The search for Hardy Clements lost gold within the shadows of Saban Field @ Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Tuscaloosa County, AL. | TreasureNet.com
from Lost Treasures In Alabama - TVMDC
Hardy Clements was a farmer, politician, businessman, slave owner, and wealthy man. In 1845, Clements rode a mule from Sumter County, South Carolina, to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with just one hundred dollars in his pocket. He bought a little piece of land in Coaling, on the banks of Big Sandy Creek, about twelve miles east of Tuscaloosa.
By 1850, he had turned a few acres into 9000 acres, on which he had 30 horses, 85 work mules, 29 milk cows, 14 oxen, 113 sheep, 250 swine, and 336 slaves, making him the largest slave owner in Alabama. His real estate and personal property were valued at $300,000.
The legend is that when the Civil War came to Alabama, Hardy Clements buried about $100,000 worth of gold. With the War going on, it wasn’t safe to travel the old Huntsville road to Tuscaloosa and deposit the gold while the Wilson Raiders were so near. So he did as other plantation owners did and buried his money.
During the War, there were feelings of dissatisfaction among some of the slaves. Clements feared they might be tempted or threatened into telling the Wilson Raiders where the valuable gold had been concealed. So he would wait until night after the servants had left the house and everyone was asleep, and then he would go out and hide the gold.
There have been many stories about where the gold was hidden: under his house, around the cotton gin that stood by the spring, or around his huge bog farm. It has also been told that he took all his gold to the cemetery, dug a small grave, and buried it among his slaves who had served him so well.
In 1863, Hardy Clements died. He did not tell anyone where the gold was hidden, not even his son, a colonel with the 50th Regiment of Alabama.
Today, only a few resemblances of a plantation remain. A large dying oak tree marks his homesite. The big spring that gushes into Big Sandy Creek near the cotton gin still runs swiftly, clearly, and very cold, as it did over 100 years ago. The hog farm is now sagebrush and bushes, and the cemetery is mostly a woody area with large trees growing among the graves.
Most of the old plantation is on public land; only the homesite is on private property, but, as far as is known, it is not posted.
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DEATH OF MRS, ANNE STEWATT PRINCE A LOVELY WOMAN WHOM THIS COMMUNITY HAS REVERED FOR MANY YEARS PASSES AWAY AT MOUNDVILLE. The death of Mrs. Anne Stewart Prince, an old and highly esteemed resident of Tuscaloosa, passed away at the home of her son, Mr. Clement S. Prince, in Moundville, yesterday morning.
Mrs. Prince had been quite ill for several weeks of pneumonia and her death was not entirely unexpected, though her many friends and loved ones had been hoping she might be spared. Mrs. Prince had been living in Moundville only about a couple of years. The greater part of her long and beautiful life had been spent in Tuscaloosa.
She was born in this county and on the twenty sixth of last September she passed her seventy eighth birthday. She was the daughter of Hardy Clements one of the most noted and influential men of the early days of this section. Her mother was Miss Maria Pegues, also of a noted family and Mrs. Prince was a cousin of the late Col. J.J. Pegues. She married in 1853 Oliver Thomas Prince, one of the distinguished family of that name that has been so connected with Tuscaloosa history. Mr. Prince, whose death occurred in 1863, was the son of Dr. Sydney Prince, who died when he was a small boy and he was reared in the family of his uncle, Mr. Edmond Prince, the father of Misses Dora and Annie Prince of this city. He was also the cousin of Capt. A. F.Prince of this city. The beautiful house on University Avenue. which has been the admiration of all visitors to Tuscaloosa for years, now the home of Judge James C. Brown, was built by Mr. Prince shortly after his marriage, and here his widow lived until a few years ago.
She was a woman of the greatest refinement of manner and of many charms. A gentle, sweet and beautiful nature, coupled with much genuine force of character she was a lovely personality and was universally esteemed and beloved. She was a member of the Baptist Church and was a staunch and sincere christian through her long and useful life. Only two of her children grew to manhood and womanhood, the older Mr. Clement S. Prince, being a prominent planter of Moundville. The other, a daughter, Miss Belle Prince, a charming and popular woman, married the late Dr. William C. Cross. She died several years ago and left three children, who made their home with their grandmother, who cared for them with that devotion and tenderness their.own mother would have shown. These grandchildren, who survive, are Clement S. Cross, who is connected with the government force of engineers located here and Miss Anne Cross, a member of the faculty of the Normal College at Moundvile, and Byrne Cross, who is a student this season at the Marion Institute. Mrs. Prince was the last of a large family.
The late Col. N. Clements, and Hon. Rufus H. Clements were her brother, and the late Mrs.N. P. Marlowe, the mother of Misses Annie and Marilou Marlowe, was her sister. To these bereaved ones a host of Tuscaloosa friends offer sincerest sympathy. The body will be brought to Tuscaloosa on the 9:30 A.
G. S. train this morning and will be carried direct to the First Baptist Church, where the funeral services will be held at ten o'clock. The interment will be in Greenwood Cemetery. I |.
Stately Structure Being Torn Down After Use Of More Than Century The old house stands back from the road. In the spacious yard giant oaks tower into the air, neighbors to equally as tall cedars. Mocking birds flit from tree to tree calling to mates in trees nearby. Honeysuckles on the fences send forth their fragrant incense, while the flowers entice the bees to work. Thus it was in 1926, the spring of that year, an ancient mansion which had lived almost a century; through a war between brothers.
Today that house feels the destructive hands of man as he tears timber from timber, piece by piece. For the old must make way for the young, the ancient for the modern. It was between the years of 1839 and 1843 that the old Prince mansion was erected. Located on Seventh street and Fifteenth avenue, the house was built in the days when houses were built to live in, where the family came home every night to tell | tales at the fireside Or to hear the mellow tones on the piano in corner. Of virgin timber was the frame and few if any nails were used to piece the wood together.
Instead they were morticed and pinned, that is, two sawing out a portion of one and planks were joined together by leaving on the other the same amount which was sawed out of the first. A hole was then bored through the two planks and pins were dropped into the holes to make the planks stay together. Many Large Rooms
In the house were four twenty foot rooms on the first floor with a like number dn the second. Besides these rooms were the halls, kitchens, and pantry. Sills, 18 inches thick, were used.
Above the second floor was a half story which contained only one large room. Four big lightning rods were stationed at the four corners. The plaster used on the walls of the inner house was four times thicker than that cf today. Twelve foot cross halls on two floors had cornices running around the ceiling. This was the house that Edmond Prince took his young bride to more than four score years ago.
Today it is in the process of being razed. Miss Dora Prince, who has ten-|.| anted the house since she was baby, moved dut only the other day to a smaller and more modern home to its rear." Miss Prince told of the property as it was years ago. Before the Civil War she says that her father owned twenty slaves who tenanted the slave quarters in the backyard of the lot. These slaves left when the emancipation proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln. A few of them stayed in the slave houses for a few years after they were emancipated. The old house aiso has been searched by the Yankees.
Croxton and his troops came through this city, and his men searched the house for fire arms and valuables. After they left, Miss Prince says that a guard was placed over the house, one man sleeping in the spacious hall on the lower flock. He absolutely, refused to eat any food by the Princes, because of being suspicious of being poisoned, it is supposed. Modern Fixtures It was not until 1922 that the house was equipped with modern lighting fixtures. Before that time candles and lamps were used by the In the rear with the quarters was a tremendous stable which was only recently torn down.
And listen! Though the last paragaph in this story which tells of the passing of one of the oldest homes in Tuscaloosa ,it is perhaps the most important for some. For it is said, and old tales tell it, that there is a fabulous sum of money buried under or about the remains of the old walls. Where it is, no one knows, but they say that it is there just the same. Miss Prince tells standing on the back porch of the house one day just after a shower. And there right at her feet near the end of the porch was the foot of the rainbow which was spanning the key.
And is it not said that at the foot of the rainbow is a pot of gold? Who knows but that it might be true, and there might be the buried treasure about the house..
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