Percy Creek Coins
Percy Creek, in Wilkinson County, is a long twisting overgrown stream but somewhere along the creek’s banks there could very well be buried a fortune in 200 year old coins.
In the early 1780’s a ship sailed into the Mississippi River and later stopped at the mouth of Buffalo Bayou. On board was a man that gave his name only as Charles Percy. He had in his possession a Spanish grant for a large tract of land north of Ft. Adams. Unloading farm equipment and a large number of slaves from the ship, Percy started immediately to build a home which he called Northumberland Place.
He must have been quite wealthy because Percy was made an alcalde, or judge, by the Spanish authorities. Records show that Percy registered his land grant and married a French woman.
A few years after Percy’s arrival a ship docked at Buffalo Bayou and an English woman and her son visited Northumberland Place. After a few minutes conversation with the woman, Percy walked down to the creek, tied a large iron kettle around his neck and drowned himself.
The lady was very interested in Percy’s money and landholdings. All the slaves and Percy’s wife would tell her was that he had hidden his money, believed to be in gold coins, in three ship’s casks that had been waterproofed with tar and that they did not know where the casks were. The woman and her son returned to England after searching unsuccessfully for the coins.
Charles Percy’s mysterious actions and death, the English lady’s visit, and what happened to Percy’s fortune were almost forgotten until a few years ago, when a story came out that two moonshiners had found one of the casks in a hollow tree stump while gathering wood for the still’s cooker. The coins were made in an odd shape (probably eight-sided) and the two superstitious brothers thought the money was spooked, or haunted. They covered up the stump, quit moonshining and never went back to the place.
The creek is still there, following the same course it did when Charles Percy came there and the events concerning his fortune occurred. If the one cache was found (even if it was not left), there should be two others nearby. Some of the older residents living in or around old Fort Adams could probably help an interested treasure hunter to get on the right track of this hidden fortune.