Pender’s Crossroads Buried Treasure Mystery
Wilson County, N. C.
It has been told for over 160 years that Joseph John “Jack” Pender had accumulated a wealth in gold. He sold large amounts of timber and insisted on being paid in gold. His Plantation included several hundreds of acres of timber that the Penders acquired by Land Grant from the King of England. After Tom Wiggins inherited the property there were lawsuits to reclaim the Land Grant portion and he eventually made a deal in the 1890’s losing that portion of the land but retaining most of his inheritance. He was able to keep the land that the Penders actually purchased. The Civil War was wreaking havoc on many areas throughout the South. Penders Crossroads did not suffer these losses. The homes and buildings were left intact after the War, and I never heard stories of any raids.
Family stories have been told that Jack Pender anticipated a possible raid so he hid his gold and other valuables. The story handed down is that he and one of his trusted friends took the gold to unknown locations on the Plantation and buried it. No one knows whether the Pender fortune in gold was ever dug up, or remains buried somewhere on the farm. My great grandfather, Tom Wiggins, said that when he was a young man and living with the Penders there was a drawer full of silver and gold. He said if he needed money he was made welcome to go to that drawer and get what he needed. This would have been in the 1880’s so if the gold had been buried, at least some of it must have been dug up by the 1880’s.
I am 87 years old and have heard stories all my life about the buried gold. Numerous people have dug looking for that gold. If anyone ever found any of the gold they didn’t tell.
I lived with my parents in the Jack Pender home place from the time I was a baby until I was eleven years old. Many of the artifacts that had been left in the house by the Penders were still there in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Nannie Pender, Thad Pender’s widow, was the last of the Penders to live in the historic house and she died in 1915. There were many pictures in antique frames still hanging high up on the walls in the large high ceiling rooms. There was a cradle, tools, large cast iron pots and one of the upstairs rooms had stacks of books. I remember climbing the narrow staircase and looking at some of these books. There were also drawings and paintings amongst the books. I was allowed to look at these but it was made clear that the books and drawings were to be kept in the room as they were found. My parents did not use two of the upstairs rooms. The interesting thing to me now that I didn’t think about as a child was the bookmarks they used. There were hundreds of books and many of the ones I looked at had gold coins as bookmarks. I took a couple of the coins to show my mother. She took me upstairs and placed the coins back in the books and explained that they were to remain there. I have no idea if the coins were $1.00 or $20.00 gold pieces.
There was an antique organ left in the Pender house. The organ was in the largest downstairs room, probably the formal living room or parlor. The organ was in pristine condition in the 1940’s. We were not allowed to touch it unless we were supervised. I remember peddling and how exciting it was to try playing that beautiful old organ.
There was also a large wooden chest on the side porch. It was referred to as The Jack Pender Tool Chest. My brother, Dickie Greene, and I sat on this large chest on many rainy days and played bob jacks or cards and had arguments. My father inherited the Pender Tool Chest. It was the one thing I asked for and he gave it to me. I didn’t have a space large enough for the chest so I gave it to my sister, Beth, who has it in her dining room. The important thing to me is that it is in the family and being used and cared for.
There were old wooden barrels and oil lanterns in one of the out buildings. There was a saddle in the corncrib that Mammy (Mattie Wiggins Greene Pender) said was a Civil War saddle. I don’t know if she meant it had been used in the war or it was from that time period and I have no idea what happened to this saddle.
My parents moved out of the house in 1947 and left the books, gold coins, pictures, chest, organ and other artifacts in the house. My great grandfather did give my mother several picture frames. Years later I saw the organ had been removed from the house and was in the back yard pretty much weather beaten and destroyed. It occurred to me that some of these antique organs are very valuable and it is possible that the organ could have been as valuable or more valuable than the entire farm.
Back to the Pender Gold. Some speculate that the friend who helped Jack Pender bury the pots of gold went back after Pender’s death in 1882 and dug it up. Legend has it that a good many holes dug but no report of gold found. Perhaps if someone found it they wouldn’t necessarily report the find. There are many theories about the location. Some say it was buried in a field, in the woods, around the fishpond or in one of the many deep wells on the plantation. The mystery of the Pender gold continues. Did someone find it? Did the person who helped bury it go back and get it? Did Jack Pender’s widow, Keron, know where it was and have it retrieved? Did Jack Pender dig it up himself?
Is it still buried? Is it possible that the treasure is still safe where Joseph John “Jack” Pender buried it about 1862?
Montress Greene
Email: montressg@gmail.com
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