another
branch county?
By 1842 the continued growth in the eastern portion of Branch County gave them enough votes to win moving the county seat from Branch to Coldwater, and the one-time county center started down the slippery slope of no return to becoming a ghost town.
The final blow came when an offer to build a new grist mill at Branch for a price of only $75 was declined. The men then located the new mill on the river in Coldwater. The center for commerce in Branch County had found a new home.
By 1905 only a single building remained of the once active community of Branch. Today, only some buried building foundations and the cemetery remain as reminders of a lost community ... a ghost town.
So, what about the buried treasure? Well, one of the landowners and residents of Branch was a fellow by the name of Isaac Middaugh.
The time was 1838 and Michigan was a true frontier state, including horse thieves, robbers and some unique opportunists of very questionable character. In the village was the Barlingame’s Hotel, known across the area as a wild roadhouse for Saturday night partying.
It seems that Isaac planned to attend the tavern’s frontier dance, but was fearful of leaving his money at home, alone. There was no bank in Branch, and he certainly had no intention of taking his loot to the roadhouse with him and inviting a robbery.
So, he waited until early nightfall, after the moon had risen, then took a spade and went to the west bank of the Branch creek. Going to the north side of the roadway along the creek he tied his gold coins in a canvas bag and proceeded to bury them for safe keeping.
The next morning, still suffering from the effects of the prior night’s folly, he discovered that he could not relocate the point at which he had buried the gold. Try as he might, and $200 in gold coins in 1838 was worth the effort, he simply could not uncover the canvas bag.
So, Isaac’s loss became another piece in the fatal story of a village that grew from an open field as the county seat, prospered, failed and never relinquished its buried gold treasure.
I wonder! On a full moon night can you still find Isaac digging in the mud along the shore of the Branch Creek?
found this in the times archive!