



from: The United States Mag. & Dem. Rev.

Vol. XXVI. (March / April, 1850)



part one | part two | notes





[218]







A HISTORY OF THE DIVINING ROD;

WITH THE ADVENTURES OF AN OLD RODSMAN.

With a large portion of the simple-hearted people in the agricultural districts of the country, from the earliest ages there has been an implicit belief in the powers and virtues of the Divining Rod -- either for the discovery of water, mines, or hidden treasures. This belief, it would seem, has originated from the wonderful powers of the miraculous rod in the hands of Moses and Aaron, imparted to it by the Almighty. Their rod was made from a simple twig of the almond tree; with this, water was discovered and brought forth from the flinty rock. The peach is a family variety of the almond; and with a branch of this wood our modern rodsmen, or water-wizards, make search for hidden springs of water. Others make use of the "Witch-Hazel," for this purpose; probably from its wonderful property of bringing forth its blossoms out of season, like the rod of Aaron, late in autumn, when other trees are quiescent, and also for metallic deposits. The most learned, however, in this occult science, construct them of various materials, chiefly from the mineral kingdom. Since the discovery of the mines in California, a Spanish gentleman in the city of New-York has advertised for sale to the adventurers, a mineral rod, or instrument, which will direct them to the richest deposits, and by which he had made his own fortune. In proof of their undoubted excellence, he also published the certificates of several men of science. These articles, whatever they may be, whether quicksilver, oil of amber, or dragon's-blood, are enclosed in some small, tight vessel, commonly the tip of a young heifer's horn, and mounted on two strips of slender whalebone, about eighteen inches long. The free ends of these are held in a peculiar manner, between the closed fingers and the palm of the hand in a state of supination; so that a slight pressure of the fingers, or any movement of the wrist-joint, will cause the rod to turn either towards or from the operator, despite his utmost efforts to prevent it. This motion is called the attraction of the rod to the hidden or sought article, whether water or anything else, similar to that of the magnet for iron. Others of the more modern diviners, in searching for metals, make use of a small ball, made of a similar metal to that for which they search, suspended by a long horse-hair, or silk thread. As the operator approaches the hidden mine, the ball deviates more or less from the perpendicular, and thus points out the proximity of the object sought.



Many wonderful things are told of these rodsmen, especially in searching for streams of water under ground, for the purpose of excavating wells. A few years since, in the eastern part of the township of Marietta, a farmer wished to dig a well; and fearing he might have to go very deep, or perhaps not find water at all, he applied to one of these professors of the art for information. After the usual flourishes and perambulations, he pitched on a spot near the farmer's house, where he said water would be found. Before commencing the work, to make the matter sure, he applied to another water diviner; and lest he should discover some indications from the make of the ground, he had him blindfolded, and







1850.] History of the Divining Rod. 219

conducted him over the location where he desired to dig the well. Either from the actual truth of the science, or by accident, this man fixed on the same spot with the other; deviating only a few inches from the place where he said water would be found. The farmer dug the well, and found a plentiful supply. How this coincidence could possibly happen, without some truth in the art, would be difficult to explain. Water can, no doubt, be found at a certain depth, in any country, where rains prevail and springs abound, unless cut off by strata of rocks; and these always contain crevices, so that it can be obtained by boring, or blasting the rock. One well is within my knowledge, dug under the direction of the divining rod, which descended to the depth of seventy feet before water was found. It was on the slope of a hill-side, near a large creek, and penetrated to the level of the bed of the stream; so that, in this case, nothing was gained by the application of the science. Another instance is known, where the assistance was apparent. A gentleman commenced a well near his house, which stands on the declivity of a low ridge, bordered on the east by a deep ravine, only a few rods distant, while westerly it descends on to the Muskingum bottoms. At the depth of twenty feet, a shaly rock obstructed the work. About ten rods west of the house, a spring bursts out of the earth, and runs down to the low lands. Could the sources of this spring be found, a well of water might be obtained, probably not far from the house. A master of the divining rod was employed, who, after considerable labor, and many traverses back and forth between the spring and the house, pointed out a spot for the well, about midway between the dwelling and the spring. Here, he said, two small branches of water united, and running westerly, formed the fountain. At the depth named, about twenty feet, water was found, and coming into the well from two veins -- one from the ridge northerly, the other easterly, towards the house. In proof of their identity, when the well fails in droughts, the spring dries up also.



A few months since, the same rodman pointed out a spot for a well to a man, on the elevated plain back of Marietta, about a quarter of a mile south-easterly from the one just described. After fixing on the location, the man wished to know the depth to the water. This question was decided by the peach-tree rod in the following manner: -- The diviner stood over the place, and holding the rod in the usual way, it dipped down, or was attracted six times towards the earth, and then ceased. It is a rule amongst the diviners, in searching for the depth to the water, that each inclination of the rod indicates five feet; and as in this case the sixth dip was made rather tardily, it was inferred that the depth would be something less than thirty feet. On digging the well, an abundance of water was found at twenty-six feet, establishing the truth of the prediction. This plain is an ancient alluvion of the Muskingum river, rising more than one hundred feet above its present bed, and composed of strata of sand and gravel. At the depth of twenty-five or thirty feet, all over the northern and eastern portion of the plain, a bed of blue clay is found. The rain-water having percolated through the sand and gravel, is arrested by the clay, and conducted by its own gravity to the borders of the plain, bursts out in numerous springs along its margin. How far a knowledge of this fact might have aided in deciding the depth of the well, is best known to the operator. Wells, south or west of this clay deposit, are sunk to seventy or eighty feet, in search of water.







220. History of the Divining Rod. [March,

If there is any truth in the foregoing experiments, and there is a natural law on which that truth is based, we must first ascertain, as nigh as we can, what that law is, by some theory; as many new truths have been discovered by theory, or a course of reasoning, as well as by experiment. A theory of this kind has been proposed by a very intelligent man, who is a close observer of cause and effect, in whose hands the peach wood rod works well. It has been long known that the human frame is a good conductor of electricity; and since the discoveries in animal magnetism, which is but a modification of electricity, many new facts have been elicited. The body of the diviner or rodsman, then, makes a good conductor between the electricity of the atmosphere and the earth; while the peach twig in his hands answers to the points of the iron lightning rod. With these premises, the following theory is proposed, until a better can be found: -- "The ocean is constantly in a state of negative electricity -- of course the rivers emptying into it will be in a similar state, with their tributary rivulets and springs; as will also the still smaller veins ramifying beneath the surface of the ground. The layers of earth and rocks above these streams of water, are comparatively bad conductors, and therefore something like the coating of a Leyden jar. The atmosphere being in a positive state, and its electricity influenced by the negative condition of the streams, will be collected over them, as they are passing under the ground. The rod being made of a wood very sensitive to electricity, as it is borne over the surface its motion is produced by the extra charge of electricity in the air, above the places where water may be found." Assuming this as the true principle on which the action of the rod is to be explained, the exact depth to the water may also be calculated. It is a known fact, that the lightning rod will only protect a surface equal in extent to the base line of an angle of forty-five degrees from its top. The higher the rod, the longer the base line, and the broader the surface protected. If this surface were given, the height of the rod might be calculated, since you would then have one side given, and all the angles of a triangle to find one of the remaining sides. Imagine the rod reversed, and the principle will be the same. Measure the ground over which the electrical influence is exerted on the water rod, and this will answer to the surface protected by the lightning rod. By a similar calculation, the length or depth of the perpendicular line from the surface of the earth to the water, may be ascertained.



These preliminary facts having been duly set forth, we may now proceed to narrate the adventures of "An Old Rodsman;" which, however marvellous and apocryphal they may seem in the eyes of some people, are nevertheless the legitimate offspring of truth. For the better understanding of the character of the man, who will be designated by the name of "the Commodore," which he acquired from his life on the water as commander of various boats, with the origin of many of his peculiar views and turn of mind, it will be proper to give a brief history of his birth and parentage. He was born in August, 1775, at Westport, a small village on the southerly coast of Massachusetts, near the line of Rhode Island. The old Indian name of the place was Peckicheck. The early navigators of this region, from the intricacy of the harbour, being at the bottom of a deep narrow inlet, guarded outside, and beset within, by clusters of rocks -- called, from fancied resemblances, "the old cock," "hen and chickens," "sow and pigs," &c., requiring both skill and patience to







1850.] History of the Divining Rod. 221

enter it safely -- christened it with the name of "the devil's pocket hole." The father of "the Commodore" was a descendant of the early settlers of Plymouth, and originally from Wales, a land of sight-seers and believers in the divining rod. The region which gave him birth was prolific in witch stories, and all along the coast abounded in legends of pots and chests of money secreted by the pirates, who once infested these seas, amongst which the names of Captain Kidd and Captain Low were pre-eminent. His maternal grandfather had in his possession a musty old manuscript, describing the location where some of these pots of treasure were hid, given him by Captain Low, who died at his house, and finally fell into the hands of "the Commodore," kindling in his youthful mind an insatiable desire for the discovery of hidden wealth, that time could never extinguish. During the summer months, his father carried on ship and boat building, at which his son also worked. While quite a boy, he sometimes accompanied the fishermen, who in their small coasters plied their trade off the shoals of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, in quest of mackerel and other fishes, which greatly abound in those waters. When some years older, in the winter months, he went before the mast in the small schooners of seventy or eighty tons, which traded to the West Indies, in various articles of produce and other "Yankee notions;" bringing back sugar, salt, Jamaica rum, and especially molasses, without which no family could live comfortably. These early piscatory "employments and occupations on and about the ocean, begat in him a love for the water, whether salt or fresh, that never left him. When twenty-two years old, having become "his own man," he left his father's house, the "devil's pocket hole," with all the cherished scenes of childhood, and emigrated to the town of Sidney, on the Kennebec river. Here he followed his favorite pursuits; fishing for salmon, shad, and herrings, in the river during the spring months, and the rest of the season pursued he finny race in a small coaster, off the island of St. John's and the mouth of the St. Lawrence; returning through the Gut of Canso, selling the produce of their fare at Boston. This occupied three or four of the summer months. These voyages sometimes led him so far north, that the nights were only an hour long. Many of the rocks and islands abounded in sea fowl; and when tired of fishing, thousands of these birds were killed by the men, with their long fowling pieces, for their feathers. One of these guns was brought by "the Commodore," in afterlife, to Ohio; and many a black and brown duck was shot by him on the waters of the "Belle rivere."



At twenty-three, he married a young woman from his native place, who had either preceded or followed him to the Kennebec. With her he lived many years happily, and raised a family of six children.



During his residence here, he made a winter voyage to the West Indies, with lumber. In this he suffered great hardships from a storm of five days continuance. The cold was so intense as to freeze the spray to their clothes and rigging, and he narrowly escaped shipwreck. No event in the mariner's life is more trying than a storm of snow and wind, off our eastern coast, in the winter. His only safety is in running out to sea till he meets the gulf stream, which is providentially stretched along the whole length of our shores, and with its bland atmosphere and tropical warmth of water, soon melts the ice from the decks and rigging -- transporting the famished sailor, in a few hours, from the chilling winds of winter, to the mild breezes of summer. But for this blessed stream,







222. History of the Divining Rod. [March,

many additional shipwrecks would darken our now long calendar of marine disasters.



It was during his residence here that "the Commodore" made his first attempt to find some of the buried treasures of the buccaneers. The bays, inlets, and islands near the mouth of the Kennebec, were favorite resting places for the pirates, in the early settlement of Maine. The bold, deep waters, along the outlet of this stream, affording the finest careening grounds for the cleansing of their ships' bottoms, and repairing of damages. The forest furnished timber for masts and spars, while the unsettled and remote position of the country allowed them to remain here for weeks unmolested. Captain Kidd, the most noted of these freebooters, with Bradish, and a number of his men, had been taken prisoners at Boston in 1669, sent to England, and hanged, affording them no opportunity of reclaiming the buried treasure themselves; so that the inference was fair, if they had actually hidden money in the sand, as there was every reason to believe, it must be there still. The ancient certificate of his grandfather was brought forth from the "till" of the old seachest, where it had long been carefully concealed; and conned over with deep interest. It was written in a cramped, stiff hand; many words nearly illegible from the fading of the ink, and other casualties. Enough, however, could be made out to ascertain that it was somewhere on the shores of the Sheepscott Bay, with several of the landmarks where it was hid; while the potency of the mineral rod, it was thought, would overcome the remaining obscurities. Accordingly he associated two other men with himself, and sent to Connecticut for a far-famed and wonderfully skillful rodsman, who agreed to come and make the trial for thirty dollars. This sum was made up among them. Having shipped a store of provisions on board said boat, with spades and crowbars, they started for the place. After spending two days in digging holes in the sand, at the places indicated by the mineral rod, which they thought came nearest to the location noted in the pirate's certificate, without any success, they reluctantly gave up the search. A number of the landmarks were readily found; such as "a large rock," "scrubby oak," &c., bearing thus and so; but they were sorely puzzled to find out the meaning of the phrase, "Brandy-way"!! -- Could they, have decyphered the hidden import of this mysterious word, "the Commodore" always thought the pot of money would have been found.



A few years after this time, it is said, that a man whom no one knew, came and took lodgings at an obscure tavern in Wiscasset. He was a rough, stout, sea-faring personage, who had lost one eye -- his face was much seamed with scars and the marks of the small-pox. On the beach, near the mouth of the Sheepscot, is a large rock, with the figure of a cross rudely cut on its face. He was seen one day with a compass and chain, to take his departure from that rock, and after measuring off so many yards, to stop, and run a line at right angles with this, a certain distance, where he drove down a stake. The next day a hole, several feet deep, was found where he planted the stake, and at the bottom the impression of a pot was distinctly marked in the earth. He was never seen again after that night: and the believers in hidden treasures all said there was no doubt, that the man was a descendant of the pirates, and had come into possession of one of their old certificates, describing the place where the money had been buried, and had thus been







1850.] History of the Divining Rod. 223

able to find it. "The Commodore" being unwilling to abandon the project after so much expense and preparation, persuaded his companions to visit a noted spot for hidden money in Portland harbor, called "Jewel's Island;" whether so named from the treasure there reputed to be buried, or from some man, is unknown. This island was a famous place in the early settlement of Portland, or Falmouth, as it was formerly called, for combats between the whites and the Indians, and many of the slain had been buried there. Some of the earlier diggers for money, it was said, had sometimes been grievously disappointed in their hopes, in excavating a chest of the hidden treasure, and on breaking it open, to find it filled with dust and dead men's bones, instead of silver and gold. The party having arrived at the island in the afternoon, postponed their operations till night; after digging holes in various places pointed out by the rodsman till they were all heartily tired, they gave up the search at day-light. The island is ten miles from Portland, and as some little consolation, and proof of his faith in the virtue of the mineral rod, "The Commodore" was heard to say, many years after, that it was powerfully attracted towards the Portland Bank, whose vaults contained a large amount of silver. His belief was, that he failed in finding the treasure not from any fault in the rod, but from the malevolence of the devil, or evil spirit, who was put in charge of the money by the pirates; and was thus inducted into the office of "keeper," by the blood of some man, or animal, killed on the spot, and poured into the pit. This is but a sample of the thousand and one attempts that have been made by the honest, credulous people on the seashores of New-England, to find the money hidden in the sand -- scarcely a mile of coast, from the mouth of the Connecticut to Penobscot, but has its legends of the feats of Capt. Kidd, and stories of pots of money, some of which may have possibly been found, and led to a never-ending desire of still further search, until the beach in many places abounds in excavations, like those of the gold regions of California.



"The Commodore" spent sixteen years on the Kennebec; where, having added much to his experience, and little to his worldly wealth, he concluded to pack up and move inland. The war with Great Britain had destroyed the coasting trade and fisheries, as well as foreign commerce, leaving many honest men without the means of supporting their families. In the year 1813, he transported his wife and children across the States of New-Hampshire and Vermont, to the town of Palmyra, in New-York. Here he passed a year in cultivating the earth. The following year he moved over into the vicinity of Sacket's Harbour, and was in the neighborhood of many stirring events that took place there during the war; but it is not known that he was in any action. Peace was declared between the hostile nations in 1815, and the country being exhausted and poor from the drain and expenses of the war, "The Commodore" decided on moving farther west, where land was cheap, and food abundant. In the Spring of 1816 he packed his wife and little ones, with all his worldly goods, into a two-horse wagon, and traveled across the country to Olean, a village on the head waters of the Alleghany river, within the State of New-York, and a noted place for emigrants moving to the west, to take boats for the country below. Here he sold his horses and purchased a large canoe, or perogue. The water being his favorite element, he felt himself more at ease than for a long time before; and in a few days transported himself and family to the mouth of the Muskingum,







224. History of the Divining Rod. [March,

where he landed in June. Marietta was then a small village, and, with other portions of the country, had suffered much from the war by the stagnation of business and depression of trade. What little money he possessed at the commencement of the journey, was now expended; and he was penniless amongst strangers. In a land like ours, where provisions are cheap and labor dear, no man who has a mind to work need starve. "The Commodore" was both industrious and ingenious; he could turn his hand to anything that promised an honest livelihood. On a river of the magnitude of the Ohio, boats are in constant demand, and he applied his knowledge in. that handicraft to good use, earning daily more than sufficient for the family use. Being a master of water-craft, he was soon employed to act as ferryman across the Muskingum river, between the towns of Marietta and Fort Harmer. It was an important and profitable thoroughfare, the avails of which in the course of a year enabled him to act for himself.



It was not until the year 1820, that steam-boats had come into use for the transport of merchandise and provisions, on the Ohio river -- as early as 1816 one or two had been built, but their labors were confined to the Mississippi and the river below the Falls of Ohio -- all the freighting for many years was done by flats, barges, and keel-boats, forced up stream against the current by setting poles, and the muscular power of man. From one dollar to a dollar and a-half per hundred was the usual price for the transport of goods from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. It was a lucrative business, and many snug fortunes were made by the industrious and prudent boatmen of that day.



"The Commodore" was not slow to see the advantages of this inland commerce; and hauling his long Alleghany canoe on shore, he sawed her in two from stem to stern, and with the pieces made the gunwales of a flat-bottomed boat, about fifty feet long and eight wide. This he covered with a roof like a keel boat, making a staunch and sea-worthy craft, of eight or ten tons burthen. He was now in the way to independence, if not to wealth. His oldest boy was taught to act as helmsman, and with the assistance of two hired hands, the little "Rising Sun" was pushed up to Pittsburgh. His honesty and punctuality soon brought him into the favorable notice of the merchants; and for a number of years during the summer and autumn, the "Rising Sun" had constant employment. Wealth, the honest gains of industry, flowed in a moderate but steady stream, so that he was able to buy a town lot and erect a comfortable dwelling-house. In a few years, a tract of one hundred and sixty acres near town was added to his gains, on which he proposed to retire in his old age. In their night encampments, on the heads of islands and along the shores of the river, "The Commodore," often entertained the boatmen with stories of his early adventures on the coast of New-England; his faith in the mineral rod, and the burying of pots of money by the pirates. They, in return, would rehearse accounts of mines of silver and lead in the hills, worked in early days by the Spaniards or Indians, and boxes of money buried in the mounds, or on the heads of islands, by emigrants on the river, when hard pushed by the hostile savages. These soon aroused the dormant passion of hunting for hidden treasures, as well as the mines of precious metals; to find which it was necessary to be provided with a rod, constructed by some one versed in the true principles of the art. It was not long before he met with such a man, in the person of







1850.] History of the Divining Rod. 225

an old German Hessian, who said he had spent many years in Mexico; and from the Spaniards, familiar with minerals of all kinds, had learned to make the most approved mineral rods. Under his direction, one was fabricated about the year 1824. The tip of a young heifer's horn was filled with quicksilver, oil of amber, and dragon's blood. Two slender branches of whalebone, about eighteen inches long, were securely fastened into the small end of the horn; the free extremities of which being/ scientifically held in the hands of the rodsman, was now ready for use. This rod "The Commodore" carried constantly with him in his voyages; and by frequent practice in the adjacent hills, in search of mines, became a great adept in this mysterious art. He also procured, as a great and valuable secret, from the same old German, the manner of overcoming the "spell," or charm, laid upon the mines in the valley of the Ohio, by the Spaniards, when they were forced to leave the country, to prevent their being found by their enemies, called by the old German, "the single and double Spanish cross." This was a common belief among the old mineral hunters of the West. It was done by drawing a circle on the surface of the ground round the spot, so large that the earth thrown out of the hole should not roll over the ring -- nine new nails were then dropped into the ring at equal distances; while the operator, reading the chapter in the Apocrypha, where the angel Raphael exorcises the devil, walked round the circle with the course of the sun. This, he asserted from experience, would entirely overcome the charm of "the Spanish cross," and the mine be brought to light. The "spell" was put on the mine it seems in the same way that the pirates put theirs on their buried treasures, by the shedding of blood; and was probably a legend obtained from some of their prisoners, in their bucaneering cruises on the Spanish main, and from them transmitted to the credulous descendants of the puritans. There is some ground for the belief of the discovery and occupation of mines by the Spaniards, or some other people, in this part of the valley, at a remote period. On the waters of Duck Creek, fifteen or twenty miles north of Marietta, the ruins of a number of old furnaces have been discovered. The walls were built of stone and the hearths of clay. They are generally erected on the slope of a hill side, somewhat in the manner of the early lead furnaces in Missouri; so that the current of air drawn through them by the heat, made a sufficient blast for the melting of ores. In some of them stove coal was used, shown by the cinders of that combustible still remaining on the hearth. They are so ancient that large forest trees have grown over and on them. The writer of this article assisted in opening one of them, but was unable to determine what kind of ore had been smelted. The bed of an adjacent river was full of a rich pyrites ore, and might have been the article worked. In that vicinity, a large number of these furnaces were discovered on clearing and cultivating the land; which, in the eyes of the simple-hearted people, was ample proof of rich mines in that vicinity.

( TO BE CONTINUED. )







[317]





A HISTORY OF THE DIVINING ROD;

WITH THE ADVENTURES OF AN OLD RODSMAN.

(CONCLUDED.)

The first trial of the powers of the new mineral rod, was made on the coffers of a man who lived a few rods from "the Commodore," and was thought to have a considerable sum of specie in his house. It was strongly attracted that way, and the operator said there must be a large amount to draw it so powerfully. The man being credulous, and easily alarmed, and happening to have three or four hundred silver dollars in his house, complained loudly of "the Commodore," as exposing him to be robbed, and immediately deposited his money, for safe-keeping, in the bank. This highly gratified the old rodsman, and established both his character and his faith in the use of the rod.



In the course of his various voyages up and down the Ohio, he became acquainted with a boatman, named John Steel, whose father was intimate with a man that had been taken prisoner by the Indians from near "Red Stone, Old Fort;" who, in their return, passed down the waters of Grave Creek. At their encampment, one of the Indians, after a short absence, returned with a deer skin full of lead ore, yet dripping with water, which they melted into bullets. He said it was only a l=few miles from the mouth of the creek, and that the Indians had covered the opening in the bed of the stream, from which the ore was taken, with a flat stone. This story he had often related to his son. "The Commodore" tried to persuade him to go with him in search of it, believing that if he could arrive anywhere in the vicinity of the mine, he could find it with







318. History of the Divining Rod. [April,

his rod. After several applications to Steel, he finally consented to come to Manilla and make the trial. Accordingly, in September, 1828, they left home in a canoe, accompanied by B. Devoe, a good judge of ores, and a thorough proficient in the mysterious science of alchimy, at which he had experimented for several years, with a stock of meal and bread for a two weeks' tour. After reaching the mouth of Grave Creek, seventy miles above the outlet of Muskingum, they pushed up it to the for us. Here Steel was unable to decide whether his father had said the mine was on the right or the left hand branch. "The Commodore" answered that it was of no consequence, as he could decide it with his rod; he having for some time past referred all doubtful questions to the superior intelligence of this talisman with satisfactory results. Stepping ashore, on to the point of land between the forks, he set, and flourished the instrument, in the true scientific manner, when it pointed towards the left hand branch. Up this they therefore marched, with their tools and baggage, leaving the canoe at the shore; the water being too low for further navigation. After spending two days in examining the borders and bed of the creek, with the ravines and branches, for ten or fifteen miles up, without finding the mine, they began to think they had either taken the wrong branch, or that some slip in the banks had covered it up. While debating the matter, and while Devoe was engaged in pulling out great lumps of iron ore, with his mattock, which filled the hill sides, it so happened that the land surveyor of the county was running a line near them, and found the party at their researches. After the usual salutations, and seeing they were strangers, he inquired the cause of their visit and business in this remote place. "The Commodore" frankly told him they were searching for a lead mine he had heard of in that neighborhood, and that he expected to find it with his mineral rod. * The surveyor had heard of their wonderful powers in finding lost mines and other articles, but expressed his doubts of its truth, and told "the Commodore," that if he could find some curious stone monuments that were in that vicinity, he would have full faith in their virtue, and feast him and his company at his house, not far distant, as long as they would stay. "Enough said," replied the old rodsman; "I will give it a try." So putting the rod in order, and raising it to a perpendicular, on a level with his head, he turned round on his feet to each point of the compass, watching carefully in what direction it leaned. After repeating this movement two or three times to his satisfaction, and finding it moved towards a certain direction each time, he lowered the instrument and started off in the course pointed out; the surveyor and Devoe a few rods behind, with Steel and the chain carriers close at his heels. The man looked at Devoe with a smile, as much as to say, he is on the right course. After going about two hundred yards, he stopped and again set the rod, to be sure that he had not deviated from the right line. When he had started again, the surveyor said to Devoe, "Has he ever been here before?" He answered, "No, he thought he never had." "Well," said he, "the course he is now on is as direct as I could lay it with my compass." When they had travelled about three miles, or



__________

* It is a well known law in geology, that lead and iron are not found in the same formations; so that no fault could be attributed to the rod for not finding what did not exist.







1850.] History of the Divining Rod. 319

within a quarter of a mile of the monuments, "the Commodore" stopped, and said "We are within a short distance of them, as I know by the trembling of the rod." The whole course was in the woods,- which, here, was full of underbrush, and the progress slow, occupying about an hour and a half in accomplishing it. The surveyor was greatly astonished, and said to Devoe, "Is your old friend a witch or a wizard?" "He comes very nigh to one," was the reply. It so happened, that the monuments were on the man's farm, and as they approached a field which lay across the line of attraction, "the Commodore" pointed out the course, and said, "They are over yonder, near the foot of that rise." As they deviated round the corner of the fence, instead of crossing the lot, they soon came up to them. They proved to be a cluster of flat stones, four in number, set in the earth; about two feet wide, three or four inches thick, and from six to eight feet high. Some of them were partly fallen, and stood leaning considerably from a perpendicular. The largest, and one the next in size, had a number of curious characters, or "Harlogriffigs," as "the Commodore" called them in relating the story, cut on their faces. The most of them were much weather-worn and indistinct. "What they imported, no one knew. The history of their origin was equally obscure, as they had been found there when this part of the country was first settled, about the year 1773. The surveyor then said he should like to know by what people they had been erected, but did not suppose that would ever be discovered. Much elated with his success so far, the old man replied, "If anybody can do it, I can, and will consult the rod in this matter." "When inquiries were to be made as to the discovery of anything but minerals, such as stray animals, stolen goods, &c, his course of procedure was to swear the rod. It may seem to some people to be irreverent, if not blasphemous; but by those who knew the man, it was thought he did it in sincerity, and a confident belief in the virtue of the rod; which he supposed must be indued with some supernatural power, or it could not make such strange discoveries. Having uncovered his bald head, he raised the talisman before him, and looking reverently upwards, administered in a solemn tone the usual form of an oath; directing it to tell him the truth to such questions as he should ask, in relation to these monuments. He then inquired whether the French, the Spaniards, the English, the Dutch, the Romans, End several other nations, had erected them; to all which the rod remained immovable. Finally he asked if it was the Welsh, or the same people who had built the mounds. To this it gave a gentle nod, which the rodsman knew, from former trials, meant yes.



A few years after this curious adventure, the great mound near the mouth of Grave Creek, was opened and carefully explored. Amongst many other singular relics of that ancient people who erected it, was found in one of the vaults, a small flat stone, covered on one side with characters and letters of the old Saxon and Welsh languages; a full description of which, with a fac simile of the relic, was given by Mr. Schoolcraft, and published in the transactions of the Ethnological Society, in New-York; thus confirming the sagacity of "the Commodore" and his talismanic rod. The surveyor intimated a desire to know how long it was since the erection of these monuments? The same ceremonies were again performed, and various periods of time named, until the answer was, "fifteen hundred years before the discovery of America







320. History of the Divining Rod. [April,

by Columbus;" which is probably about (he actual time of the building of the earth-works in the valley of the Ohio; as is partly confirmed by the age of the immense trees found growing on these ruins, when first noticed by the whites. The ceremonies here terminated, much to the wonder and astonishment of all present, even to the old rodsman himself, who never before had witnessed so plain a demonstration of the marvellous powers of the divining rod. The exploring party was liberally and freely feasted for that day and following night at the man's house, which stood not far from the monuments. While here, "the Commodore" regaled his host with many wonderful tales of his discoveries and adventures. He was very anxious to learn the art of making them; and said he would come down to his house fur that purpose, and pay any price he would in reason demand. He accompanied the party the next day, by a shorter route than the one by which they ascended the creek, to their canoe, and from thence to the mouth. They left here on their way home, about sunset. Two or three miles below, in "the narrows," is a huge rock, which had tumbled out of the cliffs above, and lies at the edge of the water, called "Kate's Rock." It is a spot well known to all the old keel-boat-men as a difficult, pass in ascending the Ohio, from the strong current around the base of the rock. Somewhere on the opposite, or Ohio shore of the river, on the second bottom, are several small mounds, in one of which was buried an iron pot full of silver and gold; deposited there many years ago by two foreigners, who were on their way to Kentucky in the early settlement of that country to purchase lands. As they descended the Ohio in a canoe, with a frontier's-man as a pilot, a little below "Kate's Rock" they discovered a large party of Indians crossing the river on rafts and bark canoes; they hastened to the opposite shore, and taking out their money, blankets, and iron pot for cooking, fled into the woods. The money being heavy, a thousand or two dollars, they concluded to bury it in a small mound they found near the base of the hills, as a spot more readily recognized. They dug a hole, and placing in it the pot, covered it with a flat stone, over which they threw earth and leaves. Fearing to proceed on their voyage, or return to the canoe, they travelled back to Wheeling, and ascended the river to Fort Pitt. On their route up they again met a party of Indians, and two of their number were killed; the pilot and one of the Englishmen. This so disheartened and alarmed the remaining one, that he re-crossed the mountains and went home to England. The fact of the buried money was known to only one or two persons; one of these, an early settler of Kentucky, it seems, had met the Englishman when on his way back, and learnt these particulars. "The Commodore" in one of his voyages down the river had met with this man, and got from him a certificate of the locality, who was to receive one-half of the treasure if found, and the old rodsman the other. He had tried several times before this to find it in his trips, but being generally in haste, the land cleared of the forest trees, and the people about, he could not make a fair trial without being seen. It was now night, and a favorable time for such an adventure; so taking Steel with him to carry the tools, and leaving Devoe in charge of the canoe, he elevated the rod, and started off in the direction of the mounds. In about two hours he returned, in a very ill humor, and reported that he found the mound very readily, and after digging a few feet he came to the flat stone over the pot, when Steel involuntarily cried out.







1850.] History of the Divining Rod. 321

"By the Lord we have got it!" when instantly, with a low rumbling sound, it settled down out of sight. It is said such searches must always be conducted in silence, as the sound of the human voice irritates the evil spirit who has charge of hidden treasures, and they vanish away. It is, however, by no means certain that the flat stone was the one which covered the pot, for nearly all mounds have more or less flat stones in their bases, placed there by their builders, to inclose the dead body, before heaping up the mound. Raccoons and ground hogs often burrow in the mounds, and the stone most probably sunk into an excavation of this kind. The night being light and pleasant, the party entered the canoe and floated homeward, where they arrived the next day, much improved in their stock of experience, but none in their worldly wealth. "The Commodore" now for several years applied diligently to his calling of transporting merchandise up and down the river; occasionally during the winter months making short excursions into the adjacent regions in search of lead mines, which were said to have been worked by the friendly Indians when they visited this part of Ohio, and spent a winter in hunting at the commencement of the war in 1813, to avoid the tribes hostile to the Americans. Pieces of lead ore, of one or two pounds weight, are sometimes picked upon the surface of the earth, probably scattered there by the aborigines, and brought from Kentucky or Illinois, the nearest known lead mines. These always awakened curiosity, and were counted as certain evidences of lead mines in the vicinity. Lead, however, is never found in a region abounding in argillaceous iron ores, stone coal and sandstone; but in an older formation of limestone is found the true lead-bearing rock. He used at other times to display the powers of this wonderful rod in discovering lost articles. A man consulted him, who had lost a trunk in landing from a steam-boat, by the upsetting of the skiff in the dark. "The Commodore" told hiin that it was taken up by a person who lived on "Goose Island," near the head of Letart Falls, about forty miles below; that there was some money in the trunk as well as clothing, but the finder was an honest man, and he would get it again. He went down and found it as predicted. His friend Devoe once lost a large flat-boat in the night, by a sudden rise in the river; he applied to the old rodsman, who, after due consultation with his talisman, told him it was taken up at a wood-yard, eight miles below the mouth of the Muskingum, about daylight that morning. By inquiry of the mail-carrier, he ascertained that such a boat was there; and on going for it, the man told him that he took it up about daylight, confirming the truth of the diviner. Being constantly on, or about the river, and knowing when the rise of water took place, he could easily calculate the time required for the current to float a boat eight miles, and thus make a near estimate of the place it would reach at daylight. The' keeper of the wood-yard being on the look out for drift prizes, at all sudden rises of the water, would be early up, and probably take Devoe's floating craft at daybreak; so that in his responses, like the priests of the oracle at Delphos, of old, he was aided by a combination of circumstances, which a shrewd mind could turn to account. His talismanic oracle, however, was never ambiguous like theirs; but always gave a plain answer. He undertook no other great mineral achievement, after the adventure at Grave Creek, until the autumn of the year 1834. The man Steel, who had put him on the track of the lead mine, had







322. History of the Divining Rod. [April,

since been occasionally employed by "the Commodore" in his boating business, although his home was somewhere below Gallipolis. During the long nights of autumn, after the day's work was done, and the evening meal over, it was customary for him to converse on the subject uppermost in his mind -- the existence of rich mines of the precious metals. Amongst other localities which Steel named, as affording silver ore, was the region of country on the headwaters of the Big Sandy and the Clinch rivers, in the Cumberland mountains, on the borders of Tennessee and North Carolina -- where his father had formerly lived -- fifteen miles above the "Boat-yard," in the bounds of the former state. He had assisted in digging the ore, and melted out pure silver; a small bar of which he once had in his possession, and sold to a silver-smith in Cincinnati. For thirty or forty years the region on the head of the Big Sandy had been the head-quarters of a gang of counterfeiters, celebrated for making silver coin, it was pretended, from rich silver mines, known only to themselves. Like the noted bands of rogues in London, who are designated by some cant phrase, these mountain bandits were known all over that region by the name of "Cogniacs:" and the half-dollars, which they chiefly coined, were called "Cogniac dollars." A regular trade was carried on between them, the horse thieves, and other western rogues, in this money, one hundred dollars of these pieces being exchanged for fifty of real silver. They are so well executed that thousands of them are in general circulation, and oftentimes taken in and paid out at the banks as genuine coin. The body of the piece is copper, whitened by arsenic, and coated over with a thin layer of silver; so that a simple examination with a file or a knife does not detect the cheat, and is only discovered by a chemical process. These bands, though often ferreted out by the strong arm of the law, yet again return to their old haunts in the dens and caves of the mountains. This account of the silver mines in that remote region, awakened in "the Commodore" a vehement desire to visit them; as, by the aid of his mineral rod, he felt assured he could select the richest of the veins and appropriate the treasure to his own use. Steel having consented to go with him, they, in September, 1834, started on the journey with two horses, both of which were blind -- and for this reason cheap -- and could not stray far away from their night encampments. The distance was about four hundred miles -- the larger portion of which was through a mountainous and wilderness region, very sparsely inhabited. He took with him fifteen dollars in money, some provisions, and two pair of stout leather portmanteaux, for their baggage, and to bring back the silver ore. Passing down the Ohio river, to the mouth of the Little Kenawha, he struck out southerly across the country, following an old Indian trail, used since by the salt dealers, in their early journies with pack horses, to the salt works above Charleston, on the Big Kenawha, and came out on to that river at the mouth of Elk, distant about ninety miles from his home. After crossing the Kenawha, he passed up Little Coaly, a large branch of the latter river, to near its head, and thence travelled over a very mountainous country to Logan County Court House, on the Guyandotte river. The head waters of this river and the Big Sandy interlock with the Clinch, a branch of the Tennessee, in the "White Top Mountains," belonging to the Cumberland range. In their passage to the Ohio river, these streams traverse the most wild and picturesque region







1850.] History of the Divining Rod. 323

to be found in Western Virginia; abounding in immense hills of sand rocks, cut into deep ravines by the water-courses, containing caverns of various sizes and extent. It was formerly the most famous hunting ground for bears in all the country, and still contains many of these animals. This region is the paradise of bears; affording their most favorite food in exhaustless abundance, as well as safe retreats for their winter dormitories, in its numerous caves. He is not strictly a carnivorous animal; but like the hog, feeds chiefly on vegetable food. The ridges are covered with whole forests of chestnuts, and the hill sides clothed with oaks, on whose fruits they luxuriate and fatten, until their glossy hides afford the finest of peltry, and their flesh the richest and most palatable food. About forty-five years ago, when the wars of Europe had increased the demand for their skins, from six to eight thousand of these animals were killed in one year. For the last thirty years, the attention of the sojourners of these wild regions has been turned to the gathering of the roots of the ginseng, (panax quinquefolia.) This beautiful plant grows with great luxuriance, and in the most wonderful abundance, in the rich virgin soil of the hill and mountain sides. For a long period of time, the forests have afforded a supply of many thousand pounds annually, to the traders stationed at remote points along the watercourses. No part of America, east of the Mississippi, furnishes a more stately growth of forest trees; embracing all the species of the climate. The lofty liriodendron, or yellow poplar, attains the height of eighty or a hundred feet without a limb; having a shaft of from four to six feet in diameter. The white and black oak are its rivals in size. Immense magnolias, of the variety acuminata, tower aloft to an altitude uncommon in any other region, while their more humble relatives, the tripelala and mycrophylla, flourish in great beauty by their sides. It may be considered the storehouse for building future cities on the Ohio, when the prolific pines of the Alleghany river are exhausted. In addition to all these vegetable riches, the hills are full of fine beds of bituminous coal and argillaceous iron ores. Lower down, on the Big Sandy, is a bed of nice cannel coal, and deeper in the earth copious fountains of saline water, from which salt is made. Inflammable, or carburetled hydrogen gas bursts from the ground in several places along the margin of the river, and when discharged through a pool, or spring of water, it is called "a burning spring." Some of these are so copious that, when ignited, they will boil the meat in the camp kettles of the hunters. More recently, at the salines on the Big Kenawha, where wells have been sunk to the depth of fifteen hundred feet in search of stronger brine, so abundant is the flow of gas, that it is used at several furnaces in the manufacture of salt; thus saving much labor and expense in fuel. The inhabitants of this secluded mountain country, cut off from all intercourse with the rest of the world, are as primitive in their dress and manners as the hills around them. Their clothes are chiefly fabricated from the dressed skins of the deer; as well the women as the men. This article is well adapted to their occupation of digging "sang roots," and traversing the woods in quest of game; which affords much of their animal food. Mounted astride, on the back of a little pony, on top of a huge bag of roots, the women were hardly to be distinguished from the men. Huts, covered with bark, were erected in the most productive localities for ginseng; and the months of August and September, when the plant is in







324. History of the Divining Rod. [April,

perfection, were spent in its collection. A little corn meal, made on large tin graters, and baked into cakes in the embers, with some soar milk and jerked meat, constituted their food. Their code of morals was as rude and aboriginal as their diet. The men often exchanged their wives with each other, giving or taking some article as the difference in value; and sometimes sold them outright for a desirable horse or a fine rifle gun. Amongst these wild denizens of the mountains, "the Commodore" journeyed for nearly a week at free cost, as none of them could change a five dollar bill, and he had no silver money with him. Sometimes the narrow horse-path led through gorges, cut by the mountain torrents, so deep that the sunshine only reached them for a few hours in the middle of the day; and at others ascended amongst loose rocks to the tops of the ridges, one or two thousand feet high, affording a wild, and almost boundless sweep to the eye, over the forests of the mountain ranges. Along the water-courses the inhabitants cultivated small patches of Indian corn and potatoes, and having generally a cow or two, he could get milk and corn-bread with a little meat. They were kind and hospitable to strangers, travellers being seldom seen amongst them, and charged little or nothing for the food of either man or beast. Wherever he went, his main conversation was about silver mines and mineral rods; and so interesting and wonderful was it to the minds of these simple people, that any lodging or food they could furnish him was hardly an equivalent for the entertainment afforded them by his stories, which were heard with wonder and astonishment. As he approached the vicinity of the mineral region, the rocks changed from sand-stones to a transition and primitive character. Fragments of slate, quartz and chert, were scattered on the surface of the earth; and on the heads of the Holstein, the prevailing rock in the mountains was granite. In the Roane and Smoky Mountain ranges, by the measurement of Professor Troost. in his geology of Tennessee, the highest peaks in this quarter attain an altitude of seven thousand feet; towering above any other mountains in the United States east of the Mississippi river. His route led him by the falls of the Clinch, in Russel county, Virginia, where he visited a large bed of the red oxide of iron ore, which "the Commodore" mistook for cobalt -- not being much skilled in the true character of minerals -- and brought back a few small pieces for experiment.



The legends of rich minerals, in the mountain ranges which supply the head branches of the Tennessee river, on the borders of the States of North Carolina and Tennessee, are not entirely imaginary, for Professor Troost, in his exploration of this quarter, at a subsequent period, found several specimens of gold, silver, and lead ores, with an abundance of manganese, and magnetic iron in rich veins; so that this is truly an interesting and actual mineral region. Higher up, near the head of the Holstein, are extensive beds of Plaster of Paris, and deep in the earth vast deposits of mineral salt; specimens of which have been brought up by the auger in boring wells for salt water. At the falls of the Clinch river "the Commodore" met with an old man, a brother professor of the divining rod, the legs of whose instrument were made of brass wire, twisted spirally, rendering it very sensible to the slightest impressions. He passed a day with him, greatly to his edification; and ascertained from his experience and observations, many things in relation to the mines of that region, with the best route in approaching







1850.] History of the Divining Rod. 325

them. About four days' travel from the falls brought him to "Copper Ridge," and near to the farm where his companion Steel was born and formerly lived.



The rod was now put in operation, and directed him to a place where the ground was filled with heavy lumps of brown ore, whose fracture was shining. The surface of the mineral was studded with protuberances, designated in the books as "mammillary;" aptly likened by "the Commodore" to a toad's back. This he had no doubt was the silver ore he had travelled so far to find, and felt highly elated at the success of his journey, fancying himself in a fair way to wealth and independence. To strengthen his faith, he here met with a man who had his saddle-bags loaded with lumps of a white looking metal, as large as goose eggs, which he said he had melted out himself from ore near there. He also saw the owner of an iron furnace near "Copper Ridge," who had melted a white metal from some ore he found in that vicinity. A large "loop" of it was brought to a red heat in the forge, and laid on the anvil to draw out into a bar. The first blow of the hammer shattered it into a thousand pieces, burning the faces and hands of the forgemen. "The Commodore" pronounced the metal to have been zinc, and not silver. To render the ore tight and as transportable as possible, they spent a day or two in roasting it in large log fires, and then selected the finest looking portions, breaking them up with hammers. Having filled their leather bags with about a hundred pounds each, as much as the horses could conveniently carry over the rough mountain roads, they turned their faces homewards, leading the animals by the bridle. In their journey back they came down the "Tug Fork" of the Sandy; which stream for about one hundred miles from the mouth, makes the boundary line between Kentucky and Virginia. This branch received the odd name of "Tug" from the following incident in the early history of the country:



In the year 1757, an expedition composed of four companies of soldiers, was fitted out by order of Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, to invade the Indian towns on the Sciota river. To avoid discovery they took an unfrequented route from New River, over on to the heads of the south branch of Sandy, instead of the usual course down the Big Kenawha. They proceeded along this fork until they came to the "burning spring," three or four days march from the Ohio. By this time their aalt provisions, brought out on pack horses, was exhausted. They here killed two buffaloes, and left their skins hanging on a tree near the spring. The party proceeded to the mouth of Sandy, but being out of food, and having received orders by a messenger from the governor to proceed no further, they returned. It was late in November when they arrived at the spring; hunger pressed them so hard, that the two buffalo skins were cut into strips or thongs, the hair singed off over the flames of the burning spring, and eaten by the men. From this circumstance, the south-east branchf of Sandy was ever after called the "Tug Fork," from the resemblance these thongs bore to those used in that day for traces or tugs in harness, by the backwoodsmen. "The Commodore" proceeded down the Sandy to the Ohio river, and then up that stream, on the Virginia shore, to the ferry opposite Gallipolis; the toll for crossing was twenty-five cents, being the last remnant of his money, obliging him to proceed the rest of his journey, sixty or seventy miles, on credit, the best way he could; and glad was he when the welcome sight of his own house met his eyes, after an absence of six weeks.







326. History of the Divining Rod. [April,

Having rested his weary frame a few days, the next thing to be done was to devise a plan for smelting the silver ore At this time there was living with him, in a part of his house, a man who had considerable skill in metallurgy, having worked for several years at alchimy, the transmutation of metals, and the discovery of the "philosopher's stone." With his assistance and direction, a small furnace of bricks was erected in his chamber, and the flue conducted into the chimney. Here their operations could be carried on in secret, and not excite the curiosity of the neighbours. Large crucibles were procured, a quantity of the silver ore, with proper fluxes put in, and the strong blast of a small blacksmith's bellows applied to the furnace. Hour after hour the process of melting was watched with intense interest by the operators; but the metal refused to flow. A more vehement heat was now applied, and kept up for twenty-four hours, so obstinate and refractory was the ore, until the fire descending through the hearth of the furnace, began to ignite the wood of the chamber floor and sleepers on which it was built, and "the Commodore's" house narrowly escaped destruction. The furnace was then suffered to cool, as the obstinacy of the supposed silver ore had bid defiance to the skill of the alchimist. Doubts now began to arise as to its true character; and some of it was shown to a mineralogist, who had a cabinet of ores, for his opinion; he at once pronounced it to be "manganese," an ore much more refractory than iron, and in no way related to silver. It was a great mortification to the old rodsman, that after so much labor and expense, his silver ore should prove a worthless mineral. He sat down however, very quietly under the disappointment, attributing the mistake more to his own ignorance than to any defect in the virtue of the rod; and to the day of his death, was firm in the belief, that the region in the heads of the Holstein abounded in silver ore.



CONCLUSION. In person "the Commodore" was rather short, thick-set, and stout-built. He had a full, broad forehead, the mark of intellect, which early becoming bald, gave him quite a venerable aspect; small twinkling gray eyes, rather deep-set and tender from a slight chronic inflammation; features manly, with a frank, open expression of face, denoting a condition of mind ready to believe any tale that was related with apparent sincerity, however marvellous it might be; complexion sanguine, but tanned and weather beaten, from his exposure to great hardships both on the salt water and the fresh. The collar of his shirt was open both summer and winter; and his neck hardened by exposure to heat and cold, so as to bid defiance to coughs and catarrhs. In all cases of emergency he was forward, bold, and resolute; mounting, when sixty years old, the tallest ladders on to the roofs of burning buildings, and amidst the fire and smoke performing deeds of daring, that few younger men would think of attempting. In times of flood he was equally active; pushing his boat through the rushing waters under the windows of the deluged houses, and removing the inhabitants and their effects to places of safety, without fee or reward; deeming it a duty to aid and succor the distressed wherever he might meet them. He had a natural turn for physic, and was always ready with some certain remedy for any disease he happened to meet with in his intercourse with the







1850.] History of the Divining Rod. 327

sick; these were chiefly drawn from roots and plants in the woods. His most infallible medicine, however, was a large jug of "Hot stuff," as he called it, made from brandy, cayenne pepper and spices. This he always carried with him in his boating voyages, and applied inside and out, was a sure cure for nearly all the ailments of humanity. His political views were purely democratic; hating cordially all monopolies, banks and chartered privileges. In religious belief, although once a "Free-will Baptist," he was in his latter years a thorough Universalist; believing that all mankind would be finally saved, and however vile, made pure and holy. For bringing this about, he had a process peculiarly his own. He compared the soul of a vile man at death, to a puddle of fetid, putrid water. However putrid it might be, he said the particles of vapor which rose from it, were pure and sweet, forming the clouds and nice clear rainwater. Thus, he said, the souls of the wicked at death would be cleansed, and ascend to Heaven in a purified state.



Note 1: In his 1994 The Refiner's Fire, John L. Brooke says in following, on page 53:

"The story of Joseph Stafford brings us back to the "Old Rodsman" of the Ohio Valley. According to the account of his life in the "History of the Divining Rod," the Rodsman was born in 1775 in the Westport section of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, a neighborhood immediately adjacent to Tiverton on the east and known as the "devil's pocket hole" and "prolific in witch stories." The Rodsman emigrated first in 1797 to the town of Sydney in Kennebec County, Maine, and then in 1813 to western New York, arriving in Marietta, Ohio, in 1816. Research by Mormon historian Thomas L. Revere indicates that the Rodsman was a man named Stephen Davis, born in Westport in 1777. There were a number of Davises among the Seventh-Day Baptists in Rhode Island and New Jersey; as was the Rodsman they were descendants of Welsh immigrants. Davis was apparently related to Aron Davis, an early preacher in the Sixth Principle Baptist church attended by Joseph Stafford's brothers Abraham and David in the 1770s; the Keziah Davis for whom Stafford wrote a fortune in 1768 might have been an aunt or a cousin. And when the Rodsman moved west from Maine in 1813, his first stop was in Palmyra, New York, adjacent to Farmington, where David Stafford's son Joshua had settled around 1800, and adjacent to Manchester, where the Smith family would settle on Stafford Road." Precisely how Stephen Davis was confirmed as being the "Old Rodsman" is not explained. Assuming that the identity is correct, Thomas L. Revere supplies the following additional information: On April 12, 1824 J. C. Bennett [in Marietta] witnessed a deed granting a 99 year lease to Augustus Stone from Samuel P. Hildreth as clerk of trustees. Samuel P. Hildreth subsequently sold land to Stephen Davis, witnessed by the same J. C. Bennett. Hildreth's preserved papers (located in Ohio Historical Society, Marietta College, & Univ. West Virginia) provide additional confirmation that Stephen Davis was the "Old Rodsman." His children: (1) Stephen Davis, Jr. [b. 1811, Augusta, Maine]; (2) James Davis [b. c. 1817, Marietta, Ohio]; (3) William A. Davis [b. c. 1820, Marietta, Ohio]; (4) Patience Davis [b. c. 1822, Marietta, Ohio]; (5) William Davis [b. c. 1822, Marietta, Ohio]; (6) Daniel W. Davis [b. c. 1825, Marietta, Ohio].



Note 2: Of his several children, only Stephen Davis, Jr. seems to have been old enough to have been involved in treasure divining and treasure hunts during the mid-1820s in Auburn Twp., Geauga Co., Ohio. Even if he followed in his father's rodsman's footsteps, Stephen Davis, Jr. would have only been about 14 or 15, when Sidney Rigdon was reportedly engaged in money-digging in the latter locality. Despite the Davis family's probable association with the Manchester Staffords, it appears unlikely that any of the children would have participated in treasure hunts in company with Gadius Stafford and/or Sidney Rigdon in Geauga County during the mid-1820s.





