Digging Up Gold in New Madrid

Buried Gold Coin in
New Madrid, Missouri

              DIGGIN UP GOLD IN NEW MADRID

The New Madrid Weekly Record, dated October 7, 1882, tells a story about my great-great-grandfather William Cline and how he hid his gold coins shortly before his death on the 27th of September in 1882.   The article reads:

     "Digging Up Gold - Last Saturday morning, Mr. J. M. Broughton, Public Administrator, took charge of the estate of William Cline, deceased.  It was known that the old man had sold his farm sometime before his death for about $700; that he had received the money in gold, and it was believed he had buried it about his house.  Soon after taking charge of the estate that morning, Mr. Broughton, with Messrs. F. H. Dawson, R. G. Holloway, and Gazwell Cline commenced a search of the property.  Gazwell recalled that his little daughter Lena told him that her grandfather kept the smokehouse locked and would allow no one to go into it.  With this clue, the party determined to search there.  The dirt in the northeast corner showed that it had been disturbed recently, and commencing to dig, the third shovelful of dirt brought up a bottle containing $500 - 25 twenty-dollar gold coins.

     Next morning Messrs. R. G. Holloway and Gazwell Cline in compliance with Mr. Broughton's request examined the house.  They found a small wooden box lying on a slat in the bed formerly used by the deceased which contained $80 in gold and $20 in silver." [end of article]

This is part of my history and as I have said before, history and genealogy are inseparable.  I'm sure you have heard stories of people in the Civil War era and up through the Great Depression hiding or burying their money because they didn't trust banks.  William Cline immigrated to New Madrid, Missouri from Germany about 1831 and was distrustful of banks.  This article confirms the stories that people buried gold as true.  I encourage you to look through old newspapers, or online newspaper websites to learn more about your ancestors.  Next week, we will look at William Cline's probate records and an inventory of his personal property.  It gives us an idea of the lifestyle of people back in mid-1800 to 1882.