I had read the last paragraph of the amazing hand-written journal and sat staring at it. I flipped a few pages more and they were blank, so I went to work studying and trying to find out what the tantalizing and mysterious paragraph could mean. It WAS the answer to the puzzle but how to decipher it. Was it code? Was the meaning obvious? I tried to figure it out and finally after an hour or so copied the writing in my notebook and flipped through the remaining blank pages Ten pages later there was another entry, but in a different hand-writing. This was a larger and feminine hand that penned the last entry in the journal.My husband Julian H Christmas died March 23, 1870.
Since that time I have told no one the secrets in this diary and hope that when our son, Nathaniel is older, he will be able to retrieve the treasure and ensure his success in life.
I have studied the notes and feel that the strange rock carvings in the bluffs hold the answer to the location of the marker for the treasure.
I am to marry Col Matthew Coughlin in the spring and join our families together. He has graciously asked me to become his wife and join our fortunes together for which I am grateful. I will be a kind hostess and dutiful wife, but to protect my son and his family plantation I am hiding this book underneath the hearth of our fireplace so that Nathaniel can find it when he is older.
I hope to one day make my beloved late husband proud.
Kristine Shreve Christmas July 17, 1872
A few days later I went into the Geneological records for Holmes county and was able to discover that this wonderful woman and her son both died in 1875 from the Yellow Fever Epidemic.
1 comment:
The colonel she was engaged to sounds like a great man.
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