about this part anyway .
Not to say the story is true though .

 

[Tuberale]

More sources for this lead from my cross-reference index: Treasure World, March, 1974, p. 49; Coffman's 1001 Lost, Buried or Sunken Treasures, p. 59 (btw, this should be in every serious treasure hunter's library!); Penfield's Directory of Buried or Sunken Treasures and Lost Mines of the United States, p. 61; Treasure Magazine, January, 1979, p. 42; Terry's Treasure Map Atlas, p. 62; Buried Treasure, p. 43.

 

[greedisbad]

just wondering who told the reporter? everyone died. i mean it sounds like a great story. think about it. is it a fiction story from the reporter himself just to draw people into his post. not trying to be - but its sounds very fictional. but i hope its not.

 

[paultheairplane]

Just an FYI - I have searched and searched for any record of a Felix Conway living in Chicago at any point in recorded history. There are none. I don't think the guy existed.

 

[CTwoods]

I have searched and searched for any record of a Felix Conway living in Chicago

Is there a way to search the Find A Grave website with the limited info on him?

 

[paultheairplane]

Is there a way to search the Find A Grave website with the limited info on him?

There is absolutely nothing on this dude, OR his wife. Unfortunately that original story seems to be riddled with holes and deliberately vague details and with no clear linear timeline of when this Felix Conway was born nor when he died. They add these random spans of years to demonstrate the passage of time, but I think that's just for flourish. The bottom line is that I found no evidence of there ever being a Felix Conway in Chicago, not in any census records or obituaries or anything. They mention what seems to be a specific cemetery between Chicago and Evanston (which I take to mean Cavalry Catholic Cemetery) that his wife is supposedly buried at too, but there are no records of an Elsie Conway at that cemetery, and the timeline doesn't match up with any of the female Conways who are buried there. And putting all that aside, as this is supposedly at N State St, IF this was real it is almost certainly deep underneath a skyscraper or a major and extremely busy road and permissions to excavate would be impossible to obtain.

 

[jeff of pa]

So far From the Chicago Tribune

 

[jeff of pa]

Chicago Tribune​

Chicago Daily Tribune
Chicago, Illinois · Saturday, March 16, 1957

 

[jeff of pa]

Story Was Definitely Handed Down Through the Doctor & his son .

there is Reason to Believe a Tale 100 Years old was Not told Verbatim
each time a New Person was Told.

Sadly unless the Good Doctor Kept a Journal that still exists

as For Names ? Felix may have Been a Middle Name & Preferred over His First Or Simply made up by one of The Doctors Relatives Who either Wanted to Keep the Secret or Simply Forgot The True Names

Cattle Buyers in Cook County May be another Research Tool , Is there another Word for Cattle Buyers ?

 

[jeff of pa]

Relative

Though it appears Felix had no son or he wasn't trusted , Still a Conway on State Street & There is a M.F. Conway In Cook County (no address)