There is such a story passed down in my family about my ancestor, C.P. Snell, one of John Hunt Morgan's men, written by my father:
"C.P. was with a group of men that caught a Federal train, finding that it was carrying payroll money for the troops. There was a Yankee cavalry unit approaching, so C.P. and the others hurriedly filled pillowcases with the U.S. money, galloping off and splitting up with the enemy not far behind. As C.P. approached a swollen stream, he spotted a hollow fallen tree, jammed the sack(s) of money into it and started swimming to the other side. He made it back to his unit without the money.
After the war, he returned to the area to locate the tree and the money. What he found was a burned area and all the fallen trees were just ashes.”
Sounds like the end of the story, right? Well, check this out.
Before the war, C.P. Snell was a poor farmer with a wife and 8 children. When he came home from the war, he divorced his wife and remarried, to my gg grandmother. Within a few years, he built a large and fine home in downtown Bowling Green.
In 1870 he owned real estate in the value of $20,000, including a home and a vacant lot in Bowling Green, and personal property worth $4,000. In addition, there was an 18-year old domestic servant living in the house.
C.P. made a habit of giving a gold coin to each of the children and he would tell them, “As long as you keep this coin, you will never be poor.”
When he died in 1881, he owned 222 acres in Warren County, as well as eleven properties in Bowling Green, some of which were rent-producing.
Now, the finale. This intriguing story was provided by a descendant of C.P.'s first wife.
Referring to Vitula (Snell) and her husband, George McCown, she wrote,
“Both were from Bowling Green, Kentucky. They went to Missouri after the Civil War to look for money which had supposedly been buried near Rolla, Missouri, in a cave, by the Snell family to prevent the North from getting it. It was never found by the McCowns. If you look on the map you will see many caves in that area.”
We do know that C.P. and his family vacationed at Hot Springs, Arkansas on more than one occasion and interestingly enough, the railroad from western Kentucky to Hot Springs runs right through Rolla.
Am attaching photos of C.P. Snell's house before the war and his house after the war.
Does anyone seriously believe that C.P. found the tree with the sack of money burned to ashes?