Thousands
of dollars worth of Spanish coins...
I
remember back in the early 1960s, I was a teenager and lived with
my family in Angleton, Texas. I recall that my dad and I were
quite intrigued with the idea of hunting for buried treasure. So
much so that Daddy drove the 45 miles into Houston and purchased a
metal detector from an old boy who was making them in his garage. We couldn’t wait to try the new gadget out – so, we made a beeline for Surfside Beach to search for pirate’s treasure and the like. But alas,
all Daddy and I discovered was that there
probably wasn’t a square foot at Surfside that didn’t have a
beer can buried in it. I’ll have to admit that we never found
any real valuables, but we sure had fun trying.
Over
the years, I have spent some time reading a number of books about
lost bounty and none are more interesting than W.C. Jameson’s, Buried
Treasures of Texas. Many of the stories in his book are
considered only legends – yet there is factual information
surrounding the creation of this folklore. And there is little
doubt that the events leading up to the “treasure tales” are
factual.
One
of my favorites is the story about John Singer and his buried
fortune on Padre Island. Singer was part of a famous family which
was highly thought of as businessmen and inventors. His brother,
Isaac, had created a fortune with his Singer Sewing Machine
Company – but John was more of an adventurer and he was happiest
when exploring the vast coastline of Texas.
In
1847, John Singer was in Port Isabel. He was on another of his
adventures, traveling the waters of the Gulf of Mexico – this
time his wife, four sons, and a hired hand were along for the
ride. This would turn out to be a trip that would be remembered
forever by the Singer family.
Not
long after they left the harbor at Port Isabel, sailing a three-masted
schooner known as the Alice Sadell, the family started to
encounter some bad weather. Although not an experienced seaman,
Singer had traveled the region before and he was of the opinion
that the storm would soon blow over. But as the winds got stronger
and the waves begin to crash over the vessel, he decided that he
must somehow make it to shore. The squall helped him with that
decision, and the huge waves promptly lifted the boat and smashed
it onto a deserted island.
The
family spent the night in the ship’s cabin and the storm had
ceased by sunrise. Singer, along with his hired hand, explored the
narrow island where fate had cast them. And after some discussion
they came to the correct conclusion that they were on Padre Island
– a narrow strip of land which extends some 100 miles, along the
coast, from the Mexican border to Corpus Christi.
Singer
and his group were not the only ones who had wrecked at this
place. It seems that over the years dozens of Spanish vessels,
while transporting gold and silver from the rich mines in Mexico,
had found themselves in the middle of violent storms which blew
the crippled ships onto Padre Island. Many of the ships sank
offshore and the tide would wash the wreckage onto the sandy
beach. Many stories were told of pirates burying vast amounts of
gold, silver, and other ill-gotten gains under the sands of Padre.
The
Singer family had no idea that there might be a fortune buried
under their newfound residence. Fact is, they soon fell in love
with Padre Island and decided to make it their home. And when a
rescue vessel finally came for them, they refused to leave and
instead went to work to build a life in this tropical paradise.
They
used the wood from the shipwreck to fashion a frame house and
crude furniture. Mrs. Singer planted seeds and raised a garden.
John made a small boat to travel back and forth to the mainland.
He purchased cattle and had them delivered to the island. They
fished and harvested other food from the sea. You might say life
was going great for the Singers – but that was all to change
when the children came across some Spanish coins during one of
their beachcombing endeavors.
John
and his family went on to find more gold coins and eventually they
came across a wooden chest containing about $80,000 in jewelry and
coins. According to legend, the Singers continued to find
pirate’s treasure and John became highly successful in the
cattle business. Singer decided to keep the bulk of his loot in a
large sand dune which he named “money hill” – the story goes
that he would go to his secret dune and retrieve money when he
needed it. Other accounts say that he also buried another cache
between two small oak trees.
With
the start of the Civil War, John Singer’s fate changed again –
and when Yankee gunboats appeared off the coast of Padre Island,
he decided to move his family to the mainland where they remained
until the war ended, four years later.
When
Singer returned to the island, he found his house had been torn
down by the Union sailors and used for firewood. He also
discovered that the place had been hit by a hurricane and when he
searched for his “money hill,” it was nowhere to be found –
the storm had changed the entire landscape of the isle, as well as
completely destroying the two small oaks that he used for
landmarks.
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