munday

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has anybody found mundays inetials any place he traveled with swift it seems they should be found somewhere with swifts seems no one has mentioned this just curious

 

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[KY Hiker]

The Lower Devil's Creek stone carving " S:J:M rock " is the only thing I know of personally. Swift : Jefferys or Jefferson : Mundy is what the initials are supposed to represent.

Some journals reference marking on Beech trees, but I would suppose those are all gone now. If the trees are still around the carvings would not be readable IMO. There are Beech trees from that time 1780-90s alive in the Louisville, KY area. Initials and carvings on those become very hard to read beyond the mid 1800s.

 

[franklin]

has anybody found mundays inetials any place he traveled with swift it seems they should be found somewhere with swifts seems no one has mentioned this just curious

The pack mule load of silver they hid after the lading had been shot on a creek flowing North. I found the initials of Henry Hewitt cut real deep and large. The initials was about 2 inches deep in a large sandstone rock. The highway department broke one half of the stone off to put a road through. It most likely is buried under the highway. I also found a triangle carved pointing down where they said they buried the mule pack of coins. On up the creek in the forks was a large cliff that had an Indian Calendar carved into it. I never did get to dig though I made at least five lone trips to the site. This is in West Virginia.

 

[KY Hiker]

The pack mule load of silver they hid after the lading had been shot on a creek flowing North. I found the initials of Henry Hewitt cut real deep and large. The initials was about 2 inches deep in a large sandstone rock. The highway department broke one half of the stone off to put a road through. It most likely is buried under the highway. I also found a triangle carved pointing down where they said they buried the mule pack of coins. On up the creek in the forks was a large cliff that had an Indian Calendar carved into it. I never did get to dig though I made at least five lone trips to the site. This is in West Virginia.

Who is Henry Hewitt? Did Mundy have an alias?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kent_Hewitt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Charles_Hewitt

https://www.geni.com/people/Henry-Hewitt/6000000006440911426


And what about George Mundy ? ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mundy

 

[franklin]

Who is Henry Hewitt? Did Mundy have an alias?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kent_Hewitt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Charles_Hewitt

https://www.geni.com/people/Henry-Hewitt/6000000006440911426


And what about George Mundy ? ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mundy

All too young. About all of Swift's associates or most of them were from around North Wilkesboro, N.C. I found most of them and their documents such as Wills and deeds. But some of them could not be found as someone stole Deed Book #1. They said there was another copy somewhere but I did not follow up on it. I did locate something like a root cellar or something very large where Jeffries once lived. I could not dig it up as it was within 50 feet of a Parkway Highway. Even metal detectors were illegal but at the time I did not know it. Could have taken my equipment, my car and given me jail time. But I was ignorant then and did not know the law. But they say ignorance of the law is no excuse.

 

[KY Hiker]

All too young. About all of Swift's associates or most of them were from around North Wilkesboro, N.C. I found most of them and their documents such as Wills and deeds. But some of them could not be found as someone stole Deed Book #1. They said there was another copy somewhere but I did not follow up on it. I did locate something like a root cellar or something very large where Jeffries once lived. I could not dig it up as it was within 50 feet of a Parkway Highway. Even metal detectors were illegal but at the time I did not know it. Could have taken my equipment, my car and given me jail time. But I was ignorant then and did not know the law. But they say ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Sorry, I have never heard the name Hewitt related to Swift journals before. I guess there are versions that don't circulate anymore.

 

[KY Hiker]

The Lower Devil's Creek stone carving " S:J:M rock " is the only thing I know of personally. Swift : Jefferys or Jefferson : Mundy is what the initials are supposed to represent.

Some journals reference marking on Beech trees, but I would suppose those are all gone now. If the trees are still around the carvings would not be readable IMO. There are Beech trees from that time 1780-90s alive in the Louisville, KY area. Initials and carvings on those become very hard to read beyond the mid 1800s.

From one online source....


Swift's Workmen At Mine Pledged To Secrecy
By Dan Graybeal


John Swift s trouble-plagued company departed Munday s house on May 6, 1769,
and went by Ingle s Ferry, on the New River, through the Big Gap arriving at the mines on June 24, 1769.
The pack train was large and progress was slow. The Indians were becoming more
hostile and the workers were becoming more afraid. They decided to close up the affairs of
the company and quit the operation. All the workmen were pledged to secrecy and paid
sevenfold the agreed wage. Swift wrote, "That it came up to us to
settle what was to be done, and seeing that we prospered beyond our expectations, and had
gathered great riches and the hard life had taken its toll on the physical and mental
strength of the men, we decided to abandon the hard life to the present and return later to carry
out the great riches hidden in the great cavern
of the Shawnees."Barrels of gold and silver had been
stored in a room of the cave and walled up and sealed. Swift only spoke of gold one time. He
wrote that the treasure may remain here until their return or "be hid for all eternity."
Only a few in the company knew the location of the cache. This cave was supposed
to be near the mines, passing from one side of the mountain to the other. Legend has it that
the Shawnee attacked a Cherokee campsite in the vicinity of the cave. The Cherokees being
out-numbered sequestered the women and children into and through the cave avoiding a
bloody massacre of the village. There are a number of caves in the
region but pinpointing this particular cave is most difficult. It is likely this cave was near
the upper mines. On September 1, 1769, they left
between $20,000 and $30,000 in English crowns on a large creek running near a south
course. They marked their names on a large beech tree with symbols of a compass, trowel
and square. Such a symbol was supposed to have been found in Wolfe Co., KY.
Swift listed four occasions where they buried prizes of treasure amounting to several
thousand dollars at four separate locations. The description in the journal is ambiguous.
Since markings were placed on trees which probably have long since been felled, there can
be little advantage in listing the details of these caches. Some of this treasure could have been
found and used by early counterfeiters. Around 1910, a Mr. Nelson, a resident
of Tazewell Co.; was arraigned in federal court in Charleston, WV for counterfeiting silver
dollars. His defense lawyer Bill Payne had some of the coins assayed. The analysis
showed that Nelson was putting $1.23 worth of silver in each silver dollar.
With this as a defense, the judge reduced the charge of counterfeiting to a lesser
charge of illegally making money. Nelson was placed on probation with a warning to cease
making money. Shortly after the trial, Payne bought a farm valued at approximately one-
quarter of a million dollars by today s standards. He paid cash for the farm and many
wondered where ht got his money since he was one of the less fortunate attorneys in the area.
Could Nelson have found one of Swift s buried treasures? The daughter of Mr.
Nelson told the author s father that she had often pumped the bellows of the forge so that
her father could melt the silver for coining. In the mid-thirties, a man by the name
of Moore who lived in Harlan Co., KY, was convicted and sentenced in federal court in
Abingdon, for counterfeiting silver dollars. What could of been the source of the silver he used?

From The Dickenson Star,
Thursday, April 6, 1989.

 

[KY Hiker]

Quoted from above article...

"they left between $20,000 and $30,000 in English crowns on a large creek running near a south
course. They marked their names on a large beech tree with symbols of a compass, trowel
and square. Such a symbol was supposed to have been found in Wolfe Co., KY. "

The S:J:M rock on Lower Devil's Creek is in Wolfe County and is probably what they are referring to. There is another rock referred to as the Compass Rock near by that may have the masonic symbols on it. Lower Devil's Creek runs generally Southward from Pine Ridge area, not far South of Rock Bridge on Swift Camp Creek, and empties into the KY River up stream from Beattyville, KY.

Related info already posted :
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/l...449-lower-devils-creek-research-part-2-a.html

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/lost-silver-mines-jonathan-swift/342122-s-j-m-rock-map.html

 

[Brushy Bandit]

According to Boomer, Mundays name was carved on a rock at Caney Creek below some carvings of hands. I havent seen these myself. If I'm rememberin right he told me all this was on the buffalo rock.

 

[KY Hiker]

According to Boomer, Mundays name was carved on a rock at Caney Creek below some carvings of hands. I havent seen these myself. If I'm rememberin right he told me all this was on the buffalo rock.

If that is correct, it is just more evidence the Swift legend and the Indian Waybill are about one in the same location...I don't recall a buffalo rock being mentioned on Caney either...but I have never been there. I wonder then, if the direction of travel mentioned in Swift journals as one group going West while another followed the great ridge SW was just to confuse the reader and they actually headed Northwest toward Little Caney from the forks of the Sandy River and not West toward the KY River/ Red River headwaters?

 

[Ken S.]

Think if you do a bit of R and I, you might find that the mines on Little Caney are almost perfectly west of the forks of The Sandy at Louisa. Remember longitude and latitude were not real accurate in those days.

 

[KY Hiker]

Think if you do a bit of R and I, you might find that the mines on Little Caney are almost perfectly west of the forks of The Sandy at Louisa. Remember longitude and latitude were not real accurate in those days.

Hmm... not on my map...most definitely NW even from Louisa (forks) vs the headwaters which would be NNW.