State Treasure - Kansas

Death of a Salesman
STATE OF KANSAS – Here’s one for you died in the wool research junkies and amateur detective fortune seekers.
The following events are well-documented historic fact.
If you can track down the Kansas home of a Yankee peddler named Reyburn Wedding, then perhaps you can solve the mystery and unearth the hawker’s hoard.
Twenty-five-year-old Reyburn Wedding made his living as a Yankee peddler who traveled from place to place in his wagon selling his wares.
On October 14, 1870, Wedding was working in the area of Caney Creek along the border of Kansas and Indian Territory.
A man named John Childers, Jr. (1849-1873) appeared and inquired about Wedding’s horse.
Wedding owned a fine black horse that pulled his wagon. Childers made an offer on the horse, but Wedding declined.
The two men spoke for a while before Childers again proposed at trade for Wedding’s horse.
Wedding then explained that he really wasn’t interested in parting with the animal and the horse wasn’t for sale or trade.
At that point Wedding bid Childers a farewell and continued down the road.
Unknown to Wedding, Childers followed him on his own horse at a distance.
As Wedding slowed on approach to Caney Creek, Childers waylaid him from behind and cut his throat from ear to ear, then dumped his body into the creek.
Childers drove on a short distance and stopped. He unhitched the coveted horse and fled, leaving his horse tied to the rear of Wedding’s wagon.
Evidence found at the crime scene that would later convict the killer was the cut harness and Childers’ own horse.
The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Childers at Klo Kotcha, Creek Nation, but he escaped from the Van Buren Jail. He was later recaptured and was lodged at Fort Smith.
Childers was tried and convicted of Wedding’s murder by the federal court and was sentenced to die. On August 15, 1873, Childers stood on the gallows, noose around his neck, as Marshal Sarber read the convict’s death warrant.
“Any last words?” asked the marshal, and Childers spoke at some length about his friends.
Sarber then told Childers, “Give me the names of your friends, I promise not to hang you today.”
Several of the convicted man’s friends (co-conspirators) were among the 500 in attendance that day, and they had to wonder if Childers would give them up.
After a moment of silence the condemned man looked at the lawman and replied, “Didn’t you say you were going to hang me?”
“Yes,” Sarber said. Childers replied, “Then why in the hell don’t you!”
With that the murderer was dispatched into eternity, thereby becoming the first man executed by the federal court at Fort Smith.According to every account I’ve read, the victim’s name appears as “Reyburn Wedding.”
For research purposes his actual name is Christopher Ryburn Wedding, (15 Dec 1845 – 14 Oct 1870).
The mystery surrounding Wedding is that no one knows where his home in Kansas was. It is believed he buried his personal wealth there.
Months before his death he reported his personal property worth at $1,100 on the federal census. Eleven hundred dollars in 1870 would be worth roughly $68,970 by today’s standards.
Wedding’s home and personal belongings were worth far less than the $1,100 he reported. Plus an additional $280 was stolen from Wedding when he was murdered.
The balance of which, being in gold and silver specie, is believed buried at or near Wedding’s home… somewhere in Kansas.

The Ice House Mystery
DONIPHAN COUNTY – Little is known about Mr. G.G. Fox.
The vague clues and landmarks mentioned in this treasure tale are long forgotten or have long since vanished, as they are alleged to have occurred almost 120 years ago.
Therefore, if Fox was a Highland farmer, the only evidence to confirm this and to help pin-point the location of his farm in 1891 will likely be found in the Doniphan County archives.
Based on the data provided by the only two sources I found, the story goes that Fox settled on a piece of land in Doniphan County “during the early 1880’s.”
He farmed corn and wheat, and lived in a sod house for the first few years.
His farm prospered and Fox built a nice house and barn from milled lumber.
In 1891, Fox decided to construct an Ice House on his land and considered his options as to where it should be built.
Once Fox determined the Ice House’s location, the 64-year-old farmer grabbed his shovel and started digging.
Almost immediately he struck something solid. On further investigation the old man unearthed an iron box.
Inside he found a hoard of gold coins.
According to the tale, Fox put the gold filled box in his wagon and rode into Highland.
He stopped at a bank and showed his find to the manager.
One version of the story claims the coins were foreign and about the same size as a U.S. silver dollar.
That version claims the iron box was “approximately eight inches square and was padlocked with a lock nearly as big as the box.”
The story claims the bank manager gave Fox an estimate of how much his find was worth.
Suddenly a wealthy man facing his 65th birthday, Fox decided to quit farming, move to Kansas City, Missouri, just 60 miles southeast of Highland, and live out his days in comfort. Fox simply walked away from his farm and never returned to Doniphan County.
For years the property sat abandoned; the house and barn rotted away until little remained.
New owners in time cleared the land and rebuilt. No trace of the original house and barn remained, but the story doesn’t end there.
Because this area, even today, is somewhat isolated, news of Fox’s find in 1891 briefly peaked the interest of some local Highlander’s who theorized Mexican bandits were somehow responsible for the cache.
Then it was simply forgotten.
After unearthing the treasure, Fox never once considered that more treasure could be buried nearby, and he never went back to look. Apparently neither did his neighbors.

Mayor’s Ghost Guards
Caches of the Dead!
ATCHISON COUNTY – At one time Sumner was the largest city in Atchison County, surpassing the county seat of Atchison by 500.
Laid out on the high bluffs looking out over the Missouri River, this speculator town once boasted a thriving population of 2,500.
But Sumner had a strange beginning; its short history is full of peculiar events.
The end came in June of 1860 when a freak tornado hit Sumner and left the town in ruins.
It was the only tornado ever reported in that region, and it was the deathblow for Sumner.
There would be no rebuilding in spite of the fact that Sumner in recent years had enjoyed “phenomenal” growth and competed with its rival city of Atchison for the title of county seat.
Where there once had lived over 2,500 residents, now there were perhaps fewer than 1,000.
Ten years after the tornado struck, in January 1870, the post office closed.
In the years that followed more buildings and homes were abandoned,or taken down so the building materials could be used to rebuild elsewhere.
But one faithful public servant remained at his post to tell the Sumner story and to protect the town from vandals and thieves; his name was Jonathan Grander Lang, aka “Shang.”
Lang was the last mayor of Sumner; he was described as a “jug fisherman, melon raiser, and town drunkard.”
He continued to live in Sumner long after the entire town had been abandoned, until his death, which is strangely recorded on his tombstone as being “1885-1890.”
Today locals claim the ghost of Lang still haunts this long forgotten Kansas ghost town and the lost valuables and buried caches of its long dead townsfolk’s.
Today Sumner sits on private property, so permission must be granted to search.
Sumner is located three miles below Atchison on the Missouri River and can be accessed by unimproved roads.
The cemetery sits on a hill less than a mile west of the original townsite on Sumner Road at the junction of Sheridan Road.
From the cemetery take Sumner Road east for 9/10ths of a mile to River Road.
This will place you at the boat landing in what was downtown Sumner.

Sources:
Murrell, John H., “Overlooked Peddlers,” February 2003, Lost Treasure, p. 27
Chicago Daily Tribune, Dropped Into Eternity, Chicago, Illinois, September 25, 1887, p. 26
King, Robert, Oklahoma U.S. Marshals and Deputy Marshals, http://www.okolha.net/meadows_m
itts_king,names.htm
Genealogy research for: Christopher Ryburn Wedding, Rambling Roots.com,
http://www.ramblingroots.com/RYB-p/p5421.htm
Hughes, Pat, “Nature’s Wrath,” December 2001, Lost Treasure, p. 20
Ingalls, Sheffield, History of Atchison County, Kansas, 1916, Lawrence, KS, Standard Publishing Company, p. 85
Hunt, Burl, “The Ice House Treasure,” December 1972, True Treasure, p. 47
Jameson, W.C., Buried Treasures of the Great Plains, 1998, Little Rock, Arkansas, August House Inc., p. 38-39.