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| Via Newspapers.com |
Here's one for the Weird Wills file--with a boffo surprise ending! The "Rockford Daily Republican," April 4, 1911:
Buchanan, Mich., April 4 — Shortly before the death of Hodson Burton, five years ago, he talked into the horn of a phonograph and had the record preserved. It was placed in the hands of his lawyer, with the request that it be concealed in his safe.
When Burton died, in his will was found, with other information, the statement that he had buried a large amount of gold, and that its exact location was recorded on a phonograph record, which was not to be read until after he had been dead five years.
His wish was complied with, and not until yesterday did the heirs gather at the home of his son, Luke Burton, to hear what the phonograph had to say.
When they had all seated themselves in the parlor, the arrival of the lawyer with the record was announced. He entered the house and unwrapped the precious article in the kitchen. Each one in the parlor craned his neck, held his breath and gazed at mental pictures of motor cars, mansions and aeroplanes.
Just as the lawyer stepped through the door into the room where they were he tripped over a footstool, fell and broke the record into many pieces, rendering it useless.
The heirs, to express it mildly, are indignant.
Burton's heirs, unsurprisingly, muttered about suing the lawyer, but I have no idea how that was ever resolved. Hodson's gold was never found, which must have given his ghost a good laugh.
From a “common sense” approach I’d argue that anyone needing to keep a phonographic record safe would have required some significant safety precautions (the record carefully wrapped, inside some sort of sleeve/box and perhaps packed carefully with cotton wool) until the very moment it was ready to be played. Extracting the record (at arms length?) and walking into another room where - for some reason - the lawyer failed to pay attention to the fact the footstool was in his path and then falling over it seems rather foolhardy.
ReplyDeleteOn balance this sounds, to me, rather like an urban myth. Is there a death certificate for Burton? Is the name of the lawyer known? There’s not much way to prove the story without a few more facts.
That gold was probably long gone. You can tell if a seal is broken, you can tell if a file is opened. . . No way to tell if a record has been played.
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