SIVLEY CEMETERY, (John Hunt Park) HUNTSVILLE ALABAMA.
Buried Treasure - or Not - Story
Last Feb, 1932 there came to the (Old Jacob
Sivley) estate an expensively dressed women in a fine car, driven by a chauffeur
in uniform. She was from Chicago, she said and the granddaughter of a Sivley.
After looking the place over and getting her bearings, she left. The next day,
however she appeared again, this time ordering her car up a narrow winding
abandoned road to the small Sivley Family graveyard, surrounded by cedars some
half a mile from the house. Nearly two hours later, she departed without coming
near the old home again.
This visitor left her mark behind her. In the
southwest corner of the burial ground, 10 feet from a large grave stone and at
the base of an immense cedar tree, she had her chauffeur dig. First, in order to
do so, he cut away the roots on that side of the trees. Some of which measured 6
to 8 inches in diameter. Soon, he uncovered a Brick Vault twelve inches by
eighteen inches and two and 1/2 feet deep, extending out under the tree.
What was taken from this vault, which certainly
was not once a grave, is not known. It may have been a fortune cached there by
her forefathers, perhaps during the Civil War. This wealth may have been in the
form of gold, silver or jewels. Again, it may have been valuable papers buried
(does not sound plausible to me. Paper would have rotted under any circumstances
over time. WAYNE AUSTIN, 12 Mar 2010) there so many years ago with a tree
planted on top of it, that roots from the seedling, and even the tree itself,
may have grown to a massive size.
Whatever she found, this woman doubtless was one
descendant of a historic family who believed the cryptic message left for her on
a map located for her the grandsire's strong box.
Does she have descendants who can tell us what
was in the vault or who she was or who were her ancestors?
The below letter dated 2 Aug 1951 was found in the Sivley family file at the Huntsville Alabama Archive. I put it thru an optical character recognition program because it was so very interesting. If we could find the thieving lady or her heirs we would be part owners of the treasure she may have dug up. I saw the hole in the ground where they mentioned the digging took place in the cemetery but did not think anything of it at the time. I assumed it was a partly sunken grave. Turns out it could be one of four things or any combination of these:
(1) The hole the ladies chauffeur dug
(2) The sunken place left over from removing the Cedar stump or
(3) A sunken grave.
(4) A robber dug there after reading all the information about this in the newspapers in 1932.
Who knows?
Background on this letter.
This
letter was written by Winston Garth to Mrs McMillan of Decatur Alabama. The
Garth family owned the old plantation where the Sivley's lived many years
later. I saw the Garth name on several properties on an old 1909 property
owners map of
Huntsville.
Winston F. Garth
Gainsville, Ga.
August 2, 1951.
Pacolet Manufacturing Company
Mrs. Nona Sivley McMillan
1228 Second Street West
Decatur, Alabama
Dear Mrs. McMillan
Your letter addressed to me in Huntsville has been forwarded to me
here. I am afraid that I cannot give you much information regarding the
Sivleys. I do remember the article written in 1932 by Pat Jones when he was
with the Huntsville Times. Some of the information was undoubtedly given to
him by my grandmother, Lena Garth.
So far as I know there is no other Sivley cemetery near the old
Sivley place other than the one which you saw. This place was sold by us to a
Mr. Anderson, who in turn sold it to the City and County for an airport. The
old home when I knew of it was quite dilapidated, however, it had a beautiful
winding staircase and the remains of other fine fittings, some of which were
described by Pat Jones. The house was located about 200 yards North and about
300 yards East of the bridge crossing the Spring Branch.
I did not have an opportunity to meet the lady who trespassed into
the Cemetery. The story is that she drove to the location in a taxi one
afternoon and questioned the tenants in the house and that she may have found
a map located somewhere within the house. Also the story goes that late the
same night she was driven by a man in a large car with an Illinois plate on it
to the cemetery and there they cut into the ground. As soon as I heard the
story (perhaps a day later) I rode my horse to the cemetery and found a new
cut which went directly through a root of a cedar tree (about a four inch
root). The cedar was located slightly north and west of the largest marker,
about ten feet from it. Under the root was a bricked in enclosure about
eighteen inches underground, probably twelve inches by eighteen inches. It was
clean and the brick was very old, no dirt had been thrown back into it. I saw
that. The story continues that the car left after spending about 30 minutes at
the cemetery and no one knew any more of it. I have often wondered what she
found, if anything, who she was and where she went. Maybe you will be able to
find out.
I know how interested you must be and wish that I could give you
more information.
Sincerely yours,
(signature of Winston)
Winston F. Garth
(The reference above is to the home of Jacob Sivley, our great-great
grandfather,
11 Mar 2010 photo. Graphic blue arrow points to
the hole in question 10 feet northwest of the largest monument which is the
monument of Andrew Sivley and several members of his family. No doubt
that is about where one of the five graves would be located. If there
were any valuables here it would have been in the Andrew Sivley family. That
era around 1830 produced wealthy people from the agriculture culture of that
time. The Civil War might have caused some of them to hide their wealth due to insecurity about their currency.
If your only interest is buried treasure
stay out of this graveyard, and any graveyard
for that matter. Don't even go here with a metal detector.
If you don't stay our you will be prosecuted by the city police of Huntsville and the many
descendents of Jacob Sivley will help bring you to justice. The cameras of the Landfill Offices next door
will surely capture you breaking the law.
Photos and information compiled and posted by Wayne Austin, 18 Mar 2010.
