Uncle John Goodman Young's treasure

In 1895 a local paper in central Louisiana documented an attempt to locate and extricate the buried treasure of John Goodman Young. John had been a successful planter in Rapides parish prior to the Civil War purportedly amassing a fortune before his unfortunate demise.

John's father, James Goodman Young (a 4th great grandfather), was Virginia born but an early settler in the Florida parishes of Louisiana where John was born in 1810. John is therefore a 4th great uncle.  He was brother to 3rd great grandfather, David Young, of the Plains in East Baton Rouge Parish. He is also brother to Patience Young who is the second wife of 3rd great grandfather, Eugène Amédée Sherburne.

John bought property in Rapides parish before 1830 and developed a large planting operation there gradually acquiring additional lands as he prospered. He had 50 slaves at the 1850 census. Among other locations he held land grants centered around property between Libuse and Holloway. Highway 28 goes through a corner of a piece of what used to be his property. You can see it as you look southward from Hwy 28 when you pass the Buckeye water tower and holding tank emblazoned with "Home of the Panthers" today.

John Young's property near Buckeye on Hwy 28. This is the original plat map of Township 4 North, 1 East of the District north of Red River 

Because John had a fair amount of land, he dealt with the land office in the city of Monroe frequently. He met is end on such a trip.  On the morning of November 14, 1854, he was murdered on a section of lonely road just south of Harrisonburg. $1,500 in 100 dollar bills and gold was stolen from his body. $800 of that was recovered three weeks later from his killer, John Hawthorne, who was killed while trying to avoid arrest.

At the time of his death, the property John Young lived on was just south of the town of Alexandria. That land eventually became known as the Rosenthal Plantation. 

Legend says John G Young was skeptical of banks and lending institutions and made a habit of hoarding his wealth on his property; at least according to an 1895 article from the Alexandria newspaper...






This reporter didn't do his homework. I found a couple articles from the time of Young's death that names the murderer and more info...










Now we just need to find the Rosenthal Plantation and do some digging!