The Debold Hare Legend

[Driven1]

Some of this has been touched upon in a previous thread unrelated to this particular legend and I felt it made sense to give it it's own thread. You can see the previous tidbits here http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php?topic=71202.0.

My wife and I reside in what is now known as Roulette as opposed to Roulet back in the 1800's. We're transplants of about 11 years ago and had heard bits and pieces about this legend but never thought too much of it. Well, recently we purchased a Fisher F2 Metal Detector. Just in general internet perusal this legend popped up again. We started looking a lot harder at the legend.

There are many incarnations of this legend but in general they all boil down to the same thing. In a nutshell, a gentleman by the name of Debold Hare was a miser and didn't trust the local bank (although there is mention that he may actually have been a banker in Roulet) so he stashed money in the form of gold and silver coin in various locations on his property.

This is what we now know.

Debold Hare did live in Roulet.
Debold Hare died on April 7, 1850 from drowning. Note: Death Records have him listed as David Hare but the date of death and cause are the same.
Half Way Hollow was a local name for the area he lived near in Roulet and was never labeled so on any known map.
Half Way Hollow IS NOT what is now known as Hanson Hollow.
We have a very good idea of exactly where Half Way Hollow actually is.
We have a very good idea of exactly where Debold Hare's property was. Both parcels encompassing approximately 100 acres.

Much research has been put into this thing, we've done our homework and we're confident of the location. We'll see if we can put this thing to rest once and for all this spring.

Wish us luck!

 

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[deepskyal]

Good luck.

You should be able to narrow down your search with Hare's name. Property surveys should pinpoint it for you.
One of my many trips up that way, fishing the Allegheny in Roulette, I pictured places that fit the description of the legend. Somewhere around the old tannery there, there was an old bridge over the river, partly collapsed.....big field on the other side... That was back in the early/mid 80's. I'm sure things have changed since.

If you get serious about it, consider a hundred acres of high grass and you trying to swing a detector in it...
Not trying to discourage you, just helpin you think outside the box. I'd survey the area and look for any kind of markers.
Keep in mind that supposedly his family and others have searched for and may or may not have found it...so it wont be real easy.
If nothing else, you should be able to kick up some interesting relics....

Dig it all...and I do mean all. That iron signal could be the lid to a mason jar or milk can full of something else.

Al

 

[Driven1]

Thanks Al,

We've done our homework. From genealogical records, other bits of folklore and history related to the area, right down to the original property deeds which include the property line descriptions. Although the descriptions are there, the property markers no longer exist. A lot of that comes from the fact that a lot of property descriptions from that era were largely based on landmarks that were there at the time, like a patch of a certain specie of tree for example. Luckily, both plots of land were somewhat irregular in shape and through a little ingenuity and the use of Google Earth we were able to figure out almost exactly where the original plots were. I've another approach that I'm going to visit, when I have the time to get at it, that hopefully will make the property description 100% accurate. At this point we're probably 90% confident on the locations.

We understand that this "treasure" has been looked for before by family, friends, and outsiders and nothing has ever been found. But we haven't found any info that indicates that anyone was actually looking in the right area. Or even really looked that hard for it for that matter. So we thought, what the heck. We live right here. Might as well give it a shot.

Once we're 100% on the locations and get permissions from the current land owners, we'll be using a grid system to methodically scour the area one square at a time. It'll take a while but, hey it's a hobby right? No hurry. No worry.

 

[sgtfda]

A few years ago while doing some research at the Carnegie Library in Pgh. I found references and photos of people invloved in this incident in a old county history. The references were not about this incident but other things. Keep in mind Francis X Sculley would find stories in old histories and copy them word for word for the most part. You find those references and you will find more info such as the lost gold bars. I found that full story in a old county history