State Treasure - South Carolina

Lone Massacre Survivor Tells of Buried Treasures
ABBEYVILLE COUNTY – Upstate South Carolina was dangerous country during the mid-1700’s, as one broken treaty after another with the United States government had taught the Indians the true value of the white man’s word.
Settlers living on farms or beyond the established settlements fortified their homes; those living in villages and towns built settler’s forts for protection from hostile Indian attack.
Captain Max Franklin, according to legend, was dispatched from Charleston, South Carolina, to investigate reports of Indian attacks on new French Protestant settlements in the vicinity of Due West and Honea Path.
Capt. Franklin arrived at Keowee where he spoke to some traders and overheard a small group of Cherokee braves talking about the settlers who’d been killed in a fort at John’s Creek. Early the next morning Franklin set off on horseback for John’s Creek to investigate.
It was an 11-mile ride south to reach the John’s Creek Fort; arriving late in the day Franklin set up his camp near the ruins of the old fort. In short order, a Cherokee war party arrived and inquired as to the officer’s business.
Franklin observed a 15-year-old white girl tethered by rope traveling with the Indians. He lied to the leader of the war party, claiming he was with a large hunting group that was out hunting and would soon rendezvous at the camp.
The warrior chief told his prisoner to tell Capt. Franklin about the attack on the John’s Creek Fort.
The girl told Franklin the settlers at John’s Creek had some advance warning of the attack and had brought all their valuable and possessions to the fort where they were buried for safety.
The settlers waited for the assault that never came. The decision was made in the middle of the night that they would abandon the fort and escape in the darkness, returning later for their valuables.
The Cherokee were watching the fort and saw the settlers flee into the night. A short time after, the Indian warriors caught up with the settlers and slaughtered them all, save one 15-year-old female who was taken prisoner.
Capt. Franklin acknowledged her report and offered to relieve the warrior chief of his prisoner, stating he would return her to her people.
The warrior chief refused, adding that Franklin and his hunting party would be killed if found here when the Cherokee party returned later.
Franklin gave his report at Charleston. Nothing more is known of the kidnapped 15-year-old girl.
During the 1850’s, a farmer came upon the ruins of the old fort and found a portion of the old gate intact, but the log structure burned to the ground.
The farmer is said to have conducted a quick search of the surface area and, finding nothing of value, continued on his way, never returning to the site.
It is claimed ruins of the old fort can be found at the site on the Little River roughly 5 miles from Due West.
As the crow flies, I estimate the distance at 8-1/4 miles SSW of Due West.
I have plenty of questions about the facts presented in this account originally written by Margaret Lewis almost 10 years ago. Her source is cited as “Ramsay’s Revolution of South Carolina, Life in Piedmont,” 1879.Mystery & Conspiracy Still Haunt Charleston’s Famous Serial Murder Case
BERKELEY COUNTY – Historically, Lavinia Fisher, the strikingly beautiful 27-year-old innkeeper from Charleston, South Carolina, has been widely regarded as America’s first female serial killer.
Lavinia and her husband, John Fisher, were the proprietors of the Six Mile Wayfarer House, which was aptly named having sat six miles north of Charleston in the vicinity of present-day Rivers and McMillan Avenues.
John and Lavinia Fisher, possibly aided by five servants, are reputed to be responsible for the murders of “several hundred travelers,” all killed for their money or trade goods.
Local authorities received an unusually high number of missing person’s reports during the early years of the 19th century; nearly all were last seen in the Charleston area.
Investigators linked many of them as having been guests at the Fisher’s Six-Mile House, though little was learned of their fate.
The Fishers were questioned, but denied any knowledge of the missing men once they’d moved on after their stay.
Having no evidence of foul play, the case hit a dead end. But legend provides some clues.
Mrs. Fisher’s M.O. (modus operandi) was to join her male guests, or at least those whose appearance suggested wealth, for dinner and friendly conversation.
During their dialogue, Mrs. Fisher would size-up a man’s worth by asking questions about his occupation or profession.
Those she sized-up to be of some means were always sent to bed with a cup of Lavinia’s soothing Oleander-Roofie tea, which shortly rendered her guests unconscious.
Lavinia would then pull a lever that caused the guest’s bed to drop through a trap door in the floor, dropping her unconscious victims into the cellar.
Here Mr. Fisher was always waiting with an axe to dispose of the evidence and deposit their remains in a deep hole underneath the house.
Author Michael Paul Henson states two skeletons were later found in the inn’s cellar in 1820 and the Fishers were both lynched by an angry mob.
Henson adds that searches for the couple’s freebooted wealth began shortly after the lynchings and continue today, though none of it has been found. But the legend has been challenged by author Bruce Orr, a retired local homicide investigator.
According to Orr in his recent book, “Six Miles to Charleston: The True Story of John and Lavinia Fisher” (2010), the couple was not lynched; instead they stood trial, were convicted and executed by hanging on February 18, 1820.
Orr, who spent years researching the Fisher legend, contends the Fishers were the victims of corrupt politicians and local officials who were motivated by a land grab deal with links to slavery and the War of 1812.
John Fisher went to the gallows insisting he’d been framed. Lavinia Fisher wore her white wedding dress to be hanged in. She also proclaimed their innocence.
Before making the trip to Charleston to do local research, I would check out Bruce Orr’s book to first get another perspective on this legend.Hidden Below South Carolina’s ‘Water Playground’
LEXINGTON COUNTY – Constructed between 1927 and 1930, the Dreher Shoals Dam, the largest earthen dam in the world, located on the Saluda River, created an artificial lake of 48,000 acres covering 78 square miles with 620 miles of shoreline.
Known as the “Water Playground of the Midlands,” and located in the heart of South Carolina, Lake Murray is a major attraction just minutes from downtown Columbia.
But this man-made lake holds many secrets that, with some research, could result in some great finds.
Of course, any public attraction that gets plenty of foot traffic and visitors is always good for coin shooting, but what’s below the water’s surface here is much more then lost or discarded pocket change.
During WWII, pilots training at the Lexington County Army Air Base flew practice bombing runs over the lake.
Military records show five USAF B-25 bombers crashed into the lake. Three were quickly recovered by the military.
Greenville resident Dr. Bob Seigler began researching one B-25 that ditched in the water after losing engine power two miles west of the Dreher Shoals Dam on April 4, 1943. The military located the wreck at the bottom of the lake in 150 feet of water and wrote it off as a loss.
In 1992, Seigler located the wreck’s exact position and, with his attorney, obtained the salvage rights to it from the South Carolina Electric & Gas Company, who owns the lake. He then secured a quitclaim deed from the USAF and, in September 2005, raised the aircraft from the lake’s bottom to begin restoration work on it. One B-25 still remains at the bottom.
According to my research, the population of the Saluda Valley before it was flooded to create the lake was around 5,000. Several small towns and lesser communities were inundated, including two major settlements dating to 1750, Dutch Fork and Saxe-Gotha Township. Wyser’s Ferry and Kimpson Ferry were important villages dating to the Revolution; both were vital to the movement of troops and material westward toward the frontier.Sources:
Lewis, Margaret, “Treasure at John’s Creek,” February 2003, Lost Treasure Magazine, p. 54
Henson, Michael Paul, America’s Lost Treasure, 1984, South Bend, IN, Jayco Publishing Co., pp. 104
Wikipedia Research: Lavinia Fisher (1793 – February 18, 1820)
MacDougall, David, Were the Fishers Innocent? November 28, 2010, Charleston, S.C., The Post and Courier
Terry, Thomas P., U.S. Treasure Atlas-Volume 8, 1985, La Crosse, WI, Specialty Publishing Co.,
pp. 877
Lake Murray, South Carolina, http://www.lakemurray-sc.com