James Beverly Ward had a leg impairment that kept him out of the fighting during the Civil War. No mention is made how this happened whether he was born that way or it happened when he dropped out of West Point after being there for 18 months. Most likely it was before he went to West Point. The glowing letter sent to West Point written by George C. Hutter needs to be found and read. I am amazed after reading back through Peter Viemeister's book, "A History of a Mystery" how much research he actully did. (The letter needs to be found)
No James Beverly Ward never served in the Confederate Army but he did serve at home. He was a quartermaster and they had to do a lot of traveling maybe to Richmond and back. When he died in 1907 on his funeral papers he was listed as "Major James B. Ward. JBW was a paymaster clerk at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, MO between 1840 and 1846 when they returned back to the Risque Farm near Lynchburg, Va. That is where he met Harriet Otey and married her in St. Louis, MO,
Yes Ward and Hazelwood were members of the same lodge for a few years. I believe that is how they knew each other. Hazelwood's father delivered mail from Lynchburg to Castle Craig south of Lynchburg and NH helped him at times going down to the railroad depot to pick up the mail. That is how he eventually got a job as paymaster for the railroad.
I do not know about Max or Witcher being members of the lodge? Rebel should have access to that information. In Danville they have books listing members every year they joined and all the officers but I have not seen any for Lynchburg. However, and this is a big one, the commanding officer for N Hazelwood during the war was Colonel Maurice Langhorne and his was at one time over the Masons in Lynchburg and he lived in the house of Robert Morris until his death and his son lived there in one half of the home in 1864. Charles W. Button lived in the other half of the house.
The iron box today I am quite sure eight years ago it was in the possession of Pauline Innis until her passing. She had no one to leave her estate to as far as I can tell. The iron box would be in her estate whether it is still there or not can only be found out by someone going to the Watergate Hotel where she lived till she died and find out?
As far as Cl and C3 ------- read the Hart Papers especially the fourth paragraph where N Hazelwood gave Clayton Hart the go ahead to work on the codes without his help. It sounds just like when Robert Morris turned the story over to him. Clayton and George Hart both said Newton Hazelwood knew about what was in the Job Print Pamphlet before it was ever published. HOW? He had to be the one that Robert Morris entrusted. He changed the cyphers to locate the "KEY" and in hopes that no one could steal the legacy of Thomas J. Beale's Party. Without his help the treasure would not be found at all without the true cyphers. Newton Hazelwood told Clayton Hart this and that is when Clayton Hart went to Lynchburg in 1903 to find James Beverly Ward and ask him about the Job Print Pamphlet and was the story true.
Another thing is the article appearing in the Roanoke Newspaper in 1893 a full eight years after the Job Print Pamphlet was made public in Lynchburg. The only connection between the two is Newton Hazelwood working Roanoke after the N & W Railroad moved it's headquarters there in 1882 or 1883. Clayton Hart recieved the eight sheets of paper from Newton Hazelwood his boss in 1897.
The Harts keep the story alive but I believe Newton Hazelwood revived the story in 1893 with that article in the Roanoke Newspaper. Then comes in Pauline Innis, she is also kin to the Oteys, Harts, Bufords and Lucks. George gave his journal and works to the Roanoke Library in 1952, he lived in Georgetown and practiced law and most likely had cases that were in the Washington, D.C. area. Pauline found out from him about the Beale Treasure or seen it in the Roanoke Newspaper while visiting Roanoke. Anyway Pauline had to interview George Hart because her first book, "Gold in the Blue Ridge" is mostly about George and his brother Clayton hunting for the Beale Treasure. She reveals she obtained the iron box in Roanoke after George Hart told her it was in the possession of relatives there. She goes to Roanoke and obtains the iron box and only finds two pieces of paper that she believed to be pieces torn from receipts. If one studies those two pieces of paper they could very well be the "KEY" within a "KEY" using the DOI.
Newton Hazelwood's only a few months after getting Clayton to copy the eight sheets of code papers was getting old and sick and he told Clayton to pursue the treasure on his own. That is the same thing Robert Morris told the author of the Job Print Pamphlet. He told Clayton that he believed the treasure was still buried where it was originally buried. Newton Hazelwood was well known for his honesty remember he did not want to disinherit the TJB Party.
With over 31 years of my own research and working on the Beale Cypher Codes for the past 51 years I believe the treasure is still buried in Bedford County within four miles of Buford's Tavern or at least the town of Bufford's