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ft ae ee ee eee Oe Fes 142 when suddenly there rang out clear and distinct in the night air, a sound which proclaimed that the pick had struck a metalic substance. A few shovels full of earth were thrown off, when with our hands we felt that we had struck upon what appeared to be a smooth flat stone or piece of metal; we have always believed that it was metal from the ringing sound which it gave forth. “ Redoubling our exertions, we removed the earth at one side, where we inserted a crow-bar, the point below resting upon some substance, which formed an excellent fulcrum, and which we concluded was the box containing the coveted treasure. With our united strength we slowly raised the covering, when in an instant we were surrounded by innumerable creatures, trampling up to the very edge of the circle. We could but indistinctly distinguish the forms of the new comers, but to my mind they appeared to be d/ack cattle, and judging from the trampling, their number must have been thousands, We hesitated—a great fear came upon us, which I cannot describe—and, with a single impulse, we dropped the crow-bar, and ran for dear life. Beyond the house we came out of the ravine, near the new mill, where we paused. The moon was sailing majestically through an unclouded sky ; the stars shone as brightly as when we first entered upon our task. We paused and consulted, and at last concluded that imagination had got the better of our senses, and that we would return to our work, This we did. We found the excavation, the coats lying on the ground, the crow-bar, shovels and pick-axes, but not a sign of the flat stone or metalic covering at the bottom of the pit which we had dug. Our leader sorrowfully shook his head, and declared that future efforts would be of no avail, as the “treasure had moved. We gathered our implements, and departed for Mallorytown, fully resolved that in the future other searchers were quite welcome to secure the hidden gold left by Billa Larue.” Hugh Lynch, a stone mason, came to Canada in 1835, from the County Cavan, Ireland. Removing to Lansdowne, he built a large number of stone houses for the Websters, and other prominent settlers. Mr. Lynch was assisted by his son Peter, who during the past twenty-five years has erected seventy-four stone and brick buildings in the United Counties. Were the buildings placed in a direct line in a city, with the necessary cross streets, they would make a frontage of three-quarters of a mile. MASONIC. Macoy Lodge, No. 24 A. F. and A. M., was instituted in 1870, the charter being granted to R, Fields, W. Taylor, J. A. Bradley, and others. The members number upwards of fifty, meetings being held at the Escott Town Hall. The officers are active and conscientious members of the order, and the lodge is in consequence in a flourishing condition. The following is"a summary of the assessment of the municipality for the year 1877 :— Number of persons assessed, 36s. Number of acres assessed, 24,270. Number of acres cleared, 12,949. Value of real property, $360,015. Value of personal property, $11,433. Amount of real and personal property, $371,448. Taxes imposed by Municipality, $804. Taxes imposed by Counties, $690. CHAPTER XXXVII. ELIZABETHTOWN. ACCORDING to the testimony of the late Adiel Sherwood, the first actual white settlerin Elizabethtown was Mr. Sherwood’s father. The settlement was located in the spring of 1784. The same brigade of boats that brought Mr. Sherwood up the St. Lawrence, also conveyed the settlers at Cole’s Ferry, who must have cut the first tree in that portion of the township a few days later than Mr. Sherwood located. The record of the municipality is intimately connected with that of Brockville, which will be treated of in a subsequent chapter. On pages 15 and 16 will be found a table giving the names of the persons who received grants of land from the Crown, up to the gist day of December, 1802. It includes such well known names as Sherwood, Booth, Jessup, Grant, Brown, Ferguson, Fulford, Elliott, Sparham, Cole, Clow, Mallory, Landon, Peterson, Snider, Jones, Mott, Breakenridge, Caswell, Gardiner, Campbell, Coleman, Day, Church, Lamb, Curtis, Johns, Smith, Wing, Day, Manhard, McNish, Hagerman, Lehey, Shipman, McLean, Allen, Howard, Vanorman, Cornell, Mattice, Reid, Kilburn, Wolf, King and McNeil. The following is a summary of the assessment of Elizabethtown for the year 1877, and furnishes the most convincing evidence of the progress of the municipality since the arrival of the United Empire Loyalists, ninety-five years since :— Number of acres assessed, 76,564. Number of acres cleared, 42,840. Total amount of real property, $97,874. Total amount of real and personal property, $1,424,806, é
