"ALL THAT GLITTERS"

       Recently I received an email from a relative that simply described herself as a “cousin of some sort”. 

She wrote me about memories of uncle Rollie and aunt Pearl coming to visit her grandfather on many occasions.  She said she had many memories of going to the old house in Sabinal , Texas and playing

 there with my uncles and mother in childhood days. She requested a story that lives in legend in my

family and have been intending to tell but have delayed pending an opportunity to hear my father retell

the story so that I could be sure of my facts as I put it here in print.  It is a long tale and almost incredible to believe but what I am about to relate is fact not fiction.

         I am withholding the name or changing the names of the actual people my intent being to protect anyone from embarrassment and to be careful not to liable anyone deceased or living. In the days after the Carranza revolution during the 1930s when Grandpa Rollie was again living and ranching on the Davenport ranch northwest of Sabinal , an old man that I’ll simply call Juan lived and worked as a ranch hand on the Davenport ranch. Grandpa and Juan spent a lot of time riding together on the ranch and one day while they were out working cattle old man Juan told Grandpa, “Rollie you know I know how you could get rich real quick if you can retrieve it, because I know where there is a bunch of gold”. It’s in Mexico just across the Rio Grande and you would have to get it and do something with it, but I can tell you where it is.” Of coarse such a statement would perk any one’s ears and so Grandpa listened as old man Juan related this tale. 

    In the early days of the Carranza revolution Juan had lived in Mexico and had been a gunrunner and thief. He and two of his amigos had been involved in many escapades of banditry during those lawless days. One of these escapades, according to Juan, involved robbing a Mexican government gold train that was transporting government stamped gold through the mountains of central Mexico.  The robbery netted the trio 7 burros loaded down with small gold bars.  After robbing the train the trio made out for the border staying just ahead of the Mexican “rurales”, which is the Mexican home guard mounted police. When the band finally reached the Rio Grande, they realized that the rurales were breathing down their necks.  Instead of trying to cross the river with burros weighted down with Gold and risk being caught midstream in a firefight they hatched a quick plan to bury the gold at the base of a tree near the fork of a stream that flowed into the river.  They made a mark on the trunk of the tree and then covered over their tracks in the sand.  They then lead the burros out into the river and shot them, letting their bodies flow down the river in the swift current. The trio then swam the river with their horses and hid waiting to watch the rurales when they came to the place of their crossing. The rurales milled around and looked for sign but seemed not to find their track or find the burial sight as far as they could see.  The rurales then gave up the chase figuring that the trio had beaten them to the border and that was that.  The trio vowed to go their separate ways for a year until things cooled down and then planned to meet and go back to retrieve their prize at a more opportune time.  Such was their plan but as fate would have it two of the trio did not fare well in their new home in Texas. Old man Juan’s partners in crime did not live long, leaving Juan the only surviving member of the trio.  Juan decided that maybe the demise of his friends would await him if he did not quit the bandit business and reform his life.  He married a Mexican woman, settled down in the Sabinal area and tried to be a respectable citizen leaving his old life of crime behind him. He told grandpa that he did not want his children to ever know of his dark past and that he did not want any of his family to know about the gold because he considered it to be a curse that would come back to haunt members of his family if they ever tried to retrieve it.  He offered the story to grandpa and even drew a map to the place, hoping someone would get some good of the gold but warned it would be very risky to retrieve. He gave grandpa the exact location of the gold, the name of the stream, and the mark on the tree, everything that he would need if he wanted to make a stab at retrieving the treasure. For a time grandpa Rollie kept this story under his hat so to speak and no more was said.

      As time went on grandpa decided that maybe it would be worth his time to take a trip down to the border with the map and just see if any of the old man’s story checked out.  Sometime in the early 30’s grandpa followed the map to the place and looked for the sign. He stood across the river from the place that Juan said they had crossed and sure enough the tree, the creek, the markings on the tree were all just as the old man had described perfectly in line with the map. Rollie decided that he would make a try at exploring more on the other side but would wait until he had the manpower and plan to accomplish the task without arousing the Mexican authorities interest in his activities.  Sometimes during that time he shared the story with a friend who lived in Sabinal and the two spent several years planning and scheming and trying to figure out how that they might make a dig and confirm for sure if the gold was there under the tree or not.  They had even written to the Mexican government inquiring about what would be the law concerning retrieval of such gold if it were to be retrieved. The government of coarse assuring them that the only lawful coarse of action was to return it to the Mexican government.  As the years went by in 1954 when my uncle’s were teen boys grandpa took them and a friend, who was a Mexican general and some of his men went over the border to the marked tree and as nonchalantly as they could took a metal rod and poked around at the base of the tree to see if they could tell if their might be something buried there. Grandmother Pearl told me that they felt something hard under the sand but that without actually digging and uncovering a lot of sand they could not confirm for sure if it was gold or not.  Years of flooding of the river had dumped more silt at the base of the tree and it was obvious that it would require some substantial digging to really know. Dad said that grandpa had related to him that as he stood there looking at the tree and watching the men milling around it occurred to him that even if they dug and found gold there it could quickly turn into a dangerous situation with the people around there. Greed can turn men into murderous animals when much money is involved and as he stood there looking at his two grandson’s he decided it was not worth risking their lives for any amount of gold. I think grandpa just decided then and there to let ill gotten gain lay buried and then and there decided just to let it all go.  He told his general friend that the floods had changed everything around there and he couldn’t really tell anything for sure He said he actually could see the mark on the tree and even had uncle Ray pull a leaf from the tree but turned and decided he didn’t want Ray or Richard to ever go trying to find the gold on their own. 

As the decade of the 50’s rolled on grandpa’s friend, the one whom he had originally shared the story with had a son in law whom I’ll just call Mr. Oreilly.  Mr. Oreilly kept coming to grandpa over a several year period asking him to give him the map to the gold and let him mount an expedition to recover it.  Grandpa kept telling him that he had no interest in going after it.  There was no way to even confirm that old man Juan’s story was true, except the circumstantial evidence of the clues to where he said he buried it.  The gold if it ever existed could have long ago been discovered and taken, washed up and lost in the many floods of the Rio Grande, and even if he discovered the gold bars there was no way he could legally keep it without being in danger of being sued by the Mexican government. In spite of all of grandpa’s assurances that the likelihood of ever finding any gold bars there was very slim at best, Mr. Oreilly kept on and on pestering grandpa about this map. Grandpa told my dad that he just wore him out almost weekly with constant pleas to let him have the map. Grandpa finally just decided that he was going to put an end to Mr. Oreilly’s nuisance visits and so out of irritation he said.  “Okay Oreilly , if you want that map I’ll sell it to you for ten thousand dollars.” Grandpa told my dad that he figured that Oreilly would just drop it then and leave him alone but much to his surprise in a few days the man came by and said . “ Mr . Davenport I want that map and I’ll be back in a few days with the money.” Grandpa said  “Well when you give me the money then I’ll give you the map.” he thought to himself well that will never happen and just forgot about it.  In a few days, wouldn’t you know, sure enough Mr. Oreilly came by with a “wad of money”,  nine thousand , nine hundred  dollars to be exact. Grandpa was of coarse amazed and once again reminded him that his chances of finding anything were very slim.  Oreilly was determined and not to be put off insisted that grandpa Rollie make good on the deal. Grandpa said okay and so they sat down and wrote out a receipt for the money and grandpa gave him the map.  So that was that or so grandpa thought.

Actual scanned image of the receipt in my grandmother's writing, name and actual signature photoshopped out.

In time Oreilly made a trip down to Mexico to try and find the gold and wouldn’t you know it was just as grandpa had warned. Over the years everything had changed, the tree was there , the markings on the tree were there,  but nothing else recognizable. The river had flooded and long story short no gold. Well Mr. Oreilly was of coarse upset and he started coming back to grandpa and telling him he wanted his money back that he didn’t find anything and saying that grandpa must have swindled him. Grandpa was getting pretty upset with Oreilly and said. “Look here Oreilly I told you straight up front that I didn’t know If there ever was any gold , that I never personally saw any gold and that the odds of you finding anything there were slim.  What you paid for was a map and that’s what I delivered and I never promised you anything beyond that map. Now you quit pestering me and leave me alone.” Oreilly began threatening grandpa and saying that he was going to take him to court as a swindler. In fact he filed a case in 1954 against grandpa and it went to the grand jury. When the grand jury heard the case they asked grandpa Mr. Davenport did you have any proof that you gave Mr. Oreilly the map in question and what money was paid for it? Grandpa gave them the receipt that had been written out the day he received the money from Mr. Oreilly. The grand jury looked at the receipt and immediately said well Mr. Oreilly is this your signature? Yes he said , Well then sir you don’t have a case. The case was dismissed that day.

In those days grandpa was already beginning to decline in health due to the emphysema , and was not well most days. Mr. Oreilly continued to come from time to time and threaten him and blacken his reputation as a swindler in the country around there. To this day there are some that still have only heard Oreilly’s side of the tale and consider my great-grandfather a real swindler.  I believe that most men that ever really knew my grandfather would never believe that.  He was a man of his word and as far as the gold map story is concerned he was as honest to Mr. Oreilly as he could be. The man got exactly what he paid for, which was in effect only a possibility of a treasure if he was willing to take the chance to hunt it down and go through the dangers of it’s recovery.  Oreilly, paid the money, took the chance and like many treasure hunters often do came up empty handed.

Scanned image of letter from Grandpa Rollie to" Mr. Oreilly" actual name photoshopped out.

The actual named price for the map of ten thousand dollars was never paid. In spite of promising to pay the last 100 dollars on the day of the transaction, Oreilly never made good on his promise.  After Oreilly failed to find the gold he refused to pay the balance of coarse and after failing to win in court he continued to threaten grandpa.  Later grandpa wrote him a typed letter demanding he pay the full amount. He never got it of coarse.

That map money was a godsend in those days to Granny and grandpa.  They were as poor as desert rats as the saying goes anyway. They were ten years into raising their grandchildren due to the death of their only daughter and grandpa was in poor health. Grandpa didn’t put it in a bank opting instead as many old timers did who lived through the great depression decided to put in their own bank.  The bank for them was an old dresser that had once belonged to John Nance Garner. In the back behind the mirror was a little secret compartment that grandpa put the money in. He invested some of it in some cattle, some of it in a new car, and the rest mom said granny would go to the little bank and pull out what she needed as they needed it. It evidently lasted for a while.

grandpa's bank which was behind the mirror to the right as reflected by a white door.

So there you have it, the story of Grandpa Rollie’s gold map. Who knows if there was ever any gold in the first place and old man Juan’s story was just a tall tale told by one old cowboy to another or if there somewhere in the murky mud of the Rio Grande lays a grand treasure buried undisturbed now for 91 years. Regardless of the truth one thing is for sure. Grandpa turning his back on the chance to find the gold unexpectedly reaped for him a little treasure that sustained him over hard times.  Old man’s Juan’s desire to have someone find the treasure actually in a way came true.