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Newspaper Excerpts

Medora Messenger, 1916.

Gold Is Where You Find It, Find Coventry Gold.

Forty-five Dollars of Miser’s buried treasure found on Alward farm. Cows lead to discovery. Recalls stories of eccentric Pioneer who hid fortune on his premises.

Forty-five dollars in gold, a part of the hidden fortune of the late John Coventry, an eccentric pioneer settler in Jersey County, was found last Thursday on the farm occupied by William Alward, one mile southeast of Kemper. The coins were in the denominations of $20, $10 and $5 piedes [pieces?] and they were as bright as the gold coins in general circulation today, althoughthey are known to have been buried for more than fifty years.

A cow and calf which Mr. Alward had sold to an Alton dealer led to the discovery of the treasure.

It was while Mr. Alward was engaged in rounding up the animals that be espied a bright metal lying on the ground near a maple tree in the orchard. Late rains had washed a gulley and unearthed the coin. He held up the money and proclaimed his find to George E. Johnson of Medora, who was erecting a porch at the Alward residence. Johnson immediately joined him in the hunt for more of the treasure. He brought out a rake and the two continued that investigation, with the result that a total of $45 was found. Alward’s shareamounted to $30 and Johnson’s to $15. The $20 gold piece and $10 gold piece found by Alward bore the date 1849. Those picked up by Johnson were dated 1851.

William Alward was born in 1877 and was married to Mae Holmes.

From Marty Crull.

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