Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/98

14: HISTORY OF Immediately after the declaration of peace, the physician, not doubting from the minute statement of the dying man, but that he could easily discover the concealed treasure, made a journey into the county in search of it. He arrived at the place, then and until recently, known by the appellation of Four Corners,'" concealing the object of his mission from every one, and accounting for his strange conduct by pretend- ing to be searching for herbs of rare medicinal properties, which a friendly Indian had told him abounded in that region. He readily discovered the line of marked trees — but alas ! he had come too late, and the improvements of the Scotchman were now occupied by an enterprising settler, and upon the identical spot where the treasure was concealed years before, was now waving a heavy crop of wheat. The physician now piade careful inquiries of the present occupant, who stated " that in ploughing the field over there, (pointing to the same lot,) the ploughshare had struck and smashed in the end of a wooden box, which, upon examination, he found to have once contained clothing, but of which only a few decayed remnants remained ; he had also ploughed up a set of harrow-teeth and an iron wedge, and that these were all that he had discovered." After a futile search of nearly a week, the physician was com- pelled to abandon the enterprise, and return to meet other en- gagements. Before his departure, however, he made a reve- lation of the facts to one Glregory, a merchant at the " Corners;'* but to this day the treasure remains undiscovered, although many persons have searched for it since that time. The following account of a successful enterprise of Colonel J ohn Harper, during the Revolution, was often related by the late Eev. Stephen Fenn, for many years a minister at Harpers- field, who had received the information from the colonel's own lips. It was first published in the Annals of Tryon county. . " In the year 1777, he had the command of one of the forts in Schoharie, and of all the frontier stations in this region.