Conducting the historical research for the Lemuel Bates property in East Granby led to an interesting legend concerning the time when the Bates house also functioned as a tavern. The tale involves a lost shipment of gold associated with the property. The story begins late one evening in 1779 when a caravan of thirteen wagons, each pulled by a team of four horses, pulled up in front of the Bates Tavern. The tavern, which served meals and spirits and rented rooms, was located on the road frequented by many who traveled between Philadelphia and Boston.

The caravan had departed Boston several days earlier and was headed for Philadelphia. When the driver of the caravan climbed down from his wagon and went inside to speak with Lemuel Bates regarding room and food arrangements, several of the local townsfolk gathered around the parked wagons and examined them. As the townsfolk gathered around the wagons, men dressed in Continental Army uniforms brandished their weapons and warned them away.

The wagons were filled with trunks and chests, many containing supplies and ammunition. However, several chests were filled with gold coins, specially minted in France and bearing the likeness of George Washington. Theses coins represented a loan from the French government for the struggling Continental Congress. Those who have studied the event have concluded that the amount of coins approximated $2.5 million - a fairly significant cache of coins for that time.

After the driver had negotiated meals and lodging with Lemuel Bates, the wagons were drawn around to the rear of the tavern and guards posted to watch over the wagons and their contents. During that evening, word of the wagon train and its contents spread throughout the area. In a short time, a group of Tories (British sympathizers) gathered in secret and made plans to steal the gold. Later that night, this group of Tories surrounded the wagons and on a signal, attacked the guards, killing them all. After hitching up horses to the wagons, the Tories drove off toward the west and into the night.

When the other soldiers awoke the following morning and found their comrades dead and the gold missing, they immediately initiated a search. About two hours later, the wagons and teams were discovered in a farmer's pasture, a short distance from the Bates Tavern. From the condition of the horses, it was apparent that they had been driven a long distance and returned. There was no sign of the chests containing the Washington dollars. Subsequent searches of neighboring houses and farms turned up no evidence of the gold.

Following the end of the Revolutionary War, a number of futile attempts were made to discover the location of the buried treasure. The story of the hidden gold remained virtually undisturbed until the 1880s when Richard H. Phelps, a resident of Hartford County, wrote a book on the history of East Granby. Richard Phelps was a descendant of the Phelps family who were among the original settlers of Turkey Hill, which over time came to be East Granby. Timothy Phelps had been the original owner of the property subsequently purchased by Lemuel Bates and where the Bates Tavern was located.

In his book, Richard Bates briefly describes the theft of the Washington Dollars from the Bates Tavern. Phelps goes on to relate the story of Henry Wooster, an East Granby resident who was often in trouble with the law and was also a Tory. Several months following the theft of the Washington Dollars, Wooster was caught and convicted of stealing a neighbor's cow. He was sentenced to a term in Newgate Prison but managed to escape after six months.

Wooster fled to England and later wrote to his mother admitting his role in the theft and stating that the entire wagon train had been driven to the east fork of Salmon Brook. Here, the coins were buried with the understanding that the group would come back later, recover the gold, and use the treasure to fund the British war effort. After several weeks, the Tories agreed to meet at a remote location in the woods and decide the fate of the coins. While they were meeting, they were attacked by Indians and everyone but Wooster was killed. Wooster never managed to return from England, and in his letters, he was never able to provide complete details regarding the location of the buried treasure.

And so the story of the lost treasure remained except for a number of isolated instances that bear consideration. After several days of heavy rain in 1944, a man hiking along the east fork of Salmon Brook happened to catch a glimpse of something shiny in the waters of the swollen brook. Wading into the waters, he retrieved the object, which turned out to be a Washington Dollar. Following news of this find, others searched the area for days, but nothing more in the way of gold coins was found.

Again in 1958, two boys were playing near Salmon Brook and found three coins. After waiting several days, they reported their find to one of the fathers. They said that they found the coins on the east fork of the Salmon Brook. These coins turned out to be Washington Dollars. In a return trip to the brook with the father, the boys were unable to identify the exact location where the three coins were first found.

And finally, in 1987, a woman driving west on Highway 20 had a flat tire just as she reached the bridge spanning the east fork of Salmon Brook. After changing the tire, she went to the brook to wash her hands. While kneeling at the bank, she spotted a round, shiny object lying among the stream gravel. After retrieving the object, she discovered it to be a coin, later identified as a Washington Dollar.

The three separate and recent findings of Washington Dollars along Salmon Brook seem to give credence to a legend otherwise easily dismissed. The east fork of Salmon Brook is a little more than three miles from the Bates Tavern as the crow flies. While there are hills between the two locations, persons familiar with the region would likely have been able to traverse the distance within a couple of hours.

Anyone up for a hike along the banks of the East Salmon Brook on one of the next nice weekends?

Source: The primary source for this article was the book entitled Buried Treasures of New England, authored by W. C. Jameson and published in 1998.