NEW BOOK: KNIGHTS' GOLD

Regarding his new book about the Baltimore Gold Hoard, author Jack Myers writes:

For more information, or to order, see:
Knights' Gold Kindle Edition (www.amazon.com/Knights-Gold-Jack-Myers-ebook/dp/B01M4FGK0I/ref=sr_1_1)

Len writes:

The coins were the property of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a pro-Confederate secret society.

I researched the owners of the treasure house from the time of the burial of the gold coins. Coins were all dated 1834-1856

1. Captain John J. Mattison (a mariner) owned the house on Eden St from 1851-1865.

2. Andrew Saulsbury (candle and soap executive) owned the house from 1865-1873 until his death (his widow remained until 1889). Saulsbury bought house from Mattison.

• Captain Mattison was involved in the illegal African slave trade and had his ship seized for bringing slaves from Sierra Leone to Cuba.
• It is known that the KGC was trying to break the international slave trade ban by sending "secret slaver" ships to Africa. Cuba was their intended capital.
• Saulsbury, a known ardent Southern sympathizer, worked for James Armstrong & Assocs. makers of fine soaps and candles.
• CEO of Armstrong & Assocs. was Charles Webb, Jr. who was also the head of the Maryland Freemasons (Grand Master)
• Charles Webb's "Companion Mason" who sponsored him for the Grand Master position was Arkansas' Albert Pike, suspected head of the KGC.
• Saulsbury's best friend at the candle company was Thomas Armstrong, nephew of the company founder.
• Thomas Armstrong lived at the local Fountain Hotel, a known rebel hangout and haunt of John Wilkes Booth.
• Years later, when the hotel was torn down, a tin box containing 2,000 gold coins was found on the property
• So, Charles Webb was directly linked to the national leader of the KGC, and he has two friends and direct reports with caches of gold under their residences.
• Charles Webb and Freemason brother James Webb served on the BOD of a related Armstrong Co, the American Fire Insurance Co., along with James Armstrong.
• "Secret Slaver" Captain John Mattison also served on the BOD with the Webbs and Armstrong.
• Charles Webb was important with his "Committee of 20" in backing the Southern Democrats for office in Baltimore. Southern Democrats were pro-slavery.
• Webb especially backed two friends for office, Mayor George Brown and Police Marshal George Kane (a slaveholder).
• Both Kane and Brown were arrested on order from President Lincoln on charges of treason in 1861.
• Booth swore retribution against the people who had arrested his friend, George Kane.
• Kane participated in the April, 1861 bridge burnings to prevent Union troops from reaching Washington, DC. He was said to have been assisted by J.W. Booth.
• Kane wrote to Lincoln and Seward from prison and promised they would "hear from him at the appropriate time."
• When Kane got out of prison, he went to Montreal to join the Confederate Secret Service which conducted clandestine campaigns against the North.
• Kane was in charge of the aborted raid on Johnson Island in the Great Lakes, site of a military prison containing captured Confederates.
• When Booth devised a plan to kidnap Lincoln, he went to Montreal to present his plan to the Montreal Confederates, including his friend Colonel Kane.
• Kane's Montreal associate Dr. Luke Blackburn runs a "Yellow Fever Plot" to send infected clothes to Northern cities. Clothes are prepared and shipped from Fountain Hotel.
• After the war, Kane got a job on the Jones Falls Commission, the Baltimore water authority, probably with the help of Charles Webb.
• Kane left the Jones Falls Commission and was replaced by Andrew Saulsbury, who now owned the house with the treasure.
• Kane runs for sheriff and wins. Later runs for Mayor of Baltimore and wins.
• Mayor Kane appoints friend and long-time supporter Charles Webb to be his tax collector.
• Saulsbury dies suddenly in treasure house. Buried coins are not discovered until 1934. Coins worth north of ten million dollars today.

I believe the coins were collected as dues and initiation fees of the Baltimore chapter of the KGC. It was thought that Maryland had over 3,000 KGC members. John Wilkes Booth lived only four blocks from the treasure site, and also close to the second treasure site of the Fountain Hotel. Saulsbury's 1859-60 residence matches the description of the house where Booth was allegedly inducted into the KGC in 1859 (house in the neighborhood with paintings of Southern heroes and politicians hanging on the parlor walls.)

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
REVIEW: TREASURE IN THE CELLAR BY LEONARD AUGSBURGER (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n28a02.html)
NUMISMATIC BOOKIE: 'TREASURE IN THE CELLAR' (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n32a12.html)

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