Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/97

DELAWARE COUNTY. 73 anecdote upon the authority of several early settlers of that town. Among the early settlers within the limits of the county, were a few Scotch pioneers, who located themselves in the valley of Wrightsbrook, within a short distance of the site of the present village of Bloomville. After the war broke out, the murders and lawless depredations committed upon the lives and property of the frontier settlers, gave them a timely warning. They saw safety only in flight. Although favorably inclined to the British Government, a heavy bounty had been offered for scalps, and the Indians were as likely to sacrifice friend as foe, and they consequently prepared to leave. The arrangements were soon completed, their goods boxed and buried, or otherwise secreted in places recognised by them- selves through the agency of marked trees, intending to return and possess themselves of their property, as soon as peace should be restored. The Scotchman, fearing to take much money with him in his flight, pondered long and earnestly in what manner most eff'ectually to conceal his ^^pile;'^ at last he bethought himself to bury it — selecting a spot favorable to his purpose, he sank an excavation at the roots of a hollow tree, in which he depo- sited the wallet, containing, as he asserted upon his dying bed, five hundred guineas, and carefully replaced the dirt, and de- signated the spot by a marked line of trees, to the junction of Wright's brook with the Delaware river. The party sought a refuge in Canada, and while there the family of this Scotchman became the fated victims of a con- tagious disease : one by one were consigned to the grave, until he alone remained. At last he was taken ill himself, and when upon his dying bed, he called the physician who had kindly attended him during his illness, and revealed to him the secret of his hidden treasures, and all the attending cir- cumstances. 7