Finding An Indian Grave, Part 1
One sometimes wonders if family stories are true, or whether they have been embellished through the years to the point of almost being fantasy. As a child, I heard the story that my greatgreat grandfather, Anton Hoelscher, Jr., had shot a lone Indian who appeared on his property shortly after he purchased it, and that he had buried the man where he fell and then owned up to his deed by marking the grave. At some point in time, a palmetto was planted by a family member to mark the location of the grave in a more prominent manner.
Anton Hoelscher, Jr., who emigrated with his parents and brothers from Germany in 1846, first settled in Colorado County.
However, the entire family left their first farm in the early 1850s and individually purchased land in the Ross Prairie area between present-day Ellinger and Fayette- ville. In late January 1854, Anton purchased 154 acres at Ross Prai - re, and a week later he bought 50 additional acres at another location about two to three miles southeast of his first farm. He gradually purchased additional surrounding acreage to increase his farm to 230 ¾ acres. He even tually built a small house with an outside kitchen on the 50-acre tract and moved his family there in late 1860. More than likely he was just visiting his land shortly after purchasing it to either clear it for fields or to cut trees for
firewood when he was startled by the appearance of an Indian. Probably feeling threatened, he shot the Indian in self-defense. As a child, I remember seeing the palmetto growing alongside a bend in the entrance road that went uphill to the family home that was built by Anton, Jr. At that time, the farm was owned by my great aunt and uncle. The pal- metto was still there in the 1970s when my mother, who had inherited the farm, sold it to two cousins, but apparently it disappeared at some point in time.
Years passed and life happened, but that story always intrigued me. My investigative nature wanted to determine if the story was true. Eventually, I learned how to grave dowse and wanted to use that skill to determine if there really is a grave of a male located where the palmetto grew for years.
In August 2024, I had the op portunity to return to the farm with a family descendant who now owns that portion of the farm that has since been divided and is presently owned by three great-great-grandchildren of Anton, Jr. With the division of the land, two additional roads were created to access the divided property. So, the sharp curve in the old road where the palmetto was located was slightly altered, and the area was bulldozed to facilitate the creation of a new cattle guard. However, there was still a cleared area filled with weeds backed by a dense wooded area, which was familiar. The existence of an old post oak tree helped me recollect the approximate location of where the palmetto used to be.
So, with my dowsing rods, I slowly started walking in a southto- north direction. Within three to four minutes, my dowsing rods crossed. I kept walking and they uncrossed; so I backtracked several times to double-check my findings. Each time, they crossed at that same place; I then determined that there was a male buried there, that it was an adult, and that he was buried in an east-west direction. The story was true! The present owners marked the grave again with a pile of rocks and promised to permanently mark it.
To be continued….
