Hunting for Buried Treasure in Sing-Sing

"The Devil and Tom Walker", from the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Taking a break from the War of 1812 memoir of Rev. Alfred Brunson, I happened to read his account of his early life, growing up in the village of Sing Sing (now Ossining, New York). Sing Sing later became famous as the site of the New York State Prison, but in 1800 when Brunson moved there with his family, it was a tiny rural village on the banks of the Hudson River.

Given the continued obsession and search for the treasure of Oak Island, it is worth remembering that the first accounts of buried treasure there come from the early 19th century, when a treasure hunting mania was popular in the United States. Both Edgar Allen Poe and Washington Irving wrote stories featuring buried pirate treasure, and the most notorious source of this treasure was that supposedly hidden by the pirate hunter-turned renegade Captain William Kidd.

Brunson's memoirs contain two incidents involving treasure hunters and locals who decided to play pranks on them:

“My father…in 1800 moved to Sing Sing, on the Hudson River, and opened a public-house, a brick-yard, and kept the ferry from the Upper, or Delavan’s, Dock, to Perry’s Landing and Haverstraw.”

“In the brick-yard, and on the ferry-boat, I participated in the labors, as far as my age and strength would admit of, in the Summers, and in the Winters attended school. In ferrying I became a boatman, and the risks of life I passed in the business cause my blood to chill often, when I think of them, to this day. Yet what I learned of boating in that period of my life was of great use to me in after years, when in the army, and in my missionary toils on the Western lakes and rivers. Indeed, if it had not been for the nautical skill I attained before I was thirteen years of age, I should, with a wife and five children, and a score of others, most likely, have found a watery grave in Lake Erie, notice of which will be hereafter taken…”

“…On the spot where the State Prison now stands I have often played, fished, and, at low tide, ate oysters from the rocks on which they grew. Near the Point, just above the site of the prison, was a silver mine, said to have been wrought previous to the Revolution, under the direction, and for the special benefit of the British Crown. On my first visit to the place, in the year 1800, I was shown what was said to be the remains of the pump used to raise the water from the shaft. It stood just above high-water mark, and near the rocks which bind the coast of the river at that place. The shaft was said to have been thirty or forty feet, perpendicular, and then run on a level, under the bed of the river, some distance. When the Revolution broke out, the miners left, and, at the time I speak of, the shaft was filled up by the wash from the hill, and the pump was nearly decayed, it being twenty-five years, at least, since it was placed there. In 1817 it was stated in the papers that an attempt was made to reopen the mine, but I believe it proved a failure."

“From the brow of the river bank, back some thirty or forty rods, was a beautifully inclined plain, thickly covered with small pitch-pine trees, the foliage of which so intermingled with each other as to exclude the rays of the sun from the ground, and give the place a very somber appearance. A single foot-path passed through it from the Lower Dock to Sparta. But as ignorance and superstition attached to this grove the idea of ghosts and hobgoblins, it required more than ordinary nerve in a boy, and most men, to pass through it alone in the day-time, without fearful apprehensions; and it was so horribly dark in the night that but few attempted to pass it, and then only in cases of extreme necessity, and with company, and lights to guide them."

“Its gloomy appearance attached to it the idea of a suitable place for the pirate Kidd to deposit his ill-gotten gains upon the high seas; and at the east side of the grove was a ledge of rocks, running parallel to the river, at the foot of which some one’s imagination placed the money, and from some appearances, fancied that he had found the spot. But, as it was said that Kidd, when he buried his money, also killed and buried a man with it, to watch it, and whose ghost was to guard it, it was expected that a contest would occur when an attempt was made to exhume it, and it was, therefore, deemed prudent and necessary to have help; and from fear of discovery, and the owner of the lands claiming the treasure, if found, the digging must be done in the night. Under these circumstances but few had the nerve enough to undertake the hazardous business. In this case, those who wished to dig sought for company and help from one who had no faith in the adventure; but being fond of fun, let on to do so, and at the same time arranged to have others present, who should act the part of the ghosts, and prepared masks, made of blue sugar-loaf paper. One had a wheel-barrow, to which was attached numerous small pieces of tin, so arranged as to jingle loudly; another had a horse-fiddle, the noise of which resembled the braying of an ass, nearer than any thing else; another had a tin horn, with a goose-quill squeaker in it, the noise of which equaled the fiddle; others had cow-bells, and other frightfully noisy implements; all being armed with fire-arms. In this plight they repaired to the spot, or near it, and hid themselves in the woods, ready for action.”

“The diggers came in due time, very still, of course, and with every necessary precaution to prevent discovery; but they had just begun to dig when fearful noises were heard, which the diggers—except the traitor—supposed to be from the ghost of Kidd’s murdered man. This, of course, settled the question with them, as to the locality of the treasure they were in pursuit of, and they plied the shovel and spade with a will. But the noises increased, and the supposed ghost approached, with torches lighted, fire-arms roaring in the dense grove; and, on turning to see who and what was coming, the diggers, to their consternation, instead of seeing ghosts, clad in white, as they are generally supposed to be, saw devils, as black as Tophet, with great ears and horns sticking out, and they concluded that the bad place had broken loose, and the demons were after them in earnest! This was too much for flesh to bear or withstand, and they took to their heels, for dear life; and the wheel-barrow, the horn, the bells, and one man with a tom-cat in a bag, whose tail he bit till the cat raised a terrible caterwaul, all after the diggers, and followed them so close that it was said some of them fainted, and came near to dying from the fright…”

“There was one other spot in the neighborhood which had a similar adventure. There was then, and probably is yet, a large, round, granite rock, a mile or so above the Upper or Delavan’s Dock, and at the south of ‘Osser’s Fishing Beach.’ At high tide, this rock was nearly covered with water. At low tide it was nearly bare, and the sand-beach connected it with the shore, making it a point projecting from the shore into the river. Almost at the water’s edge, at low tide, there were two pairs of parallel marks, about three-fourths of an inch wide, resembling the half of a three-quarter inch auger-hole. Each pair was parallel, and the two pairs verged a little toward each other at their south-east ends, so as to bring their lines together at about half a mile’s distance, at the foot of a hill, and at the mouth of a small run of water. It was supposed that Kidd had buried some of his money near to where these two lines came to a point. And Mr. Osser, the owner of the land, had dug in the hill for it, but found none."

“In 1804 the yellow fever drove most of the people out of the city of New York, who found residences in the country wherever they could, and Sing Sing was crowded to overflowing. Every kind of tenement, capable of holding human beings in warm weather, was occupied to its utmost capacity—some living on their money, and others brought their goods and opened stores, and mechanics opened their shops, while others found employ as day-laborers. Among the rest were a company of silversmiths, who wrought at silverplate; and among this great crowd were many who delighted in fun of some kind, and their wits were strained to their utmost tension to devise and execute schemes for sport.”

“About this time an old Juke supposed that he had found the spot, the very spot in the valley of the little run above described, where Kidd had deposited his money, and to which these singular marks on the rock pointed. But, presuming that the coin was now out of date and would not pass as money, he made a confidant of one of the silversmiths, and proposed a partnership in the enterprise, with the agreement that the smith should take all the old coin to work up in his shop, and give the old man the half of the value thereof in current money, and the time was fixed upon for the digging to be done—in the night, of course, or Mr. Osser would claim the treasure, it being on his land."

“In the mean time, the smith made known the plan of operations to all his spree-loving friends, and due preparations were made to have a time of it. Each one was supplied with a black mask, and cap with long ears and horns; and each one had in each hand torches made of oakum saturated with spirits of turpentine. An inveterate smoker, who could light a new cigar from the stub of an old one, and thus keep up fire to any length of time he pleased—lucifer matches were not then known—climbed a tree, over the spot selected for the digging, while the others hid themselves in the woods.”

“As soon as the digging commenced, the man in the tree-top cried out, in the most sepulchral voice he could assume: ‘Stop digging! Stop digging! That’s my money! That’s my money!” The old man thought that surely he had hit upon the right spot, and that Kidd’s walking ghost was aroused, and he dug away with a will. But soon the same words came down as from the clouds, warning the diggers to cease, with more assumed authority than before. But the old man urged on the spade with still more force, the smith, meanwhile, pretending to be encouraged with the prospect before them.”
“At this juncture, the man in the tree-top ignited his torch, which was placed upon a small board, wired up some distance, and then connected to a string, and let the blazing torch run down to the ground, like a ball of fire from a thunder-cloud, when all the pretended demons of the woods ran up and touched their torches to the lighted one, and in a moment they were dancing round the diggers, the woods being nearly as light as day. By this time the smith had backed out, and hid behind a tree to see the sport, and the old man was left to defend his own cause as best he could. But, seeing so many devils around him, he ceased digging, and stood leaning on the spade-handle, when the demons approached him so near as to flirt the burning fluid into his face. This, he thought, was a little too much like a hotter place he had heard of, and, fearing the devils, as he supposed them to be, would lay violent hands on him, and drag him into it, he fled for a safer place. One of the New Yorkers, who was a witness of the scene, declared that the devil sprung his net, and, if it had not caught up in the top of a white-oak-tree, he would have got every one of them. This ended the digging for that kind of money in that region in my time…”