F.J. Thrun Part IV: Buried treasure

Continued from previous week

F.J. Thrun told others that his wife held a considerable fortune — $30,000 — an amount worth over $955,600 today.

He said that his wife never did any banking; instead, she kept it “buried near their home or carried on her person when going away,” according to F.J.
“As to how she ever came into this fortune, he said that when they were married, he never suspected that she had money, but later she told him that she had $30,000,” a Marshfield News and Wisconsin Hub article stated.

“Years ago, there was a haunted house near the city of Neenah where an old couple dwelt, and there were many stories afloat of the crimes that had been committed there. After the old couple died, the house passed into the possession of a cousin of Mrs. (F.J.) Thrun’s and subsequently, Mrs. Thrun lived there.

“One evening, she was outside, and a short distance ahead of her, she saw two blue lights. She was impelled to go towards it by some unknown power that had possession of her, and having a stick in her hand, she dug in the earth at this point, when low and behold, she uncovered a buckskin bag.

“Hastily, she secured it on her person and at once went into the house. She opened the buckskin bag, and in it she found rolls of money.

According to Thrun, she kept the find secret, telling only him, “for fear that former owners of the place where she found it would probably claim it.”

Thrun added that the money had been kept buried in the back of the house in Romeo.

The Marshfield reporter stated that he ran into Mrs. Thrun at the ruins of the burned home in Romeo and that she felt “certain that her husband perished in the flames.”

“It seems like an unholy thought to entertain even for a moment the suspicion that Thrun had taken advantage of the fire to disappear, and yet it is but just and right that further evidence be sought out than was produced at the coroner’s inquest,” the article stated.

“This much is certain that the jury’s verdict rendered after the inquest amounts to nothing as it is positively impossible to prove that the bones taken out of the ruins were those of the missing man, and on the other hand, what is there to prove that they are not the only remains of Thrun.”

To be continued